Tater,

Good question.  I've been doing this for several years and forget that most
people have no idea what I'm talking about (which seems to be getting more
and more common when I talk).

I work at SCCA Midwest Division and other events (clubs) at Heartland Park,
Topeka.  The tracks I work at are HPT, MAM at Omaha, and Hallett at Tulsa.
There are two more Midiv tracks, one in St. Louis and one in Memphis, that I
haven't worked at yet but hope to sometime this year.

I wish it was cyclical, but in our case it is not.  There has been a steady
decline in workers over the last 15 years and nothing to indicate that trend
is going to change.  My son and I started this about 5 years ago and we have
had ONE new worker join us since then although we've lost about 6 or 7 in
that same time due to change of location, dying, or just getting too old to
feel comfortable doing it any longer.  The pool of workers is getting
smaller and I don't see that changing soon.

Anytime there's a road race there are a whole bunch of jobs to do.  Here's a
partial list:

Registration
Tech (scrutineers)
Grid
Pits
Flagging and Communications
Start
Race Control
Timing and Scoring
Hospitality

etc.

Most of these are self explanatory, some are not.  For instance, hospitality
seems minor but in reality that's where drivers and crew come to get their
times, placing, ask questions, etc.  In short, the are the middle men
between the stewards and the actual participants.

You can choose to get involved in any or all of the above, whatever turns
your fancy.  My specialty is Flagging and Communications which makes me a
"corner worker" and, more important to me, a member of the Kansas City
Region "Leaping Lizards" Corner Crew, one of the oldest and most respected
in the country.

What do F&C workers do?  If you ever watch road racing on TV and see a crash
or a stalled car, you'll see a couple of people run out to the car, no
matter where they are on the track, to assist them.  Well, that's us, the
corner workers.  That's a big part of our job.

At each turn there is a corner station.  At nice tracks, they have a little
gazebo and benches to relax in between races, at less improved tracks they
have a tumbleweed or two.  8-)  We go out and set up our station about 1/2
hour before the races start that day.  Make sure our fire bottles are
charged and pinned, have our brooms and oil-dri, water, flags,
communications gear, etc.  When a race starts, we watch for, well, whatever.
If a car wrecks, or breaks, we run to the car and assist as we can.  Most
times, that's making sure the driver is OK and find out if he can make it to
a safe location, or if we have to push him to one, or if we need a flat tow
now, or whatever.  The whole time, the person on the "phones" is talking to
race control and keeping them aware of what's going on at our station.  We
also flag the corner.  If an incident happens and there is track blockage,
that's a waving yellow flag, if there's a dead car of the course, that's a
standing yellow flag, we use a blue flag to inform a driver he's being
overtaken and please allow the pass (but he doesn't have to), white flags
cover a slow moving (either race car or emergency vehicle) on the course,
surface (red and yellow) tells the drivers to be careful there is something
(gravel, dirt, oil, whatever) on the track and to proceed with caution.

Normally, our area of responsibility starts exactly at our corner and ends
at the next corner.  In reality, whoever is closest runs to assist (and you
ALWAYS take the 10 # fire bottle with you.....ALWAYS) and the
"responsibility" is only valid for flagging.

It means we get to watch great racing at distances that are, literally,
close enough to touch the cars.  Sometimes we even get lunch, but that's
about all as far as payment (but they have some great parties after the
race).

I've seen really, really bad things, like losing a driver to fire in a 911
Porsche to the more routine stuff like just breaking down and of course
there are the ever popular "bumper car class" also known as Spec Miata's.
8-)

This past weekend was very hot and we had real problems with heat exhaustion
from the drivers.  136° track surface temperatures, 104° ambient air.  My
station manned by 2 people went through over 10 gallons of ice water pouring
it over our and driver's firesuits/clothes and drinking to stay hydrated.
We watch each other's a.ses and help out to keep the races going, really is
that simple and important.

I really enjoy it.  You don't get paid, it's all volunteer, and the VAST
majority of drivers really appreciate you coming out and doing it because
without us, they don't race.  Period.

If you'd like to look into it, go to
http://www.scca.org/Inside/Index.asp?IdS=0375AF-F584FF0&Reference=RegionalSites&~=
to find your division and region, then go to the region list and look for
club racing.  Somewhere you will find a worker coordinator of F&C Chief
title.  If not, just look for the Regional Executive and send them an email
asking how you can get involved.

I wasn't kidding about workers being in terribly short supply.  There have
been races cancelled this year because there weren't enough workers to
satisfy insurance requirements.  Pretty much everyone is welcomed regardless
of age, sex, race, whatever.  You do need to be in reasonably good shape,
but you don't have to be Superman (or woman, and over half the workers are
ladies)  All you have to do is love racing and want to help.

If you do get involved you're going to want to go to Crash Fire Rescue
school, which happens every year, because as corner workers we ARE the first
on the scene EVERY time, so we need to have the basics down and have it
second nature in fighting fire and crash recovery/rescue.

All of the specialties I talked about earlier are crying for help, but I
think that F&C probably needs the most people because it takes the most.
For instance, running the long course at Heartland Park insurance mandates
we have 14 stations manned with a minimum of 2 people per station.  4 is
much better, but we almost NEVER have that many.   2 workers is pretty dicey
and more than once we have had to have BOTH people run to assist and throw
our communications to the next station that can see us and what's going on
the best.  In the case of HPT, that means 28 people for F&C, minimum, while
start needs 3, hospitality 3 or 4, registration maybe 5 when it's busy, only
1 later on.  Timing and Scoring needs a lot of people because while SCCA now
uses transponders for electronic scoring, it doesn't always work properly
and so there is always manual tabulation going on concurrently.

Whatever you like to do, there's job for you if you want to get involved.
If you or anyone else have any other questions email me at
jstricke@rwisp.com and I'll be happy to get you more information.

John Stricker

You may find looking in alt.binaries.cd.image to be worthwhile .. :)

I hope everyone who read this little lark on Ed
Parks understands that it is an inside joke on one
of the best guys in the universe. I have been a
guest at the Fiero campsite, the Parks home several
times and had a great time each visit.

Ed, literally, spends hours each days answering
emails and giving free advice about Fieros and he
always starts out with the addressee's name and he's
always polite, no matter how frustrating the topic.

His wisdom on Fieros aside, he is equally known --
and will admit himself -- to have an abysmal lack of
knowledge about the functions of a computer and the
internet. His one singular porthole into the
technology is email. This was a couple years ago, of
course. He might have looked at a website since then.

Just want to clear this up for any newbies who might
be out there. One only jokes like that about people
when one has a profound respect for them. Otherwise
one is a fool and a less-than-dignified individual.

From: "Skip Gundlach" <skipgundlach@earthlink.net>
To: <fiero@yahoogroups.com>; <fiero-list@fiero.org>
Cc: <royrau@juno.com>
Subject: A chapter's end...
Date: Saturday, July 29, 2006 2:46 PM

Well, today, I sent off my last Fiero.

Just shy of 21 years into them (my first was a silver 86 SE bought in
85; he
became "Ol' Blue" on a repaint), New Blue/ C'Ol' Blue (he had AC when I

didn't know it), and 6 cars later, we've had to close that chapter of
our
lives.

We're getting on a boat, and don't expect to come back.  So, he had to
go.
The good news is he's going to a great enthusiast, and by cc of this
posting, has the addresses of these groups.  Look for him here, and in
the
gafiero.org lists, and probably also in fiero.nl.

It's actually a reward for his son, but it's evident that they are
automotive enthusiasts with a great history behind them. This opens
their
Fiero chapter...

It was definitely a mixed feeling as I handed him the keys, title and
maintenance folder; I've had WAY too much fun in these cars...

But now, we'll have fun cruising.  We'll be on the boat for the last of
the
refit (you thought rehabbing a Fiero was expen$$$ive!), and then we're
outta
here.  I'm happy to hear from Fiero nuts at any time, but I'm
discontinuing
our subscriptions, as wifi has its limits aboard...

L8R

Skip and Lydia, about to be gone...

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig   KI4MPC
See our galleries at http://justpickone.org/skip/gallery/

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely
nothing-half so
much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing
about in
boats-or *with* boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter.  Nothing seems really to matter,
that's
the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to
do, and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."