OK all you Houston racers, we have our first meeting for 2008 set for January 12, 2008 at 2PM. I have reserved the conference room at the Carnegie Library.....here is the address & phone number:

Carnegie Library
1050 Quitman
Houston, Texas 77009

832-393-1720

We will have representatives from all (3) participating tracks there and will be laying down our schedule there for the entire year. I will also be going over all of our current rules concerning race format, payouts, etc........so everyone is welcome to come and see how HARC operates.

I expect that the meeting will last 1-2 hours max.

So, please come on out and let us know if you have ideas you would like to share.....it's an open format, and again, everyone is welcome.

Remember, if you aren't there to speak up, then we can't hear what you're thinking!

Help me make Houston racing better and bigger than it has ever been!!!

Questions? courtney_vaughan1@yahoo.com

OK, so we had an EXTREMELY productive meeting! We got a lot of things done that are not only good for the once/month HARC racers, but we also got all the track owners together and ironed out a schedule for their club racing as well. There will pretty much be somewhere to race in Houston at least 3 out of 4 Saturdays in each month! My thanks to Jeff from Mike's Hobby shop, Gary from Southside RC, and Ken from the River Track for agreeing to get together and come up with a schedule that actually doesn't step on each others toes! This is a big step for Houston racing guys......it's gonna be a good year (not just for HARC)!

So, we had about 11 people at the meeting, and we went over our current guidelines, and made a few subtle tweaks. I'm going to make a full posting disclosure of our guidelines once I get them typed up, but for now, most of you guys know how we currently roll! So, I'll just let you know what changes we made:

Rainouts - rainouts were previously going to be rescheduled to the end of the season, but because this season is SO FREAKIN' FULL, we don't have room for that. We're already running into January 3rd of 2009 for the 2008 season! Rainouts are now just that exactly - rainouts.......no make ups. They will not count toward the points totals. Also, if a track knows far enough in advance that their track will not be ready due to weather, we will attempt to move the race to a different facility as long as their schedule permits. Any changes will be posted on all of the websites we use, and I will be counting on you guys to spread the word to the guys that don't read up on the net.

Signups - we've had some issues with people wanting to make change after change after change at signups due to low turnouts, and it's frustrating to the race conductors. This will stop, because signups now close PROMPTLY at 10:00AM. If you show up late, it is at the race directors discretion as to whether they will add you in or not. Most likely, they will, but all of the class changing stuff will stop.

I will be adding RCTECH.NET to the list of places that we post information about the races. I would love for us to post on even more websites, but I only have so much time. If you have other website suggestions, PM me and we'll see. I will also be reaching out to other areas such as DFW, San Antonio, Austin, Oklahoma, Louisianna, and South Texas to see if we can bring in some of those guys on occasion.

We will have a generic entry form that will be used for all the HARC races, so that everyone knows how to fill them out every time and there is no confusion.

Trophies - the track owners have agreed to pay for end-of-season trophies this year out of their own pockets! This is a cool thing for them to do, so PLEASE make sure to tell them all THANKS FOR EVERYTHING when you see them at the tracks. Also, we are looking into having medals as well at each of the races, but that is still up in the air.

Sponsorship - I will be putting together a sponsor information packet and sending it out to EVERY MAJOR RC MANUFACTURE/DISTRIBUTOR I can find. My hope is that at least one or two of them will cough of some good end-of-season prizes for us.....but that is all yet to be determined.....keep your fingers crossed!

Committee - we elected a 3 person committee, along with a president yesterday. Ken Wasek (the owner of the River Track), Gary Guettler (the owner of Southside Track), and Jeff Parker (the manager of Mike's Hobby Shop/Gulf Coast Raceway) all make up the committee. Courtney Vaughan (myself) will remain in charge as the president, but I will not be a voting member. The only instance in which I will vote, is if we were to bring in a new track and there was a tie on an issue. The purpose of the committe is so that no one person takes the heat for any decisions that are made. We decided on a small, focused committee......large committees have been proven not to work. This committee is ONLY reserved for severe instances, so don't worry, we won't be voting on all kinds of tiny rules......I will continue to keep this organization as simple as possible. I won't have us make rules for every tiny scenario.....everyone involved in this knows how to deal with the little stuff.....HARC only takes care of the major guidelines.

Points - I will be keeping track of positions 1-50 for each class this year. Last year I only did 1-10, but I have created a new and GREATLY improved spreadsheet for keeping up with the points this season. The track owners also all agreed to supply me (or an HARC rep) with a copy of the results IMMEDIATELY at the end of each race, so there is no delay in getting the points calculated and posted. This will allow me to have the points posted in a MAXIMUM of 7 calendar days after each round! I feel bad about how long it has taken me to get the points up for you guys, but I promise you, it's not because I'm lazy and don't want to do it! I still don't have the results from one of the rounds from last season! (that's the hold up on the final results by-the-way). I have given them a 1 week deadline to clear it up, or that round will be dropped from the points standings.....we can't wait any longer.

So, that's pretty much it! Like I said.....no major changes.....just some minor stuff that makes it better! Last year was a bit of a learning curve for me on how to steer this ship, and I learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. With these minor changes, and with the new cooperation of all of the tracks involved, you guys are going to have PLENTY of kick-ass racing this year!

P.S. I will post a full copy of our guidelines and a new schedule early this week!