Second Class Press Releases...

[Super Dave]

I guess you can't call it second class if there is no information released.

No info on qualifying on RRW.com about anything from Autobahn and the CCS National Championship event.  Same thing for the Heartland Park Topeka event in June.  What gives?  I could go on how there is continually no one covering the Blackhawk races, but that is a separate topic.

[Go GODSpeed]

I agree.  I know that other organizations have really good press releases regarding each regional event, for example the CMRA down in Texas.  Just a little club but great coverage concerning every event.  Any thoughts on what needs to be done to get some coverage?  I think RRW simply posts what is sent to them in these situations, so I guess someone needs to write it up.  Is this a question for CCS management?

[Scotty Ryan]

I agree - some press for us at the local level would be good not only for CCS but good for the tracks and the riders....... I wonder if the new Moto ST series (or whatever they call it) at Daytona will get good coverage????

[weggieman]

Coverage for local events is normally done by a local contributor to the racing sites and papers that will publish it. It will take someone to step up and write the articles and take the photos for anything to appear anywhere.

I used to do that for CCS events when I was a racer and even as race director. I was trying to do exactly what you're talking about, get some recognition for the local riders. After I quit doing it the coverage has been spotty at best and some years totally nonexistant, like now.

Unfortunately the ASRA events are so lightly attended by racers that it seems they are being overlooked as a "national" events. I saw no national reporters there this weekend.

It's difficult for national sites and magazines to get excited about races with 5 bikes in a class, 7 in another and the largest class, Thunderbike had about 15. These just are not "national" grids.

ASRA even skipped the pregrid ceremony stuff this weekend because it would have been a bit embarrassing with such small fields.

[rwracer]

Yah it's not just Blackhawk it's everywhere there isn't a secondary club (like CMRA) and the lack of press coverage is one of the many things dragging the sport down.  But as already said I think it's going to take concerned and motivated individuals and maybe even an attitude of "any coverage is good coverage" for awhile to turn things around.

[Jeff]

Hey!  I publish a race report every weekend :)

[Speedballer347]

Coverage for local events is normally done by a local contributor to the racing sites and papers that will publish it. It will take someone to step up and write the articles and take the photos for anything to appear anywhere.

Jack at Slider photo used to do a great job doing this back in 02(03?). 

[Scotty Ryan]

I saw no national reporters there this weekend.

I did see JJ Roetlin (sp) and talked with him for a while - So i'm sure something will show up in RoadRacing World....

It's difficult for national sites and magazines to get excited about races with 5 bikes in a class, 7 in another and the largest class, Thunderbike had about 15. These just are not "national" grids.

I do agree with this - But maybe some more coverage would help draw more entries..?? Just a thought...

[weggieman]

Missed JJ, so yeah there should be something in RRW.

As for articles drawing racers, no way. The racers know where the races are and where they are going to race, they don't need race coverage to get them there.

I used to do it to help racers get sponsorship and bragging rights  for their friends, etc.

It's not that hard to do because you don't need to cover all the races, just the most important ones of a weekend like the EX supersport stuff, the contingency events and cash purse races. If anything that is what people want to read about.

Hardest part is doing all the results for so many classes. All you need to do is the top 3-5 places but when you're talking a zillion freakin' classes it gets tiring.

Then you need a good pic or two to go along with the words and it all needs to be sent in ASAP after the race weekend.

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

I'll throw some fuel on this fire by repeating something I have said numerous times. Of course this is one of my classic long responses, but if you read it you may have a different perspective on some things afterward.

Back in '98 I was at the Race Of Champions by myself when I stumbled into an interesting situation. I had gone to the Hooters restraunt across from the track and was waiting for my food while sitting at the bar when I had some people sitting at a table ask me if I was there alone. They had seen my pit pass for the track and wondered why I was at the restraunt alone, I told them I didn't know anyone at the ROC and had traveled from Illinois to race the ROC for my 1st time ever. They invited me to sit with them because they "couldn't have a racer sitting by himself", so I joined them. What I found out was that this was an improptu meeting/interview with several MAJOR players in motorcycle road racing in the US by a couple journalists from major motorcycle publications. They told me that I was welcome to sit with them and be part of the conversation, but I couldn't reveal who any of them were if I repeated anything I heard there since some of the info was 'off the record' - to this day I have never revealed who any of these people were.

These guys were speaking about where motorcycle road racing in the US was heading (at all levels), and what were the positive and negative factors effecting it - I'm going to speak about the negative factors. What was agreed by everyone was that there were 2 MAJOR negative factors emerging that were possibly going to collapse motorcyle road racing in the US over the next 10-15 years (remember this was in '98). The first was the splintering of racing in the US, mainly the formation of numerous smaller racing organizations which would detract from overall racing by pulling away from the large racing organizations. The effect would be that grids would be smaller and there would be less competition due to racers being at competing events. What was emphasized was if there were just a few racing organizations competing for racers to run in their organizations the effects would be much more positive due to larger grids, more competition at each event, and lower costs due to larger turnout per event. Their concern was that there would be individuals that would think they could 'do it better' so they would start their own organizations, instead of doing what truely needed to be done which is to gather support from the racers and get changes made to the existing organization.

The 2nd factor they felt would kill road racing in the US was track day organizations. At the time of that meeting there were not many track day organizations at all, but more were starting up and it was throwing up flags with these leaders. There concern was that people would get "Passified" by doing track days and it would start to pull people out of the supply of new incoming racers. While they admitted that track days could be helpful in getting  new people some track experience before going racing, their concern was that less people would actually progress on to road racing from track days. The BIG problem they saw with both the splintering of racing organizations and track day organizations forming was that both were aggresively seeking weekend dates for their events. What this was doing was very rapidly driving the price of weekend track rental rates up very fast and that cost was being passed on to the racers. As track day organizations and small race organizations were starting up around that time, the availability of dates at race tracks was starting to get limited (I personally remember when there were weekends that Blackhawk Farms wouldn't have anything going on at all - now every weekend is being used). Ultimately what they agreed on was that track days would cause an overall more harmful effect to motorcycle road racing than a positive one, they also agreed that track day organizations were more in the interest of the few people who profit by running them at the cost of driving track rental fees thru the roof and making all racers pay for that. There was also a very strong feeling amongst all of them that "race tracks are for RACING, all other non-race related activities should be treated as secondary and should be given the left-overs as far as weekend dates are concerned".

A final concern they had was concerning Pro-level racing in the US, which draws from the regional racing organizations. They felt that as time went on you would start to see less and less true Pro-level competitors come out of regional racing due to less competitors at each event and also from the missing people that got passified by doing track days that never ended up going racing (but would have been great racers had they not had the opportunity to do track days instead).

Jumping forward to today I look at how many weekend days at each track are consumed by non-racing activities like track days (both bikes and cars), I see how many different racing organizations there are, I see weak grids at far too many events, and I see people spending large amounts of money to do track days - yet they never go racing. How close did we come to losing CCS all together over the winter? (the largest road racing organization in the country!) Recently Track Addix sent out an E-mail about how the turnout at the Great Plaines events was really bad and they needed to get more people at these events or the possibility of the Great Plaines region disappearing was a realistic possibility. I applaud Track Addix for taking the rare initiative to try and pull track day riders over to racing by combining the 2 events and offering free admission to the races for the track day riders from the day before. But on the other hand I look at the whole 'Cause and Effect' (as described above) of how this situation exists in the 1st place and find it ironic that a track day organization is now seeing the other side of the coin now that it's running races as well.

I guess we'll have to wait and see where all this all goes, but I find it interesting that so much of what those individuals were predicting back in '98 has come true or is in the process of happening.

[OmniGLH]

Really good points, Mike - I agree.

I think the whole concept of competition is dying out.  You see it at the grade school level with kids not keeping score at soccer games.  I see it in the workforce with all these college grads who just do the bare minimum to get the job done, and punch out at 5:01.  Nobody has the drive to really improve or move forward anymore.

The upside to competition is winning.  The downside is losing.  I think more people these days would rather just not try, than risk losing.  They've spent their whole lives being told they're "winners" without actually having to do something - so when presented with an opportunity to actually lose, they just run away. 

I've met SO many guys that just do track days, and when you suggest racing, they get all, "Ohhh no no I'm not fast enough, maybe someday..."  and you can tell they have no intention.  I've ridden with a small handful of fairly talented guys out here on the west coast; guys I KNOW would be strong racers.  Even they shy away.  I remember when DanO and I did our first track day, the whole ride home all we talked about what it would take to go racing.  I think we managed to put everyone else to sleep.  We both had that drive to be better than we were.  It wasn't that I wanted to win or be better than someone else - I just wanted to be better than myself.

Unfortunately, track days allow too many people to go play without keeping score.  They're so afraid of finding out that they suck, that they're not willing to take a chance on the possibility that they might NOT suck.  Sad. 

Using a TD org as a stepping stone is one thing.  But I think it's sad when guys base their entire riding career in it.

[251am]

 Mike and Jim- great insights.


So, CCS is and never has been responsible for doing the PRs, correct? Essentially one of us has to do it.