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What's it take to start a region??


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Posted

I've been thinking about this the last few days. I'm in the middle of Kansas with no less than 4 tracks all within 5 hours from me and with any luck there will be a 5th soon thanks to Kevin Rodgers. HPT, Hallett, Hastings, MAM and hopefully soon Genoa. Hastings and MAM have NASA events, but that leaves out HPT and Hallett. Id think that a solid 8 race season could be made up from running these 4 tracks.

 

Rocky mountain region is generally out of reach and the Midwest region is worse, Texas is about the same all at 8-10 hour tows. Maybe I'm just not hardcore enough to think I can tow 500+ miles, race Sat/Sun and turn around and haul everything home. I know there are guys that do it, but what if they didnt have to? What would it take to start an AI "Central Region?" Thanks for taking the time to read and reply to my more than likely misguided idea. I appreciate your input and replies.

 

Thanks,

Anthony Dail

Posted

Wow, 32 views and no replies. Is it that bad or that difficult of a question to answer?

Posted

Contact John Lindsey AKA: JWL on this board, Jerry Kunzman or Ryan Flarety or go to the National site and start making phone calls to National get get started.

Posted

The short answer to the question you posed in the thread title is "lots of time, money, and dedication."

Posted

I don't live out there so I don't know demand.

 

I would run numbers and make sure you have enough attendance possible to more then break-even.

 

In the SE I know Jim was out of pocket the first few years.

 

Talk to some of those folks.

Good luck!!

Posted

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think there's a good demand for HPDEs especially at HPT. Alot of folks in the KC area love to run open track events. That's where I think 90% of the "central" region would get it's participants. Might have to do HPDEs for the first year or so to get the word out and eventually work up to racing in a year or two. That's just an idea it all depends on the demand. If there's no demand then the race gets cancelled, kinda like MAM did in '05.

 

I would think that a HPDE event would gross more than a race weekend. Less resources to pour into the event if it's an HPDE only. That would help the proposed Central Region take a big step in the right direction.

I'm new to this but already I see several tracks centrally located that are sitting idle this year with 0 NASA events because none of the regions want to travel that far. Midwest is debating MAM, HPT isn't going to happen last time I checked and Texas is leaving out Hallett this year too. That's three great tracks right there that a central region would open up to NASA members/racers to run on a yearly basis. I think it would draw people in from other regions to run if there was an event at the tracks listed.

 

Now I'd like honest opinions from the guys that have been around for awhile.

Is this a good idea?

 

Do you think there is a demand for NASA racing here?

 

If there was a Central region running would you travel to run a race here?

 

Is my wife going to divorce me because of this?

 

Anthony

Posted
Thanks for the replies everyone. I think there's a good demand for HPDEs especially at HPT. Alot of folks in the KC area love to run open track events. That's where I think 90% of the "central" region would get it's participants. Might have to do HPDEs for the first year or so to get the word out and eventually work up to racing in a year or two. That's just an idea it all depends on the demand. If there's no demand then the race gets cancelled, kinda like MAM did in '05.

 

I would think that a HPDE event would gross more than a race weekend. Less resources to pour into the event if it's an HPDE only. That would help the proposed Central Region take a big step in the right direction.

I'm new to this but already I see several tracks centrally located that are sitting idle this year with 0 NASA events because none of the regions want to travel that far. Midwest is debating MAM, HPT isn't going to happen last time I checked and Texas is leaving out Hallett this year too. That's three great tracks right there that a central region would open up to NASA members/racers to run on a yearly basis. I think it would draw people in from other regions to run if there was an event at the tracks listed.

 

Now I'd like honest opinions from the guys that have been around for awhile.

Is this a good idea?

 

Do you think there is a demand for NASA racing here?

 

If there was a Central region running would you travel to run a race here?

 

Is my wife going to divorce me because of this?

 

Anthony

 

Anthony,

Do YOU want to start a NASA Cental Division?

It would be alot of work. Ask Dave Balingit here in RMR.

Last year all we had was HPDE, he lucked out and found some of us disgruntled SCCA A sedan guys that were just waiting for something

better to come along. I would'nt change places with Dave way to much to worry about.

 

 

RayBob the newly elected "RMR AI/CMC Honcho"

Posted

Starting a NASA region is hard work. Not impossible by any means, but it is hard work.

 

 

You need few things to make it happen.

 

1) Tracks that you can get time at. So just because you have track 10 minutes away can you actually get weekend date there. Some tracks have lots of orgs seeking track time any they may say we don't have any open dates.

 

2) you need core group of DE and racer types.

 

Now I don't know much more, but I do think you should contact the nation guys, John, Jerry & Ryan. They can help you understand what you need to do get a region going probably can help you understand if you may have enough people to make it viable. NASA in general is very pro growth and I am sure would love to see NASA region local to everyone in the US.

Posted

Of course this should be moved into another forum, but let me add a few things.

 

 

$$$. We've dropped about $40k of our own money this year to get the region started. We will start to make money in 2008 according to our financials.

 

Hours. Now that we're done for the season, I'm spending about 10hours/week on NASA stuff. During the season prior to a big weekend, figure 60-70 hours and 20-30 hours maintainance for non race weeks. Count of having to sometimes leave for the track on Thursday and come home on Monday.

 

Travel. Start working on travelling to different regions to see how things are run. I spent 10+ years under the NorCal umbrella and saw many things that worked and many things Jerry and Ali would prefer not to ever mention again . Raced many times in Socal. Spent time with MidAtlantic, Texas and Phoenix.

 

Staff. You can't do it alone. You need specialty chiefs (communications, tech, grid, T&S). You need a solid HPDE Chief Instructor and group leaders. We were blessed by finding a Chief (and group leaders) that run the program over a weekend and we rarely lift a finger to make it happen. Besides the key players, you need corner workers, grid, T&S, registration - the obvious stuff. Non obvious places you need help - front gate, BBQ/Beer staff. Biggest find will be a trained safety and tow crew. If you can rent from the track you'll be off to a good start, but some tracks don't have the resouces.

 

Give up driving for the first year (maybe two) unless you find some real good folks. I was able to race the last weekend of the season since my staff bascially forced me into the car .

 

 

Of course much of this extra time and $$ is getting things off the ground. Once it takes off, *some* of the time you spend marketing will fall onto your members and good word of mouth. Still, to run a successfull program, you need to share the work with a partner. I am VERY fortunate to have my wife as a co-director and she is the event director during weekends.

 

Is it worth it? Hell yeah! If you or anyone else is able to get a Mid-America region started we will help in any way we can. Most of those tracks are within 10 hours and we would make the trip.

 

 

Raybob... thanks for the recognition. Sometimes I wish I could switch places with you, 'cept I wouldn't want to be caught driving a Camaro .

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Texas will welcome you with open arms and top competition....come on down!!!

  • 1 year later...
Posted

99cobra2881, I'm thinking the same thing.

 

Is there much interest for central region? I have some of the time and skills to offer, but not all of them.

 

Is there much interest? We have HPT that is unused by NASA. MAM which is new and likely has many dates available. They are building a motorsport part up by the airport (KCI). Hallett is 4 hours away. Hastings isn't too far. Gateway is about 4 hours.

 

I think the larger question is, what would the partitipation be? Let me know if there is an effort I can join.

Brian in Leawood

Posted
I think the larger question is, what would the partitipation be? Let me know if there is an effort I can join.

Brian in Leawood

 

Brian,

 

The Midwest region has run MAM the last two years and the turnout has been pretty poor from your area. There is another MAM date this year, so tell everyone you know about it and show NASA that you can draw the numbers to make it a possibility if you would like the number of events to grow. There has been quite a few discussions on this in the Midwest region section of the board.

 

Check out the schedule at http://www.nasamidwest.com

Posted

I'm planning on making it. Not sure if I'll have a PT car or just a DE car (probably just DE).

Posted

Anthony, I can probably help with your quest to make a midcon region. Once the track is done up north in KC, it should bring out more racers then we could prospect some drivers to get our "core" group.

 

But first, get your car done!!

Posted

I hear, unofficially, that the new KCI track is on hold or has been dropped.

 

On the other hand, it looks like a NASA region here would easily be able to get dates at the local tracks. MAM has many dates available. HPT has some. Hallett has 4 and I haven't checked Hastings or Gateway.

 

The question is, can we get enough turnout? I hear that PCA is having a hard time with turnout.

 

I hope to run with Mid-West region and TX region this season. I may treck on up to RA, but MAM and Hallett are almost for certain.

  • 5 weeks later...
Posted

MAM is a good track. The turnout was pretty good, but 90% of the car count was from Chigago and Denver that made up the weekend. Very few locals.

 

We're running Hastings again this year (3rd time is a charm), but have lost almost $20k over the past 2 years there trying to put on an event. We will try one last time to get locals to show.

 

Not sure about 4 open weekends at Hallett... There was 2 weekends made available for NASA and one was Mother's day. Who is your connection? I need to talk to them!!!!

 

Bummer about the KCI track. I had called them to ask about dates last year and they said they would let me know as soon as they were ready to start talking.

 

Topeka said come on out and we had choices for weekends including the weekend before the big S**A show.

 

The tracks are there, but the feedback I've gotten from cendiv folks is that they only like to auto-x or that they already have too many choice as it is and there are too many events. What you need to do is make NASA strong and make it the BEST choice.

 

 

If anybody is wanting to seriously start a Great Plains Region, Dave Royce and I would be happy to talk to you and help get you headed in the right direction.

  • Members
Posted

"be careful what you wish for"

 

These words were told to me a long time ago when I volunteered to start the SE region and I totally agree w/Dave B. It can be a long uphill battle... Go ahead and sell your track/race car as you won't get a chance to drive at your own events for at least two(2) years. You'll meet many new and interesting people and it can be very rewarding, but do it for the love of the sport because there will be many times you'll wonder what you've got yourself into!!!

 

Work on getting decent dates, chances are the dates you'll be offered at first will be the weekends that are complete losers (ie. Mother's Day, Easter, etc.) - and get ready as all of the tracks will require 100% rental deposit from a new track renter to make sure you don't skip out on their dates. I remember getting dates at the end of 2003, sending out the checks and realizing that we were $43k in the red and hadn't even had our first event yet!

 

We have worked hard over the years to find good staff and I think we (NASA-SE) have the best staff in the nation, but I am sure that every regional director will say the same for their staff!

 

Is it hard work? yes

Will you be exhausted at the end of an event? yes

Is it fun and rewarding to see folks go thru the HPDE levels? yes

Do I get to work with the best folks on the planet? definitely!

 

Like I said above "be careful what you wish for"...

Posted

You'll need an AMB timing system. I'll give you a headstart and a screaming deal.

 

We've got the following:

 

AMB decoder

10 rechargeable transponders

1 charging case

1 laptop

1 printer

Orbits software

 

This is a spare we picked up as we just bought out another sanctioning body and we don't really need it.

 

$7k buys it all.

 

How about you Pantas. You need a backup don't you?

  • Members
Posted
How about you Pantas. You need a backup don't you?

You've got mail

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