The latest short course races under the direction of TORC as well as LOORS were very similar in many aspects.
Here are some of the similarities from Oshkosh and Glen Helen.
1. - Both were very short tracks - each were approximately .8 mile in length.
2. - Both were held at night.
3. - Both had overflow crowds.
4. - Both had the front gate turning customers away.
5. - Both had incredible racing, with positive feedback from racers as well as fans.
6. - Both were promoted properly to get the fans to the track.
7. - Both had new faces in the sport land on the podium.
8. - Both had the largest Sportsman racer turnout of the year for their respective series.
9. - Both venues didn't have the largest fan turnout of the year, but the energy in the crowd sure made it seem like they were.
10. - Both venues has some missed steps, but their future is very bright.
I could go on and on, but my point is if the facility is located in the proper market, promoted and marketed to the community, spectators will get to the track and fill the stands.
I'm from the Midwest, but have been a spectator at my share of West Coast short-course events. Glen Helen in many respects is like Crandon West. The property is iconic, in the Motocross world as well as in the short course world. I remember wanting to go to the Glen Helen and race against the Class 10 (today's Super Buggy) elite.
(Greg George, Glen Harris, Jerry Whelchel, the Gilman's, and others but we never made the trek. Fortunately in the 70s & 80s they came back my way to places like Lake Geneva and Montreal).
Now with past and present stars of Supercross, Motocross, Freestyle, and Super Moto racing with four wheels under them at Glen Helen & Oshkosh, it brings together today's action sports heros with yesterday's super heros as they take on the stars of short course like Huseman, the Greaves, Renezeder, Menzies, the George's, & others.
Lucas Oil brought all of them together to the right location and bam! an event many will talk about for years to come.
The same thing happened at the TORC Oshkosh event, the event was held in the Fox Valley of eastern Wisconsin. The population base for the area that runs from Fond du Lac north to Green Bay, approximately 700,000. The majority of the MORR membership/TORC Sportsman competitors come from this area. The promoters of the event are also residents of the valley and off-road racers. The right promotional work was done via television, radio, and at several types of motorsports events leading up to the weekend. It was billed as the event your came watch today's superheros in the PRO division(Greaves,RJ, McGrath, Huseman, Douglas, etc) and the stars of tomorrow (Gerald, Vanden Huevel,Greaves, Dorr, etc.) in the Sportsman classes. All the hard work paid off. Now PRO racers want two weekends of racing in Oshkosh for 2011.
These events were more like Mickey Thompson's vision of off-road racing.
- Create short tracks with the fans right on top of the action.
- The competition is a combination of top racers in other forms of motorsports as well as off-road racing's home-grown talent competing at the highest level.
- Then go out and promote this aspect so motorsports fans outside of the off-road community pay for the price of admission.
What was different with Glen Helen and Oskhosh was the venue, they aren't the cavernous stadiums of stick and ball sports. These are locations synonymous with off-road racing, where 5,000 fans created the atmosphere of a crowd three times it size.(In the future, I'm pretty sure both will have seating for 15,000)
I don't know if either sanctioning body had Mickey Thompson's Off-Road Gran Prix in mind when creating events at these locations, but looking back at some of the events' aspects, Mickey's short-course torch is still burning strong.
- Mike Reusche
mtgraphics@ymail.com
philsinc@ymail.com
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