Ben, I'm running way behind on e-mail, being away from the 'puters over the
holidays. (Oh, and you'll have to e-mail me at my home account,
autojim@att.net, because DCX's mailbots blow anything from Juno, Netzero,
Hotmail, Yahoo, and the other "free" e-mail systems straight to the bit
bucket, unless you have a "real" mail account somewhere. I don't like it,
but that's how it is.)
Anyway, what you're proposing here amounts to a LARGE format change for
most autocrossers who have never done a "Mirrorkhana" or "NOPI Shootout"
-style event (which are variants of the not-often-run Australian Pursuit
event style). I'm sure they're fun, but the point is that it's NOT really
"autocross" in the traditional sense. Look at average ProSolo (an
alternate format to autocross) turnout versus National Tour turnouts at the
same sites (like Peru, Indiana, Jacksonville a couple years ago, etc.) to
take out the "location" variance and you'll see the Tours pull twice as
many entrants as the Pros on average over several years. Lesson here?
More people like the "traditional" autocross format than the alternative
ProSolo format. Rocky's Mirrorkhana is popular in his area, but it's only
one event a year.
Secondly, choosing 3 classes (or consolidating down to 3 classes) will
thoroughly disenfranchise the entrants. Making two of the 3 classes with
prep rules not currently in Solo (the World Challenge specs you propose)
will further decimate the entry base. Have you looked at the cost of
building a competitive World Challenge car lately? I have. I'm talking
about taking my cumulative Street Prepared budget and adding at least one
zero just to get on the track, and probably another zero to build a
competitive car. Not exactly a realistic expectation of the grassroots
motorsports competitor.
Thirdly, your comparisons with drag racing and oval racing are off the
mark. What gets on TV from those sports? NHRA Pro categories (Top Fuel,
Fuel Funny Car, Pro Stock, Pro Stock Motorcycle), some IHRA Pro categories
whenever their sponsors scrape together enough money to buy airtime, and
top-level USAC sprints and midgets and World of Outlaws sprint cars and
DIRT SuperModifieds -- have you noticed the number of semi-trailers now in
the paddock areas of those sports? The grassroots guys running Street
Stock at the Tulsa Speedway don't get TV time. Hell, the winged sprints
running the regional series (at the Tulsa Speedway, OKC speedway, Devil's
Bowl in Texas, Coffeyville, KS, etc.) don't get TV time.
Probably the closest comparison to autocross, import drag racing gets a
half-hour show periodically on SpeedVision, but that's paid for entirely by
sponsors like NOPI and is excruciatingly bad to watch -- I've watched
several of their events now and when the finals of several classes are
bye-runs because people broke and couldn't make it to the start line and,
even then, the winner is only running on 2 cylinders and mosquito-fogging
the track to a blazing 17-second run (vs the 10s they ran in the early
rounds before breaking the motor), it's not racing, it's whose mechanics
were able to Frankenstein the car back together enough to let it move under
its own power for a quarter mile.
Fourthly, the reason other "marginal" sports (lawn mower racing, lumberjack
games, JetSkis, even Unlimited Hydroplane boat racing) get TV time is
because sponsors BUY it -- Stihl (chainsaw maker) buys time for lumberjack
games, for instance, and Sta-bil (a fuel stabilizer additive for engines
that don't get used much, like lawn equipment) buys it for lawnmower
racing. The US Hot Rod Association and its sponsors buy the airtime and
pay for show production of tractor pulls and monster truck races. Subaru
pays to air SCCA ProRally events -- SCCA certainly doesn't! SpeedVision
airs World Challenge because they sponsor it. The airtime is the bulk of
the dollar value of the sponsorship package, too. That doesn't mean we
couldn't convince a company to buy airtime for autocross, and pay to
produce the show, hire the announcers, etc. But others far better versed
in the world of TV production have told you, you're gonna spend well over
$100K to get a half-hour of GOOD finished product produced and aired. For
one event. If there's a 10 event season, that's $1,000,000. Pocket change
to major corporations, but more "play with it" money than anyone in
autocross outside of a few of the Microsoft-money guys in NWRegion has
likely ever seen. And I don't think that even series title sponsors like
Tire Rack are going to be willing to pony up that kind of cash.
Fifthly, driver/crew uniforms and a uniform car appearance for autocrossers
was attempted once before, or have you forgotten the Pro Series abortion in
1999? That mucked with the class structure a lot, mucked with the event
format a little bit, "strongly suggested" driver/crew uniforms and REQUIRED
a uniform car graphics appearance, and was met with such stinging backlash
that I'm sure parts of Howard's psyche still smart from the experience.
The reason it was popped into being? To try to come up with a more
"TV-friendly" package. Hell, I don't see a lot of crew uniforms or custom
driver's suits in World Challenge, Pro Spec Racer Ford, Pro Vee, or even
uniformly through the TransAm and CART Toyota Atlantic paddocks. When
you're on a shoestring budget and all your money goes into car parts and
travel, usually your crew are volunteers and/or relatives and they usually
only get travel and meals covered. Uniforms are for when you get a
sponsor.
What I think you're proposing, Ben, is really a separate type of event that
takes elements of autocross, but is really a unique "made for TV" creation.
Not to say that it's wrong, but you can't say it's "autocross on TV". It's
really "something kinda like autocross *for* TV".
Jim Crider
autojim@att.net
>>>>Original Message Edited for Brevity<<<<
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 12:28:05 -0500
From: bthatch@juno.com
Subject: Re: [Solo2Atlanta] Why most autocrossers don't want their sport on
TV
In order to be TV friendly, I would envision several things would need to
be put in place.
1. Feature a very limited number of classes (like 3 maximum) that have
2. Use a "Shootout" or "Mirrorkhana" format utilizing a drag race start
3. Strict visual standards must be there so the cars and crews (with
4. A GREAT production crew who can put all the above together in a fast
5. Last but the most important, a great sponsor to fund all this. We tend
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