Tow money vs Entry fee

[Brian10s]

how much tow money should be offered to sway someone? is'nt $50 better than nothing? I'm not being sarcastic as I would like some input on this.

Bill[/QUOTE]

This is a great question and probably deserves its own thread.

What will get guys to come to a race; tow money, low entry fee or prize money? Most would say prize money only helps out a select few (ie those that win ). So, is it better to have tow money to get trailers to a race site or to lower entry fee's and get more boats on the water? Or is this pretty much the same thing? If so, then what would you rather see on a sanction?
The end result is for a club in any of this is to get boats on the water.
So, what works best: Take the poll and also give your opinion (examples are just a guess to get the discussion going.)

Tow money (say $50 under 100 miles and max $150 per trailer) This is per trailer - not per driver. Tow money not "show" money.
Entry fee (say 1st class full rate, 2nd 1/2 rate or 3rd free)
Prize money ($150 per class)

[Gunjumper]

My vote...

Being a driver of several classes, my vote is for the discounted entry fees. This seems to work out the best for multiple class drivers, and I know I'm being selfish by the way... Prize money wouldn't benefit everyone and I don't think that's fair, everyone that races, from first to twelfth, puts out the same time, effort, and money. GL

[Dave M]

Honestly

Brian,

Honestly 50 bucks would help, but not sway my decisions. It is less than a half tank of fuel on just about any truck used for towing today. I am simply being honest here, not trying to say you have to offer more. But to really make me stop and think about traveling 400 miles would take at least $300. Average tow vehicle gets about 10 - 12 MPG pulling a trailer. I know there are those that have small trailers and get great mileage. There are also those out there that don't. So do the math and what do you get at an us average of about $3.29 per gallon for gasoline. Given the rising cost of racing, not including fuel, simply saftey gear updates, props, and just about everything we use it cerainly would help make me sit down and think, well I can go to this race because fuel cost is not a concern. Entry fees are tough if you run many classes, that is why I only run two, and sometimes only one. I avoid the pricey entry fee races and try to choose races more reasonable. I know Dayton has to pay park fees, etc, and I understand why entry fee is so high, so we won't go into that.

Like I said, make a serious dent in the fuel bill, and not half a tank and it might be a decision maker for a lot of folks.

[HRTV]

Brian,

Honestly 50 bucks would help, but not sway my decisions. It is less than a half tank of fuel on just about any truck used for towing today. I am simply being honest here, not trying to say you have to offer more. But to really make me stop and think about traveling 400 miles would take at least $300. Average tow vehicle gets about 10 - 12 MPG pulling a trailer. I know there are those that have small trailers and get great mileage. There are also those out there that don't. So do the math and what do you get at an us average of about $3.29 per gallon for gasoline. Given the rising cost of racing, not including fuel, simply saftey gear updates, props, and just about everything we use it cerainly would help make me sit down and think, well I can go to this race because fuel cost is not a concern. Entry fees are tough if you run many classes, that is why I only run two, and sometimes only one. I avoid the pricey entry fee races and try to choose races more reasonable. I know Dayton has to pay park fees, etc, and I understand why entry fee is so high, so we won't go into that.

Like I said, make a serious dent in the fuel bill, and not half a tank and it might be a decision maker for a lot of folks.

Dave's answer appears to be a very honest and sincere one that clubs and organizers should look at and take into consideration when planning a race.

[Blackhawkguy]

Good race

A good race will draw people regardless of how much tow money you pay, tow money is good but quality race site, plus well run race will bring the people. Use the money to feed the racers after the race, entertain them and they will come out of the wood work. If you have a so-so site and still want to have a race, tow money can get you some people but if the site and race is sub par, sooner or later you will loose people. In a series style race tow money helps offset the extreme didstances people have to travel to race, for a three hour trip it's nice but not required.

Kerry

[aojesus]

Going from Brooksville Florida to Jesup Ga and back was about 650 miles.
I spent roughly $380 in gas (Expedition), $150 for the motel, $140 in meals, and $30 in Joey's entry fees. It was roughly a $700 trip. (no regrets, we loved every minute of it!!)

If we were going to Lake Tabor it would be around $1,100.

The Sierra gets considerably better mileage than the Expedition, but with diesel at $4.40 a gallon it would cost about the same.

We certainly don't mind the cost of the entry fees. We also understand what it costs a club to put a race on and the profit margin is not that high. I can appreciate an attempt to help the racers out but how much would this hurt the local club in the long run, especially if the races are blown out or have a low turn out?

Although this is a tough topic, it is also a good one. I hope you can find a happy medium that won't starve the local club.

[sam]

Brian, I would hope racers traveling less than 100 miles were coming anyway ... maybe even 250 miles. I consider any race less than a 4 hour drive "home territory" that I'd pay extra to attend.

I think your original guesses are right, big prize money benefits the least number of racers, low entry fees help guys who want to enter as many classes as possible. Tow money for the racers traveling long distance is probably the most democratic way to spread out sponsor money in a way that will attract more racers.

What Kerry says has some merit, not all of the Camden, NC experience was the race ... much of it was being there and getting to enjoy the good company after the race on Saturday evening.

[brian]

Fees fees fees.... I say you give people who do multile turn and judge stand duty more cash. The people working the stand can always use more help.

I have long said if we charged a fee for turn duty and returned the money when you work. This would speed races up and get more people to do it. I am sick of hearing I have a 3 hour drive home. If you need some extra chash work some extra duty!

Flat rebates and or gas cards would be nice but this is an expensive hobby.

[Larry Mac]

This is something I was talking to Kevin about just the other day. Most of our NBRA races have prize money. Our club takes 25% of that prize money toward tow money. What I was thinking is with the price of gas maybe we should use all the prize money for tow money. I also think it might be good to just charge a flat fee and run all the classes you want. This way a person running several classes and putting more boats on the water would get a break. This would make it more fair because a person running one class would get the same money as someone running several. You could hold out just enough of the prize money to pay for the cost of the race with the one time entry fee. I am going to bring this up at the next club meeting so anybody reading this start thinking about something along these lines.
Larry McAfee

[Kev43V]

Larry
75 % show up and race money - 25% for prize money
it would give a little something extra to the top placers. but would mostly benefit everyone
thats my 2 cents

[Graham 18ce]

I'm still in favor of tow money...Even at 50 bucks, if you look at as $50, whether your gas bill was higher or not, it is $50 off your entry fees for the weekend.
Sault Ste Marie use to pay tow money per entry, not sure if it maxed per trailer. if you are bring 3 boats that is $150. There is your entry for more than half your racing that weekend.
I'm driving a 4 banger S-10 so mileage is pretty good and the boat in the back - doesn't compare to the guys pulling huge enclosed trailers so i am likly easier to swing one way or the other.
In the end, it is all the same as cash is cash, whether you lower entry or give cash for boats.
Running inboard last season we were receiving small tow money and little prize money, usually prize money was paid to 5th or split to the class. Some of the more local events or big events where cash was higher, the events were free or a gain for going. Who would have thought that!
Mind you, an S-10 pulling a 1.5L isn't the same as a guy towing his Unlimited Light with a Semi.

My 2 cents.

[BP125V]

good stuff

Thanks Brian for starting this thread.

Since announcing our tow $ and prize $ plan for Candlewick Lake, IL race, NBRA and TRORA have both announced new races on that same weekend. This is causing me to re-evaluate what we were originally trying to do and this might change based on feed back from this thread and from others.

I agree with Sam concerning "home" races and that is why we set the mileage for tow money at 200, the vast majority of our club members live within this radius and would be there anyway (I hope).

Bill

[David Weaver]

Tow Money

My thought is to use prize money for tow money in those race situations where the tow money will materially increase particpation. In the near term, the cost of gasoline for travel has the potential to negatively impact particpation. If gas prices settle in the $3.50/gallon range, over time everything else in life will adjust (wages and other costs) and the price of gas will impact particpation less.

So, I veiw this as a temporary situation and clubs should think carefully where their prize money will have the most positive impact.

I believe that many of us feel an obligation to support our clubs via particpation at the races. This makes it tough to skip a race due to travel costs. This is a good year to "buddy" on a trailer, even if it means leaving some equipment at home in order to do so.

[Brian10s]

Bill,
No problem - this has been a subject of discussion for a long time, mostly because very few races are lucky enough to have a sponsor and can pay anything. There just is not a lot of data out there that says which would work best to achieve the most boats. We all know 99% of our races are driver sponsored and the clubs struggle to make ends meet. Also as you know, when a race has a sponsored, the options of the clubs are greatly reduced in many regards, especially as to when it is scheduled.

As for the rest that have participated, the feedback has been very good. More would be even better. On the subject of tow vs entry, I have always thought of it as a wash. I am going to spend X on a race (gas, food, entry, whatever), so anything that subsidizes that total spend is always a bonus. Wither I get money for showing up or spend less on entry fee, it is still an overall savings to me. Besides, once I am at a site, I would rather use whatever money to get on the water more.

[Blackhawkguy]

Good schedueling

All of the above sugestions are great, the other thing you realy need to watch is scheaduling, I believe this has been touched apon on one of the post. If maximum participation is your goal do not schedual your race the same weekend as another popular race. Now I know this is easyer said than done but by having this forum these day's it should be much easyer to figure out what weekends are free, you cannot do anything to prevent another club scheaduling a race on your weekend if they are out of your region or meet the mile requirement, but you can help yourself by trying to find a free weekend. If you have sponsor mony it is your choice how to spend it, ask them how they would prefer to see it spent, it does take a few years to build a race site. Sam is correct as far as what should be considered local, a 4 hour trip is nothing, now a 8-9 hopur trip, that is alot for a weekend and some tow money would make it more worth their time to travel.

Kerry