Scca It Is Time For Change Now!

[RSTPerformance]

Dave-

Your on to something... I remember an event a couple years ago at watkins Glenn that did something to promote FV and they had something like 40+ cars entered.

I think IT is where it needs to be, the regions need to do something to attract the other classes to the events... Maybe an open wheel enduro? Maybe a vintage/production car featured race and car show? The focus probably shouldn't be on IT, Bob and others have already done what was needed to get those groups out racing... We (the IT group) tend to look at penalizing other groups for low attendance which will only pushpeople away, instead we should be looking at ways to reward those for showing up... After all isn't that one reason IT and sm/ssm has grown? We have double dipping, team di proit, enduros, etc.

Andy- I agree with your less races = greater demand argument but what reagon is willing to give up a money making race to encourage people to run other less popular events? We need one organization managing the events so that the "correct" choices are made.

Raymond

Raymond

 

[Andy Bettencourt]

Andy- I agree with your less races = greater demand argument but what reagon is willing to give up a money making race to encourage people to run other less popular events? We need one organization managing the events so that the "correct" choices are made.

Raymond

Raymond

Raymond - is it too simple to say 'eliminate an event or two that DOESN'T make money?'

LRP events (aside from the runoffs) test the waters. Pocono too. If events are making money, then fine. The issue is that some haven't been - and it't not due to great events, just oversupply.

 

[RSTPerformance]

Raymond - is it too simple to say 'eliminate an event or two that DOESN'T make money?'

LRP events (aside from the runoffs) test the waters. Pocono too. If events are making money, then fine. The issue is that some haven't been - and it't not due to great events, just oversupply.

Agreed... but from what I understand regions are not willing to give up races???

Raymond

 

[TAC]

DB is correct. GLD has an awful regional schedule. 3 champ events in the first 4 weeks of the season then 17 weeks until the next champ event? In between a couple of restricted races mashed into national weekends. The only bright spot is IT-Fest in August.

Compare this to the NASA midwest calendar. Races are pretty much 4 weeks apart, usually the same weekend of the month. Now that's a race schedule.

How do we change our schedule? How do we get a fricking June regional race date? Some region has a to find an available weekend at a track, hopefully not ORP, sign a contract for it and then wait for the fall scheduling meeting? And give up their current date in he meantime, which gets snapped up by someone else?

I completely disagree with jjanos. I think the incoherent image we put out with a hodge podge of registration methods, results postings (if done at all), etc does hurt attendance.

I don't understand why we don't have a page at the national level with online registration, entry lists, results, protest results, pictures, video, lap times, blogs, etc. Sure, you can post your video on myscca, but who goes there? Even if you do, you can't easily see all the video from a certain race, it's a mess.

As several people have pointed out, people want to race at events with lots of other people in their class. We need a place to see who is registered so we know we are not gong to be the only car in class And an organized national results page would help novices understand that there really are people out there racing in regional races. Lack of visibility is killing us. The days are long gone when a tiny region can mimeograph some entry forms and send them snail mail.

I invite all drivers to sit in on their fall divisional meetings to see just how crazy scheduling can be. In the Nov. GLDiv. meeting the tentative schedule had a Champ Series Double Regional in each month plus the I.T.Fest. By the end of the meeting 1 hour later, there was the I.T.Fest sitting in the middle of the calendar and not a Double Regional between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

 

[jumbojimbo]

I invite all drivers to sit in on their fall divisional meetings to see just how crazy scheduling can be. In the Nov. GLDiv. meeting the tentative schedule had a Champ Series Double Regional in each month plus the I.T.Fest. By the end of the meeting 1 hour later, there was the I.T.Fest sitting in the middle of the calendar and not a Double Regional between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Whoops, this is in the NE forum so I gues we are way into highjack territory here. But let's continue anyway although it sounds like the NE issues are different from the GL issues.

What do you think were the factors that impede GL getting a nice clean schedule with regionals every 5 weeks and nicely spread nationals?

One problem I see is how we make the schedule. It seems regions need to pick dates and sign contracts long before the scheduling roundtable in the fall. How can a region pick a date and sign a contract without knowing if that date will be allowed on the schedule. I could be wrong in how this actually works, but it seems like a chicken and egg problem. In June a region can't schedule a race next year, in Nov we cry and moan at the poor dates regions have as options. How can we make a schedule in Nov when the dates are already set or tracks are already booked and we have no options?

I think it is odd how in the NE discussion there is talk of cutting the races that don't make money. That doesn't seem to be an option in GLD. Either people saying such things in NE don't know what they are talking about, or NE is different from GLD. In GLD it is nobody's business except the orgainizing region whether a race makes money. And it is the regions decision whether to organize a race a not. So in GLD an unprofitable race can drag on for years before it dies.

But, the problem is that if a race dies, it dies permanently. That date is lost and our schedule shrinks forever. Once a date at a track is given up it is quickly sucked up by NASA, BMW,etc. Even the opening of a new track like Bluegrass has not added any dates to our schedule. Perhaps it will next year, maybe Indy will put on both a regional and a national like they used to do. If so, do they need to reserve a date now with the track? And they that date will either get approved or not in Nov?

I'm curious what you think the other factors are in the ugly GLD race schedule. What causes this year after year and why is it getting worse?

 

[dickita15]

I think it is odd how in the NE discussion there is talk of cutting the races that don't make money. That doesn't seem to be an option in GLD. Either people saying such things in NE don't know what they are talking about, or NE is different from GLD. In GLD it is nobody's business except the orgainizing region whether a race makes money.

It’s pretty easy to tell what events are covering their costs. We (the different regions) all deal with pretty much the same stuff. Lime Rock had astronomical rents, Pocono always struggles with car counts. Summit and NHMS have fair expense and a decent base of local regular entrants. The Glen is expensive to race but still attracts decent car counts. The only track in the NE corridor I have could not predict how the regions are doing in Millville because it is so new.
The problem is with the economic downturn and a 10-20% drop in entries events that were cutting it close will this year be big losers.

 

[jumbojimbo]

I'm not saying you can't figure out if the regions are making money, but what are you going to do about it? Unless NE works differently than GLD it is the region's problem whether the race makes money. The division can't just say "oh, you're not making money you're out."

I will say this: if you are making money and someone else can figure that out then the track can figure it out and guess what is going to happen to your track fee?

My understanding is that a few years ago in GLD there was a desire to push the little regions out of the racing business. There was a proposed rule that in order to organize a race the region had to supply X% of workers for the race. Essentially cutting out the little regions. Then the idea was changed to the region having to supply X% of the chiefs. Which turned out to be pointless since many of the little regions include more than their share of worker chiefs. I have no clue if any rule was ever implemented. And I have no clue how seriously the above ideas were taken. But if ideas like this were considered, it points to how hard it is to simply deny a race to a region because you don't want the region to have a race.

It defintely is a problem if there are races that don't make money, race that don't attract a lot of cars. I don't necessarily think that a little race that only attracts 70 entries is costing other races 70 entries because I don't think that everyone who goes to the little race would enter another race if that little race was not put on.

But little races do drag down all the other races because the perception is that racing is dying, that entries are decreasing. When a race only has 10 cars in a group people begin to fear that the next race is going to be the same and they start to wonder if it is worthwhile to go. So they don't pre-register, the entry list shows 40 cars 2 weeks before the event and noone else wants to enter because there aren't any entries.

 

[seckerich]

Dave-

Your on to something... I remember an event a couple years ago at watkins Glenn that did something to promote FV and they had something like 40+ cars entered.

I think IT is where it needs to be, the regions need to do something to attract the other classes to the events... Maybe an open wheel enduro? Maybe a vintage/production car featured race and car show? The focus probably shouldn't be on IT, Bob and others have already done what was needed to get those groups out racing... We (the IT group) tend to look at penalizing other groups for low attendance which will only pushpeople away, instead we should be looking at ways to reward those for showing up... After all isn't that one reason IT and sm/ssm has grown? We have double dipping, team di proit, enduros, etc.

Andy- I agree with your less races = greater demand argument but what reagon is willing to give up a money making race to encourage people to run other less popular events? We need one organization managing the events so that the "correct" choices are made.

Raymond

Raymond

Any race weekend that caters and markets to a specific group usually developes a big turnout. Look at the production festival at VIR hosted by NC region. What you need to learn from that is racers get bored running alone, or in small groups, and seek out the races with more competition. Listen to the customer (the paying racers) and give them what they want. Might be time for some smaller regions to host one large race together and share the expenses. Time to get creative and survive.

 

[gran racing]

The IT Fest is an excellent example of a region putting on a particularly amazing event. Lots of little things such as having stewards driving around the paddock asking how things are going and if there's anything else they could do to help. I think that's the only event where I've ever experienced something like that. I know it takes more work to put together an event like that but it also draws quite a number of racers who are willing to travel in order to participate in it.