lillzilla
I'm glad you see the point. As you may have seen in my previous posts, I have been around for a long time, and have put an incredible of time and effort toward the sport of autocrossing. I firmly believe that what one receives from the sport is directly proportional to what one puts into the sport as a worker, official, volunteer, etc.
I have a deep passion for the sport, and for the preservation of it. Many others share this passion, Loren, PseudoRealityX, Leonard, Neal and Katie, just to name a few.
Below is some responses to your questions.
When you use the word "track" , are you refering to a race track (like Primus) or an event site (like the Brooksville Airport?
As far a waivers, they only keep the honest people honest. They could be circumvented by anyone who would have he drive and resources to have things go their way.
Property damage is an issue that is easily resolved by making the owner whole. The real concern is lawsuits. Even if the outcome of the suit goes in the property owners favor, there is still a costly legal bill that must be paid. For many sites, the Event Chair will include the owner of the property as an "also insured" on the insurance certificate for the event. This should cover any legal expenses, but some property owners still may not feel comfortable. (In the early 80's I arrainged for CFR to use the Dunnellon Airport for SOLO II events. for each event I had to attend an Airport Advisory Board meeting to request permission to use the site. After they granted approval, I then had to get on the agenda for a Marion County Commission meeting, request their approval, get that approval, before we could go forward with the event.)
Dixie Region in Tallahassee lost their site 2 years ago. They had been running at the Tallahassee Airport for many years. When there was a change in members of the Airport Board, the board suddenly told the region they could no longer run there. Issues of 9/11/01, homeland security, etc, had no bearing on that decision.
The east coast of CFR lost the site they had used for many years last year (Palm Bay BCC site.) The cause, after the event was over and all SCCA personell had left the site, someone entered the site and caused some property damage. The owner of the site took the position that CFR was responsible for this, and revoked our prividges. It took alot of time and effort to be able to use the site again.
At a new site, the Deland Airport, which is also used by a RC airplane club, on one of the first days we were at the site, a couple of drivers approached the RC airplane guys, and were very rude to them. Bad move, the RC guys had a long relationship with the Deland Airport, and guess what, we were told we could not use the facility again. So, once more, after someone in CFR invested their personal time, we were able to resolve the issue and resume running there.
At the Fairgrounds a couple of years ago, 2 drivers that had entered an event chose to greatly excede the Fairgronds speedlimit when leaving the site.
GCAC has had issues this year in being able to create an event calendar for more than a few months in advance.
These are just in the state of Florida.
The point is not dodging the word "race" on this forum, but to be careful in it's use outside the forum.