CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

SyTy Nationals

Huge Member
Dear SyTy Enthusiasts,

It is once again with much regret that we are pulling the plug on the SyTy Nationals event that was scheduled on July 21-24, 2016 in Bowling Green, KY, due to lack of participation/registrations. We simply cannot put forth anymore effort and time into an event for 19 trucks and 19 owners.

This is a huge disappointment for the committee and the community. We had high hopes for this event, being the 25th Anniversary of the wonderful GMC Syclone that was the start of what brought us all together.

We started gathering information about the community one year ago and had tremendous response from over 160 SyTy owners, including 32 owners who would be willing to travel over 1000 miles! We spent weeks going through all the owner locations, finding suitable track locations, hotels, other amenities to help make this a more family oriented event. Then compared and contrasted all of those locations to give us the largest amount of SyTy Owners to attend.

We had to wait until January to start working out the track/hotel/date conflicts and in the end, still couldn’t get the date the committee was really pushing for, but it worked, at least on paper. The date & location was officially announced on January 25th so people could plan and make arrangements as needed.

After working out a few more details regarding the hotel, track and the website, registration was officially opened a month ago. Maybe we were a little over zealous, expecting people to crash the site with registrations, but that certainly was not the case. What happened to the 160+ people who voted their honest option in the poll? What happened to the 140 people who voted that they would travel to and attend an event? What happened to those 32 people who would be willing to travel over 1000 miles?

We opened registration offering a $25 discount for owners and a $5 discount per guest to get things going, but I guess that simply isn’t enough incentive these days. Unfortunately, we are at a crossroads, today is the last day for deep discounted registration and we have to assume most serious owners would have gotten in on the ground floor already. The committee has already invested hundreds of hours trying to setup this event but the response is just not there. Maybe we are just burnt out, but we simply cannot keep investing our time and energy into this when clearly the reward will be mediocre at best. In the same registration timeframe, we had 58% more registrants in 2013. With the recent poll on Facebook, the overwhelming number of votes for “nope” and many people siting Carlisle, distance or other planned trips as their reason for not being able to attend, we had to take a step back and see if all of this was worth it. For all of these reasons, we have decided to cancel the event now and save everyone the disappointment later. We may lose our deposit on the track, but everyone who has already registered will receive a full refund and we do thank those who did registered for your support.

In the meantime, we hope and encourage everyone to attend regional events and keep their support strong.

Sincerely,
SyTy Nats Committee
 

dgoodhue

BuSTeD 4.3
Re: CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

:( I have had a crap the last couple weeks and it slipped my mind to register. I was planning on attending.
 

TNPhoon

1of28
Re: CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

Well that's disappointing. However, I must echo 100% what Dave wrote the other day in the Nats thread.

Were there any thoughts of opening the event up since some things were already planned? Expand it to an S10/Jimmy enthusiasts meet as well? Other sport trucks? GNs? Xtreme owners, etc. It maybe wouldn't be a "SyTy Nats", but it still could be one hell of a show with SyTy's being the "spotlight".

When is the track rental for? What dates and hours? The drag strip track and/or an autocross set up? If the deposit may be lost, how much is it? Hell, I could probably gather up some interest from other car enthusiasts that aren't SyTy owners and create some type of event around the track time, but would need to know the above info so that I could start attempting to gather interest ASAP. There are tons of other car groups around this area.

IMO, there would still be an opportunity to salvage something that weekend, however, there needs to be some COMMUNICATION from the Committee.

So if there is one last chance at salvaging this by more SyTyers registering, opening up the event to other types of vehicles, etc. But if there's a chance, we need to get on that shit ASAP. If not or no interest, whomever is part of the Nats Committee (it seems to be a super secret group?), PM me and let me know how much the track rental cost and deposit in and I will see if there are any local groups that would want to take over the track for the day and have some type of an event.
 

neildemo

Administrator
Re: CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

I can assist as well. Let me know know PM details, funds etc...Hope we can salvage this event.
 

Captain Morgan

Moderated User
Re: CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

Commenting my personal views, not speaking for or as "the committee"

:( I have had a crap the last couple weeks and it slipped my mind to register. I was planning on attending.

Same Here Wasnt worried about the discounts. This sucks.
Yes, "we" expected to have a number of posts like this and fact of the matter is, the discount is a minor aspect of why the announcement was made yesterday. We were actually planning on doing it a week earlier but didn't want to hear backlash about killing it before everyone could get in on the cheap rate.

As it was posted above, after a month of open registration in 2013, there was 58% more registrants in the same amount of time. As of last night, we had 19 owners and 19 trucks registered, 31 people total including guests. 2013 in the same amount of time, we had something like 74 people registered, which made up 75% of the total for the event. If 31 is 75% of our projected total, then planning an event for 42 people is silly.

Well that's disappointing. However, I must echo 100% what Dave wrote the other day in the Nats thread.
I do not agree with Dave 100%, especially the part where he bitches and moans, then deletes his post stating "he no longer cares", then makes a new post bitching and moaning. I thought you didn't care Dave, please STFU!

Were there any thoughts of opening the event up since some things were already planned? Expand it to an S10/Jimmy enthusiasts meet as well? Other sport trucks? GNs? Xtreme owners, etc. It maybe wouldn't be a "SyTy Nats", but it still could be one hell of a show with SyTy's being the "spotlight".
Yes, expansion to other products was in the plans, but not towards S10's, we were focusing on TTA's (the other PAS product), Turbo Buicks, TBSS and even Lightnings.

Once we had a good base of SyTys registered to make this an "event", we were going to push other markets assuming we'd most likely get owners who were within a few hours drive and would most likely come for track day. We were going to offer a Track Day registration so non-syty owners wouldnt have to pay for the whole event, wouldn't get a shirt, etc.

When is the track rental for? What dates and hours? The drag strip track and/or an autocross set up? If the deposit may be lost, how much is it? Hell, I could probably gather up some interest from other car enthusiasts that aren't SyTy owners and create some type of event around the track time, but would need to know the above info so that I could start attempting to gather interest ASAP. There are tons of other car groups around this area.
:roll: its on the website, like always. I believe its for the entire Saturday if I'm not mistaken. If we cannot get the deposit back, I will let you know. I believe the entire track rental cost was $5000.

IMO, there would still be an opportunity to salvage something that weekend, however, there needs to be some COMMUNICATION from the Committee.
If there is a track day possibility it will get posted up I guess. Again, I can't speak for the entire committee, but I am done, this has sucked the life out of me for over a year now. I spent countless hours coming up with different ideas, collecting data, hours on the phone brainstorming ideas, only to have some people bail out on the event completely. I have honestly thought about selling all of my Typhoons and parts a lot over the past two months......

So if there is one last chance at salvaging this by more SyTyers registering, opening up the event to other types of vehicles, etc. But if there's a chance, we need to get on that shit ASAP. If not or no interest, whomever is part of the Nats Committee (it seems to be a super secret group?), PM me and let me know how much the track rental cost and deposit in and I will see if there are any local groups that would want to take over the track for the day and have some type of an event.
There will not be enough SyTys registering to save this event, even if the number DOUBLED, it wouldn't be enough. Other vehicles/owners cannot make this a SyTy event, they need to be an addition, not the majority. It's not a super secret group, the names of all the committee members have been posted in here before because of Dave P bitching the same ****ing thing. I will personally let you know if a track day can still come of this and give you all of the track contact info. :tup:
 

TNPhoon

1of28
Re: CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

If you can let me know the deposit amount, for sure total amount and the actual times that the track are reserved for (the website says 12noon-4pm, but last time someone said to reference the website for info, they were told it was not exact, but something like that) and I assume it's access to the oval/autox and dragstrip? And any additional rules, regulations, etc that there are for the event from BeechBend.

If the day and times are already reserved, might as well let me see if there's interest that I can garner locally/regionally to use the track that day and shift whatever is needed from the NATS over to me regarding the track.

If that is a possibility and I can quickly garner enough interests and commitments locally for a track day, I will absorb that side of it and if anyone still wanted to come to Bowling Green for the weekend, we could setup some smaller type of event that obviously wouldn't be a full-blown Nats but could still be a decent meet and hang out with others in the sportscar community.
 

Captain Morgan

Moderated User
Re: CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

The other thing to look at is, this had been posted for 14 hours, has 243 views and only 3 people have posted their heartbreak over it being cancelled. Just food for thought.

Oh, and I don't think a single post has been made after the same announcement was made on the FB page, so either everyone was expecting it or nobody cares.
 

randy merritt

Donating Member
Re: CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

This was probably the best move. I really appreciate the efforts that the Nats Committee put toward trying to make this happen. I know it must be a lot of work, and is a thankless job that you don't get paid for. Thanks again.

P.S. Don't give up on syty's yet.
 

SYO237

SyTy Registry
Re: CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

I think Morgan has pretty much summed it up. We discussed it and made some goals we needed to reach. They weren't and it was decided the plug needed to be pulled.

I will add that because 2016 is cancelled, it doesn't mean never again. If the interest grew again to numbers that could sustain the time and effort to put an event together, by all means it should happen.

It is disappointing to cancel. But it's equally disappointing to sit back and see the current state of this community. What once was an event that was "going no matter what" has turned into a "don't really care if it happens" is disheartening. I understand life happens, but it seems the fire and enthusiasm has slowly disappeared. I for one will admit myself that my enthusiasm has faded....not my love for the trucks, but it's hard to get fired up when most everyone seems to not really care. Sucks the fun out of wanting to devote time into making what could be a fun event happen.

I really hope to see a change someday and see the community turn back around. I'm not the only person who had made some close friends from owning these stupid trucks. I'm actually working on a SyTy project for the community. A few handful of you are already are seeing it. My goal is to hopefully reignite the flame that I think this community has lost.
 

GarnetTy1473

Donating Member
Re: CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

That's a bummer. I was really looking forward to it. Guess this'll save myself $10k from going out and buying another trailer to tow my pos down there this year.
 

fauXGT

Brick Pilot
Re: CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

Bummer. But due to current personal issues, I had to bail on what would had been my first Nats. Still want to attend sometime. :(

I guess one of the catch 22 issues is vacation requests. Hotel and track reservations are usually open after Jan 1 for planning, but Like my situation at work, I need to put in my vacation in November/December. So, I have to put in my best guess when Nats might be. I was off a by a couple of weeks this time, but right now, I Wouldn't have swung it anyway. :2cents:
 

stuckinUT

Donating Member
Re: CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

I was planning on attending, but hadn't registered yet. I've even put a few thousand into my truck making repairs and mods that I had been putting off so that I was more comfortable driving it that far.

The truck needed new tires, a wheel straightened, completely rebuilt front suspension, Belltech leafs and setback plates, new turbo, SM downpipe, new intercooler pump, remote oil filter delete, ABS delete, new alternator, and I pulled the upper intake, upper intercooler, accessory brackets, water pump-crank-PS pullies for sandblasting and powder coating. Was even thinking about dropping the money on SM front coilovers instead of rebuilding the stock suspension.

I have almost finished everything under the hood, and was just trying to decide whether to do the coilovers or not.

My main motivation in doing all this was to get the truck ready for Nats. I haven't really driven the truck for two years, it's just sat in my garage because the front suspension was so bad.

Bowling Green is a much more realistic drive for me than Carlisle, so when the 2016 Nats was announced I was excited. I enjoyed Nats in Denver, but couldnt attend in 2013 due to family commitments. That all said, I completely understand why the decision to cancel has been made, and I greatly appreciate the organizers' efforts. At least it gave me motivation to show my truck some attention it greatly needed.

Maybe I will make the trek to Carlisle.
 

TNPhoon

1of28
Re: CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

***IF*** the track reservation is still available and the SyTy Committee will be able to change/transfer, I am gathering interest locally and regionally for that day. It would be an open event to any make/model vehicle. I don't know what kickback I may get from the committee or the track, however, I created a FB event for it that way I can have an idea if it's going to be worth my time to attempt to proceed forward with it.

Obviously Nats won't be happening, but if anyone was still wanting to attend Bowling Green that weekend and the track can still be secured, we could just do something "smaller" than a Nats event. If you would have any interest in a Track Day that Saturday, please let me know via the FB event page. Again, this is all dependent upon the track still being available somehow.

Link to FB Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/462693390594601/
 

Jimmy

Banned
Re: CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

RIP SyTyNats. It was fun while it lasted. :tup:
This is now a Nats Memories thread.
 

Jimmy

Banned
Re: CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

2000 SyTy Nats.100 trucks 115 degree weather. I figured out Rockford Racecrap was a con.
 

Syclone0565

CustomMulticades.com
Re: CANCELLED - 2016 SyTy Nationals

This sucks, I have non refundable hotel reservations. Thanks a lot ! ! !
 
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