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| EKN One-on-One: Roger Ruthhart - Rock Island Grand Prix |
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 | Roger Ruthhart
(Photo: rockislandgrandprix.com) |
When I mention the city of Rock Island to my friends outside of karting, many of them look at me like I’m talking about somewhere on Mars. When you mention Rock Island to karters, it will put a smile on most of their faces. For 16 years now, the Rock Island Grand Prix has offered one of the largest street races in the world, welcoming racers from all over North America and the world. Held every year on the Labor Day weekend, the race is part of a three-day festival for the city that includes a wide variety of activities in which racers are part of the show and have ample time to enjoy the festivities away from the race.
A throng of volunteers from the Rock Island area manage the event, many of whom have participated in the event without truly knowing much about the sport of karting. At the top of the Grand Prix Steering Committee is President Roger Ruthhart. He, along with the rest of the committee, spend a incredible amount of time planning and preparing for each year’s event and learning the ins and outs of what is going on within the karting community.
With the 2010 event now behind us, EKN decided that it would be productive to reflect on this year’s race in an effort to help bring some insight into what goes happens behind the scene to put together the Grand Prix. We also wanted to learn what’s on the mind of Ruthhart and the rest of the volunteer team heading into the future. Roger was gracious enough to give us some time to answer a few questions.
eKartingNews.com: Welcome Roger and thanks for taking the time out to speak with us.
Roger Ruthhart: Thank you very much.
EKN: We’re now a couple weeks following the final checkered flag that completed the 16th edition of the RIGP, so what are your thoughts regarding this year’s event?
RR: Given what we have been seeing elsewhere in the industry, we are very excited. Our total entries ticked upward slightly and we added several new sponsors. It was also the 16th straight year that AT&T has been a presenting sponsor! When race director Terry Riggins asked at the Drivers Meeting how many drivers were here for the first time, about one-third raised their hands. These are all positives for the sport. We also got through our first year partnering with Championship Karting International and are interested in getting their feedback and working with them on their programs.
On the spectator side, we have continued to draw huge crowds. Since it's a free event, we can only guess at the numbers, but this was one of our largest crowds ever. I attribute that to a free event in a bad economy, exciting racing on the part of drivers, continued improvement of our marketing efforts, new partners such as McDonalds and O'Reilly Auto Parts helping us get the word out through their stores, and beautiful weather which encouraged folks to just hang around all day.
Financially, even with the purse cut in half for classes with less than 20 entries, we will still lose some significant money. We don't like to cut the purse, but I think racers understand that entry fees pay for the purse. If the racers aren't here to support the event, (and we again have had a significantly less entries than in pre-recession years), then we can't afford to pay the full purse until such time as entries rebound. It's a matter of survival and I think they would rather the event stay around. At the John Deere Awards Ceremony, we even had several racers who donated their checks back to us which we certainly don't expect, but greatly appreciate.
From an operational standpoint, we rocked! Both the Saturday and Sunday programs finished a few minutes ahead of schedule. We had only one red flag all weekend in Sunday practice for a driver who suffered a concussion and was soon back to watch the races. The junior drivers, who we have been critical in the past, did an amazing job in both Rotax and TAG and provided some of the best racing of the weekend. Finally, a new group - a local Future Farmers of America chapter -- did an absolutely amazing job loading and unloading 2,000 straw bales. This allowed us to have the entire track torn down before midnight on Sunday - the first time in the history of the event that has happened (usually its closer to 3 a.m.). And we also expanded our merchandise offerings this year which seemed to be well received. Hopefully we can continue to grow that as a source of revenue, too.
All in all, there are a lot of things to be excited about!
EKN: With no red flags through the main events on Sunday, I think that has to be an event record, is it not?
RR: Maybe, but I honestly don't know. We don't keep those kinds of records. The change to Scribner barriers drew rave reviews and probably a big part of the reason why...although I don't pretend to know enough about the differences to say why. And sadly, dealing with less entries and smaller fields may have had a lot to do with staying on schedule, less wrecks, etc.
EKN: I’m sure after 16 years, there are still things after each event that you see need to be changed for the following year. What are some issues you think need to be addressed during the 2011 discussions?
RR: There are always some minor things we can improve on - mostly things that racers and spectators never see. We have not yet had our post-race debriefing meeting, so there will likely be some things added to the list. But from my perspective, there was some confusion in tech where we just need to make the wording in the Supplemental Rules more clear. We also need to find a way to better check our Entry Form for errors. We have 3-4 people read it, but there were some things that slipped through. Racers should be able to rely on it for accurate information, and that's especially important when you deal with all the various rule books that we do.
We offered a Friday night carry-out dinner and Sat/Sun pancake breakfasts that weren't well supported. We need to figure out why not and decide if those can be fixed, or just dropped. And, of course, we are always weighing new things to add in the future to keep the event new and fresh.
Also, because Terry Riggins got in his kart and raced the track this year, we have some things he wants to discuss concerning tweaking the track design a bit...another plus for the racers.
EKN: Tweaking the track design…that’s an interesting concept as I believe the layout has been the same for each event, aside from barrier locations correct?
RR: It's really not anything major ... the driver might not even notice, but some subtle things Terry saw as a result of driving the course. We have looked at overall track design over the years and with the street surfaces we have to work with, there aren't any realistic alternatives. For instance, the next street to the east is all brick! At one time I thought about extending the front straight another half block, putting in a 180 turn and then doubling back to the current Turn 1 where drivers would turn right back onto the track. But then the city rebuilt 4th Avenue and put in the bumpout planters for the parking lanes and that made even that wide avenue too narrow to double back on itself for even a short distance.
The design we have goes back to Year One with Gus Traeder and has worked very well. Tom Argy Jr. made the track "safe" by giving us runoff room and not racing the full width of the street, setting up the entrances to the corners and narrowing the corners with the use of plastic barriers and redesigning the flow in the pits. Terry Riggins has tweaked that based on his decades of experience as a race director. The result is the safest street course in the world. So it's not likely we are going to ever change much. This year, we opened up a couple of the corners a bit for the sake of safety and the drivers seemed to like that, so we will probably keep that for 2011, but we leave all those decisions up to Mr. Riggins.
EKN: There is no doubt that the Rock Island GP is one of the safest in the world. Staying with the 2010 edition, was there anything new implemented this year? If so, what was the feedback?
RR: The biggest change in this area was a switch to Scribner barriers, which we rented from the Sertoma Club in Anderson, Ind. Thanks to Decker Trucking Co. for a great deal on hauling them to Rock Island and back. These just seemed to be a bit more stable than the ones we have used previously. It is important to maintain space between the barriers and the straw bales behind them. These barriers seemed less likely to move back against the straw when bumped during racing. When karts hit barriers that have been pushed against the straw, they tend to bounce back rather than having their impact absorbed. This can result in accidents. With rare exceptions, we just didn't see that this year.
We also tested a new fence-mounting system this year. The previous system had a piece of rebar welded to a drum with the fence then hung from a rebar hook and anchored to the drum. The new system features two pieces of PVC pipe - one inserted into the other to replace the rebar and form the fence hanger. There is a slot cut into the top one which the fence fits into. The new system seemed to work well and while we have had no safety issues with the rebar hooks, we think this system will eliminate that potential danger. Also, if we need to stack the barrels for storage, now we can. As barrels are replaced, which is an on-going process, we will incorporate more of the new system into the track design. We will always continue to look for ways to upgrade our safety - it has always been our number 1 priority, and should be for any street race.
EKN: The last two years have been the lowest in terms of total entry numbers for the event, but the racing up front remains to be as competitive as ever. As you stated earlier, this year there were a number of first-time participants which shows that the event is still drawing interest around the country. What do you think attributed to so many first time racers, and do you feel working with more series, clubs will help draw even more first-timers?
RR: When we first put together this event, it was always in the back of our mind that it had to be done for the good of the community and good of the sport. That's a much different perspective than many promoters have. We would not do our event if we thought it could reflect poorly on the sport and I think as a result it is one of the best opportunities in the country today to expose karting in a positive light to potential racers. Certainly the area tracks and kart shops have benefited.
Over the years we have tried to work with virtually everyone in karting - SKUSA, TAG USA, Rotax , Biland, Briggs & Stratton, CIK, WKA, IKF, Stars of Karting, Kart Expo International, Florida Winter Tour, Goodland GP, Commercial Point GP, Lancaster GP, some of the regional series and now Championship Karting International. Why I can pick up the phone and talk with the leaders of any of these organizations, yet many can't work together for the good of the sport is amazing to me. I'm intrigued by the opportunity provided by some of the CKI programs, but for some reason they seem to have created a turf war. We do our best to promote all of these organizations in any way we can and they support us in return. We will continue to do what we can to promote the sport, and our event, and work with whoever is interested.
As for first-time racers, we have a lot of friends in kart shops all over the country who have been here before. Now that the money crunch has eased a little, some of them were able to get their customers to travel here this year. That helped. I think that the Clone class has attracted some new people to the sport, so offering that class helped too - although not as many as we expected. Plus, I think for some we are kind of a ‘bucket list’ race - one that everyone wants to do at least once - so that keeps first-time racers coming here, although they might not necessarily be new to the sport.
Everyone is hurting for entries yet we continue to schedule major races on top of each other, which makes no sense to me. It's certainly not good for the racers or the sport. We've been on Labor Day Weekend since 1993. If someone wants to race so bad on Labor Day, come talk to me about sharing our track and staff. Let's control costs and do what's best for the racers!
That said, this race cannot be sustained on 230 entries (up from 222 last year) unless there is a huge infusion of sponsor dollars or other sources of income. We have not been over 300 entries since 2007 and not over 400 since 2005. We need to be back into that range. So we need these new racers to keep coming here and others to bring their friends back. We can't spare expenses any closer than we already have without ruining the atmosphere and safety of the event. For example, we spend $6,000 on three ambulances and $7,500 on police before we even put a kart on the track. Those are expenses no other kart race has because of the size of our event, its street-race nature and the thousands of spectators.
EKN: When you mention the community, I think the Rock Island area has benefitted from the influx of karters into the area during the holiday weekend with the hotels, restaurants, and local establishments. Has the feedback been always positive from those in the area?
RR: Keep in mind that from Day 1, this has been much more than just a kart race. Our planning has always involved equal parts of focus on racing, spectators and the community in general. First, let's look at why we picked Labor Day Weekend. The town was dead, hotel empty, it was the end of summer and the Monday holiday gave racers a day to drive home. Today? The Convention and Visitor's Bureau estimates that the Rock Island Grand Prix has an economic impact on the community of $2.2 million - that includes money spent by racers, and both out-of-town and local spectators. Even more if you consider those dollars turn over 2 or 3 times. We've come a long way.
Finally, you need to understand that this is just one piece of a summer of activities in our Downtown Rock Island Arts & Entertainment District. It starts Memorial Day Weekend with the 32 year-old Modern Woodmen Bank Quad City Criterium bike races. In June we have Gumbo YaYa - a 2-day Mardi Gras themed-festival. July is the Red, White and Boom July 4 celebration. August offers Ya Maka My Weekend, a 2-day Caribbean cultural festival. And then the Grand Prix. There are other smaller one-day events, outdoor concerts, not-for-profit events and such also held in The District too. But the point I am getting to is that the downtown is used to closing off streets and having a party. And business owners are happy to welcome tourists to down. It's part of our DNA.
That said, there have been a few businesses that still aren't happy - mainly that streets are blocked and closed. Over the years we have worked with them on a case-by-case basis to try and overcome their objections and make things as easy as possible for their customers. But in the end, we are putting thousands of potential customers past the front doors of businesses who might not have ever know those businesses existed had they not come to downtown Rock Island for the Grand Prix, or one of the other festivals. Some accept the opportunity and others close for the weekend and enjoy the holiday. But that's a powerful opportunity for those who choose to try and take advantage of it.
EKN: Certainly, the Rock Island Grand Prix is like no other event in North America or around the world. I, along with many others, think the event is the best on and off the track. Thank you Roger for your time and we look forward to many more events in the future.
RR: Thank you. |
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