Updated 6/4/2020
As it stands now, it looks as if we’ll be able to run a full 10 event schedule. That said, the only way we’ll be able to run this is if we all work together. While the events won’t be ideal, we will still offer them. For the time being and until otherwise noted, this will be some guidelines on how we will run Steel Cities Solo events. These could change at any time based on the current conditions in the area, but we feel that these are reasonable enough and comprehensive enough that we shouldn’t have to change much.
Right off the bat, Pitt Race is not limiting the size of our events. This is a privilege that we have only contingent on us following their rules and staying safe. We’ve done a great job so far this year, and we’d like to see it continue. They will have their own online waiver process to avoid having to sign anything at the front gate. Please make sure this is filled out prior to you arriving so the process of getting through the front gate can go smoothly.
Masks, PPE, Sanitizer, etc.
We will require that everyone bring a mask with them to events. We will not require you to wear one at all times, but we will insist on wearing one any time you are within a car length of someone. If you are doing course work and spread out from everyone at your corner (like you should have been anyways!), we will encourage, but not force you to wear a mask. If you’re sitting alone in your car, you’re fine without one. We just ask that you use your head. We should be used to wearing one at this point.
That said, there will be work assignments that will require the use of a mask at all times:
- Corner Captain (the person that holds the flag and radio on course)
- Computer person
- Writer
- Announcer
- Starter
- Waiver
- Tech
- Grid
There are probably some assignments that we’re missing, so please note that this list may change at any point of time.
Because the Timing Trailer is a shared and cramped space, we ask you that you keep out of it unless absolutely necessary. We also require that you wear a mask while inside of the trailer.
If you do not have a mask, you will not be allowed to participate.
Everyone should have one at this point. We do not have any available right now, but we are looking to source some at some point. You should just assume we will not have any and that you need to bring your own.
If you have your own hand sanitizer, great! Bring it along. Use it before and after your work assignment. Use it when you feel it’s necessary. We will have some available, but we do not have an unlimited supply. We’re also blessed with a bathroom with working indoor plumbing at Pitt Race that gets cleaned frequently. And while it is a blessing, we ask that you keep your mask on while you’re in there. Remember: it’s a confined and shared space just like the timing trailer.
Shared Site Resources
There are always certain items that will necessarily need to be shared among workers. They include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Timing computers
- Station Radios
- Flags
- Fire extinguishers (although we really hope the only time they’re touched is bringing them to and from the worker stations!)
- Microphone
- Clipboards
We will do our best to keep these items clean and disinfected. With that in mind, we’ll ask that any corner captain take some sanitizing wipes with them to their station when going to their work assignment. We ask that you give your radio and flag handle a good wipe-down. Remember: this is for your own protection!
Socializing
We’re not going to prevent you from talking with friends and fellow competitors, but please just use common sense. In paddock and grid, try to keep wandering to a minimum and please practice social distancing. If you’re going to have a long conversation about how your data proves that your last run was really fast despite getting raw-timed by HS, please, wear a mask.
Registration
For the foreseeable future, all registration will have to be done online prior to the event. With the new requirements from Pitt Race, we will also need to close registration on Thursday evenings (or Wednesday evenings if it’s a Saturday event) instead of the morning of the event. I would love to keep the registration open for as long as possible, but that isn’t possible.
Season Passes
We were very fortunate to not have to cancel any events, so that is good news.
That said, because these are capped events, we absolutely, positively, need season pass holders that are not attending a capped event to let us know. We have a limited number of spots available, and we do not want them taken up by no-shows. If you are a no-show and do not tell us, I will move you to the back of the waitlist for the next event. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but we have a limited number of spots available and many people that want to run. Getting preference is a privilege, don’t abuse it. Work with us.
We will also point out that it is a small window, but if you sign up for a season pass prior to event #4 registration reopening, you will get the priority. If you sign up afterwards, there is a chance that you may end up on the waitlist of an event. If that’s the case, you will be subject to the waitlist policy. If by some miracle we sell 75 season passes, then #76 will, unfortunately, be on the waitlist for any capped events. Even though that is extremely unlikely, it should be mentioned.
Waitlist
Since we are running with a cap, we will be implementing a waitlist. It’s first-come, first-serve. If a spot becomes available, we will e-mail you as soon as we can to see if you still wish to attend the event. Once you complete the sign-up / payment process, you will be allowed to participate. Since this is a strict, hard cap, we cannot accept “just one more” at events. We need to do our best to honor the rules that Pitt Race has given us. Please do not show up if you’re on the waitlist in hopes of guilt-tripping us into letting you run. You’ll just waste everyone’s time and you’ll go home angry.
Cancellations and Refunds
If you need to cancel for a non-medical reason, please do so prior to the Thursday (or Wednesday) close of registration. Again, this is both a courtesy to anyone that might be on the waitlist and it helps us give Pitt Race an accurate list of attendees that they require.
If you are not feeling well, please, stay home. If you decide to not attend the event and it’s after the cancelation date and time, that’s fine. You just need to let someone on the registration team or one of the chairs know. This goes for both season pass holders and non-season pass holders. This will be on the honor system. Please do not abuse it.
Tech
We are going to follow the SCCA’s recommendation of self-teching your own car under the supervision of a tech worker. Not to worry, teching your car is fairly simple, and by the end of the year, you’ll all be experts on the subject. And if you need guidance, the tech team will be there to help you. For your helmets, you’ll also have to show the tech person the appropriate Snell sticker. We suggest you find out where it is in your own helmet. If it isn’t directly visible on the inside of the helmet, it’s most likely under a flap of fabric. If you want to read up on what is covered, here’s a good article from the SCCA on the subject: https://www.scca.com/articles/1997602-solo-tech-101-before-you-show-up
Waivers
We’re going to strongly suggest everyone goes through the process of getting an annual waiver. It’s a bit of an involved process, but it should cover the gap between our traditional process and the possible implementation of an online waiver process.
First and foremost, in order to get one, you must be a member of the SCCA. If you’re not a member of the SCCA, now would be a great time to go sign up. You can sign up here: https://my.scca.com/ . There’s a big Join button on that page.
The second requirement is that you have a photo of your face on your profile. Again, you can use that my.scca.com link to go to your profile page after you login. If you haven’t logged in to this rather nice new profile page before, you may need to register / create a new password for it. On your profile page, you should see a place where you can view your membership card and upload a photo for it. It doesn’t have to be a Hollywood headshot to land a role in Ford v. Ferrari II: Electric Boogaloo. It just needs to be good enough that our waiver team recognizes you. Driver’s License quality.
Finally, the annual waiver you fill out and sign needs to be in color and done in front of a member of our waiver team. Not to worry, we should have plenty available at our first event. We imagine the waiver process at that event will be a touch slower than the rest. However, filling out the waiver at the first event means that you only have to show your updated SCCA membership card that has proof of your annual waiver on it at each following event.
Unfortunately, in the event that you don’t have your card, you’ll still have to sign the event waiver. Not our rules, SCCA rules. That’s just how it is.
Also, if you don’t feel like dealing with the annual waiver, we’ll still have the event waivers available to sign. We’re just strongly encouraging getting an annual waiver signed.
We will also encourage everyone to bring their own pen to events to sign the waivers. We will provide you with a brand new pen that’s yours to keep to sign those waivers. It would be much appreciated if you hang on to them and bring them to future events.
We’ll also be changing up how we do waivers and pre-registration check-in. If you went through the tech line at the first Test & Tune event, you already know how we’ll be handling that. Basically, while you’re in line at tech, our waiver team will be walking by, getting waivers signed, handing out wristbands, etc. We will ask you to remain in your car until the waiver team gets to you. It will just make everything run smoother.
Course Walks
Unless you arrived in the same car and you’re co-driving, please wear a mask and stay six feet away from anyone else on course. We would also like to follow the policy of “walk on the right, pass on the left.” If you walk the course as fast as Jen Wong does, then chances are you’ll be on the left quite a bit. Remember to give folks plenty of distance when passing.
Novice Walk-throughs
We will still have novice walk-throughs prior to the start of each event. In the event that we have a group of 10 or more novices, we may ask you to split up into more than one group. While on your walk, wearing a mask and social distancing is required. If we keep the groups small, this shouldn’t be an issue.
That said, in order to make sure that we have enough time to get everyone through a novice walk, we will be starting them sooner. That shouldn’t be much of an issue since our mornings will be going a lot faster in general. We will be making announcements as the morning progresses as to when the walk throughs will take place, so keep your ears open!
Loaner Helmets
We will not be providing loaner helmets for the foreseeable future. We know this is an inconvenience, especially for the novice drivers out there that are looking to get into the sport, but there is no possible way for us to adequately sanitize them between runs. Once things normalize again, we’ve had our pint at the Winchester, and everything has blown over, we’ll offer loaner helmets again. By that time, we’ll also have balaclavas for sale that we’ll insist on you wearing if you choose to use a loaner helmet.That said, you can find SCCA-legal Snell helmets for very reasonable prices. Here is a quick guide and some links to inexpensive helmets for sale: http://10fsphotography.com/scca-approved-helmets/
Driver’s Meetings
We do have a virtual driver’s meeting available. We suggest you all give it a read: http://stcsolo.com/virtual-drivers-meeting/
We will still be having our on-site driver’s meeting as usual, however, we will recommend that you stay in your car and tune into the radio station that we’ll be broadcasting on to listen in. If you do not have a working radio in your car or in a tow vehicle, you can come to the timing trailer as usual, but I imagine those cases will be few and far between. With everything taking less time in the morning, we will be bumping up the time of the driver’s meeting to around 9:30 am.
Work / Heat Assignments and Grid Spots
Since we must end registration several days prior to an event, that will give us an opportunity to prepare the run / work order in advance. As a result, we will be e-mailing you your assignment prior to the event. We will use the same e-mail address you used to sign up for the event. We will also send you your assigned grid spots at the same time.
If that isn’t enough excitement for you, we will also have a member of our waiver team remind you of when and where you work and run, plus your grid spot. You may want to write it down with your pen that we’ve given you.
In case you happened to miss your work assignment or you forget, we will also post the work assignments on the event page on MotorsportReg.com as well as post it on the Pittsburgh Autocross Facebook group.
Hey, speaking of grid spots, we will attempt to make the grid spots as large as possible, so if you need to get out and check your pressures, adjust your shocks, or remove half a dozen cones lodged in your wheel wells from an attempted hero run, you’ll have a little distance between you and your neighbor. We will ask that you wear a mask when outside of the car in the grid and that you practice social distancing. Gap those fools on course AND in grid!
Results
We know it’s a time-honored tradition to huddle around the timing board and complain about how soft the DS PAX is, but we will not be posting results after each heat. We will do our best to have live timing up and running and try to announce class leaders and times after each heat.
We will also try to have a Google Drive shared folder containing the results after each heat when possible. We will make the link to the folder available sometime in the near future.
Co-Drivers
We will not limit or restrict co-drivers at our events. Autocross can be a fun family activity and it wouldn’t make much sense to not allow co-driven cars when all the drivers are in the same household. What we are strongly urging is to use common-sense and discretion when co-driving a car that isn’t shared by the same household. We’re aware it may hurt some feelings, but you should be understanding if a car owner no longer offers a seat. If you insist on co-driving with a non-family member, we will strongly advise you do what you can to keep the touched surfaces on the interior clean. Wash / sanitize your hands prior to running, clean the steering wheel, shifter, and seatbelt / harness between each run, then wash / sanitize your hands again when you’re done running. If you and your co-driver do not share a household, it would be advisable to each wear a mask while taking your runs. Again, use your head and common sense.
Event Clean-Up
To minimize the number of people touching the same thing, we will ask that when it comes time for workers to stack cones, please stack the cones around and leave it. Do not consolidate your stack with someone else’s. We also ask that the crew going around to pick up cones wear gloves and a mask.
Final Thoughts
We are going to be trying our best to be following the best-practices outlined by the SCCA (you can find them here: https://www.scca.com/articles/2013541-supporting-regions-through-covid-19 ). What we need from you, the competitors that make driving around cones in parking lots so much fun, is understanding and cooperation. We’re doing everything we can think of to continue to hold events in a safe manner and in accordance with State and Federal guidelines. If we’ve missed anything or need to make any adjustments on the fly, please bear with us.
We all want to get back to normal and back to having fun with cars. The more cooperation and understanding we all have, the faster that will happen.
Stay safe, wash your hands, don’t forget to bring a mask, and remember to go about 0.1 seconds faster than your nearest competitor, because that’s about six feet 40 mph!