A Letter to Our Flaggers
Many of you may be aware of the ongoing discussions between NCR SCCA and VIR regarding flagging at our events in 2024. For those who may not be, here is a brief recap of all that has been going on between the region leadership and the track. Last year, we were made aware that VIR wanted to implement some changes after the 2023 racing season had come to an end. The changes they proposed were widespread, but for the purpose of this letter we will focus on the changes to Flagging and Communications.
We were first made aware of VIR’s desire to implement these changes for 2024 at our pre-season meeting before our first event of 2023. Since that time, the region leaders have had multiple discussions with VIR. We have also involved the SCCA National office and leadership to enlist their help to address VIR’s changes and work out a solution that will be effective for both parties. As the beginning of our racing year is growing close, we met with VIR again to get a final word on how our volunteer flagging would be affected this year.
While there have been multiple proposals and potential outcomes discussed, what VIR presented us with last week is the final version that we must agree to in order to have our VIR events this year. To sum up the changes, here are the main points affecting F&C that we have been made to agree to:
- NCR SCCA must rent from VIR a minimum of one corner worker per flagging station, plus a VIR worker to run race control.
- The VIR employee at each station will be the corner captain for that station.
- The VIR employee in race control will be the only individual allowed to run race control. If any of our volunteers want to work race control, they must become VIR employees and then earn and be promoted to the position of race controller.
- We must have one VIR employee at each flag station, meaning we cannot rent 18 flaggers and distribute them however we like in our own pool of workers.
These are obviously some very fundamental changes to how we have operated our events in the past. We have been told that we will be allowed to rotate job roles on station, meaning we can have our volunteers on the net, but there is some obscurity in our conversations with VIR on this point. We will be allowed to have as many volunteers as we like at any station, but we must still meet the SCCA GCR requirements of having a minimum of 2 workers at each station we staff. We know there are many flaggers that like, prefer, or need to work together during an event, and we plan to do everything in our power to try and continue to meet those needs and desires.
We will still have our flag meetings in the mornings. The VIR employees will be at these meetings, and we will be in charge of where we station our flaggers. We have informed VIR that should the situation arise, we will need them to be able to staff every station with 2 workers. VIR has said they will be able to do this given enough notice, but this will obviously massively change our financial situation for each event. We know that these changes are likely to impact your decision on whether to attend our events this year. We know this because many of us are flaggers, and these changes and the discussions we have been having with the track have been difficult for us to deal with over the last year.
We cannot yet know how this is going to change how we plan for and schedule events going forward. For many, many years we have enjoyed a highly skilled and motivated group of volunteers who put in long hours in all kinds of weather and adverse circumstances to make our races happen. We want that to continue more than anything else. However, we felt strongly that the information in this letter needed to be passed on before our upcoming events. We hope that you will still decide to support the region and the club at the Hoosier Super Tour in April and the SARRC/MARRS event in May.
We are still working out the details of our October event, but we hope that whatever form the return of Goblins Go takes, that we will see you there as well. Our first event of the year, the Spring Sprints Hoosier Super Tour, is fast approaching. We will need your help to make this event successful, both operationally and financially. The fewer volunteer flaggers we have at this event, the more we will need to rent from VIR. This will hurt the Region, while the track will benefit from more money paid out from us. We know these are big changes.
Please consider attending this event and supporting the region during this event. We will still be supporting our flaggers at our events as we have in the past. This includes lunches, social parties, VIP payments, and gifts just like last year.
Board of Directors
North Carolina Region - SCCA
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