Club drama

[smellthebeans]

I am still a semi active member of the BMW Car Club Tejas Chapter. The construction of the Circuit of the Americas near Austin was heralded as a great victory for grass roots mototsports enthusiasts. Central Texas offered little in the way of driving venues.

Early Saturday COTA abruptly cancelled their agreed contract to host BMW CCA driving schools for the entire year. There are 3 seperate chapters within 4 hours drive of COTA. Within minutes of the announcement driving enthusiasts took to social media expressing their outrage. Facebook & Twitter litteraly blew up. Our driving events coordinator contacted all of the Austin area media outlets and KXAN was going to run a piece for the 10 pm news.

About 6 hours later COTA promptly reversed their earlier announcement and agreed to honor all private and amature driving events. This is a classic example of how not to run a public affairs program. COTA essentially turned their back on the very customers who lobbied the state legislature to bring this facility to Austin on the first place.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20121222/F1/121229952

Score one for the little guy.

[Mr Kleen]

My guess: they found a higher paying customer and thought they could shirk their responsibilities to the "little guys." Way to bite the hand that feeds, COTA.
This isn't going to inspire confidence in the management going forward...

[1thomas]

As I know several motor-racing texans I was informed the moment they announced it and followed the entire shitstorm that followed. We'll see how that whole thing will pan out for them in the long run..

[smellthebeans]

I followed it too the Tejas chapter email list exploded. Rumor is governor Rick Perry stepped in on our side. We had a reserved weekend in the spring for a driving school.

http://jalopnik.com/5970719/austins-...ag=motorsports

[Elsabor67]

Lol.......COTA thought they could do like the NAG was doing a while back and screwing people over.

Good they got handed like that!!!!!

[1thomas]

Originally Posted by smellthebeans

I followed it too the Tejas chapter email list exploded. Rumor is governor Rick Perry stepped in on our side. We had a reserved weekend in the spring for a driving school.

http://jalopnik.com/5970719/austins-...ag=motorsports

Yeah instructor friends of mine had a scheduled weekend too, with Drivers Edge in spring.