Preliminary LF Results and Comments

Here's my take on the matter...take your NHRA example. You pay to spectate and have to park in BFE for the event. But there are no complaints about not being able to park in the pits next to John Force? Same situation here...if you spectate you get to park with the spectators...not next to John Force. Why is that not fair?

Perhaps the next event will have more accommodating spectator parking, but bottom line is you have to pay to play. If you don't front the participant fee don't expect to have the same priviledges as participants.

Tom
 
I see both sides to the argument here.
I payed the registration and parked inside with the rental car.
How bout this:

I f you are a NLOC member, your spectator admission gets you in to park. NLOC members are helping the club and paying to use the UBB, and would be a nice Fringe benefit to this event, then the trucks can be parked together.

TaaDaa!

Steve
 
tliss said:
Here's my take on the matter...take your NHRA example. You pay to spectate and have to park in BFE for the event. But there are no complaints about not being able to park in the pits next to John Force? Same situation here...if you spectate you get to park with the spectators...not next to John Force. Why is that not fair?
Click to expand...

But that's an NHRA event and not even close to the same situation. Why can't you park in the pits at an NHRA event? Here are some reasons I can think of:

1. There's no room. If there were 100 18 wheelers, race cars, and support vehicles parked in the pits there wouldn't be room for spectator parking. This is not an issue at LFest. There were probably 6-8 acres of wasted space inside the gates. Half an acre would have accomodated all the spectators.

2. Security. There are millions of dollars woth of equipment at an NHRA event that need to be protected. This is not an issue at LFest. There are some nice vehicle at LFest, but the chances of there being anyone there that would do intentional harm to a vehicle are slim.

3. Safety. At an NHRA event there are hundreds if not thousands of people working in and walking around the pits. When you have unnecessary vehicles driving around in a confined space with lots of people the chance for an accident increases. This could be an issue at LFest because there is always the possibility of an accident. However, it isn't anywhere near the possibility that it would be at a much larger event.

There is zero comparison between LFest and an NHRA event other than both include timed races over a 1/4 mile.
 
Duly noted. The point is if you pay to be a spectator, don't expect the same priviledges of being a participant.

Tom
 
And at the same time I shouldn't expect to be intentionally inconvenienced out of spite because I didn't want to pay $110 to take part in activities I didn't have a vehicle to take part with. Our weekly bracket races are easily double the size of LFest. Guess where the spectators park. Right next to the racers. The spectator parking and pits are separated by a two lane road just like they could have been at LFest. I'm not expecting to park on vendor row, just in the same zip code as the event.
 
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JUST my .02 last year some body w/ a boss 5.4 wandered in and parked in the show area . Iwandered if he got lost a1/2 hr later after locating the driver he was told to leave or move . I feel you have take into consideration that BIG D and NAN worked their a** off and do not do this for a living.Point is that there are too few of people to watch every person coming in.Like the boss last year and instead of having to confront people and tell them to move it's easier to doit this way. Who's to know how much parking needed for spectators? Toofew people to cover all the bases.But don't hold it against the ones who put this together.If you ask everyone Ibet the majority feel more comfortable leaving their trucks among members and not where a stranger can walk off w/something.Not everybody was w/ their rides at all times. nothing towards you asa memeber but you know what I mean.BTW sorry so long!KEITH
 
I agree and disagree with this discussion. One thing that would be nice is having a shuttle or some way to get people in.

The other thing (granted Nan and Dwight were nice enough to ignore this) is that since I was paying to participate on Sunday they didnt have to let me drive my SVT focus into the pits during the two days prior to my actually participating. If I would have had to walk in the first two days I would have been very upset.

With that being said. Dwight and Nan are very sepcial people for putting on this event and doing their best. Dont forget that! Hopefully next year there will be improvements and CONSTRUCTIVE opinions will help.

As for me attending next year. HECK YEAH!! I will be there. Even if they dont have an on track event and I cant participate I will pay the event fee just so I can park my car in the pits and have a great time being around some wonderful friends that I unfortunately only get to see one or two times a year.

B
 
BJ, always the diplomat. Damn psychologists. :D Can't ever force themselves to let a perfectly good argument run its course. ;p

BTW, it would have been real easy to ignore the guy at the booth and just drive right in. There isn't anything they can do to stop you. That being said, why not just have booth boy tell spectators that they have to park in the grass?

There is no way to know for sure how many spectators you are going to have, but this is a niche market. Most of the spectators are probably local, and how many Topeka residents really give a damn about Lightnings? You don't know the exact number, but it's not going to be many.
 
BTW, what are all the other cars and trucks in the pits for anyway? I saw a couple minivans and a lot of other cars in the pits and they sure as hell weren't racing! I know some people brought two cars and or tow vehicles, I understand that, but I know not all of them had the right to be in there. Why were they the exception to the rule?
 
No one said that you had to have a truck and be racing, to be in the pits...you just had to have paid for the registration. One minivan was ours and the others was a vendor. To get in the pits they all had to have a sticker. PFA had a car, Todd from TCE had a car, SStock had a car...but all paid the event registration fee. We also let in people that were helping to work the event. So in the end, if you paid or worked for us you could park in the pits! There was also OT instructors vehicles in the pits from Friday on. SVT had vehicles in the pits and so did the track folks working the souvenir stand. LFP had a van.....and on...!
As to driving past the guard at the gate...not a smart move, as that is trespassing, and we threatened to call the police on one person for doing just that. The track is not a public place, but rather belongs the event promoter and the track owner during events.

As I see it now, we will NOT pay the extra insurance for spectators next year, and none of this will be a problem. You either register as a participant, or you are not allowed on the site!

Simple solution!:hh:
 
Dwight,
they nab you an extra insurance for spectators???
Man, when does it ever stop? Sounds like that track has a pretty lucrative buisness!;c
 
No spectators sounds great. Then instead of getting a little money from them you will get none. Not to mention the Tshirts, etc. that they buy. I got 5 of them. Judging from the number of cars in the Back 40 the spectators probably only generated about $2k in revenue. Chump change.

I guess I won't have to labor over the decision to spend $30 and walk or $110 for the privelege of parking remotely near anything. Of course, that wasn't much of a decision; there isn't an event on this planet that I would pay $80 extra for parking priveleges at.
 
As is normally the case one person ruins it for others. I personally don't understand why this is still dragging on how many days later? We hear that some are frustrated because of the spectator parking, but why keep bashing Dwight and Nan after all of their hard work? It is more work than one can even imagine to put on an event like this, and when the ones complaining are the ones running the show, it will be their say on how things are run....until then help make things better by giving suggestions for better solutions instead of &*%ching. I am sure Dwight and Nan are always open to ideas to help make this club/events better. I for one cannot thank them enough for all they have done....hats off to you Big D and Nan!!

;h

The girly half
 
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only just got back from vacation this week. we can't thank nan & dwight enogh for the event. we planned this since last year's event and will plan next years soon. we had fun as always. it was disappointing not to have all the vendors show up-- i wanted to buy some things from them. as far as the parking goes, join, pay, enjoy.
 
FunLightningCpl, did you even read the entire thread? The first negative post was our fearless leader yelling in bold face. Prior to that there was nothing but praise and suggestions for a better event. Then D decided to tell all of us that chose to make the trip and spectate that our attendance is of no consequence and our contributions to the event are unappreciated. Since I now have to defend my statements, I would like to remind everyone that this dicussion wouldn't be happening if this statement:

BigD said:
Spectators do not park in the truck area and it is $10/day or $15/event to spectate.
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had said "spectators will not be allowed to park inside the gates" instead. I feel a little misled. To me, the truck area is the paved area where all the participants parked. The several acres of grass surrounding that area would be outside the truck area.
 
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