2023 Aaron Doubet CC#CC02080

[hotchkis23]

Hello,

 

My name is Aaron Doubet.  Champcar number CC02080.  I have raced in this series since 2012, originally with a team running a 1978 Alfa Romeo Alfetta....  You can all infer how that went... In the spring of 2014,  I and my two brothers expressed our concern to our father that maybe this was a poor choice, and presented him with Craigslist adds for Monte Carlos and Crown Victorias that fit into the old Chumpcar mold. To our disdain, we were informed that he had decided to purchase a mint 1990 Miata chassis that would suit us well for our racing experiences, great a hairdresser car....

 

After a few seasons of running this setup with good results(never finished out of the top five), we took into account the rule changes that allowed some speed creep in the series.  We went to full on poly bushing in the suspension, found an economical swap, and took advantage of the 2X shocks, ,we run oversized brakes and do pretty well when the car holds together!  Personally, I have enjoyed opportunities that this series has allowed me to endure on the greatest road courses in North America.  I have had the pleasure to race not only in all three US "zones" but Canada as well.  From Mosport to Barber to Las Vegas to Road America, this series provides the best cost to experience!

 

Why am I running?  I am running because I feel like the BOD of Champcar has lost their focus.  In my opinion, the BOD is responsible for making sure that the series is remaining well run and "profitable" in the sense that it can sustain itself, not making rules.  I have been discouraged by the current amount of petitions by BOD members that have put forth petitions that would only help their particular chosen raced makes.  Along with that, I am disappointed that there is no transparency required for notes of meetings of the BOD, to give members an a sense of how their elected representatives are voting.  I hope to be a proponent of making sure that any and all meetings become transparent to all members, as we all pay a "membership fee" too be allowed to race here, as well as listening to what our members are actually asking for from the series to make it better.

 

Thank you, for you time and consideration.  I will entertain comments and answers as well.

 

Aaron Doubet

CC# CC02080

 

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by hotchkis23

[mindspin311]

As rules and people's priorities change over the years, the series will naturally lose long-standing entrants. What do you propose we do to attract new teams to offset the outgoing entrants? And how can me make sure they race multiple events and return year over year?

Edited September 11, 2022 by mindspin311

[Hugh Jass]

22 hours ago, hotchkis23 said:

 

Where can we improve?  Personally, I feel that transparency is huge.  

 

Again, I will add my CC # later, I am happy to be provided the encouragement to run for a current BOD Member!  I appreciate your consideration!

 

Do you mind being transparent and sharing your name so we know who we are voting for? 

 

Also, is the post title an attempt at trolling or just lack of attention to detail? "2023 Board Run Campcar Numbrer Coming Later" 

[Bill Strong]

I have no clue who you are since your real name is never mentioned. You get your membership number by logging into the registration system. 

[Jamie]

On 9/10/2022 at 7:32 PM, hotchkis23 said:

I have raced at Las Vegas

 

Ew, why? I was probably at that race. The tracks are pretty poop. 

[Ian]

On 9/11/2022 at 9:22 AM, mindspin311 said:

As rules and people's priorities change over the years, the series will naturally lose long-standing entrants. What do you propose we do to attract new teams to offset the outgoing entrants? And how can me make sure they race multiple events and return year over year?

 

This is a fantastic question.  It seems that some in charge are dead set on not triggering any changes to the status quo, and while this is a good thing to keep in mind, the series also needs to evolve with the times.

 

If the series continues to be a play place where only a handful of aging platforms are allowed to compete on a roughly level playing field, then I expect attendance numbers to slip even further as teams look elsewhere for their fun.

 

How would you as a New BOD member try to find a balance between keeping old members happy and enticing new members to come and stay?

Edited September 12, 2022 by Ian
I can has spell?

[hotchkis23]

On 9/11/2022 at 8:45 AM, enginerd said:

What is your stance on spellcheck? 

 

Good luck, always a pleasure seeing you guys at the track.

Nate,

 

I have rewritten the original response after responding in the "heat of the moment" however spell can be a tool that helps you win or lose...I also love to see you guys on track!

[hotchkis23]

On 9/11/2022 at 9:22 AM, mindspin311 said:

As rules and people's priorities change over the years, the series will naturally lose long-standing entrants. What do you propose we do to attract new teams to offset the outgoing entrants? And how can me make sure they race multiple events and return year over year?

To attract new people you have to offer something that is enticing to join. Lets be honest, motorsports is not a "cheap" way to come have fun.  If you want to be competitive.  I would assume a new team with a modern car would have to be willing to spend ~$20k to come into this mess and have a winning car. This is where the issues come into play.  Do we cater to the 25+ year old teams(by entry) or the current teams that are in the 10-15 year range?

 

This all seems like an issue that needs to be analyzed via entry statistics of our series and trying to pull data from others. 

 

Lastly, what has this series done to actively market itself?  Have we send out individuals to SCCA events or car shows to give out information about the series?  We were a local SCCA group that read about the series in grassroots and decided to give it a go?  I have also asked the series for permission to go out and recruit and hope they could provide materials, but it died with no response....this was 4+years ago, so please don't fault anyone currently in the position.

[hotchkis23]

On 9/12/2022 at 1:00 PM, Ian said:

 

This is a fantastic question.  It seems that some in charge are dead set on not triggering any changes to the status quo, and while this is a good thing to keep in mind, the series also needs to evolve with the times.

 

If the series continues to be a play place where only a handful of aging platforms are allowed to compete on a roughly level playing field, then I expect attendance numbers to slip even further as teams look elsewhere for their fun.

 

How would you as a New BOD member try to find a balance between keeping old members happy and enticing new members to come and stay?

Ian, thank you for your question.

 

What is Champcar?  Is it a series that is trying to be Lemons + or are we trying to be a legitimate amateur racing league; personally I feel like it is the later...  One of the main issues that this series appears to have is a median performance value based on a vehicle that was manufactured in the late 1980's.

 

I know your team is running a newer car.  We raced with you at Road America and Autobahn.  I do not think that new cars are an issue.  I think that the 15 year rule is decent to allow for proper evaluation of a platform before assigning a VPI.  There will always be some models that are outliers that need adjustment, but I feel  if accurately explored, new models can fit into the Champcar system just fine.

[hotchkis23]

On 9/12/2022 at 11:45 AM, Jamie said:

 

Ew, why? I was probably at that race. The tracks are pretty poop. 

Because it was billed as a 36hr race.  It ended up as an 8 and 8, and we had a decent time.  Track was lacking...

[gundy]

2 hours ago, hotchkis23 said:

I do not think that new cars are an issue.  I think that the 15 year rule is decent to allow for proper evaluation of a platform before assigning a VPI.  There will always be some models that are outliers that need adjustment, but I feel  if accurately explored, new models can fit into the Champcar system just fine.

I agree but also along the same line of thinking as new cars with higher tech enter the group older established cars should have their value dropped 5-10 pts every year to help keep up with inflation of technology.

[Wheelman_99 - C Rallo]

1 hour ago, gundy said:

I agree but also along the same line of thinking as new cars with higher tech enter the group older established cars should have their value dropped 5-10 pts every year to help keep up with inflation of technology.

Do you like speed creep, because that's how you get speed creep!

 

Just assign appropriate points to new cars and dont create any over dogs. For better and worse, this could mean being a little conservative. Look to SCCA Showroom Stock to see what (over dog) Car of the Year Syndrome was, is and what it leads to.

[hotchkis23]

On 9/20/2022 at 11:01 PM, gundy said:

I agree but also along the same line of thinking as new cars with higher tech enter the group older established cars should have their value dropped 5-10 pts every year to help keep up with inflation of technology.

gundy, I agree a bit.  I am more curious about how we assign VPI's to newer cars vs. older models?  I believe there may be a trade off/builders advantage to finding a lower VPI Make/Model, that you can exploit the current rule book in your favor. Will that be the easiest path to victory, no, but it could be a lot of fun!

 

To be transparent, I feel like there are some adjustments that need to be made.  If given the chance to run via nomination, I will happily lay that out.

 

Thank you for reaching out,

Aaron

[hotchkis23]

On 9/21/2022 at 12:16 AM, Wheelman_99 said:

Do you like speed creep, because that's how you get speed creep!

 

Just assign appropriate points to new cars and dont create any over dogs. For better and worse, this could mean being a little conservative. Look to SCCA Showroom Stock to see what (over dog) Car of the Year Syndrome was, is and what it leads to.

Chris,

 

You make a good point.  However, how do we assign a value?  Base statistics are only statistics, meaning they can be manipulated to show an expected value, within a loosely defined range.  This is where I see some fault in champcar, we write our rules as absolutes, then seem to give into a bit of gray area and say a TEC value is appropriate.  SCCA has been doing their thing for a LONG time and they are good at regulating 50's cone races. No disrespect, however an 8 hr race takes more consideration about longevity vs. speed.

[hotchkis23]

On 9/11/2022 at 7:56 PM, Hugh Jass said:

 

Do you mind being transparent and sharing your name so we know who we are voting for? 

 

Also, is the post title an attempt at trolling or just lack of attention to detail? "2023 Board Run Campcar Numbrer Coming Later" 

No troll at all. I had just got done coaching my sons travel baseball team and was ready to head off to bed, when I read other comments. I appreciate you calling me out for detail.  I assume you have  been active on the forum?

[hotchkis23]

9 minutes ago, hotchkis23 said:

No troll at all. I had just got done coaching my sons travel baseball team and was ready to head off to bed, when I read other comments. I appreciate you calling me out for detail.  I assume you have  been active on the forum? Info is shown above.

\\\

[Wheelman_99 - C Rallo]

 thank you,

 

What are your thoughts on fuel capacity? Our current situation is both allowing overdogs and creating underdogs. Should we enact a min max? (To help cars with silly little tanks) An equal max for all? For now we can skip specifics like should it be per class, or a direct formula using weight or engine size. Or just a high max to reign in outliers like the 26 gallon C3, 24 gallon El Camino, 22 or 23 gallon C cars like the 944, 18 gallon B class Prelude and so on?

 

Coolers? Less points? No points? Not every car needs em, some can't live without em, how do we tell and account for the difference? Some come stock with many, some few or none. Other series allow them freely, this is a barrier of entry to Champcar, how do we handle or justify that?

 

Tires? Should things be reigned in here and if so how?

 

Driver tracking, barcode/rfid system?

 

Tyler spent a lot of time promoting Champcar and working to bring in sponsorship and it seems he was successful. Who can fill those shoes? Should ChampCar hire someone?

 

If the BOD does not make or change rules, who does? Or should they just not present ideas for changes? That makes some sense, but don't these folks have the experience and the best postition to see needed changes? What changes to the rules, race procedure and so on would yourself like to see? In your case, I guess you'd hope someone else felt the same, way and proposed it?

 

Please explain your lost focus comment. 

 

 

Thank you and good luck in your running

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by Wheelman_99

[Wheelman_99 - C Rallo]

On 9/25/2022 at 11:26 PM, hotchkis23 said:

Chris,

 

You make a good point.  However, how do we assign a value?  Base statistics are only statistics, meaning they can be manipulated to show an expected value, within a loosely defined range.  This is where I see some fault in champcar, we write our rules as absolutes, then seem to give into a bit of gray area and say a TEC value is appropriate.  SCCA has been doing their thing for a LONG time and they are good at regulating 50's cone races. No disrespect, however an 8 hr race takes more consideration about longevity vs. speed.

What we have that scca doesn't for many classes is 15 years of real world results on track and dyno numbers. There shouldn't be too many surprises. Then Review new classings yearly, nobody built it... did we throw too many points on? Or people will alert us... hey, nobody will build that, I want to, but it needs help. They sure won't tell us the other way until it puts 10 laps on the field or 5... even if not, a model or two that doesn't get built beats the alternative.

 

SCCA Improved Touring requires that cars be 10 years old. It was originally built as a place mostly for Showroom stock cars that had aged out of their 10 year limit there. As such, they have tons of performance data to look at when classing a "new" car and as such, while they have creeper slightly over the years, there has never been an over dog or car of the year issue.

 

The proposed idea is also bad because of the continued development it requires and associated expense. This unsettles people and will chase some of them away (see the AER speed creep and class shifts) it is one thing to have natural progression as some teams further develop there cars, but actual points changes would result in larger performance changes and racecars are a formula, one thing effects everything else.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Wheelman_99
for clarity

[hotchkis23]

9 hours ago, Wheelman_99 said:

 thank you,

 

What are your thoughts on fuel capacity? Our current situation is both allowing overdogs and creating underdogs. Should we enact a min max? (To help cars with silly little tanks) An equal max for all? For now we can skip specifics like should it be per class, or a direct formula using weight or engine size. Or just a high max to reign in outliers like the 26 gallon C3, 24 gallon El Camino, 22 or 23 gallon C cars like the 944, 18 gallon B class Prelude and so on?

 

Coolers? Less points? No points? Not every car needs em, some can't live without em, how do we tell and account for the difference? Some come stock with many, some few or none. Other series allow them freely, this is a barrier of entry to Champcar, how do we handle or justify that?

 

Tires? Should things be reigned in here and if so how?

 

Driver tracking, barcode/rfid system?

 

Tyler spent a lot of time promoting Champcar and working to bring in sponsorship and it seems he was successful. Who can fill those shoes? Should ChampCar hire someone?

 

If the BOD does not make or change rules, who does? Or should they just not present ideas for changes? That makes some sense, but don't these folks have the experience and the best postition to see needed changes? What changes to the rules, race procedure and so on would yourself like to see? In your case, I guess you'd hope someone else felt the same, way and proposed it?

 

Please explain your lost focus comment. 

 

 

Thank you and good luck in your running

 

Chris,

 

Lets start with the first question, I do not think we need to enact a minimum or anything else with the fuel rules. We run a car that is fuel limited, but have come to an agreement to run certain splits to make a fuel window.... I do think there are some outliers that need to have their VPI looked at, but we will see what comes of it. 

 

Coolers, I am under the belief that if you need a cooler to make a race it is already interpreted in your vpi value.  cars that need external coolers or reliability help should have that respected in their initial vpi number.

 

Tires, that is  an interesting subject, if a team wants to spend a lot of money on fancy tires good for them.  I do not like multiple air guns and 5 second pit stops, so I would be against that.

 

 

Tyler did an amazing job that not many members or board members even realize.    He is a big reason that we still have a series.  I hope the at the BOD can refocus to understand that instead of making rules they are the the ones that makes sure the series survivies!

[hotchkis23]

9 hours ago, Wheelman_99 said:

The proposed idea is also bad because of the continued development it requires and associated expense. This unsettles people and will chase some of them away (see the AER speed creep and class shifts) it is one thing to have natural progression as some teams further develop there cars, but actual points changes would result in larger performance changes and racecars are a formula, one thing effects everything else.

I see this as also having its own issues.  I really think they will all fit in here and not be any real issues

[Team Infiniti]

12 hours ago, hotchkis23 said:

 

Tires, that is  an interesting subject, if a team wants to spend a lot of money on fancy tires good for them

Your stance is in direct conflict with the mission statement of affordable racing.

[mindspin311]

4 minutes ago, Team Infiniti said:

Your stance is in direct conflict with the mission statement of affordable racing.

But it only goes the mission statement for THAT team.

 

CCES is not FORCING them to run multiple sets of tires.

[Team Infiniti]

20 minutes ago, mindspin311 said:

But it only goes the mission statement for THAT team.

 

CCES is not FORCING them to run multiple sets of tires.

If someone wants to keep up with them…. it can be real or perceived, doesn’t matter.

Optics matter

[cowboys647]

On 10/4/2022 at 9:16 AM, Team Infiniti said:

If someone wants to keep up with them…. it can be real or perceived, doesn’t matter.

Optics matter

As a team owner who ended up 2nd overall a couple weeks ago to a team with pretty much the exact same car but sticky tires (which only lasted 7 hours), it's a hard pill to swallow. I made the decision to buy rain tires after hydroplaning and hitting a wall at Barber but I can't justify doubling my tire budget at every race just to compete at the pointy end. I still think about doing it but I will have to do one less race a year to make up that cost. Is this what Champcar wants?

 

Literally the only part people can buy speed for money without paying points is tires. It really isn't that hard to reign in. I think any tire change should make a pitstop turn into 5 minutes minimum or just blacklist a set of tires. My $0.02 as a team owner and competing for the last 5 years in Champ. 

[Team Infiniti]

48 minutes ago, cowboys647 said:

As a team owner who ended up 2nd overall a couple weeks ago to a team with pretty much the exact same car but sticky tires (which only lasted 7 hours), it's a hard pill to swallow. I made the decision to buy rain tires after hydroplaning and hitting a wall at Barber but I can't justify doubling my tire budget at every race just to compete at the pointy end. I still think about doing it but I will have to do one less race a year to make up that cost. Is this what Champcar wants?

 

Literally the only part people can buy speed for money without paying points is tires. It really isn't that hard to reign in. I think any tire change should make a pitstop turn into 5 minutes minimum or just blacklist a set of tires. My $0.02 as a team owner and competing for the last 5 years in Champ. 

Thank you, exactly how we feel, forgoing one race a year is a possibility, all for soft tires…

 

Is this good for the series? The folks in charge that talk down to this sticky issue are seemingly obtuse to the fact.

 

It ain’t just me.

Edited October 5, 2022 by Team Infiniti