Wildtoyota (from a Ross Hoek forum post) I understand your view about being the show.
In NASCAR there's no entry fees, but every time you go thru tech inspection its $1500 per race. and if you fail tech that weekend, its another $1500 every time you come back that day.
The fees to get your team, crew, & sponsors, a NASCAR hardcard for every event is astronomical. It can be easily in the 6 figures (for your team)for the year. These teams put on the show in front a huge audience, and still pay their way in to race.
I'm not saying that its right that the show has pay it was in is right, but it is what it is.
What has to happen is the race purses must expand. Make sure the majority of the racers get something back they are running at the finish.
Back in the 70's and 80's this was happening with the formation of Championship races at the end of the race weekend at places like Lake Geneva and Crandon. These were no entry fee races, the purse was put up by a sponsor, many times it was BFG or another tire manufacturer. To qualify for the Champ race, all you had to do was start one of the races during that weekend.
First place didn't pay a huge amount, but the 25th place finisher got enough to cover his gas money or maybe his $75 class race entry fee.
Granted this was 25-30 years ago and 115 octane race fuel was only $7.00/gal and pump gas was $1, but it was something we all looked forward to when they came to Lake Geneva, and the early days of short course racing at Crandon.
Ever check the cost of local club SCCA racing? It can cost $300 to run a 15-20 minute race and the winner gets a plaque. But before you can race you need to spent the time and money to go to driving school to be approved to race.
If you have a drag car that runs 10 second passes. It must be inspected, for a fee, by an official NHRA inspector to run any national or regional event. This includes getting blind folded while strapped into your race vehicle and turning off all the power and removing yourself from the vehicle in under a certain amount of time.
Cost to run a race even if the workers are mostly volunteers, insurance, electricity, track maintainance, etc. all have a price. Motorsports is a business, and businesses need to make a profit to survive.
It may not seem fair that the show pays its way in, but it does.
Competition Yellow -
But when you can't get a limitation on HP for PRO2 and PRO4 and the tire technology isn't keeping up, and drivetrains take a beating as well, getting a field of trucks to make it to the checkered flag is a problem when they are making a television broadcast out of the race.
Unlike other from of PRO racing, the only qualification off-road racing has that determines a PRO from a Sportsman is how much money you have to spend on your race vehicle. Until TORC & LOORS can come up with way to keep the bone head drivers with tons of money out of the PROs, you will have a portion of the field that will excessively bang and crash and destroy equipment for no apparent reason, except to be a 2 second highlight during the broadcast. At the peak of PRO-2 racing on the West Coast this was very evident.
This doesn't seem to be much of a problem in the Buggy classes, just at the PRO side.
I'm not directing this post at anyone in particular, but i've been in and around this sport a good thirty years, and the remarks from the masses have been the same for many years. I think short course racing is the best thing out there. I hope it continues to grow.
The problems this industry face can't be remedied in a day or a year, it takes time, and it takes consistent leadership over a long period of time to get where all participants in short course off-road racing have a place to race, enjoy the competition, and maybe take home a few $$s along the way.
-Mike Reusche - my view from on top of the hauler.
