"richard nichols" <rnichol1@san.rr.com> wrote:
>> 1) If there's something I want to do to my car and it kicks me out of >> a
class, I'll probably do it because I drive my car a lot more on the >> street
than I do at an autox.
This, incidently, is the #1 reason for creating SST/upgrading STU in the first
place. A class that allows pretty well everything that one can bolt on in a
weekend, but specifically disallows "serious racer only" stuff like tube-framed
cars.
Then people like this can do whatever they want without fear of getting
themselves kicked out of their class, but yet the other cars in their class are
similar enough so that they have a chance at being competitive.
My perspective exactly, all along.
>> I can't afford a whole other set of rims/tires
>> to go compete plus I wouldn't have a place to keep them.
> There have to be plenty more like you -- and me -- out there, Aaron.
...at a Regional level, I agree completely. This is why many regions (including
Detroit) have Street Tire versions of all the race tire classes.
I've had a number of opportunities to talk to Street Tire class competitors.
Roughly half of them are using the Street Tire classes as training for when they
"move up" to the race tire classes. The other half are happy where they are,
with no plans to ever "move up".
More power to both types.
But once you start talking about National-level competition, street tires stop
making sense - for reasons that have been beat to death over and over again by
many folks.
There's nothing stopping individual Regions from having 'TSTU' - in fact, based
on the success of the Street Tire classes in Detroit, I'd encourage it.
As for "where are the riceboys?", I've got two observations:
1) They don't call it the "Secret Car Club of America" for nothing. Dragstrips
have a large advantage over us - they are fixed facilities. You can see a
dragstrip on a map, see it in the phone book, see it on a road sign, etc, etc.
And as drag racing is pretty well the same everywhere, if you can find the
strip, you can go racing.
We, on the other hand, are a gypsy caravan, rarely showing up in the same place
twice in a row. We don't have regular schedules, and we don't have much in the
way of regular magazine coverage.
So the number one challenge is even making our existance known.
2) Comapared to drag racing, our rules are byzentine, gothic, and obtuse.
Because of this, there is a very high probability that a given rice rocket has
been built in excess of the rules, and so the car goes to Mod.
Well look at the message they get: "Here's my car." "Oh, sorry dude, that boost
controller puts you in Mod. Bummer." - so right away, they understand that they
don't fit in. Just to re-enforce the point, there's not a whole lot of their
kind of cars around.
So a riceboy is without a class, and without a class, there can be no class
hotshoes - and with no class hotshoes, there are _no mentors_.
That's the second challenge. Retention requires that there be established
mentors to help show the newbies the ropes, and to provide an example they can
emulate. When there is an established mentor or three, they are joining an
established group. When they are the only guys there, they feel like
fish-out-of-water-outsiders.
That "mentor factor" is SO important. It goes on all the time, in all classes,
and it's independant of experience level. Look how many ducklings Sam Strano
picks up when he walks the course. Notice that only half of them, max, could be
considered "newbies" by any stretch of the imagination.
So the 3 step plan to attract and retain the riceboys is:
1) Make ourselves known to them.
2) Have a class waiting for them.
3) Have semi-experienced people in this class to get them on their feet, working
to keep them coming back, and doing well enough to inspire them.
Which means that we have to:
1) Design a class (or classes) that work.
2) Get some "real autocrossers" to try the class out, and work out the bugs.
3) Start marketing ourselves to the riceboys.
ST is in step 2. STU/SST is in step 1. I hope that step 3 is forthcoming,
someday....
DG
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