Here in the Kansas City area, we have had the Street Tire Class for about 5
years now. It was a way for the Crown Autocross Club and the KCRSCCA to get
new people to our events and sign up, without being scared to run with all
the regulars that had Yoko's, BFG's, and Hoosier's. It has worked out very
well for us, so good in fact that Crown has gone to a more structured class
system. Last year out of our 8 events we had 180 in the street tire class.
But out of all of those, only 30 had been in three or more events and only 9
had been in 5 or more to qualify for a trophy. It was suggested to us that
with this many in a field that we could get more to keep coming back if we
broke the Street Tire class down to smaller fields. So, by following the
Arizona region's lead, we now have three classes.
Novice Street Tire, to be eligible for this class you must have been in four
or less events in the past two years. Once you have entered in this class
you can stay there for the entire season, but no trophies are awarded, you
can move to the open Street Tire classes and carry your points with you.
Street Tire 1, for the horsepower classes, and Street Tire 2 for the handling
classes. We had our first event out at a pretty large site this past Sunday
and had 85 entries. Out of those entries we had a total number of 31 in the
Street Tire classes. 13 of those in Novice, 10 in ST1, and 8 in ST2.
Our problem was getting the new guys to come and race, get hooked and then
come back. We seem to have fixed that with this new system and a lot have
said they will be back. We give 5 runs to all first time Autocrossers and a
50% discount to those that have never raced with Crown before. So, instead
of paying $20, they pay $10. Also to help get things started in the first
heat we offer 5 runs to all that have signed up for heat 1. After the end of
our season I will let you know the statistics of the Street Tire classes and
how many decided to come back.
Paul "to the floor" Poore Secretary Crown Autocross Club
visit our website at Http://members.aol.com/crownac/
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