Jim, see my replies in the message below.
> Anyway, what you're proposing here amounts to a LARGE format change for
> most autocrossers who have never done a "Mirrorkhana" or "NOPI Shootout"
> -style event (which are variants of the not-often-run Australian Pursuit
> event style). I'm sure they're fun, but the point is that it's NOT really
> "autocross" in the traditional sense.
Not in the "traditional sense" that is true. I don't see that as a bad
thing, necessarily. Different can sometimes be good.
> Look at average ProSolo (an alternate format to autocross) turnout versus
> National Tour turnouts at the same sites (like Peru, Indiana, Jacksonville
> a couple years ago, etc.) to take out the "location" variance and you'll
> see the Tours pull twice as many entrants as the Pros on average over several
> years. Lesson here?
> More people like the "traditional" autocross format than the alternative
> ProSolo format. Rocky's Mirrorkhana is popular in his area, but it's only
> one event a year.
Don't compare Pros to Tours for this discussion. Why? Because what I'm
proposing is a package for spectators. Neither Pros or Tours are really
suited for that kind of exposure. They are both too confusing with too
many classes and too esoteric timing issues in the case of Pro Solo.
> Secondly, choosing 3 classes (or consolidating down to 3 classes) will
> thoroughly disenfranchise the entrants.
This would be true if you were trying to draw all the current amateur
club autocrossers into this format for TV coverage. I'm proposing no such
thing. A major league racing series would have a relatively small number
of participants (50-75 would be my guess). This would be the cream of the
crop with full sponsorships, etc.
> Making two of the 3 classes with prep rules not currently in Solo (the
> World Challenge specs you propose) will further decimate the entry base.
> Have you looked at the cost of building a competitive World Challenge car
> lately? I have. I'm talking about taking my cumulative Street Prepared
> budget and adding at least one zero just to get on the track, and probably
> another zero to build a competitive car. Not exactly a realistic
> expectation of the grassroots motorsports competitor.
My proposal would be for whatever 3-4 classes that the TV viewer could
follow well. I can think of 3 major demographics we can appeal to. The
import sedan crowd, the high-end sports car enthusiast and the big loud
V8 lovers. I don't think a stock class as we see in Solo now would be of
much interest to TV viewers. They need noise and visual stimulation. The
prep allowances can be tailored to be relatively inexpensive but still
create excitement.
> Thirdly, your comparisons with drag racing and oval racing are off the
> mark. What gets on TV from those sports? NHRA Pro categories (Top Fuel,
> Fuel Funny Car, Pro Stock, Pro Stock Motorcycle), some IHRA Pro categories
> whenever their sponsors scrape together enough money to buy airtime, and
> top-level USAC sprints and midgets and World of Outlaws sprint cars
> and DIRT SuperModifieds -- have you noticed the number of semi-trailers
> now in the paddock areas of those sports? The grassroots guys running
> Street Stock at the Tulsa Speedway don't get TV time. Hell, the winged
> sprints running the regional series (at the Tulsa Speedway, OKC speedway,
> Devil's Bowl in Texas, Coffeyville, KS, etc.) don't get TV time.
You're right. I'm not talking about getting the grassroots guys on TV.
Solo needs a high-level visible series to get our sport on the map. If
the grassroots guys are smart they'd want the same thing. But, I don't
think most autocrossers are interested in seeing much more growth in our
sport. They like things just the way they are. Your message is loud and
clear.
> Probably the closest comparison to autocross, import drag racing gets a
> half-hour show periodically on SpeedVision, but that's paid for entirely by
> sponsors like NOPI and is excruciatingly bad to watch
Well, we'd need some of the same level of support to get there. There is
a huge market for import drag stuff. We're a huge market, too. But we
have no clue how to market that and make it work for us.
> Fourthly, the reason other "marginal" sports (lawn mower racing, lumberjack
> games, JetSkis, even Unlimited Hydroplane boat racing) get TV time is
> because sponsors BUY it -- Stihl (chainsaw maker) buys time for lumberjack
> games, for instance, and Sta-bil (a fuel stabilizer additive for engines
> that don't get used much, like lawn equipment) buys it for lawnmower
> racing. The US Hot Rod Association and its sponsors buy the airtime and
> pay for show production of tractor pulls and monster truck races. Subaru
> pays to air SCCA ProRally events -- SCCA certainly doesn't! SpeedVision
> airs World Challenge because they sponsor it. The airtime is the bulk of
> the dollar value of the sponsorship package, too. That doesn't mean we
> couldn't convince a company to buy airtime for autocross, and pay to
> produce the show, hire the announcers, etc. But others far better versed
> in the world of TV production have told you, you're gonna spend well over
> $100K to get a half-hour of GOOD finished product produced and aired. For
> one event. If there's a 10 event season, that's $1,000,000. Pocket change
> to major corporations, but more "play with it" money than anyone in
> autocross outside of a few of the Microsoft-money guys in NWRegion has
> likely ever seen. And I don't think that even series title sponsors like
> Tire Rack are going to be willing to pony up that kind of cash.
Nobody will pony up the cash if they won't get a good return on their
investment. In order to do this they need an interesting and stable show
that draws an audience. Those sponsors you mention above are getting a
return for their sponsorship dollars or they stop sponsoring. Its as
simple as that. Now sponsors can also be scared away by unstable
organizations that don't deliver what they promise or don't help the
sponsor get what they want (positive exposure). Atlanta Motor Speedway
lost Cracker Barrel as a sponsor this year because they didn't make sure
that Cracker Barrel got good exposure on all the event stuff. Someone
told me that Cracker Barrel was only mentioned once on TV for that race.
Bad move, lose millions.
> Fifthly, driver/crew uniforms and a uniform car appearance for autocrossers
> was attempted once before, or have you forgotten the Pro Series abortion in
> 1999? ... The reason it was popped into being? To try to come up with a
> more"TV-friendly" package. Hell, I don't see a lot of crew uniforms or
> custom driver's suits in World Challenge, Pro Spec Racer Ford, Pro Vee, or
> even uniformly through the TransAm and CART Toyota Atlantic paddocks.
Good point. The team sponsors will take care of this situation without
regulation from the organizers.
> What I think you're proposing, Ben, is really a separate type of event that
> takes elements of autocross, but is really a unique "made for TV" creation.
That's exactly what I've been proposing.
> Not to say that it's wrong, but you can't say it's "autocross on TV".
> It's really "something kinda like autocross *for* TV".
All "traditional" autocrossing is, when you boil it all down, is a time
trial or in the terms of racing, qualifying. We used traditional
autocrossing in our 3 event shootout series just for that purpose, to
qualify for seedings on the brackets. Everybody had a high incentive to
qualify well because we gave out points for that. Plus, if you qualified
well, you had easier competition in the early rounds of your bracket.
Therefore, we had "traditional" autocrossing AND the shootout brackets
with double elimination (I'd do away with the double elimination for a TV
audience).
BTW, I would visualize a nationally set up series featuring qualifying
for the big dogs on Friday with qualifying for the club folk on Saturday
morning leading to Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning head-to-head
competitions. Then the big dogs come out on Sunday afternoon for the
featured shootouts. This would give great exposure to the local
competition in support of the main attraction. Likely, only the big dogs
would get any regular exposure on TV but everyone else benefits, too.
To summarize, all these proposals are just hot air until someone steps
forward to put it all in motion. We've done a lot of the preliminary
work, here in Atlanta, by doing some fine-tuning of the event format.
Some time and effort would need to be put into proposing this format to
some hot sponsors with the ability to get them to see the excitement. And
probably that won't happen from the SCCA-national level. Probably some
local level folks will have to demonstrate it's viability to get the ball
rolling. So, now it is mirror on the wall time for me, isn't it?
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