I heard a few rumors floating around the pits...there will be 2 US competitions next year, one somewheres in Cali, one somewheres else...heard the Silverdome was going to be torn down and a new location would need to be found...anyone else have any more info on this??

They announced it at the captains meeting. Neither "new" location has been firmed up yet, but its looking like the west coast one will be held at the infield of a speedway (not sure which) and the Detroit "big show" will most likely be held at one of the big three's Detroit area proving grounds, or another large/suitable location.

Registration will open up to all teams for both events at the same time, but you can only register for one. After a month you can register for the other, if there's still room.

Just to start the rumor mill, which competition are all you teams planning on attending?

U. of Washington will register for West.

I'm pretty sure U of A will want to be going to the West competition, although we will have to see.

I remember talking to two of the Washington team members on Saturday night, they came into our hotel room just seeing what was up while we were playing poker, not sure if that was you though, can't really remember who they were.

WWU will be driving 2 days extra to detriot...oh wait..thats retarded..yeah we will be at west.

it seems like a lot of teams are geographically closer to east though, i am curious who will come out west? UTA and texas A&M perhaps?

due to funds and location, we will prob be going to the east again, I'm peelin from my 2 days of sun from Detroit, don't need more sun

Anyone know if any of the potential surfaces are concrete?

West for sure, if we make it. Here's to hoping.

Oregon State will be attending the west competition. Though depending on who goes where I think I would rather be in the east.

The biggest problem I see is with two US comps how will we know who is the World Champs? You won't be able to just win in Detroit, you might have to attend more than one comp to be classed as World FSAE Champ.

For us outside of USA where distance doesn't matter, it's going to be hard to pick which one to go to. (not saying we are coming, but tossing the idea around)

it shouldn't be a question for teams from outside the country...especially pacific ones.

if you ship your car by boat, it comes into long beach/san pedro harbor. from there, california speedway is a straight shot up one highway, maybe 70 miles. dodger stadium and edison field (the big a) are even closer.

Next year, there will be 7 SAE events:

1 USA East
2 USA West
3 England
4 Australasia
5 Japan
6 Italy
7 Brazil

Yes, it will be hard to pick a "world champion". But I don't think that's the point.

For the west competition, they are discussing using the infield at California Speeday, in Fontana, CA. It's about an hour east of LAX, or just a few minutes from Ontario Arpt. The infield is asphalt, as is the parking lot where we run autocrosses. Parking lot is a good, smooth, fairly grippy surface.

Here is a sat view

The west lot with the tires marks is the one we use for autocrossing, but they rent out just about every lot for manufacturer events or other car stuf.

Unfortunatly, Fontana is an industrial area. There isn't much for hotels and bars besides trucker stuff. But, this is the LA sprawl, so within 10 or 15 miles there is plenty.

Obviously living Detroit makes my team's choice easy.

I agree that the US-west event will probably be more popular with the uber-competitive teams from down under, and the increasingly competitive teams from Asia. But geographically, it looks like a majority of US teams would have a shorter drive to Detroit than LA.

Time will tell how things divide. I'd certainly want to go to both if we get the opportunity.

quote:

Originally posted by Bryan Hagenauer:
For the west competition, they are discussing using the infield at California Speeday, in Fontana, CA. It's about an hour east of LAX, or just a few minutes from Ontario Arpt. The infield is asphalt, as is the parking lot where we run autocrosses. Parking lot is a good, smooth, fairly grippy surface.

This was mentioned in the West Coast Practice thread, but it was held there this year, and it was GORGEOUS. Nary a hint of rain in sight, and the asphalt was almost perfect (except for that one patch of dust down in that corner, but that can be swept). Great venue.

We would want to be at he comp that provided the most competition because who wants to place in a lesser field. However I always felt that an event like this would be best supported at a real race track. Honestly my feeling would be to go all the way to California. It would be nice to be given a nice location to race after all the effort we expend into our cars. Sort of a "here is for all your effort" kinda place. If they change the east race to something like the real tracks in michigan and wisconsin, then I would go to the east. Are there any long kart tracks out there. It would be nice to use an actual track instead of cones.

Weren't you bitching about us not following the concept of the competition? Isn't the concept to build a weekend autocrosser? Don't autocrossers go around cones?



I think the Detroit event will still be the "main" event for a few years, but we want to support the west coast event as it grows. We want to save money and time traveling, we want to enjoy the better weather, and we want to enjoy what might be a smaller, less stressful, more fun event.

quote:

I remember talking to two of the Washington team members on Saturday night, they came into our hotel room just seeing what was up while we were playing poker, not sure if that was you though, can't really remember who they were.

that was me and ryan from WWU. nice to meet you guys, looked like quite a few teams were having a good time that night

Put some cones on the track to make it like an autocross. I was just referring to some place that is used to having a bunch of people with trailers and such show up for racing.

The silverdome is used to people with trailers and racecars show up for racing. It's called autocrossing. Not everyone wants to autocross their Z-stock econobox commuter car.