Steven,
In response to your latest post about my previous highlighting of wrong information I am not “attempting” to achieve anything other than draw attention to it and correct the so-called "facts".
In reality, given the extra interest the personal criticism of my post has created, I feel have actually achieved what I set out to do. That is, as President of the Club in Queensland and Chair of the Committee that ran the 2015 Nationals in Brisbane, I make sure when matters involving the 2015 Nationals and the Queensland Club are presented as “facts” on the public record, that these “facts” are correct.
This is particularly important when the people stating the “facts” did not attend the event or have anything to do with the organisation of the event, and these “facts” are subsequently used in the context of a discussion trying to shape future Nationals events.
A statement was made on this thread about the 2015 Nationals “track day” being organised “by another Club with the MR2 group joining in on the day”.
As I said before this statement is totally incorrect for all the reasons outlined in my previous post.
This may seem a minor point to some, but to try to pass it off as insignificant or having some hidden agenda totally disrespects the huge amount of effort put in by the Committee to ensure that the Nationals remained focused at all times on hosting a completely integrated event.
I don’t know why this statement about another Club organising the track day at the 2015 Nationals was made, but if anyone formed the opinion after reading it that the track day was not a separate MR2 activity professionally organised solely by the Nationals Committee, and subsequently rated highly by participants, then their opinion is simply wrong.
People can make up their own minds about what this all means, but I see it simply as maintaining the integrity of information around what took place at the 2015 Nationals and recognising the organisational skills that went into setting up and running a very successful Nationals track day in Brisbane as part of a complex, multi-path gathering of MR2 owners from around Australia.
None of this has anything to do with “petty politics”, and it escapes me completely how any of what I said can or will impact on other MR2 events such as your MTC. if anything, having a hugely successful track day has just wetted the appetite of some owners who may not have done this before, so it has to be a good thing for wider exposure of the cars at other events like the MTC that they may not have considered attending in the past.
As I said above the complete focus of my post was to inform people of what had taken place at the Nationals just past, and so-called "other paths" were not considered or mentioned in anything I said. The statement about another Club organising the track day was wrong and the reason for the change needed to be explained.
Despite the request you made I will certainly never get over making sure information directly involving me or people close to me that is used in a public discussion has integrity and is correct. If anyone has a problem with this then I would expect as previously offered that they take it up with me via PM and not use the Forum.
As has been previously stated by many more people than me, the Nationals format has been developed over many years to give the people who attend a broad MR2 experience, which is what the 2015 Nationals did. The Nationals have never centred on one particular type of activity but the ones just past certainly gave track work prominence as it was the first event in the three days. There were also a substantial number of the "track guys" who went to everything, including the road run on the Monday, and if this is doubted then I would suggest people look at the photographs.
I completely refute the claim that anything I have ever said or done on this Forum or elsewhere, particularly as Chairman of the 2015 Nationals Committee, “shows I am not truly interested in the needs of MR2 owners or choose to discriminate against people who choose one path that differs from another”. I don’t compete in track day competitions because I have a physical disability which prevents me from driving a manual car, but no-one should mistake my non-participation as sign that I have no interest in or don’t promote MR2 involvement in motor sport.
Given the Queensland Club has just run what is now widely acclaimed as the best Nationals ever I would strongly suggest that the advice given by Kevin Clarence in his previous posts be followed by everyone from here on in, that the process being put forward by Rick is a good one to consider, that further discussion on any aspect of the future Nationals wait until the 2017 Committee is formed (we don’t even have dates yet and the Queensland dates were only set one year out), and that personal feelings always be communicated via PM and not on the open Forum.
Walter