How to reach outside of the existing racing community?

[loperdw]

Maybe this is a different thread, but if we're all here to promote scca then...

Each one of us should be working to get people to the track. Seeing a race live gets people excited about it. If they get excited about it, they’ll do something. Tell you relatives, friends, friends of friends, etc. Tell them to bring their kids. For each race that I run I try to get someone that hasn’t been there before to show up. Tell them they can act like crew and get one of the kids to put on some gloves, show them how to set a torque wrench, and have them do the lug nuts (check them afterwards of course). Little things like that mean a lot to someone and make it memorable, like they took part in the race.

I take my in car footage of the last race, press to DVD and give it to anyone that will listen. I write my regions URL on the DVD so they can see when the next race is and put my email address on it as well. I put them on the crew list, send them directions to the track, have the cell phone on all day to get them through registration, etc. Before my last race I gave a guy a copy of the in car video. He liked it so much that he said he wanted to come out and watch. He drove two hours, showed up with his wife, 7-year-old son, and 4-year-old daughter. Thanks to my big mouth, what I’ve found is that people often ask when the next race is, where is it, and can they get in.

After a race, for those that didn’t show, I send a text message along the lines of “17 cars in field, I got 5th”. 50% of those I text message give me a call on the way home from the track with congrats, the rest call me over the next few days. Easy to do, they get informed, and it makes the long drive home easier when you’re talking on the phone (please note that I am not advocating using a cell phone while driving).

Has any of this worked? No! No one that I’ve gotten to the track is out there competing. But that isn’t the best gauge. 7 of them have become SCCA members so they can get in the pits with me. 1 of the kids has talked his father into buying him a junior midget sprint car and started taking the classes needed to get into the local junior midget sprint car races. Another guy wants to do the graphics for my car. Biggest thing that happens is they realize that it doesn’t take a lot of money to get there.

I haven’t been racing for a full year yet, but this shameless self-promotion has had an impact on the SCCA, even if it is a small impact.

[lateapex911]

I dunno Dave....back when I was really young, I can remember taking a bike to Lime Rock and parking off Route 7 south of the track just so I could avoid the parking mess. They had HUGE turnouts for the early IMSA events...half an hour just to get out of the parking lot. They even used the lot across the street behind the church. It was a mad house. Marketing?? IIRC, Winston was the early IMSA title sponsor....think they had some bucks to throw at it??

Sorry to say, but America has gotten less tolerant of needing to think and use their brains, and they want it all, and right now. NASCAR provides that...easy to see up close from your seat, lots of passing, (although essentially meaningless), if the race gets out of hand they tighten it back up, (laps down? still in the game!!!), lots of easy to see action (read: pit stops and rubbin&#39 and you never miss a crash....

Road racing complaints...all of the above, but the opposite.

[loperdw]

Jake - I agree with your points, depressing, but then i start doing a little math and get back excited. Case: Sebring Winter National/Regional, 350+ cars. I got 8 people in, lets say we can each get in 5, times 350, thats 1750. 1750 is a heck of a lot, plus drivers and you're over 2000. Sponsers notice the people and the money. To get back what existed in the 70's is going to take a lot of work, but the first time I saw it, I was totally hooked. That was the key for me and I'm trying to get other people interested that way. I know, I know, its not that simple. The National guys can't bring 5 people with them from out of state, hard to get people to drive that far, etc... but i'm trying to spin this positive.

I think the main problem for spectators is that there isn't a way to see the whole course and whos in what corner and in what place. Solution: couple of those monster size TV screens and cameras at a few corners. Big dream, needs money applied, but if the people are there the money will follow. As i said in the previous post, i have been doing this for less than a year. So its a horrible thought that it might be at the end of its life cycle, so i'm not going to think that way. I will drag anyone i can get in for as long as we can race!

BTW, I suspect there are a bunch more people out there that hate NASCAR than love it. That's our target market.

[gran racing]

I think the main problem for spectators is that there isn't a way to see the whole course and whos in what corner and in what place. Solution: couple of those monster size TV screens and cameras at a few corners. Big dream, needs money applied, but if the people are there the money will follow. [/b]

Lime Rock has done this for the AMLS events in the past (at least last year). Awesome, awesome, awesome! I also wish more tracks on their score boards would include different lines for multiple classes. When I attend some of the big events, I have a very (o.k. it's impossible) to determine what cars are the leaders other than in the fastest class.

Jake, yeah, I remember going to LRP and trying to figure out which route we should take because of huge traffic issues. The attendance back then was great! Today, not so great.