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[MSwiss]

Things have finally calmed down enough for me I can compose a proper Thank You thread for Sano III.

Thanks to:

My wife Jackie, Carole Schatz, and Cheryl Van Wagnen for their great job serving up the catered food.

"Manta" Ray Price and Ricky Distefano, for volunteering to help out behind the counter and for their excellent work keeping the cash register ringing.

Greg "cheater" Wells, for buying the "latest" Web-cam, doing the research to find the best hosting method, and keeping diggin' to improve the quality of the live video feed. Calls early in the weekend declared it was the best they ever saw broadcast from a slot track. As Greg refined the process throughout the weekend, the feedback jumped up to "it was like watching TV." Paul Sterrett called me yesterday and mentioned how excited D3's ace race reporter, Keith Tanaka, was to see the quality of the feed, and hoped he could replicate it for the big events at Buena Park Raceway.

Noose, Jay Guard, and Bill Fulmer for their terrific and efficient job keeping the tech line moving while documenting the cars.

Ralph Thorne for suppling the great looking plaques & T-shirts (and at a very fair price). I never thought I could sell a shirt that looked so good for $15.

The plaque sponsors:
F1/King - Sprays by Mac/ Dallas Slot Cars
GTC/King - Outisight Designs
JK Spec/King - JK Products
Can-Am/King - Evil Bucks Racer (tonyp)
F1/Flat - Bill Fulmer
Can-Am/Flat - Team Cort

The lunch sponsors:
Slotblog
Sprays By Mac/ Dallas Slot Cars
Noose Custom Painting
Richie Austin
Pro Slot Limited
Team Cort
Wanker Valley Raceway/ John Austin

Race prize donors:
Noose Custom Painting
Sprays By Mac
Eagle Distributing
Dave Gallagher of K & S Engineering
Outisight Designs
Koford Engineering

St. Judes charity raffle donors:
Rob Hanson
Bill Worden
Paul "Pablo" Wolcott
Noose Custom Painting
Guillermo Suar
Sprays By Mac
R/Geo Products
Outisight Designs

All the racers who traveled from near or far. Like in the previous two Sanos, their great attitude and 100% co-operation
made my job easy.

Last, but not least, Bernie Schatz, for donating the Eddy Mac Sano III body he won in the raffle to my Sano body collection.

[MSwiss]

Some of this was discussed in another thread but thoughts for next year's Sano.

First, some explanations from this year;

The format was concotted with a realistic anticipation of the amount of entries.
With only one track racing Retro regularly in Illinois and no monthly series,
I knew there was a 0% chance of the kind of turnout you could expect in an area
with 2 Retro series in one state(Ohio) and probably 6 or 7 raceways holding Retro races.
I never would of adopted it if I thought there was any chance of an R4 like turn-out.

As far as the Spec race running late on Friday, I take 100% the blame.
I decided to start the F1 flat track later than planned which pushed back the Spec race.

This was done partly to allow the racers to have more time to prepare and test their hand-out motors
which they would also be using in GT-Coupe on Saturday.

More so, it was so Noose could arrive, decompress a bit and get in a little flat track practice before he
had to start teching. He didn't ask for special treatment. As everyone knows, he's a real trooper.
I decided with 6 classes to tech(and race) that weekend, he deserved it.

FWIW, as an Ex-Wing racer, I'm used to start putting my game face on at about 2 AM.
Just the same, I recognize that's not what Retro guys "signed on" for and it will be addressed next year
(actually later in this thread)

Finally, I never intended to break for lunch, especially on Saturday.
With the program moving along fine on Saturday & Sunday, I decided we would,
instead of eating in shifts.
On Sunday, it was almost neccessary to do it for guys to have a fair chance to pick out
their race prizes.
More importantly, the Sunday lunch break helped highlight the St. Judes Raffle
and it's sponsors.


The only part of this year's Sano that I'll probably drop for next year is the confetti drop
(it's way harder to clean up with a good wet-vac than you would think)
and qualifying straight into the main.

IMO, the same guys who qualified straight into the main this year, are all confident
they could race their way into it, finishing in the top 4 of a semi.
That is one problem with not having main sit-outs.
You then have to feed the main from a 2-tiered flow chart(A & B semi)
instead of a single tier. That would lengthen the program slightly.

Nothing is cast in stone, but I would probably continue qualifying.
I was particularly gratified by the positive response from the lower-tier racers.
They liked racing with other guys of similar experience and/or speed.
The constant-motion qualifying concept worked just as well as I hoped it would.
While at times, I started late (after Noose started teching) to help Greg with Web-cam logistic's, etc.
I easily could catch up with him(his the harder job) and it added virtually zero time to the program.
Also, identifying/highlighting only the cars that were interested in entering Concours worked well.

For next year, some idea's I'm bantering around;

Moving all the flat track racing to Thursday night.
It's obvious it appeals more to the locals who have the extra track experience.
For those out-of-towners who like the flat track, they'll have to decide if they like it well enough
to arrive a little earlier.

Like at Sano II, the only official class run on Friday would be the popular JK Spec Class(w/handouts), starting about 4PM
to insure an early/reasonable finishing time.

Saturday would start with GT-Coupe(also w/handouts) at about 9:30 AM.
Track conditions from the night before's racing with similar cars and the same motors should be ideal.
This will also allow the "hand-out only guys" to run 2 races in the tightest practical time frame and skidaddle if they wish.

After about an hour practice, move on to F1 to finish Saturday evening.

Sunday would be Can-Am only, starting at 9:30-10 AM.
I've come to the realization, with it being a work night,
that even my locals don't want to race very deep into Sunday evening.

[MSwiss]

I'm also thinking of other idea's like moving the race into the summer
to make outdoor relaxation/eating/socializing more practical.

I'm going to lock this thread but feel free to add constructive input at:
Post-Sano race talk & suggestions
which I've renamed and has already discussed the race.

For those who missed them originally, I suggest checking out Steve Deiters' post's #27 & #43
in that thread. I find them particularly insightful.
(and not just because he shows up to the races in a collared shirt and a V-neck sweater )