Temp Street Circuits are the answer

Preston Peebles · Joined: 19 Jul 2001 Posts: 138 Location: Afghanistan,

Running with other events that already draw fans, tv, etc. is great ideas and all, but..

How will you become a professional sport being a sideshow?

The biggest thing karting needs in my opinion is outside of the karting industry sponsorship. Bill, you and I have talked about this before. For example; 'Pepsi GP' If you get big money, you can create big shows, right?

I may be wrong, but I think that has something to do with it!

John Denman

Yahoo, Bill, that was a bullseye!

I trust you were in Austin. Wow this was the best karting event I have ever run. The track was phenominal with no room for error. The best drivers were the ones who made it through the weekend without bending an axle.....

The whole way home my son & I conversed over the same set of topics.

It would seem that a series that was based on temporary street courses timed with local civic festivals would be the best solution to address the exposure side. This would also require the highest caliber of drivers who are trustworthy and careful as well as fast. Note there were 3 red flags in the 80jr race that halved the field of 16.

I have discussed this with a City Council member in McKinney (also my neighbor), who thinks it would be very possible to pull together in McKinney. Hmmmm.

The pitfalls are many, and usually have $ signs attached, but temp street/parking lot courses attached to some sort of festival is definately the way to go. How many Sports Car races are held at Fairgrounds? That seemed to be the staple for spectator growth with IMSA.

Are you thinking of taking some initiative with this concept Bill?

Rob Hogenmiller · Joined: 20 Jul 2001 Posts: 850

quote:
Originally posted by Bill Talley:
I strongly feel that the only way that we are EVER going to get the Pro side of this sport off the ground is to attach to larger events.

Bill,

While I'd certainly agree that it would be nice to attach events. Your statement of it is the ONLY way is far from the truth.

Look at Rock Island Grand Prix and the Barrie Grand Prix. Karting is the main attraction at these events and draw good crowds.

If you want karting to be a PRO Sport then we should be pressuring promoters & organizations to charge for attendance like every other PRO Sport does and create events that do draw people. It doesn't make sense to keep returning to race tracks that draw 50 people to watch and letting people watch for free if you wanted it to be a Pro Sport.

Maybe a few Supercross events, a few larger car races, maybe a large fair. These would all supply the base attendance that we lack. IT would give vendors a chance to sell product and allow more exposure than we have ever had.

Sounds like a free ride to me. Karting has to be an added value drawing more people to the event to make it worth their while. How does drawing off their attendance base for kartings exposure gain help it become a Pro Sport? Exposure doesn't put dollars into the program. It means very little at becoming a Pro Sport, it's great for building the Sport but very little for Pro Sport.

Supercross for example. The facility has already been rented. Haybails are there, there is ample room no matter where it is held. There are thousands in attendance. Cameras are already there, TV crews are already there, local news is already there, the event has already been advertised.

Sounds like another free ride. What's in it for them to have karting there?

I would not doubt that there is another reason that Pace or some other large organization has not latched on to us.

Seems like ProKarting would have added value to there SuperBike series they run. I mean it's not that big of a series (Formula USA) and could use something like karting. Has anyone approached Pace? I doubt karting is that attractive for them to take the iniatitive.

Eventually we need to all let the whole PI issue rest, stop adding classes and reducing events, stop letting sub standard drivers into pro classes (no exceptions).

Wouldn't that be great on the PI box. What would be a substandard driver? I mean cmon your only getting 30 drivers showing up for a Pro race. If you limit anymore your not even going to have a race. That's why you have Qualifying to get a good field of drivers. I couldn't disagree with you more. Open up the restrictions and let the racing determine Who is the best not a piece of paper.

In the Pro shifter community, I don't care how many triads, or Duffy's someone has, 90% of the time they will get smoked at a promoto.

The ProMoto has done a good job of drawing out talent. The sport isn't really that bad and doesn't have that many problems.

Has there ever been a series that has drawn out this much talent in the past? (Only been around karting since Jul 99' so don't know)

We are all so worried about all this trivial stuff and the real problem is that we have our Lemonade Stand set-up in the garage with the door closed. Great lemonade but who will ever know about it.

Who do you want to know about the Pro Sport of Karting? and If they did know about it how would things change?

All those Questions are 100% serious, hoping to getting a response not meant to be as a way to shoot down your opinions.

Would love to see shifterkarting developed into a true Professional sport where drivers could make a living doing it and it would be financially wise for teams to be involved.

Rob Hogenmiller
rob@nationalkarting.com
www.nationalkarting.com

[ August 07, 2001: Message edited by: Rob Hogenmiller ]

Bill Talley · Joined: 07 Aug 2001 Posts: 74

We're not even a side show right now.

I think the Supercross deal is realistic. When was the last time you went to a Supercross during the day? Exactly...most people go at night. I think that we could provide a level of intensity that would draw early crouds who would come to see the racing. Bottom line...even at the Pepsi Grand Prix in Barrie, which was nice, there wasn't a fraction of the people that attend a Supercross.

Sideshow or not, This is what needs to happen. IT's stable, it draws the crowds that we are interested in and that spend money on our type of products and gizmos, I'm sure, very quickly, bonds would be made between some of the Supercross teams. It even opens up the possibility of eventually piggybacking teams.

This takes a little dreaming guys but the reality is easliy pictured. As it is now, we should just all go to some centrally located secret location 6 or 8 times a year and race the heck out of each other because that's all we are doing. Our exposure is soooooooo small. I know everyone is trying, but I think we need a boost until we can stand on our own.

thanks

Bill
SpeedLab

(edit grammer)

[ August 08, 2001: Message edited by: Bill Talley ]

Drew Cleaver

quote:
Originally posted by John Denman:
Drew, did you find Austin a any more exciting then the other 3 races?

I found it exciting and a whole lot more mentally hard more than physically. You can't screw up or something will get broken/bent and that does include bones. But it was quite exciting, and I'll bet my broken spindles the fans enjoyed it as well. I haven't been to Barrie, I wonder how the Cedar Park race and Barrie compare in a festival way. Not the racing, the things for the spectators and such.

Drew Cleaver www.vmaxracing.cjb.net

Mark Schmidt

I spoke with one of the casino's here in Kansas City about 8 months ago about doing a night race in there big lite parking lot. THey thought they could do one heck of a tie in with one of their other advertising campaign's. To be honest I just did not have the energy to follow up on it and was not sure the racers would showe up for a night race in a parking lot.

But it would have been one heck of a draw for people already headed to the place.

Brian Kay

Bill is right on.

Our sport would benefit in so many ways that are easy to imagine in the short term. In the long run, the benefits of bringing our show to THAT demographic are almost incalcuable!! (is that a word?)

If being a "side show" is what it takes to drag our sport (kicking and screaming all the way) out of the shadows, so be it!! Why should we be "the best kept secret in motorsports" How stupid is that?

Now, let's figure out how to make it happen.

Brian K - T2 RaceKarts

Doug Welch

I like Bill's ideas. Barrie, while it may not have as many folks as a SuperCross, it was one heck of a show. We have raced all over this country and nothing was as much fun as Barrie for us. Having fans, how cool is that. If every PMT was like that, it wouldn't take long before karting was on its own.

Doug

Mike Young · Joined: 19 Jul 2001 Posts: 33

Some of the posts talk about the racing being a sideshow and that being bad but I haven't seen anything relating to the biggest sideshow I have seen in my life...Monster Truck's. Just a few short years ago these guys were driving at county fairs and now they are televised on TNN, sell-out indoor arenas, and most importantly IMO, have MAJOR sponsorship. Sponsorship is the key and that is why tagging on to a motocross event makes the most sense. Every manufacturer who makes parts for dirtbike engines and the fluids that go in them also makes parts for shifters, and since they are there spending some of their sponsorship money why wouldn't they push a little to the karting community. You guys buy their stuff too. All this talk about being big-time makes me want to sell my KT100 and get a shifter