You guys sure are talking about us a lot……
In my opinion, there are 10 things that make a great series.
1. Competitors
2. Fun
3. Fair and consistent officiating.
4. Competitors
5. Fun.
6. Great tracks.
7. Competitors.
8. Fun.
9. Something to shoot for.
10. Competitors.
You guys have it all, you just need to develop a plan and work that plan.
You keep bringing up my series, but I have it easier than you guys. GATORZ is my deal. I am a benevolent dictator and I am the only one. You have 3-4 track owners that all have a say in the deal. That is a much bigger challenge.
Here is my take on what you need. Take it or leave it, its just the opinion of one guy that has been around the block a few times, just not every time.
1. You need to have the same Race Director and Tech Director. Fair and consistent officiating is on my list. Nobody likes to go to a track and feel like they got “homer’ed”. Even if it doesn’t happen, someone will always feel like they got the shaft because they were on the wrong chassis, or the wrong shop, etc. I hire enough staff so I do not have a duty on race day. I have a radio, but I do not make decisions. I break ties. You have Angie as your Scoring Director, I believe, with her and the other two permanent staff members, you can run a race day with different people at each track. The 3 of them are in charge at every race. If the track owners feel that it is cost prohibitive, raise entry fees by $10. People are happy to pay a little more to get a better value. Fair and consistent officiating is a much better value.
2. You need to make up a committee that decides the path of the series. If you have 4 tracks, use the owners as the basis for the committee. If 3 only want to be involved, then make it 3. If Rotax is in the series, include Doug. Make Angie the secretary if she wants the job and pay her for it. She can have a vote or not, its up to you. Have the drivers pick one guy as the “drivers rep”. There is no perfect person, but someone like Charles Gordon comes to mind. Sorry, he is just someone I know. If he doesn’t want to do it, have the drivers pick someone they trust to present their issues. The committee needs to have 5-7 people, an odd number so there can be no ties on things. Their vote is binding, no drivers boycotts, strikes or track lockouts can happen if the vote doesn’t go a certain way.
3. You need to remember that we all spend our hard earned money to go have fun. When we stop having fun, we stop doing it. Make sure that it is fun most of the time. Racing isn’t fun all the time, but the ratio has to be the right way at the end of the day.
4. As I said before, people will always pay a little more for a better value. I charge a little more for entries, etc. but I hand out good prizes. Ask the drivers if they would rather pay $X and race for trophies or pay $X+$20 and have better officiating and some good prizes.
5. Schedule your Grand Junction round so it doesn’t conflict with a GATORZ or PKC race and I’ll bring half a dozen people.
6. If you do #5 and we come up, you had better come down and race a GATORZ race or two, Ian and I came up there 3 times this year!
If I got it all wrong, I’m sorry. I’m just trying to help because I love our sport.
A