Mordy's right on. The fixed costs of a track event at most well known
facilities is a bunch of coins. In addition, most tracks are fully subscribed
on weekends and it is very hard for an unknown organization to organize a race
and get it properly insured. Aligning with an existing organization brings tons
of benefits and lowered risk of financial disaster.
A couple of years ago, another great stand alone event had to throw in the towel
and align with a major organization. The Formula Vee birthday party, that drew
well over 100 entry's every five years became the featured marque for the BRIC
in '98.
For a current lesson on the risks of trying to start up new events, look at VDCA
here in the southeast. They started a year ago this month. They have a
wonderful plan and a good program. However, they have yet to put on a race that
has more than about 60 entrants. I seriously doubt that they are anywhere near
breaking even. If it were not for the deep pockets of the true believers behind
the organization, they would have folded.
Maybe if the TRs graced a smaller event than the SVRA Mid-O date we could
leverage a larger chunk of track time. Part of both the good news and bad news
at Mid-O is that there are a lot of entries.
Mordy Dunst wrote:
> Renting any track is probably duable with enough coin (gold coin..). We
> (fot) are not a recognized organization nor sanctioned to run any race. I
> would hazard to guess that any insurance underwriter would not take kindely
> to us. Unless we get a tax exempt racing club charter with by-laws
> /dues/...and elected board members.
>
> I'm not sure how other groups do it i.e. the POC (porsche owners club..) .
> My wife used to race her 911 in this group and ran Watkins, Mossport and
> others.....I should just ask her how much it cost.. She chided me me some
> time ago that the Porsche peope spent substantially more $ than the TR
> types...
>
> I think that the only way for us to get any reasonable safe track is to do
> it under the auspices of a Sanctioning / vintage race club. Preferrably a
> club that has some leverage and one that finds it in their interest to
> assist us....Especially, if it was billed as a speciallty unique marque
> event allowing them to make $ at the gate. It does not matter which
> vintage race club (to me) as long as they allow us to play and have a GOOD
> time racing...
>
> If I have to tow a couple thousand miles, take three days and 300 gals of
> diesel (one way) -paying a a premium to race is not the issue...SEAT TIME
> IS.
> It reminds me of the time I used to save money by driving to the Snow Ski
> resort while in college. Took two days to get there one day to ski and two
> days to get back... And I thought I was having a good time.
>
> Corporate sponsorship is something to look at ..but, which ? I'm tired of
> bugging the usual suspects.
>
> Mordy Dunst
> Gasket Works USA, LLC
> www.headgasket.com
> 626-358-1616 voice/fax
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