creating new fans is the hardest thing I do each week…june 22 at Putnam county speedway my promotion is $20 a car load and the vehicle with most people in it wins $175…then july 3 is $20 a car load and $500 to the vehicle with most people…this is one of many ways to create excitement for the fans…driver autographs and kids events at intermission I always do each week…this allows the fan to meet his favorite driver and the driver the opportunity to meet a person that may become a sponsor…kids candy dash,foot races etc allow the kids to create a lifetime memory…how would you create a new race fan?.where would you look and how would you sell him on coming to the track? how would you respond if he says I can watch racing for free on tv?.these are questions I ask myself every week…please let me know your thoughts! thanks tp
Creating new fans comes under the heading of sex. And everyone will want to help.
But on to your question. If it were me, i’d install more injectors along with spacious, strategically placed social neighborhoods. You’ll also want to provide an expansive platform for marketing partners that offers a design to exceed their expectations for a more intimate and affordable experience.
Sorry, I got lost in nonsensical PR speak.
On a serious note, this subject probably has 2000 threads on this site alone. And there have been many excellent suggestions from fans and racers alike. But track owners and promoters, after reading all of the threads and ideas, have almost universally ignored them. I’d suggest you take the phone off the hook, turn off all distractions, and read threads on this site over the last 2 months or so. You’ll find numerous ideas for not only bringing in new fans, but bringing back the old ones. Just remember though, you’ve actually got to follow the suggestions.
Race a class of cars that the younger generation has ties to 4 cyl. hondas, toyotas anything they can bond with. Do you know any young person who thinks a monte carlo is cool these kids aren’t interested in a big monstrosity like the cars that their dads and grandfathers drove give them something they are interested in.
Race a class of cars that the younger generation has ties to 4 cyl. hondas, toyotas anything they can bond with. Do you know any young person who thinks a monte carlo is cool these kids aren’t interested in a big monstrosity like the cars that their dads and grandfathers drove give them something they are interested in.
most young people now dont even know what a monte carl or nova is
[QUOTE=al_tere_go_05;128795]Race a class of cars that the younger generation has ties to 4 cyl. hondas, toyotas anything they can bond with. Do you know any young person who thinks a monte carlo is cool these kids aren’t interested in a big monstrosity like the cars that their dads and grandfathers drove give them something they are interested in.
most young people now dont even know what a monte carl or nova is[/QUOTE]
Because the latest Monte Carlo is over twice as old as they are.
[B]Here’s one thing you can try:
Go to Georgia Pacific (if the’re still up and running) and explain who is in charge you would like to give a ticket to each employee if they agree to put them with the pay slip. This way, the ticket will reach the Customer you are targeting, and this same person will feel ‘‘privileged’’. He(she) might bring his wife(husband) kids and friends.
AND make sure that night you have an outstanding show and a water flow like rythm. Bringing in hundred if not thousands of people to watch a boring night of racing is a great way to lose those possibles fans.
And if everything goes on roller bearings, and the turn out is amazing, next week try another factory, store, whatever, up to ya.
How about your announcer, is he just an announcer or an amazing entertainer too? You need both. PA system… can people hear what he is saying? How about fireworks to end the night??? How about a jumbo spotligt on top of tower, when you do a driver intro, turn lights off, and the jumbo on, this will get their attention. A school bus to ride kids around the track at intermission, make sure to paint it multicolors with funny schemes.[/B]
So were the beloved 40 year old early 30’s coupes of the late 60’s-early
70’s…The only car that empties out the stands quicker than the strictly stocks is the 4 cylinders…Even NSS moved the strictly stock class up and now close out the night with the 4 cylinders.
The entry level V8 class will always be based on what car/parts are easily available in the used parts market.As the Camaro/parts from the 70’s dried up,the transition went to the metric Monte/Cutlass.
How to make new fans I like the georgia pasfic sugestion but add to it .a lesson from the drag racers let the fans in the pits for the same admission they do it speed weeks at vsp when you go to a major nhra event the fans are everywhere they get up next to the cars the way we are doing it now is not working think out side the box . youve made a real nice race track you have great posters up and billboards .sponser the highschool sports program for there tickets and put a free admission on the stubs run a sunday afternoon special with a chicken dinner after wards all for the price of admission just some of the ideas we talk about around our shop hope this helps really enjoy racing there you can afford to bring your car there and run thanks woody
[QUOTE=Matt Albee;128800]Because the latest Monte Carlo is over twice as old as they are.[/QUOTE]So, the last Monte rolled off the assembly line in 2007 as a 2008 model. That means they’re (the last Monte Carlos) five years old. So a 2 1/2 year old kid knows his stuff? 
Sorry.
I gotta agree to bring in new fans, you need race cars that these “new kids” can identify with. As much as I hate to say it, some kind of “tuner” car built for oval track racing. Tube frame, four- or six-cylinder, maybe turbos, EFI - you know, stuff us old guys can’t work on any more…LOL…Plastic or fiberglass bodies with spoilers or wings…think “Fast and Furious” type cars built for circle-trackin’. Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans, Lexus, Kias, etc. will be considered “Late Models” before too much longer.
I know up here - and at most tracks - the 4-cylinder “bomber”/compact/“stock” classes have the largest car counts.
Put A Race On! You run a track with a GOOD Show not Gimmics to put butts in the seats.
You Dont Have Fans With Out Cars That Go In A Circle
Putnam Kicked the MiniStocks The Mods and The Latemodels to the side.
:grinser010:
What Woody said about open up the pits to the fans and let them interact with what goes on beyond the race. Like Woody said VSP does it during speedweeks and on a bigger scale Grand Am does it for the 24. Buy a hot dog or coke and get a pit pass. Putnam has that side gate that would be perfect.
Give em a favorite, someone to cheer for and they will come back.
[QUOTE=kendo;128806]So were the beloved 40 year old early 30’s coupes of the late 60’s-early
70’s…The only car that empties out the stands quicker than the strictly stocks is the 4 cylinders…Even NSS moved the strictly stock class up and now close out the night with the 4 cylinders.
The entry level V8 class will always be based on what car/parts are easily available in the used parts market.As the Camaro/parts from the 70’s dried up,the transition went to the metric Monte/Cutlass.[/QUOTE]
A class of stock 4 cyls. would send me to the ejectors too. But that’s not the class of imports we need. To bring in young fans, we need to rethink what a stock car is. And I maintain it can’t only be a V-8 powered, carb’d ABC bodied race car. Or worse yet, a thirty year old Monte Carlo.
A 4 cyl. import ( or 4 cyl. domestic for that matter ) could easily be built to be as fast or faster than any current SLM. So instead of talking about a class for 4 cyl. imports, we should be talking about creating a class for 4cyl./V-6 Super Late Models with import/small domestic bodies. Maybe we lump both types of cars together, or maybe we slowly phase out the current SLMs.
Give the young guys something familier to work with, write sensible rules that allow them to make big power and handling, and you just might see some serious participation. And their HS friends will be in the stands watching.
A little off topic but Matt’s got me curious about the “injector/ejector” systems. Are they stairs, aisles, or belt driven people movers (similar to those in airports)? If they are belt driven and you step on an “ejector” do you find yourself ejected into the parking lot with no way to get back to an “injector” without a ticket? Sounds like more study is needed before they are put into place.
On topic, I agree with you. In the past if you dropped below the full bodied V8 cars, you went to the 4 cyl. minis, with little attempt to make them more than a support or entry level division. The Camry, Accord, Fusion ,Altima, Malibu,etc., bodied V6’s could become your mainline division and I’d hazard a guess that there’s a lot more of them in the boneyard than the old favorite V8’s. They can be tricked up to be anything from relatively stock to SLM level. It’d be a new learning curve for a great many of us (old-timers) but I think the interest level and expertise could be found in the younger generations.
Shiloh
The most important one is yet to be discussed. The rejector.
Well you start by not having 35 different classes?? A good example is Greenville Pickens speedway(4to6 classes) that’s it. And admission is still 10$ for regular night. Great turnout instands all the time. Wanna know why? Cause the have full fields and good racing… Wanna know why??? Cause they tech!!! Wanna know why there’s good racing??? Cause if you move up to late models you can’t move down for five years, and in the other classes if you killed he field they packed on 50#s and if you still killed them then another 50 and so on. Sound unfair ??? Ah maybe, but that was some great racing… Everyweek!!! Lower classes open rear ends and no lockers . Late models perimeter chassis . Maybe not as fast but you didn’t care because it was great racing!!! Every week they had a fan of the week with free tickets and they had great promotions with local business’s ( aka people who paid the bills) the payouts were printed in rule book as to not change from week to week and did I mention they teched? Just sayin crash a Rama is great to really bring a diverse crowd but if you do it to much it’s watered down. It’s a racetrack lets race!!!
“So, the last Monte rolled off the assembly line in 2007 as a 2008 model. That means they’re (the last Monte Carlos) five years old. So a 2 1/2 year old kid knows his stuff?”
I think he was referring to the older rear wheel drive Monte Carlo’s. I believe since 1990 they were Front Wheel Drive.