Forum: SCRAFAN.COM Forum (go)
Moderators: ljennings

I have been thinking about how to get more people into racing and I remembered one of the ways I got into racing was that my dad took me to the race tracks at a very early age. I would have to say in my home town of Pacific Grove, Ca which had a population of 12,000 nobody in the town even considered going to the automobile race tracks. Most kids played baseball, football or basketball and going to the race tracks was not what anybody thought about doing. So I was a loner in that respect.

Next, what kept my curiousity up was that one block away, but considered another town, New Monterey, Ca was Jim Bowan, who in the 25 years I lived in Pacific Grove, Ca I never met him. But outside his house on a Truck/Ramped trailer sat a sprint car. I never saw the man working on the car, but he had that car on the truck loaded, which seemed like everyday of my life.

Well, some 45 years later I learned why I never saw him working on the sprint car. He was a autoshop teacher in two towns away which was considered 'old' Monterey, Ca. He would take the car to the autoshop in 'old' Monterey and let the kids work on the car. He did not drive the car. He hire a racer name "Pombo" to drive the race car in San Jose, Ca, which was two hour drive north of Monterey, Ca. I later found this out, when we went FF Midget racing at Watsonville, Ca, which he had migrated to being the auto parts guy at the race track. Even at the age of 70, I'm guessing..... he no longer lived in New Monterey and had moved to Carmel, Ca which is about 8 miles away. His son was not into sprint cars, but IMCA's.

The last guy on our block was a guy name Icke, but he didn't have a car either. But later in life he drove a race car Van that had the words Penske on it. I did catch him one day and he said he restored the 70's vintage CanAm cars, but like I said I never saw one of those cars at his house, just the Penske Van.

What I'm getting to, is people get to the track by word of mouth and more importantly by those who own and work on sprint cars. If you want to grow the sport you need to help those who have sprint cars, or buy and build one yourself and race it. If we had 70 people who owned and worked on and raced on sprint cars, I think the word would get out and people would come to see them race. People just don't come to the race track and then more cars start suddenly start coming to the track. It's the exact opposite.

Sincerely,

Larry Otani

P.S.

One block away from me when I was growing up we had a guy named "Red" and he had a sports car he raced. We did catch him working on the car, but I never ever went to a sport car race. It was like a SCCA type of sport car with a roll bar. He once fixed my bike after I ran it into a curb and broke the frame. I will never forget that guy getting out the gas welder and brazing that broken tube back onto the bicycle.

And Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Hope to see you at the track and I never say that to anybody. Maybe we all should start saying that. "Hope to see you at the track".

Open trailers

polished aluminum

simple 2-4 tone paint jobs--yes paint (pearl , metallic etc) and polish the heck out of it.

And be nice.

That would go a long way towards inspiring the idea of getting more people in.

Getting people to races has always been a problem for everyone. There are only 3 groups of racing people as I see it.The first group being drivers, owners, track officials, track announcers, and track promotors that have all moved to the position of spectator or pit crew person. This group has a lot of peer influence and know lots of other people or businesses to promote the races to and to gain sponsorship for tracks or cars to increase the race purse or for more advertising to get more fans in the stands. All people in the industry should remember this motto for racing "FANS IN THE STANDS" because ultimately tracks go under due to lack of funding or lack of attendance by fans. The first group need to contact service organizations and give them 50 FREE tickets to the races. Lots of these people have not been to a race but might come back after the first trip. Normally a fan will buy a average of $ 7.00 of food X 50 being $ 350 X 20 races creates $ 7,000 gross income and a concessions markup above cost can be as high as 70% or more. Even a 50 % the track made $ 3,500. You also introduced 1000 people to racing that may have been to the track. Fans are not established in one race, People going to races use extra disposable income and not their rent or food money. They alos many other venues for intertainment to pick from to spend their money.

The second group is the current racers, car owners, crew chiefs, supporting families, and sponsors. We need to each invite a person to come and watch, work on a pit crew. This can be a neighbor, high school student, or ???/

You can also set up with your track to invite you high school shop class to attend free one time. They will come back as they are part of new group of racers.

Let people walk through the pits during the races one or two times during the season. Have a Meet and Greet by the drivers on the front straightaway along with autographs, hero cards, adnd other stuff for terams to give away.

The third group is the 14-24 age group where a lot of our new drivers and crews willcome from. We need to get them more involved sooner either by invitation to the tracks, school automotive shop, or being invited to work the track or with a race crew.

Just a few thoughts on how to raise the bar on participation by all parties.

Back when I wrote a column for this website, I wrote a column about getting involved from the grandstands. Every year, I would write about how to get more people to the races. Both Larry and Sidewaze have great ideas. I try to get new and/or old fans that have been out of racing and try to get them to come back. I think it would be great if tracks had more nights like buy 1 entry and get 1 entry free or half off? The idea of letting the fans see more of the drivers and crews and what goes on to prepare for a race is excellent. Letting the fans into the pits to walk around before the races begin would be a great way to get more people involved.

We also, as fans, need to try and find a way to get more sponsors for the car owners & drivers. In today's economy it is so hard to get people to part with their money, but there has to be a way that we all can help. I saw one of the local radio stations at an off-site broadcast and asked them if they would come out to the PAS. The DJ said that they no longer support the PAS. I don't know why, but that kind of disturbed me. We need all of the media attention we can get. From any/all radio, TV, newspaper and Internet places.

I wish I had the answers. If I had the money I'd sponsor the races in some way or another. Since I don't, I try to figure out ways to get more people in the stands and hopefully get business owners to the races to sponsor some drivers. I remember the days of 2 and 3 car teams. Now we barely have 1 car teams. Originally, the 360 program was to make sprint car racing more affordable. Now the 360 motors cost as much as a 410. I think everyone has to figure out how to cut costs. From the car owners, track owners, and track concessions need to figure out how to make things more affordable for everyone. And, if we, the fans can figure out how to get more bodies in the stands to make lowering the admission fees then we fans have to do our part too.

Again, I wish I had more money and a way to fix this problem. If anyone has the answer I'd love to hear it and if it is workable, I'll work on it. I love my sprint car racing and don't want to see it die out.

Happy Holidays everyone. I hope to see you in Tucson, if we get to go!!!

RIP Chet and Mark.  You might be gone but never will 
be forgotten.

Dear June,

Personally I think the writing is on the wall. If you haven't read Don Kazarian's interview then you must do it. Here is a link to the "thread".

http://www.vrafan.com/forum/index.php?a=topic&t=3390

Just scroll down until you hit the 'surf and sprint' interview. You really need to hook up with Mike? You guys would work well together to grow the sport.

Personally Don has stated we will have 410 sprint car racing at the PAS for 2011 and that is all that needs to be said. He also said their will be 12-14 races. Other than that I don't think you will see anything else related to sprint cars at the PAS. I still hold out that their might be one ASCS race at the PAS, but at this stage if I had to bet 100,000 dollars I would say thier will not be any ASCS races at the PAS next year, unless some very tough political questions are answered and at the present stage, just listening to the other posts on this subject, the resolution is not certain at present. I'm a dreamer so I hold at hope that something will be done. But just knowing human nature everybody is out for themselves and sprint car racing looses. I just feel we (as a group, fans, promoters and car owners) will kill the sport for growing purposes, but in the end 410's will survive and that is all that the people, fans and car owners and the promoter want at the PAS.

Personally as a part car owner and a fan and possibly on a very small scale a driver, I would like to see some 360 non-wing races at the PAS and everywhere else. Even Don would like to see it also, but he feels the tire rules may be the major obstacle, so in the end we probably won't see any 360 non-wing sprint cars at the PAS and possibly never in the future. It's just my hunch? And for me that kills the possibility of ever being a true fan at the PAS, a true car owner at the PAS and never as a driver at the PAS. Everybody has their limits and I think there is a large fan base for 360's, a large car driver base for 360's and a large car owner base for 360's at the PAS that will never be exploited. That very lucrative portion of money will never ever be delivered to the PAS, because everybody wants something for themselves in 360 racing and we may never see those minds every merge to see something grow from it at the PAS, 360 wise.

For myself, and avoiding the most important question, I could see myself involved in 360 racing, eventually buying a 410 motor but never ever racing it in a non-wing 410 series. I will just say looking at our team we would run a 360 non-wing show anywhere in the country and even a 360 wing in many parts of the country and then finally stepping it up to a 410 wing show car. I just think that is the way it will go if I had to look at the future 5-15 years in the future. I can't explain why we would run a 410 wing show and not a 410 non-wing show, but I will say that our driver would probably do better in a Wing car. Most of his racing has been in Wings. Although he has run non-wings he seems to do better with a wing.

So that is where our team will go. That is just the way it is. I but I'm willing to bet if there was a 360 non-wing or even a ASCS 360 wing show at the PAS our car would be there. But I just got a feeling there will be no 360 racing at the PAS in 2011. That is just my hunch. So where we decide to race will be where 360's run.

Sincerely,

Larry Otani

P.S. Thanks for your post. I learned something and it was educational. Best Wishes for the new year! Personally for myself it will be my best year in my life. It's my time to do well.