So, I have not been attending the local PCA autocross for whatever reason.
I have kids...my daughter is doing awesome at BBall and I love to watch.
Cars keep breaking down...that sucks up weekend time...

So today, I took my son to the local event at about 3pm...near the end of the day.
We drove both cars to drop off a free head to the guy that helped us out...just trying to do a nice thing....

So we get there,,,the road is closed with a gate and a truck parked in front...ok...
so we go to the other end of the road...nope..gate closed.
So we go to the only other entrance and its open...
OK

We come up the hill to the live course...nice forethought..no one even thinks about these things.
So, I stop my car, wait for a break in cars and ask a guy with a walkie talkie to help me get the two cars over to the main area...
He was pretty damn rude, told me basically to fuck off.

Well, that did not work..
So, I drove way around the course...and slowly made my way down to the starting area...I only moved the cars when there were no cars running...probably took 5 minutes.
In the end...they DID stop the course to let us get to the staging area..
It would have been very easy to stop the course for less than 60 seconds and allow us to get to the staging area...but NOOOOO

What a crappy attitude and we had half a dozen people yelling and swearing at us...I just ignored them...its all for a two dollar trophy...geez.

this just re-inforced and reminded me why I dont like the feeling I get at these events. I have been to other regions and PCA zone events and the tension is alot lower and its actually fun...
Today just explained to me why all the other cool guys no longer show up...I guess it just took me longer to figure it out.

I am re-aligning my projects...back the world of love...VW...

Rick...Here comes the woody.

RIch

Funny, I was just telling my youngest son (musician) about the future plans for the 66 VW parts car. My cabinet maker friend (and Bug owner) and I have a woody in our future as well.

Peace

I know.
As soon as I finish the motor for my 014, I am re-orging the barn and pulling up the beetles...time to get back to my roots and build a killer beetle project...something I have always wanted.

I just cant get my heart into the porsche world with all the attitude at the events...just no longer fun and that is why we do this...fun.

Now....how big is that audi v10?

Rich

btw....with so few beetles around here...is it wrong that I am starting to think about just doing a classy FAST build...no major body mods (read no woodie).....

Rich

Were doing a woodie because I have a car that is toast. MN tin worms eat the hell out of this one. I stripped all the nice stock parts off of it for my 66 Cal car. And My friend Jason has a really nice 62 Cal rag top. So were flush with nice stuff.

Do what makes you happy and get in and drive.

Oh, I haven't posted this here yet, but my youngest really wants a van. BAD! But he can't drive a stick. He has been practicing in the Beetle. He came home the other day after practicing driving and I think he left the car in nutrual.... It rolled down the yard, down 4 concrete steps and ended up on the back porch.
Needless to say I now have to replace the new muffler I just installed last summer and repair the once cherrie rear apron.

arrrgggg.

That sucks...nice to see someone else that keeps getting his list of shit to do added to on a regular basis.

Looks like someone will need to learn how to fix his mistake.

Rich

wasn't that a scene in Manhattan?

Yep, The shit list just keeps growing. I painted this car 14 years ago for the PO. When I bought it from him he gave me the left over paint he had carefully stored all these years. So at least I have that going for me. And yes Kyle actually expressed an interest in helping with the repairs.

took a quick look on the samba....there are still plenty of projects out there in the world...I may go for the woody...

Rick...Chirco is selling off four or five split window project cars...go an search the samba ads....lots of potential there..

Rich

i hear you....i just bought an old 59 single cab
yup i would rather hang with a bunch of old air cooled heads any day.
dudes with uptight attitudes...really blow

My local PCA had the same sticks up their asses at an AX. They made all of our friends and families sit in the airport parking lot quite a ways away from the course one year. I had to drive my truck outside, get my wife & kid and sneak them past the gauntlet so they could hang out with me.
Have a slice & a beer.

Rick, sorry about your bug, but I must say the outcome couldn't have been better considering the situation. You're (were?) an adjuster as I was, you've seen lots tat haven't gone so well. I got to see a car 1/2 in & 1/2 out of a liquor store once, parked in neutral, rolled down a slope from the gas pumps and into the store to pick up a few things. Yeah, glass in the twinkies.

Poor 914 is NARVW too...

We're old VW people too, and with them the NARVW doesn't seem to matter much. When I was in California a couple of months ago we took my 914 to a VW show just to see what people thought (it says Volkswagenwerke on the VIN and window glass, doesn't it?) and won first place in the "Watercooled" class. With a Japanese engine! It was fun, and we heard nothing but praise all day. Those guys are the opposite of uptight

So you showed up at an event that you were not participating in, found the entrances blocked (probably to keep people from drive on/off site during the event as autocross is not a specators sport), asked to drive through an area that was near the course (potential safety issue), was told "no" by a course worker, did it anyway and stopped the event and you wonder why they were upset with you? My non-PCA/non-SCCA local club would have given you a hard time as well.

Rich,
I have to agree with Richard Castro on this one.... think - if you were running a 914 event that had areas closed off, and you had a guy at a gate saying don't go somewhere, and some guy with a new 911 Turbo came drving up though the area after he was told no (OK, probably without the attitude, but still), all of the 914 owners would call him an arrogant A$@hole who thinks he's better than everyone.

remember, the flaggers, and gate people are volunteers and are just there because they are told to be there - not to think or make decisions. True, he could have radioed in and asked where you should be going, I'll give you that. and true, I would agree that the attitude up North is a bit different than many places, but you did distrupt the event for your benefit. Just think of how it looks from the other side.

sorry, not to pick on the situation and choose sides, just pointing out another point of view....from experience

My local PCA, NNJR, is pretty awesome about letting everyone be included. Sure there are elitists who can't understand why you would drive anything older than an '07 Carrera, but they are few and far between.

Heck, even my 914 gets a lot of love with this club! Everytime I would bring it to an event somebody asks if I am selling it (to them).

I also find that the people who you think are the rudest/most annoying when you first start with a club tend to be the best ones/friends once you get to know them/they get to know you.

funny that way.

How do the emergancy rigs get in if theres a problem...Maybe bring that up to them

not to beat a dead horse, but here's a similar scenario: if you've ever driven Roebling Road, the paddock is on the infield. The only way to get there is to drive across the track. So, they shut the gate and only allow people in and out (unless there is an emergency) about once every couple hours. What you did was akin to going through the guard at the gate, and wanting them to stop the event just so you could cross the track, and not wait until it was time (or in your case, the end of a session).

Why even be bothered by the one or 2 people that might be jerks. Might meet one jerk at one event once a year. Really am I gonna let that guy bother me.

I see this kind of thing happen at a/x all the time.

I used to get pissed off when the late guys show up and want to get in line after everyone else was able to get there on time. We set up the course, tech the cars, have the driver's meeting, start running cars and then someone shows up and wants us to stop everything for them.

But you know now I don't care. It's all just for fun.

e had full access the whole day at our event. Visitors and particiapnts and full unfettered exit and re enter priveleges.

Of course our parking, tech and set up was OUTSIDE the track.....

It could be...

We have a course here in Northern California that has bunches of rules that dictate to the club what conduct is allowed. No engine noise before 10am (at a freakin' airport!) Gate guarded and closed (Homeland Security thing I suppose). Another course along the Central Coastal area close to Monterey allows absolutely no car movement if a plane is fired up. Coast Guard Hanger is 100 yards off course. I suspect it would be close to impossible for anyone to be injured or to interfere with the operation of those Coast Guard planes but hey! It is their house and we asked to play in their yard. It is only common courtesy to follow their rules.

My guess is it was a safety issue. Bottom line is the courses are hard to get and getting harder. The insurance carriers, lot owners, clubs all have rules regarding conduct.

My guess is that this wasn't really an attitude thing as much as a safety issue.

FWIW...

Our club runs events at some places that due to their location result in a lot of curious onlookers who have no idea what an Autocross is. We have no problem with spectators, but does it puts a strain on the staff as you have to deal with making sure the extra people have signed the insurance waver, handling those who just drive off the street and right up to the start line and those people who find an alternate way onto the site and just start driving near or even on the course.

Sometimes we may also close the entrance to vehicle traffic once the event has started if we don’t want to devote someone to watch the gate, answer questions, etc. Many people don’t understand that sites are generally rented and the club is responsible for whatever happens during the event. So you have insurance issues you have to deal with as well as you don’t want anything weird to happen at the site and screw up your relationship with the site owner/manager.

Being in the same place that day, I tend to see this as not being totally one side's fault or the other. People always can come and go at any time, but for some reason outside of our club, sometime after noon they closed the real entrance. Of course, nobody inside knew that.

Our regions make no effort (don't get me started) to keep the radios and flags in the hands of, well, old hands. So we have clueless newbies who probably don't even call in re-runs now have no idea what to do with unexpected visitor.

But the folks running the show have held cars for police or the occasional tank to cross without being pissed, and this was nothing special. I wasn't close enough, but I believe people were upset about driving over wires or something instead of going where they were pointing.

Well...if you received the same greeting that I did, you would have the same issue.
I asked permission and was told to f-off.
That does not work with me.
As far as driving over the wires..I had about 8 people waving their arms and yelling at me...no specific direction.
I did not drive through the lights, the timing was fine...oh, I did run over a wire...big deal, it was fine.
There was no need to have all those people loose it and start swearing at me, my son and his GF... If you were in the car, you would have been just as embarassed to have brought someone you know to the event...it was not cool.

Mark, people there are to uptight..just a fact. You and a small list are excluded...

It just reminded me of how unwelcome I feel in that crowd..

A simple thing...stop the course for what....60 seconds....no drama, no issue...
Sig saw me coming and kept letting cars go...

Rich