Jim, Thanks for the reply. I wish it were that easy to share a road race ride. I do have the car club from a local high school here in Memphis coming out to the R/N race in May. Maybe I can figure out a way to get some of them interested in an SCCA school with the free use of my Red Devil. Cory
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I was autocrossing a Spitfire that was eating engines at an alarming rate. At least around here, we try to be very generous with co-drives, fun runs, whatever. I have offered rides to more than those who have taken us up on the offer. Jeff Blumenthal certainly has managed to share more, but I try to keep up. I guess that is something different in solo than road racing. We shared cars as quick as someone could ask. ----- Original Message ---- From: Cory McLeod To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 6:22:20 PM Subject: Re: [F500] Attrition, Cost and other Factors assc w/ class numbers Jim, How did you get the free ride - winning it, knowing somebody, etc? Were you already an SCCA member and/or autocross driver? This is an interesting idea. Cory [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I got a free ride in a car at an autocross and bought one weeks later. I hated them up to that point. I thought they were silly and obnoxious. That obviously changed quickly. jim ----- Original Message ---- From: Cory McLeod To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 4:00:21 PM Subject: Re: [F500] Attrition, Cost and other Factors assc w/ class numbers Steve, Great comments about young people and racing budgets. Instead of focusing only on karters that are racing on daddy's nickle (who will move on, lose interest, or stop racing when daddy's nickle runs out), maybe we should also be trying to figure out how to attract ex-karters and other racing fans that are at a point in life where they can afford to race? This means at least 28-30 years old. How do we reach them? Cory Steven Dodd wrote: Fellow racers, one major issue to our class is attrition. We have lost many of our senior guys while other classes seem to be able to retain them for 20 plus years FF & FV. We lost two senior guys here for this season and it is a true loss. Where are you seniors moving too? Cost to get into SCCA racing kills us when we are trying to attract cost conscious racers. It cost sooo much to go take Skip Barber in terms of Dollars or take SCCA schools in terms of time. If I wanted to get a budget minded racer involved I would have to wait until Dec' school to help them get started. Its a long wait then 500 bucks. Other factors, we could do better as far as recuitment. FV guys routinely recruit and offer test drives. How many of us do that. If you have a car sitting idlely by, offer it to a karter, a Spec Miata guy or even a Porsche racer. Get them behind the wheel, and the wheels start turning. I fully agree with those of you who have posted concerning economics. We (SCCA Club Racing) are just out of range for the majority of our economy. We have a shrinking upper middle class here. Its hard to race unless your house income is over 80k per year. Housing prices, gas prices etc are helping to thin our numbers further. It is difficult to stomach gassing up the F250 w/ 2.99 gas and hauling four hours to a race. Can you imagine how those people who make under 50k feel? New college grads are lucky to pull 38k here. Its hard to afford racing & eating at that level. Racing a kart is so much cheaper. My bike racing cost was about the same as F5 except that racing school cost was about the same as a nice dinner out. My injury rate was higher. Steven --------------------------------- Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos. --------------------------------- Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos. --------------------------------- Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos. ________________________________ 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! ***
