CHD wrote:
> How many people came out specifically because we gave them a
> place to play?
> I doubt very many. How many will we retain because ST and SM
> exist? We
> won't ever know... If the classes are successful, they stay,
> if not, they
> go...
I can maybe shed a tiny bit of light here. I was one of the rookies from
rookie 4 in SFR (ST/SM), and frequently dragged along another friend. Both
of us ran street mod-rookie.
I don't think it's a question of "is it attracting new people, or would
people just run elsewhere." The answer is a bit both, and CHD touched in
what in my opinion is really the issue: retention.
I made it to 8 events, I think. Out of 9 that were after I discovered
autox. Next year I'll be at every event, except those that conflict with
vacations (gotta have priorities, after all).
If SM had not existed, I definitely would have still gone out that first
time, and loved it just as much. But I belive I would have been less
enthusiastic and shown for fewer events. I feel that my car is has a
reasonable chance of being competitive in SM, if I can just learn how to
drive and stop running over those stupid orange things. Seeing my
improvement relative to people in similar cars was the best part of last
season.
If I had to run in OSP or EM, I would take it less seriously, because I
would know that there is *no way* that I could win against a car prepped
properly for those classes. I'm sure I would have skipped
I'm hoping to go to nationals either this year or the next, and there is *no
way* I would even consider that without the existance of SM; my car is
clearly illegal for ESP, and not insane enough for EM (it *is* a daily
driver, after all, and I thick my financing company would appreciate me
keeping it that way).
The bottom line, in my opinion, is that offering classes like ST and SM
converts more people to "serious" autocrossers, who would otherwise have
been diletants. At least speaking for me and 1 other rookie SM-er from SFR.
Cheers
-b
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