I think Gene's post has correctly identified the problem with our lowering participation numbers.
Like any social or other group, generally a groups make up is structured with the "haves" and "have not's". Not meaning to be derogatory to any one sector, the FA guys have a very low percentage of "have not's" in that group. F500 has the just the opposite make up. Among my golfing buddies it's the same with skill level. There are however two factors consistent with the "what happened to the F500 class number" situation. (1) about 2002/2003 we started losing numbers and (2) about the same period different sectors of the economy started "tightening up". In my opinion...F500 would have a resurgence of car owners back racing if the price of gas was again $1.70 a gallon and entry fees were $50 to $75 less. Louie Schultz Philly Region, SCCA September 15 & 16, 2007 @ Watkins Glen Formula Car Magazine F500 Challenge Cup Presented by Hoosier With Additional Support From SUNOCO The Glen Motor Inn Lakewood Vineyards Sunset View Creamery > It scares me too, and I don't yet have a National ticket. But I think > I have some idea of why the numbers in this class have fallen so much > more precipitously than some other classes. F500 is truly (no offense > meant, so if you take some keep it to yourself) a bottom feeders class. > By that I mean that, due to the low cost of competing, many of the > competitors are very budget limited. If the cost of racing goes up > 10%, a much larger proportion of F500 drivers will drop out or reduce > race entries compared to, say, FA drivers. I know that's very true in > my case; after a long "discussion" with Medicare and my health > insurance company, we now owe a 4 digit balance for some physical > therapy my wife needed. Due to that unexpected expense, I have scaled > back my planned season and will not be able to get my National in time > to add to our numbers this season. I WILL have a National going into > next season (unless the car breaks catastrophically), so if we manage > to make it through this season, I'll add my participation. If we > don't, well, I'll just race Regional and continue to flag the > Nationals. > > Gene near Seattle > > On Apr 15, 2007, at 6:50 AM, Jay Novak wrote: > > > It just scares me to see > > our National entry numbers drop by about 60% from 5 years ago to last > > year & > > now down another 20% this year. For the life of me I can't see why our > > numbers have fallen so quickly. ________________________________ FormulaCar Magazine - A Proud Supporter of Formula 500 The Official Publication of Junior Formula Car Racing Subscribe Today! www.formulacarmag.com or 519-624-2003 _________________________________ _______________________________________________ F500 mailing list - [email protected] To unsubscribe or change options please visit: http://f500.org/mailman/listinfo/f500 *** Please, DO NOT send unsubscribe requests to the mailing list! ***
