On behalf of Marc, and unofficially on behalf of RBI, I am hoping that the “powers that be” consider a reschedule of the two IMI dates that conflict with the Stars schedule. That schedule was posted some time ago and I would have hoped that, to the degree possible, there would have been an effort to schedule around the Stars schedule. We are four months from the April weekend that has IMI and Stars, Tucson and eight months away from the August weekend that has IMI and Stars, Sonoma. Moving the April race back to an earlier weekend in April (I recognize that Jim wants the 15th for his Gorilla race), or a later weekend in April, shouldn’t be too difficult this far from those dates and the same is even more true for the August dates(Aug. 6th, 13th or 27th would work).
In every year of CSC’s existence there has been the effort to accomodate the schedules so as not to conflict with the National events so as to afford the opportunity to any Colorado racer if he/she desires, to race nationally. In fact, in years past, the CSC schedule has had to wait on Stars and SKUSA; this year it was not so difficult since SKUSA has no national series and Stars announced almost a month and a half ago. This compromise by CSC has not, to the best of my knowledge, hurt any driver here in Colorado and has allowed many here to try the competition on a national level. By the way Jim, Levi Roberts could have run CSC if he had so desired as no direct scheduling conflicts existed, thanks to CSC.
There are a number of drivers impacted by this decision to “NOT” consider the Stars schedule. Some have already spoken, some are mentioned implicitly in Doug’s posts and there are others that I know of who want to do both CSC and Stars. If there are some horrific scheduling issues that make accomodation impossible let me know and I’ll understand. Otherwise, what is the problem picking a couple of different dates for the IMI races, assuming that Brad can accomodate, that are close to the dates just announced. Aside from the drivers, at least for the RBI team, there is the desire to attend each CSC race to support all of it’s customers which becomes impossible if the team itself is in another state.
We all know the many issues facing this sport and I think we all know how important it is to be inclusive rather than exclusive. I remain hopeful that some compromise can be reached here as to these dates so many months away. It would seem to me, with nothing seemingly cast in stone in terms of the announced dates, that compromises can be reached that allow all Colorado karters to race the CSC and compete nationally if they so desire. I remember last year some posts as to why CSC should accomodate the national schedules and Stacey’s responce to the effect of let’s allow our racers the opportunity to go out and compete on a national level if they want. That’s the same attitude we need now.
Chuck Elliott