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Who is taking the kids out of school to make the trek....

 

and the pic on the SCCA site was of my granddaughter @ atwater nat tour in 07

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Any bad day of racing is better than a good day @ work

I know I would have loved to skip school for a week as a kid for something like this, but it's not really the message we need to be sending to kids IMO......

"You have to be responsible and go to school and make good grades.....oh unless its something fun....then ya go do it instead"

Just my 2 cents....

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David Hedderick
Pearland (Houston), TX
01 CRG YZ125 (FOR SALE! $2500)
08 Mazda 3s
02 Mazda Protege (automatic tow vehicle)
92 Miata SE - Fun half-arsed STS2 Car

Despite having a now having a reasonably fast kid in a kart, and having been on the SEB when the FJR program was created, I was not in favor of this.

IMHO, from an events ops standpoint doing it Tuesday/Weds makes some sense given the event infrastructure is on place; originally the idea floated was to run them on both courses during set-up and walking day Monday (!).  If courses were closed at any point that day I think the riot police would have been needed.

Now that it is set, the preparedcivic household is in debate over how to best get junior there if he indeed is allowed to go.  He won't be traveling with me, since I'm trailering out Wednesday 9/10 and won't be home until 0:dark:00 Sunday 9/21.  Mrs. preparedcivic is not thrilled with the idea of him flying out by himself; and I'm even less excited with how much it will cost if everyone comes, tallying up 3 roundtrip plane tickets, car service to and from airport, another room and food for the family in Topeka for 4 days and nights, and to board the dog from Saturday to Thursday.  Basically, $2,000, and that is only for Sunday to Thursday morning with 4 days of school missed.  Add in my expenses and this is a $4,000 trip. That's nuts.

Also to even bother making the above worthwhile in FJA and not to be there just for the parties, we need the $1000 upgrade to a World Formula motor from our trusty flathead. More $$$$$$.  The FJR ruleset has lost sight of it's intended creation as a membership retention and family participation tool.

The household debate may be moot, as this trip is being dangled as a carrot in front of my son for A's on the report card for last marking period.  He's been told if there is not an excellent school performance, there is no way we as his parents can justify taking him out for even the 4 days at a minimum this trip would take.

 

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Rob Foley

no more Celica
86 Civic EP

solonut52:

Who is taking the kids out of school to make the trek....

The Garfields (2) will be, and loving every minute of it.

 

Davebs14:

I know I would have loved to skip school for a week as a kid for something like this, but it's not really the message we need to be sending to kids IMO......
"You have to be responsible and go to school and make good grades.....oh unless its something fun....then ya go do it instead.
Just my 2 cents....

So nobody has ever missed school for sports?  How about a trip to see Grandma?  Or Disneyworld?  But you're right, those first few weeks of school are very important.  My kids will likely miss Show and Tell, Review of last year, and learning the names of the kids in their class that they'll see all school year long.
My kids are responsible, diciplined, and good students, so I think they can take a few days off to spend a valuable trip *with* their family, to one of the largest motorsports events in the country, while meeting new people and seeing new sights.

BTW, nobody seems to complain about the 16, 17, and 18 year olds missing the most important school years of their life (determining both their college acceptance AND career choices) while attending the Solo Nationals and Runoffs... 

 
And Rob: ....spending time with the family enjoying the same hobby...priceless.

preparedcivic:

The FJR ruleset has lost sight of it's intended creation as a membership retention and family participation tool.

Interesting, I just thought they added the possibility to take your kids with you on such a great trip to enjoy the competition with you, instead of having to leave them at home. 

 

Something to keep in mind folks is that this is simply an OPTION to take your kids for competition, nobody is making you... 

 
Brian, Lisa, Julian, and Carson Garfield

 

 

 

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**3Generacing**
Craig: STX MINI Cooper S
Jane: A Stock Boxster S
Brian: F125 CTS/Champion Honda
Lisa: F125 CTS/Swedetech Honda
Julian: Intrepid Cadet/KT100
Carson: Top Kart Cadet/K80

I am glad they opened it up for the kids. I know I am going to try to be there with my son this year. Localy he is the only one running a kart. So we don't have any one to run with. Even though we have opened our kart up for others to co-drive. We have to go 3 or 4 hours to the next closest events. I don't belive he will be as fast as others but just to be there for the first time this will happen is some thing we want to do. It will come down to job and money if we go or not. As for missing school I can request his school work in advance for the days he will be missing. He can have it done and not miss that much. Its no more than him being out for a week sick from school.

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Steve Wright

I have the wifes granddaughter in the kart...I have already talked to the school and she will have all the school work for the week ...for us its a 1600 mile trip one way.

she wants to be at the 1st running for FJ karts @ Topeka. she doesnt have anybody to run against here....but she has alot of support from some national champs giving her advise and mentoring

All I expect of  her is to do is her best and have fun....and meet other kids from around the country.....now that is an education!! .....in life

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Any bad day of racing is better than a good day @ work

I think this it is wonderful that the kids are going to be running at Nationals.  I only wish that we could have gotten this done when my son was still in a Kart.  He has been at my side at nearly every event since he was about 5. (He's in his freshman year at college now)  Hopefully he'll be able to jugle his schedule and co-drive with me in September. (He drove with me at nationals his junior and senior high school years.) Our experiences autocrossing are absolutely priceless!  I can't think of a better reason to miss school for a few days.  They get their work ahead of time and take it with them, they learn that with a bit of extra work they can have fun and still take care of responsibilities.  I'll be there watching and cheering the kids on!

 Jeff Christianson 

I'm really looking forward to making my first trek to Nationals, and that trek will be because of the inclusion of the FJ program.  I used to autocross a long time ago, but stopped after moving from Finger Lakes Region to Atlanta.  I'd never made the trip to Topeka for Nationals.

Once my son was finally old enough to dodge cones, I renewed our family membership and planned to started driving with him last year.  I was caught up in figuring out how to teach him and other kids how to complete a course, and didn't get back to driving last year, but will finally be driving again at our next points event in Atlanta.  Since I'll be in Topeka anyway, I see no reason to not enter myself, so in a strange way, my son is taking me to Nationals for the first time.

I can see the worries about school absences, but consider it a family decision, not a decision to be made by an organizing body (SCCA) or the various agencies that know what's better for your kids than you do.  For us, there is a fairly simple solution, we moved the start of the school year back a week so he can have vacation time.

 See y'all in Topeka,

Dale

Fj @ nationals is one reason we'll be there this year. We skipped last year, not having a fully prepped car, too much baseball, etc. Matt is staying home, Jon is going racing.

Time off school is minimal (4 days) for the Pro/Nationals and airfare booked well in advance is $200 round trip.

Our kids have never struggled with getting good grades and their school principals have always been supportive of them racing on the national level. The Meridian Tour had them writing reports on the Densell Carusel/Worlds Fair. Atwater has the Air museum. How many kids can say they have been to Rome and Peru?

Eric Clements

preparedcivic:

just for the parties, we need the $1000 upgrade to a World Formula motor from our trusty flathead. More $$$$$$.  The FJR ruleset has lost sight of it's intended creation as a membership retention and family participation tool.

Although the initial purchase price is high the WF ends up being cheaper in the long run than the Raptor engines.

Raptor#1 on kart, Raptor#2 getting rebuilt, Raptor#3 ready to go on kart when #1 blows up. That's 3 $300 engines + 2-3 $200 rebuilds a year.

World Formula $1000. No spare engine needed. After three years with two drivers we brought it to the kart shop to freshen it, thinking surely it must be ready to blow (raptor experiance). They said we could have run it longer without problems but since it was apart thay suggested replacing the piston and rod.

 

I dunno, our Raptor, which came with the kart, just ran and ran and was still reasonably strong when it got taken out this Spring for the World Formula swap after 4 seasons or autocrossing and some Sprint races that were on it when we bought the package.  It was a methanol fueled motor blueprinted by Clements Racing Engines (any relation Eric?) out of Florida.  I'm sure it is/was ready for a rebuild at the end.  Once we got a few things figured out early on, it wasn't much more than a fill with fuel, top off the oil and change the diaphram every now and then exercise.

The World Formula though is far and away a better motor on every performance and maintenance measurement.
 

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Rob Foley

no more Celica
86 Civic EP

I'm guessing it was the west coast's typically longer/faster courses that melted the connecting rod. Jon blew up two raptors at one of the PRo events, mile long course run in just over 60sec.

No relation to Clements racing engines. It was fun watching the guys at our local kart shop crawl all over my engine when I carried it into the shop...in the red Briggs crate with "Clements" written across the top in black sharpie!