I've seen the same kind of discussions come up in the motorcycle roadracing
clubs. Usually someone thinks the club should scrimp on a couple of worker's
paychecks or the volunteer benefits to try to keep enty fees down. When you
start to look at the budget you see one glaring thing. The main costs are
track rent, insurance, and ambulance. There's nothing the club can do to make
these go away. For land speed throw in porta-potties. If fees go up in any of
these then entry fees go up. The other stuff just doesn't have much impact.
The only thing that would help is if we could get the vehicle manufacturers
back into competing for bragging rights. Get Ford, Chevy, Toyota, Honda,
Harley, Kawasaki buying salt time and maybe club racers can ride on their shirt
tails. TV and magazine coverage are what bring this about. Bikes have seen a
little of this bragging again with the Hayabusa/ZX12 competition. Good for
Suzuki/Kawasaki. Good for us.
Simon Smith
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