SCCAForums.com

m3kerry:

I will call the mayor next week and ask for the chamber info on the town.  That always have hotel and restraunt data it.  I looked at google maps a while back and it has a huge amount of tarmac.

I will let Nancy know about this today (if she doesn't already), but please forward any info you have to her (ndowning@scca.com) or me (dave@wcsllc.net) 

All avenues need to be investigated. :)

DaveW

hotels.com showed 8 hotels in the area within 5 miles of blytheville.  7 of the 8 were chain hotels and only 1 mom and pop that looked nice enough.   I think between people sharing rooms, not staying the entire time and possilble RV camping that this area could host Nationals.   

 Wonder why we (Midiv) haven't looked at this site for a divisional???

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Shawn Hill
07 Mini Cooper HS
Kansas City Region SCCA

SHill:

   

 Wonder why we (Midiv) haven't looked at this site for a divisional???

This is even farther away from most Midiv autocrossers than Walnut Ridge and we all know what happened with the last attempt to have a Divisional at Walnut Ridge.  However, if Blytheville were to become the Nationals site, then a Divisional becomes a lot more feasible.

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2002 Mercedes C230k, retired, 2005 Nationals STU DFL

1969 Beach Solo Vee and 1985 Lynx B Solo Vee

On this web page, counting up all the rooms on the franchise places listed, I come up with 544 rooms.  Not even any mom and pop places included in that total.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/hotels_motels/hotelinfo/972.html

Assuming 900 people need lodging at 2 per room, that means 450 rooms required.

It is a little further east than Kansas, but closer to the middle of the participant base than Lubbock. This site looks like it could be a strong possibility.  The only issue is this facility is still an active airport, but that didn't keep us off of Forbes or Salina before that.

This being a smaller town I think would work in our favor.  Salina wanted us there and appreciated our dollars.  The attitude in Topeka for the past 13 years has been "meh..."; at least that has been my impression.  My favorite was when Kim and Larry Fine had their brake controller stolen out from under the dash of their locked Ford Expedition at 2pm in the afternoon in the Wal-Mart parking lot off Topeka Boulevard. Another near the top was the speeding ticket my wife got from a County Sheriff in 1999, in Pauline by the trailer park, for doing 35 in the few hundred foot long 25mph speed trap that was there. This was driving a plain white Ford Explorer and not an obnoxious barely legal autocross car too.   It has only gotten worse the past few years, as we now are getting our pockets picked for "special event" hotel rates.

Good riddance, as I think was said above.  Makes me wonder though what this year's "treatment" will be like.  

. 
 

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Rob Foley

no more Celica
86 Civic EP

That's acceptable for rooms.  Not everyone is there all week, many come or go just before or after their comp days.  Many camp.  It could be worked out.  If the lot is great, then everything else will "find a way". 

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Jer
#196 ES
#187 SS retired

 How about the disused GM assembly plant in OKC? They are working on giving it to the adjacent Tinker AFB. There have got to be a number of idle auto assembly plants in the country that might also be possbiliites.

 

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=73120&ie=UTF8&ll=35.395592,-97.394228&spn=0.015638,0.040169&t=h&z=15&iwloc=addr

 

Surferjer:

That's acceptable for rooms.  Not everyone is there all week, many come or go just before or after their comp days.  Many camp.  It could be worked out.  If the lot is great, then everything else will "find a way". 

 

Even those who don't stay all week are usually in conflict Wednesday night. the Thursday/Friday people don't just show up Thursday morning and a significant # of the Tues/Wed people stay Wednesday night, even if they aren't planning to stick around all week, so they can attend the banquet and/or be fresh for a long drive home Thursday morning.   

 

I think its real tight for rooms.  If the town is already supporting 500+ hotel rooms, bringing 1200 people to town would certainly overload the capacity.  However, that doesn't discount the site as a possibility.  What other lodging is available within a half hour drive in any direction?   

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Once you go Mac, you never go back!

Not to take this off topic, but why couldn't we have the "day of rest" be Wednesday instead of Monday???  Allow a day transition for people coming to and leaving from the event.  Less congestion in paddock too.  Regardless of where we end up going, I've always thought that this is a good idea anyway.

I "know" the reason....course set up and walking...but I think we should think outside the box a little and see if there isn;t a way to make this work.  Maybe you have Monday off still, but Nats runs into Saturday?

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Patrick Washburn
STU Evo - SOLD!
<----- 2009 - Regain the coveted Tri Pod Trophy for the Hiedi's

Patrick Washburn:

Not to take this off topic, but why couldn't we have the "day of rest" be Wednesday instead of Monday???  Allow a day transition for people coming to and leaving from the event.  Less congestion in paddock too.  Regardless of where we end up going, I've always thought that this is a good idea anyway.

I "know" the reason....course set up and walking...but I think we should think outside the box a little and see if there isn;t a way to make this work.  Maybe you have Monday off still, but Nats runs into Saturday?

 

I think a "rest day" between day 1/2 and 3/4 of competition is a good idea, especially if we end up somewhere with limited accomidations. 

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Once you go Mac, you never go back!

StrokerAce:

 How about the disused GM assembly plant in OKC? They are working on giving it to the adjacent Tinker AFB. There have got to be a number of idle auto assembly plants in the country that might also be possbiliites.

 

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=73120&ie=UTF8&ll=35.395592,-97.394228&spn=0.015638,0.040169&t=h&z=15&iwloc=addr

 

 

Now isn't too bad that we don't have anyone on staff that used to work for GM... I mean.. someone like that could help get us in anywhere...! :) 

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Rick Cone
Atlanta Region Director

STS2 #98
1991 Mazda Miata - Aqua

Hope this link works for the site in Arkansas:

 

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=blytheville,+ar&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=12

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http://m3kerry.blog.myscca.com

Or this one, http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=arkansas+aeroplex&ie=UTF8&ll=35.959111,-89.95481&spn=0.016465,0.043087&t=h&z=15

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2002 Mercedes C230k, retired, 2005 Nationals STU DFL

1969 Beach Solo Vee and 1985 Lynx B Solo Vee

gary p:

I think its real tight for rooms.  If the town is already supporting 500+ hotel rooms, bringing 1200 people to town would certainly overload the capacity.  However, that doesn't discount the site as a possibility.  What other lodging is available within a half hour drive in any direction?   

 

Not much within 1/2 hour, but there are 1100+ additional rooms in Jonesboro AR, Paragould AR, and Dyersburg TN which are all about an hour away.   That makes it viable, IMHO, if not ideal.

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Once you go Mac, you never go back!

Lynn:

Or this one, http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=arkansas+aeroplex&ie=UTF8&ll=35.959111,-89.95481&spn=0.016465,0.043087&t=h&z=15

Why is it everyone's idea to leave Kansas to go to ArKansas?  It is like we really aren't going to get away from being in the middle of nowhere.  Hehe

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Mark Davis
1993 Toyota MR-2 White "Casper"

devomgd:

Lynn:

Or this one, http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=arkansas+aeroplex&ie=UTF8&ll=35.959111,-89.95481&spn=0.016465,0.043087&t=h&z=15

Why is it everyone's idea to leave Kansas to go to ArKansas?  It is like we really aren't going to get away from being in the middle of nowhere.  Hehe

 

I have been to Blytheville and Jonesboro both.  Yeahm not much there, but the site looks viable and if so...why noy give it a try.  I'm sure Blytheville would love to have 2.2mil in revenue from one week...

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D. Scott Bourne
192HS
DATS Racing LLC
Kumho Motorsports
Ken Towery's Motorsports
Tokico USA

DATS Racing, All DATS, All the time!

The more I look at the Arkansas site, the more it intrigues me.  Lots of people would camp, so I think the number of hotel rooms wouldn't be an issue IMO.

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- Chris DeLay
DS 2000 Acura ITR
Lucky Lugnut Racing

Not only a new place has to be found, but WHEN.

 Since the new location of the Runoffs there also was a movement of when the Runoffs were going to happen.  The article stated that the Runoffs were going to be to sometime in September.   So WHEN in September is going to be the Runoffs?

 My suggestion is with the creation of FJR as a National Solo II class that the Solo II Nationals be moved to the beginning of August like around the first weekend of August.  I beleive that most schools are not in session yet as most schools now begin the middle of August this will allow the JR competitors to compete without missing school.

 

   

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Craig Straub

I also heard there was this really big site in hell...,but if we can't get that, we can always try the AR site...

 

Sorry, I just couldn't help myself. Having a site to run is great, but having to spend 10 days or more in Blytheville might just do me in. No offense meant to anyone from Blytheville, but I don't think we (SCCA) should be looking there to hold our premier National Championships. Nothing against small towns either...take Oscoda for example, very small town, but it's a vacation destination when we weren't running there.

 

For those of you from TX, what is the horse (?) track there in Irving just west of Dallas? From what I remember there was tons of nice asphalt and tons of hotels and things to do within minutes of the site. A Rev It Up round was run there a couple of years ago, so I know htey are accepting of events such as ours. Anyone know what its called?

 

-MK 

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Mike King
88 CRX Si - STS2 #99
Jacksonville, FL
2007, 2008 STS2 Solo National Champion
Team Bridgestone - King Motorsports - A-Spec Racing - Renspeed

Do you mean Lone Star Park in Grandview?  The large lot looks to be big enough, but it has 11 light poles and 6 drains and is surrounded by landscaping islands with trees.  The other lots don't seem to be big enough.  I think it would be hard to lay out  the dual courses for the Pro Finale.

Lone Star Park

There is no horse racing in August or most of September.

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2002 Mercedes C230k, retired, 2005 Nationals STU DFL

1969 Beach Solo Vee and 1985 Lynx B Solo Vee

Hey Lynn. Yup, that's it! I know when I ran a RevItUp there, there seemed to be lots of room. Just in my recollection, the surface seemed to be comparable to HPT. Granted there are some poles and drains, but we worked around stuff at Forbes that was much worse than that. Just an idea with a good appeal for people to drive thousands of miles to attend.

 

Thanks,

Mike 

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Mike King
88 CRX Si - STS2 #99
Jacksonville, FL
2007, 2008 STS2 Solo National Champion
Team Bridgestone - King Motorsports - A-Spec Racing - Renspeed