ryano wrote on Oct 25
th, 2011 at 9:47am:
Well that is exactly my point - there is a whole other community of car people out there. This is a market of track renters, driver training candidates etc that I don't think we really pay attention to. I think our motto is "build it and they will come". If we want to grow then we will need to figure out how to appeal to another generation of folks.
Some of my thoughts, based on the people I know who are into the JDM scene, drifting, and drag racing.
- In a lot of ways, these guys are not looking to compete with others directly. In particular, they're not looking to race against other guys with cars that are closely matched in performance.
What they do want is to do engine swaps, add turbo kits, and generally make their ride as cool as possible. What they love about drifting is *not* the speed, but rather the show and the feeling of being right on the edge of losing control.
What they don't want to do is gut their ride, cage it or otherwise make it unusable as a street car.
So, with that in mind:
- I think building on our driver training program would be the best way to get these people out to the track more. In addition to the two driver training events we host each year, host several lapping days that are open to people that have completed our driver training or have previous lapping experience. Make it a one-day event for half the price of the driver training and have a few instructors on hand in case anybody wants feedback.
From our perspective this would be easier to run than the driver training weekends because we wouldn't have to do a classroom session and we could run it with 10 instructors instead of the 20-30 that we require for driver training, plus it wouldn't require an entire weekend's commitment.
From their perspective they don't have to gut and cage their car to get track time, plus they won't have to keep a second car just for the track or worry about what they are and aren't allowed to modify. This is a *huge* obstacle that is keeping people away right now.
- Perhaps we should consider hosting a drifting event. The guys at Pacific Raceways have done at least one that I know of using turns 3A and 3B. We could probably use turns 1 and 2 as a drift area and use turns 3-4 as a return road with cars crossing over to the straightaway after turn 4. Either that or have the return road go around all the way and have a staging area halfway down the straight. With the short run ups, cars shouldn't be able to get over 80-100 km/h or so, making it safe to do with an approved helmet as safety equipment.
If desired, I could get in contact with some local guys who are into drifting and see if there is any interest there.
- The developers of the extremely popular racing simulation series "Forza Motorsport" are located in Redmond, Washington. We should be talking to them about getting Mission Raceway into their games as a driveable track. Literally millions of people play these games, and there is a pretty strong crossover between the JDM and drift crowds with video games.
Anyway, just my two cents.
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