I wouldn't count on the Rocky Mountain Region bringing nearly the number of cars next year as we did this year. The biggest reason we brought out so many cars was the we thought everyone agreed to the shared payout of the TOYO prize money further down the field to help all those racers that are on very tight budgets. If not for that, we would not have pushed many of our drivers to go.

I had great fun, unfortunately, for me it was overshadowed by the actions of a few men who forgot they aren't three years old any longer.

David,
What killed the Toyo sharing is that the Tax Man cometh.

That is right all your hard earned Toyo winnings will get taxed. So who knows how much of that $4000 Charlie will keep.

It is not fair to pay tax on winning $4000, but really only get $2000 in your pocket. Heck the feds will be looking for some $1500 of Charlie's $4k anyway.

There was money there to share with the other drivers, but NO budget to share that with uncle sam. That was a mistake we directors made as the tax issues should have been resolved before the event. After the fact is just way to complicated to figure how much of that $11k toyo paid to the drivers we drivers will actually keep after the feds get their share.

There was one other major problem with that as well.

None of the So-Cal drivers knew this decision had been made. We were never informed of the Toyo Bucks sharing decision. This was the responsibility of our regional director Tim Comeau.

I would have showed up either way but was pretty pissed that the information was never shared on the internet, email or by my director.

It seems that better communication between all directors and drivers would have avoided the issue. Lets work on that for next year.

And yes it is true the government will get 33-50% of that money anyway. So there is little to share.

Overall this was a great event with lots of great racing throughout the field.

It was a pleasure to meet many of the other drivers.

Thanks again Norm and Joe for the Kudos and great racing.

Joe,

I totally understand WHY the TOYO money could not be shared. Given that, I don't think you'll see the car count from Rocky Mountain next year.

If I go to Nationals again next year, however, I will not tolerate the kind of unsportsmanlike behavior that was exhibited by some in our group that acted like spoiled children throwing a temper-tantrum. If I witness that behavior ever again, I intend to file a Request for Action. It is uncalled for and should not be tolerated by anyone at anytime for any reason.

The plan had been made public on NasaForums.com. Charlie Buzzetti did reply to that thread and say that he did not agree with changing the payout. That was under the context of 27 finishers, so I wouldn't feel great about a shared payout in that case either, as there wasn't enough money to go around. However, our directors then worked to round up some extra entrants so that we would have 30+ cars to get a much larger payout, which would allow them to give the top 5 the same payout as before, and then share the rest with everyone else. Buzzetti would have gotten $2000 under the shared payout, just like he would have gotten $2000 if our directors didn't work to round up the extra cars so that there would be extra money that could be shared. That's why some people are irritated now, and why there's no motivation to get 30+ cars next year, so the standard 1st place payout is probably only going to be $2000 next time.

For all I know, it's entirely possible that there was just some miscommunication, but I definitely did see a number of people upset that Chuck had been confronted about this and the shared payout was now in jeopardy, and that was before the tax issues even came into the picture. The tax problem ultimately killed this more than anything else, and that was largely due to non-cooperation from NASA. Considering what a mess that made of things, I can't expect or ask the top 5 to share. I personally wasn't counting on any payout to begin with, so the dollars and cents aren't a big deal to me, but I think most people are just bothered by the overall situation.

So, I don't hold any grudges myself and I hope that others aren't letting these things eat away at them either, but several hard and unfortunate lessons were learned at this event, and our group's expectations will be very different next time around. Some were growing pains, some weren't. Please remember what makes our class great and try to strengthen and promote that. We don't want to end up like Spec Miata.

- Weston

Well said Weston, I think you are right on target. There was a missed communication about the reason for the shared purse. As well as a missed communication with NASA to see if the shared payout was even possible

The thread on NASA chat board does not explain the reasoning behind the shared purse. Nor does it say it is a done deal. The thread dies on July 27th with no further communication to all drivers that this will take place.

That was the real issue. Had I known what I was to expect I still would have been there and had no issues with it.

I do apologize for the way I dealt with Chuck. He is a good man and deserved better. He still tried to make amends after our conversation. We are lucky to have him as the National Director for 944 Spec.

I agree 100% that we need to try and avoid the Spec Miata issues with car prep and cheating. The best way to do that is limit rules alteration as much as possible.

Hopefuly we can all move on and go back to racing.