I sent this message a few days ago and it never showed up. My test message
got through, so I know I haven't been pitched out for failing to pay my
dues.
One more try...
What we've seen in the West is that more and more the exotica stays home. No
one really want to have their five million buck Ferrari flogged by a
TR3--and they generally are. Assuming we'd all like to see these cars show
up (I certainly do). Clubs need to work to reverse this trend by having more
reason for those folks to come--whatever that means. They also need a lot
more interesting stuff like the MG-Triumph challenge.
There's currently only two kinds of events--the biggies like Monterey, and
the club stuff where you don't care if anyone but the racers come. The
latter events cost less but are starting to attract fewer entrants,
especially those of the big buck variety. Maybe it's just me, but except for
a few events like Monterey and the Wine Country, a lot of the pizzazz is
gone from vintage events. Even the little club events used to reliably draw
a good slate of interesting cars. For me, this is dij` vu all over
again--I've seen it in Motorcycle racing, in the old flat track racing, in
speedway, even in Windsurfing. We seem to headed into a cycle that's a lot
like every other sport, where the bloom comes off a bit, and the grids
shrink for smaller events while they grow in the larger ones because they do
more promotion and have a better base of interest. Eventually the small
events become too much of a financial risk to support and they go away.
>From my perspective what's lacking is imagination and energy. Low key, high
track time events don't need to be so boring for the non-racers.
I'm trying to build a model--we'll se how it turns out.
The race that I'm working on--the Columbia River Classic on Labor Day at PIR
will have tons of track time--almost too much. But we're going to try to
make a mini-goodwood out of it. Welcoming party, VIP treatment for drivers,
special guests, super bands (yes, more than one, perhaps as many as five
really great sub-national bands), great food, special non-track events
throughout the day, spectators in period clothing (whatever that means to
them). Truth is that there is no reason why an entertaining,
spectator-involving event can't have plenty of track time as long as you
keep the spectators off the track. And entertainment for the non-drivers
will push the gate enough to generate a lot of money for charity.
Personally I'm tired of lame track parties with rubber chicken and a lousy
band. I threw better parties than that when all I could afford was a keg,
some spaghetti, and some "special oregano" to flavor the meatballs.
We're going to have both a Can-Am grid AND an all-British handicap
challenge--a relatively long race that mixes all forms of closed wheel brit
cars with a starting handicap based on your track time. I've raced in these
before--they are a blast. You wind up lapping by yourself for six laps then
passing and being passed like mad for the last four.
I don't believe in just talking about stuff, that's the easy part. This
labor day, all of you who can possibly make it need to come. I guarantee a
great time. I'm only going to do it once--my plan is to give this event a
big push, establish a model for how a club race can be bigger and better
than they are without becoming a huge for-profit circus, and see how far it
can go.
Be there.
Bill Babcock
Babcock & Jenkins
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