SAAC 44

[roddster]

  Ah, Mid-Ohio and Elkhart Lake Wisconsin, and Indianapolis IN not middle enough?

[JD]

  Ah, Mid-Ohio and Elkhart Lake Wisconsin, and Indianapolis IN not middle enough?

There was a SAAC in Utah at Miller Motorsports facility, don't remember the year but I remember the temperature!!

(Western PA is not exactly the coast)

[cj750]

  Ah, Mid-Ohio and Elkhart Lake Wisconsin, and Indianapolis IN not middle enough?

Well, no. Of those, the most westerly would be Elkhart Lake. Which is still geographically closer to New York City than Oklahoma City. Mid-Ohio and Indianapolis aren't remotely close to the middle of the country.

[cj750]

There was a SAAC in Utah at Miller Motorsports facility, don't remember the year but I remember the temperature!!

(Western PA is not exactly the coast)

Not sure of the point. Tooele, Utah is a lot closer to San Francisco and L.A. than anywhere on the plains. And while western PA may not be exactly the coast, the coast is a mere 5 or 6 hour drive away. Pittsburgh is 16+ hours from, say, Wichita KS. So again, not remotely central.

Anyhow, my purpose is not to quibble about what is and isn't considered "east coast" or "west coast." My point is that every single SAAC convention has been somewhere in the eastern or western third of the country, and the occasional Ohio, Michigan or Utah event excepted, overwhelmingly in coastal states. Meanwhile, the entire middle third of the country has never had a SAAC convention. Not a single centrally located event in 44 years. That doesn't seem random, that seems like some sort of policy. So my real question is who sets it, and how does it get changed?

[JD]

The SAAC board members set it as far as I understand and if I remember correctly the majority of SAAC members are east of the Mississippi.  West coast events seem to have less attendance that eastern events.

There was a survey done that outlined your question but it was lost in the melt-down.  Perhaps they can repost the Cliff notes.

[shelbydoug]

I don't know if this is the place to ask this question, but is it written in the Club's bylaws that shows have to be on the coasts? There hasn't been a National in the middle of the country since, well, ever. No, Utah, Wisconsin and Indianapolis are not in the middle of the country. I'm talking about places like Dallas, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, Kansas City, Omaha. Even St. Louis or Denver would be more central than any place that's hosted a show so far.

There is no convention location in the by-laws. There is a formula used to determine the likeliness of attendance according to location.

There WAS a convention in Wichita, Kansas. That's pretty much middle/middle.

[cj750]

Thanks for the replies. I missed the previous discussion. So yes, if anyone has it archived, or the Cliff Notes as you say, I'd be most interested. I'm sure it'd go a long way towards answering my questions.

Wichita Nationals? It's not on SAAC's list of conventions 1-39:
http://saac.com/images/conventions/CONVENTION-1.pdf

and the more recent ones were:
40- Pocono
41- Mid Ohio
42- Indianapolis
43-Sonoma

So when exactly was the SAAC convention in Wichita?

[shelbydoug]

I think Witchita was in '75? Must have been a SOA event? The feeling was that it wasn't considered successful and that was because of the location being too far from any of the large portions of the membership. The reason I mentioned it is, it may be the example location to a large portion of the membership and of where the driving time for a large portion of the membership idea came from?


Rick could explain it better but his "studies/surveys" showed that membership was concentrated in certain areas. It also showed that people were only willing to drive a certain amount of hours to get there.

The timing as to what time of the year was also a consideration. People wanted it during their "vacation" time. That largely was in the summer time when school was out.

Anyone can (and they do) put in requests to SAAC HQ for a location for consideration. Not everywhere the cars were raced would be a serious consideration now. Some are too remote according to the formula. Sebring, Daytonna would be two examples of that.

I'm not sure at which point, having it at a race track became mandatory?



The largest ones I attended were both at Dearborn, and the first two used Ford's test grounds at Utica which is not quite a track.

I think that the driving maximum  is about 9 hours. Some tracks that have been right on the cusp have had very successful conventions. Charlotte comes to mind and more recently Millville and VIR.
Beaver Run is kind of in the "middle of SAAC nowhere" and doesn't fit the formula so there is hope that "you could" persuade the powers that be to take a look? I personally would have gone back to Pocono instead but that's just me.


I've been to 1/3 of the conventions. So I fit into the formula but now 9 hours of driving is over the limit for me. Considerably. Flying in is of little interest to me at this point.

I suppose it would be accurate to say that no matter where it is located, 2/3 of the membership is disappointed?


I can save you time and disappointment by telling you some places it won't ever be held. Canada. Mexico. Puerto Rico. Hawaii. Alaska. Europe. Africa. Australia.

[Don Johnston]

Yeah, no Hawaii conventions.  We have to travel 2500 miles just to get to the left coast and then pile on more miles, day and expenses to get to the conventions.  But we know the reallities as explained by Rick and the other planners as to participation, venue availability and costs.  So we go where the action is when as often as we can. As many of you know, we are nuts!   It would be nice to have on at Kansas Speedway if ever possible. 

[cj750]

I appreciate the response.
Looking over the list of past events, there's never been one within 9 hours of my location, although Indy isn't much further than that. Pittsburgh, at 14.5 hours, will actually be one of the closer ones. Most have been 18-20 hours, or more.

Yes, Kansas Speedway would be great. Less than 5 hours.  Practically in my backyard.

It really would be nice if the club could do even one centrally located event before the 50th anniversary.

[98SVT - was 06GT]

How about a show on the East Coast.....

Where is SAAC 50 for $100 Alex 

Parking lot at the rest home for us old timers.

[Don Johnston]

Shelby
American
Aging
Center

[shelbydoug]

Well, there does seem to be a change in the selection process so maybe aging is part of the equation?

[terlingua11]

What about the Mid America Ford and Shelby Nationals.

http://musclecarevents.org

That's pretty much right where you want a SAAC event isn't it. I have no prior knowledge, just a guess, that SAAC has never gone this central as this event appears to be right in the same wheelhouse. I have always wanted to put this on my bucket list as it looks to be like a very cool event. I would think if this was going on in June it would certainly compete with SAAC. I could see why SAAC doesn't go to this neck of the woods and try to compete for everyones $$ on a relatively similar event.

[roddster]

  How about, instead of not being able to read the process from the old, now gone Forum 1, you might want to look up this information from The Shelby American that comes quarterly.