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The people who run our government are broken. Karting in Colorado is simply a secret.
To me, growing anything requires the creation of a mutually beneficial environment that creates value, manages cost, and results in a lot of fun. There are many steps required to create a sustainable racing “ecosystem” that will result in new participants and more retention. However, instead of trying to eat the whole whale, lets take it one bite at a time.
Simple things that could be done over the winter to generate 10-30 new participants by April’s racing series include:
Create Awareness Among Like Minded Individuals: Has anyone ever called the PCA, SCCA, NASA, BMW club, vintage racing clubs, etc. to see if they would be interested in having someone from the kart racing world “present” at one of their meetings? Most “car people” want to get their hands on anything racing related that is fun. If someone from Unser or TTAC presented at one of these groups or offered their facilities for one of their monthly meetings, you would generate awareness. That will get the adults. Tie in closer with the CJKC and kids renting at Unser for growing the youth population (have you seen a birthday party at Unser? Those kids are excited). Could we collectively generate 500 people who simply become aware that racing exists at a well organized level in Colorado? Yep…
Which could then be followed by:
Marketing and Promotion: Tracks that offer rentals should be marketing the racing series. It will create more business for them (more rentals, more parts, more entry fees, etc.). You see nothing at Unser, TTAC, Action Karting, IMI, etc. regarding racing series. Nobody is more thankful for guys like Scott at Unser, Stacy at GJMS, and Jim at TTAC than me. Trust me, I’m not bitching here… But how can someone participate in a racing series if they don’t know it exists. Website advertising isn’t the answer. Websites are for providing information to people who already know it is out there (i.e. I want to race at Centennial in the Racing the Rockies series and need to know when the races are or where the registration form is). Put up a flippin’ poster or two… Of all the people who show up at TTAC, Unser, IMI, Action Karting, etc. could we find 50 who would become interested in racing? 50 people from every 500 who become aware? 10%? Yep… I think Stacy and the GJMS guys do a pretty good job at this with a limited population in GJ. We should be picking their brains! Call the guys at Miller in Utah… they have a bunch of people racing in their series and a smaller population to draw from.
Those 50 are going to be interested, but they won’t know how to get started. So then it becomes a matter of:
Education: Offer “getting started in racing” seminars. I used to sit at Shockwave and take pictures and videos of Greg, Jeff, and Doug doing seminars thinking “I would pay for this information…”. Without education and the willing help of all the people in this community, I’d be lost (or at least significantly dumber than I am already). Take it back a step. Gather the names of the 50 people who express interest and invite them to a “how to get started” seminar. Cover the basics. How do I get a kart? What safety gear do I need? What do I do next? Hand out some discounted rental kart passes and racing simulator passes so they have a reason to show. Then invite a bunch of us existing racers to come in and share stories and SELL OUR USED STUFF! I’ve been able to sell virtually every piece of karting equipment I’ve ever purchased (that my kids haven’t broken or worn out…) and if I hadn’t been able to, I sure wouldn’t be buying so much new stuff… Then invite them to the track. Make them our “guest” at a race. Hell, some of them would even bring beer… Some of them would become customers!
Of those 50 people, could we get 15-20 to at least try racing in some form (buy a kart, rent an “arrive and drive”, etc). That would be a really good hit rate. Would we be happy if we had a 20% hit rate (10 new people)? Yes!!
To me, that is something that could be achieved and guys like me would volunteer to help. The total cost (aside from time) would be minimal (print some materials, make it look cool, etc.).
I’ve got a lot of other ideas around building this ecosystem and leveraging the great work already done by the CJKC, the track owners both here as well as in Co Springs and GJ, and guys like Scott Falcone (racers who have stepped up and made things happen). Those ideas are for another day but all are based on the theory that the days of “I’m pissed at him and he’s pissed at me” seem to be over.
Greg, guys like you and Scott F. can lead the charge. Business owners like Scott, Brad, JIm, JB, and Stacy will support you if what you do supports their businesses and makes them more money. It’s not complicated to at least raise awareness, promote the sport, and educate new people over the winter.
Don’t try to solve it all at once. Think big, start small, and be ready to scale up rapidly.
We all win.
Annie says I have to go now…
Last week, I grabbed 7-8 friends and locked up both simulators for a couple of hours with Preston. It was a blast!
Fun racing against each other for fast times, bragging rights, etc. And with the Broncos game on TV, the rental karts, and the beer – couldn’t ask for a better time.
Definitely something everyone should go and do!!
Forums are brand new – looks like you need to re-register. I tried and it didn’t work. Others have seemed to have success though. I’ll try again later.
The old forums are available at eknclassic.com.
I’m virtually certain, barring any technical issues, that they will have coverage of the SummerNats.
You should post this on eKarting News as well – they have a forum for lost/stolen items that seems to be pretty well monitored nationally (http://ekartingnews.com/viewforum.php?f=35). I’d also keep on top of FedEx as well – it wouldn’t be the first time their tracking system said something was delivered but was still on a truck somewhere…
Hope you guys find the engine… and whomever is responsible for it missing.
Brad and Lee – thanks for clearing that up. I was curious as to why there was no SKUSA front range date and I guess we have a clearer picture on that.
Here’s another thought for a “State” series in 2013. Since the goal seems to be to maximize participation at lowest reasonable cost, why not just select a club race date from each track to make a state championship. For example, you could take a GJMS, IMI, SBR, and even AK (run it in conjunction with the CJKC) date from their existing or to be published schedules and create a “State Schedule from the Club Schedule”. It looks like TTAC is going to schedule a “run what you brung” weekend as well so that could mean 5 dates at 5 different tracks.
It’s pretty simplistic and obviously puts each club/track in charge of their “round” with little or no central authority, sanctioning body, etc. If nothing else, if everyone knew and agreed what the dates would be then you could really determine by the actual participation what the potential size and opportunity for something bigger in 2014.
I think the “run what you brung” approach might work best for this. I liked what SBR did last year with the cadets (really the only thing we have experience with)… it didn’t matter if you had a Rotax, LO206, Comer 80, etc. You were a cadet and you ran with the cadets. There were 4 stroke animals, micro max’s, mini max’s, LO206’s, etc. As Don mentioned, the CJKC did this at IMI alongside the IMI Club Series and everyone had fun. The kids didn’t seem to really care that there was a mix as long as they had someone to race with. There were differences in speed and ability which of course raises concerns, but it never seemed to be a real issue.
Probably like many, I’ve observed this post and resisted the urge to respond. One question in my mind though (and perhaps this has already been answered)…
Why did the front range track owners turn down SKUSA for a date for 2013?
There may be perfectly good reasons for turning it down. However, it seems to me that if the track owners don’t want a SKUSA date, they aren’t likely to want a new “state series” date either. I like the idea of bigger fields, more fun, more inclusiveness, less politics and BS – but I don’t really think another series is the answer.
I’ve been involved in running a series – it is not easy. It’s not any fun either. Jim’s crew does a great job with the Rotax series and the SKUSA guys do a great job as well. The current club series folks all do a great job too. Do we really need to reinvent this??
For what it is worth, a SKUSA run championship with 1 race at Miller, 1 at GJ, and 2 on the front range (with one drop) seems like a logical solution to me. You could drop the race with the farthest travel and still be competitive/have a shot at winning the whole thing. With Rotax, TAG, and shifters already included, it seems like you could add a few more “local options” and include just about everyone.
The “ladder” for karting would be:
1. Rentals: Unser, IMI, TTAC, AK, GJMS, SBR, etc.
2. Club Racing: CJKC for kids, Track Clubs (SBR, IMI, GJMS, etc.) – allow anyone to run what they brung…
3. Regional Racing: Racing the Rockies, SKUSAAnyway… that’s my one cent since it’s probably not worth two…
We’ll continue to race wherever we are welcome. It worked pretty well last year.
If Mini Max is added again as a local option and the Rotax engine is an option for TAG Junior, we’ll definitely commit to the whole series with our two drivers. And maybe even a third…
We’d be thrilled to run both Rotax Racing the Rockies and SKUSA next year along with some PPKRC club events at SBR! Great fun at all those venues this year.
Dave
Roger, I’m not sure if you were still there at the Awards last Sunday (it was getting late…), but we did make sure that everyone knew about the next couple of races at PPIR. We’re happy to be invited and there will be CJKC families there this weekend. Unfortunately not us (non racing commitments, can you believe it…), but we would if we could!
Good luck to all!
Dave
Fantastic day yesterday with the Racing for Heroes group. While I personally appreciate the comments about the CJKC and especially Jay and Tammy, we in turn appreciate the men and women serving our country in the military, police, fire, EMT, and other services. It was an honor to race with you yesterday and a privilege for our kids to be around.
Jeff,
There are lots of great ways to get your family in karting. You could start by spending time at Action Karting, IMI, The Track, GJMS, and Unser Racing renting karts and having a blast without spending “too” much money. You can definitely find lots of information, advice, karts, and parts here. While buying new stuff is great, there are some really talented racers in this state with top notch used equipment for sale. I’d start there for sure. If you want to race, there are several good options in the state. All of them are very good – you could hardly go wrong.
For your kids, take a look at the Colorado Junior Karting Club. It’s a family run club that has race groups from 5 – 15 years old. Affordable engine packages from Briggs Racing and lots of great people who support from tracks to local shops to chassis manufacturers. We are racing this weekend at IMI up in Dacono. Come on out and see it for yourself. I’ll be there with the Summit of Everest Racing team (our kids) and would be happy to talk with you about karting.
Dave
