44 replies to this topic

[markdshark]

To move ahead, with a sidebar to the Flexi GT/JK Spec Cage Match thread, let's come up with a National Slot Car Racing Day and ways to promote it. If they can have a National Comic Book Day (1st Saturday in May), why can't we? While it's to late, to get into the 2009 Chase's Calandar of Events, let's not miss out on 2010.

The question is, what would be a good day, for National Slot Car Racing Day? One would think, something simple, like the "third Saturday (Sunday) of April (just an example) would be possible. I would like to propose fall, or winter, to cut down on competition from outdoor activities. We should also avoid getting swallowed up by the Christmas Season.

Anyways, let's come up with a date, than we can come up with ways to promote it!!!

[Ron Hershman]

I have been doing some thinking about this off and on since I mentioned a National Slot Car Day.

I believe it's best if we do a National Slot Car WEEK. As with all busy lives, it could be hard for most to get to a local slot track on a particular day of any given week. Which day of the week is best? Will it cause a raceway owner to cancel a race night? Etc etc. If it is a week long event, the raceways can pick a particular day for free track time, give a ways, ect that fits his schedule best.

All we want is to get new people into raceways and check slot racing out. If we were to pick a particular day, maybe I can go that day, but my friend who I want to take can not make it that day.

By making it a week long event, opens the door for more raceways to participate as they can pick what day of the week works best for them.

Unlike a National Skate Day or National Comic Book day, anyone can take their skateboard out in the street and skate and say "I participated on National Skate Day" or sit at home and read a comic book. Those two examples can be done at home with no special trip to plan.

I would suggest a week in Feb or March for best results. That should also give us enough time to get in touch with a Charity and we could only hope that they would mention "National Slot Car Week" on their website. The Nascar Foundation would be a great tie in and maybe lead us down that road to a slot race at Victory Junction Camp with Nascar drivers. Autism is another charity that gets a lot of attention. By doing this, raceways could probably get some free press in local newspapers being they are doing something for a charity.

Raceway would be free to participate in any way they seen fit. Some could have free track time to new people, maybe a race to raise money for the charity we decide to work with, have some wildcat races with rental cars for the new people, get other organizations involved. Maybe the Cub/Boy scouts and then get a mention of slot racing and the event in "Boy's Life" magazine?

My original thoughts were that be getting current racers to bring someone to their local raceway to expose them to slot racing would be a grand way to get more people involved in slot racing. Nothing more nothing less. IF a local raceway has 10 people in their store in a given day and that could turn into 20 instead of 10, that would be good for the track it's self. And that is a step in the right direction.

[Hworth08]

Sometime during Speedweeks might be a good if a tie with NASCAR. Victory Junction Camp might work well during the All Star two week period as the NASCAR drivers are already in the Charlotte area.

[macman]

One small problem with Charlotte... NO RACEWAY!!!
The nearest raceway is Garland Brown's excellent Archdale Slotcar Raceway, (1.5 hour drive) which already does a race in conjunction with Victory Junction Gang...

[Hworth08]

No raceway is one of the smallest obstacles if such an endeavor is to be successful.

[markdshark]

The problem with Speedweeks, is that the drivers already have a tremendous amount of promotional things to do, not to mention the heavy practice and racing schedules. I do like the March or April idea. The Nascar season will have settled down a bit, and drivers have more free time.

But beyond the National picture, we also need to look at local ways to promote the hobby. For this we need to get together with local charities and this should help us gather some local media attention. Although, locally, we don't have to tie it to National Slot Car Week. We could tie it to a big local event, whatever time of year. We can dream big, but might have to start out somewhat smaller. My original idea, was to start brainstorming ideas to promote the hobby.

[Ron Hershman]

Ok..... National Slot Car Day or Week is a way to try and get current racers to bring an "outsider", one who has never been to a slot track to maybe get them interested in Slot Racing. Nothing more Nothing less.

The biggest promotion for this to happen is to get the word out on the slot websites and in SARN. If we could also get the slot mfg's with websites to post a "banner" on their websites..... another plus for the deal. Raceways could do the same.

At this point we can only depend on our current racers to get involved and bring new people to the tracks with them on this day/week. My local track has 20 guys racing every week...if those 20 brought in 1 person each, that's 40 at the track and hopefully from those new 20 that visited, they will take interest and get involved and spend some money at the raceway after their first visit. That alone helps the industry greatly. This is the first step.

The Nascar tie in would to maybe ( and that's a big maybe ) get involved with the Nascar Foundation and raise money for the foundation by raceways possibly holding events and sending money in to the foundation. For this, hopefully Nascar would mention "national slot car day/week" on their website.


In doing something with Victory Junction Camp and Nascar drivers would be a entirely different approach and event. This could take a year or so of planning. Not to be tied into "National Slot Car Day/Week. IMO In order to do something with drivers and for JVC, it would have to be held on the JVC grounds when they have the nascar drivers in for a special promotion.

So let's figure out a date(s) that works well with the slot racing "season" something in Jan, Feb or March and get this date out there. Forget trying to use a date in conjunction with Nascar dates at this time. We have to do what works for us right now.

I suggest Feb 16-22 2009..... not too early...not too late.

[Hworth08]

Is February 16-22 the Daytona 500 week?

[Ron Hershman]

Feb 8-15, 2009.

[Wizard Of Iz]

National Slot Car Racing Day won't solve all of the problems... but it's a dang good first step.

And there is a track in Daytona Beach, FL. Well, actually it's in Holly Hill, FL, which is about ten minutes from the Daytona International Speedway.

Greg Walker runs The Race Place and has a replica of DIS that can be ran as a tri-oval or include the infield road course. Greg promotes all forms of scale slot car racing. He also sells a lot of 1/32 equipment and has an HO version of a Blue King. Here's a link to the My Series website that Greg started to support the scale slot car series in Florida in 2007: The Race Place on MySeries.org

C'mon Ron, make this happen!

[Hworth08]

The week following the Daytona 500 does seem to be a good week. With enough effort, slot racing might be able to get a mention sometime during the races that amounts to about a quarter million dollar ad.

Another item to consider is attaching slot racing to a corporate sponsor such as Goody's headache powder. The Goody's Sano at Chicago doesn't sound bad and if the right company could be located it could be beneficial to both parties.

[slotcarone]

All great ideas but March or April would be a better time to do this IMO. Two reasons - first the chance of crappy weather in February and second if we get some new people interested in slot racing in April they might keep some spending going into the traditional slow months of the summer.

[Ron Hershman]

Then again, they might forget about slot racing and do the other summer stuff they are accustomed to.

[markdshark]

That would mean going to a fall date. Not a bad idea, as it might keep newbies racing through the winter. But we''ll have to keep from being gobbled up, by all the Christmas hype.

[Cheater]

Let me reiterate my belief that it is going to require an organized group of people to pull this off. One or more people working alone, without a significant amount of regular coordination between all involved, is not going to be very effective in making this happen. And without some committee or organization fronting the event, I think the responses from the potential sponsors and other entities will be more negative than positive, certainly if they are approached only by interested individuals.

My suggestion is that those individuals sharing the goal of making a National Slot Racing Day a reality form a committee of a dozen or so people to begin the planning process. Slotblog will certainly assist in any way it can and perhaps IRRA and the other sanctioning bodies will also sign on as participants.

I propose such an approach based on observing how various large events are promoted and managed in other arenas, for example, the collector car world.

Ron's idea is one of the best promotional approaches I can recall for slot racing and for it to have the most impact, it has to be done correctly and thoughtfully. And I simply don't believe this can occur without a high level of organization and coordination among a small group of interested people all sharing the same goal.

[macman]

Greg, we saw what one person could when motivated, with Ray G's TOAA... Great while it lasted but not much coordination with the rest of the industry... That was really pre-internet... We have the net and we have a lot more communication... Can we pull this off??

[markdshark]

I have to agree with Ron. We're not going to make a big splash with this, right away. We do need to to set a date and begin local promotions. We're going to have to start out small and grow the event. Unfortunately, I have a weird work schedule, but am willing to help out where I can.

But, to get this thing off the ground, we need to pick a date, than contact everybody we can inside the industry, raceways, manufacturers, distributors, magazines and website. We need to get the word out there and get people talking!!! Once we're all on the same page, we can move forward from there.

[GW/TRP]

Hey Enthusiasts,

I think that Ron and everyone else are on the right track. I have been involved with Grassroots Motorsports magazine and Classic Motorsports magazine for the past several years for the entertainment of their subscriber's. In 2008 Alan Smith, Scaleracing,LLC and BRM ran the 24 Hours of Daytona in the Largest Tent allowed in the track. The Race Place provided a 47 foot Carrera 4 lane road course. We started the race at the beginning of the actual race and finished at the end of the race, 24 hours and 14,000 laps later. We let anyone drive the cars who wanted to participate in setting the record to be broken for the next year. 2009 is Grassroots Motorsports magazines 25th anniversary and BRM will again be there. This is only one example of what Scale Model Auto Racing can do by taking the fun to the real enthusiasts. I truly believe if all slot racing enthusiasts would embrace each others slot racing philosophies we could have many more slot racers at my raceway and all other raceways in the USA. I hope that everyone will continue to communicate these ideas and help make something happen. Slot car racing is a great family activity, wether you participate in racing or are simply an admirer of the world's great race cars.

Best Regards,

[Wizard Of Iz]

Now if we could get some publicity, this existing event might be able to grow into a media event to bring attention to all forms of slot car racing.

[Cheater]

Publicity is indeed one of the problems, and that has to be bought or generated.

Which brings me back to my soapbox: it is unlikely any significant progress toward the nebulous goals mentioned in this thread is gonna happen via individuals working alone without coordination. It's going to take a group, a committee, all working with the same goal in sight, to have any real and lasting effect.

Just some random thoughts...

The Daytona deal Greg Walker mentioned is a great accomplishment, but is it generating significant publicity for the slot racing hobby? Or is it viewed as a couple of companies advertising to help sell more product? While I am aware of GRM's involvement (because one of my co-workers is a subscriber and I see the occasional issue), I'm not seeing that is is having noticeable impact on the hobby's visibility. And I suspect it gets a little lost in the clutter of activities that surrounds the Daytona race as well.

I still feel that the best way for slot car racing to generate significant publicity is via a tie-in with a well-known national charity. And to play in that sandbox, some form of non-commercial hobby advocacy organization supported by a number of companies will be a precursor to making that happen. The big charities are unlikely to play ball with a couple of guys with nothing more than big ideas or with any entity that seemingly has its own commercial interests as the primary aim.

One last thought: another pre-cursor is a comprehensive raceway list. If one of the goals is to entice new participants to join in slot racing at commercial facilities, there has to be an easy way for those newbies to locate raceways near them.

Proclaiming a particular date as "National Slot Racing Day" won't have much impact without a lot of other activities in support of such a proclamation.

[Hworth08]

I agree with Greg completely! A SUCCESSFUL National Slot Racing Week would cost in the range of $50 million if just the idea was turned over to a public relations firm. My daughter was working for a PR firm that had a budget of $7 million from the state of Tennessee and featured Eddie George as the spokesman for a project that two years later, I can't remember what was about. In other words, it's a large task!

Perhaps a good "project" for the un-formed NSRW committee, and a little practice, would be trying to form a tie with the Boy Scouts of America. The Boy Scouts need projects, the track owners need new customers, the most simple tie I can think of and at no cost other than time.

Who ever is chosen to head NSRW group will need a list of such successful projects on the resume when he walks into the board room of a large company...

[GW/TRP]

I don't think there should be a National Slot Racing Day either.

Maybe a National Slot Car Event Calender aimed at the thought of growing the hobby, like was already mentioned by everyone bringing someone to some type of venue for new enthusiasts.

I really don't think we emphasize skill levels enough. New enthusiasts find it very hard to believe that your driving skill level is better than theirs. Maybe using gamesmanship or simply require a skill level to race in a certain class established by time or laps turned on a given track. One of the most gratifying things that will happen is you'll see some young enthusiast, at a four-day event, improve their times everyday they come by to see if they can beat the fastest time recorded. It truly is a learning process, pretty soon everyone goes for the inside lane to try and break the record, knowing if you crash you're out. They learn to warm the tires up for a few laps before they try to break the record.

I have never seen anyone have a bad time racing scale model autos when they're presented in the proper format. Fun and entertainment.

Best regards,

[Cheater]

Greg, I do think the concept of a National Slot Racing Day does have merit, but it would have to be approached in the correct way. What got this line of thinking started was looking at how to bring slot car racing to a higher level of public visibility.

As for an event calendar, well, Slotblog has one as do most of the other slot forums, and a depressing number of raceway owners, and race and series promoters don't seem to make it a priority to ensure their events are listed. So event calendars haven't helped much so far, at least in my opinion.

Don, you're seemingly getting a bit of what I am trying to say, though I don't agree with you that huge amounts of money would be needed to do a decent job of promoting a NSRD. It could be done on a fairly low budget, by well-directed volunteers. And if the big players on the charity scene are to be approached, the goal has to be largely non-commercial in nature as well as to bring benefits to the targeted charity.

As for getting the national Boy Scouts of America to acknowledge slot racing as a recommended activity, I don't feel this has much traction. The BSA only supports squeaky-clean activities and the slot racing industry taken as whole won't qualify based both on the industry's past and its present state. I know of a couple of folks who have approached the national BSA about tie-ins and have some direct knowledge of how such outside suggestions are almost always rebuffed. Raceway owners will (and do) have more success dealing with Scouters at the local troop level.

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

Greg, so you haven't seen the drunken professional Pinewood Derby events!

Fate

[Cheater]

Rocky,

I've attended a couple of dozen Pinewood Derby events in the Atlanta area, over our fifteen year involvement in the Boy Scouts (both our sons made Eagle). I've seen some parents at PD events act worse than their kids, but can't say I've seen any overt drinking or drunkeness. In fact, in this region any instance of that nature at any BSA funtion has always been dealt with pretty quickly and decisively.

The way the BSA operates, what happens at the local levels is basically under the management of the parents and leaders of the local troops, with recommendations and direction from both the district and national levels. The national BSA sets policy and produces most of the materials used in Scouting. The BSA districts administer the national policies, as best they can, in cooperation with the individual troops in their districts. And the local troops are supposed to adhere to the guidance and policies sent down from the higher-ups. Doesn't always happen that way and when a local troop violates national BSA policy, the national organization acts firmly to deal with it.

Going back to involving the BSA in slot racing, I believe they have been approached more than once with such a suggestion and have rebuffed it every time.

If there is an organization promoting "professional" gravity racing and drinking, I'd bet they don't call it "Pinewood Derby', but I could be wrong. The BSA takes their trademarks pretty seriously and have the money to do so.