What's working well in Stock??

[pav225]

Publicity

Kyle,
That's a great way to get more publicity. Thanks for sharing!

Mike

[pav225]

Other Regions??

Lots of good input from the Midwest (Elek & MHRA) and Northwest (Kyle & Dale) and Ron Hill.

What have folks done on the East Coast to get new members?

Marlee, can you and your dad chime in on your test days and things you have done to get people in boats?

Mike

[Marlee Hill]

Sure thing, Mike!

What we've been doing around here to try to get new people into a boat & get excited about racing is, well, whenever we go testing we try to encourage people to come to the lake & show up. We are VERY limited to the water here. We have 1 place that we can go testing & it's only open to racers on Wednesdays, but we're not allowed on the water till 4pm & we (obviously) have to be off by dark, which, in this time of year is about 4:45-5, so it's not easy, and usually just a summer-time thing, but we like to bring new people with us & what I'll do is go out for about 2 laps just to show them what it looks like & roughly where I want them to run & then come back in & show them the boat & what to do with shifting body weight & the throttle & just everything like that & then just let them go for a ride...... one lesson learned..... make sure they know how to stop! Lol Most from then on have just been hooked We did this with Dave Hale & he came in & I could see the smile through his helmet & before he even came all the way back to the beach I hear, "I'll take one!" Lol... that's my favorite part!
We've also been doing boat shows & putting a bunch of race boats on display & talking about what we do & we try our best to get people to come out & go testing with us. Last year we picked up a new SST45 Driver from the LA Boat Show, the way we see it is if we pick up 1 person, that's way more than we're going to get than if we aren't trying! Anything helps! From going testing with people we have picked up at least 3 new drivers, just from this past year!

[BillCNC]

I for one, would like to get into the sport, ... but in southern California, it's so spread out, ... it might as well be a 1,000 miles to each lake and the gas to tow a boat, ... oh boy.

How do you overcome that if you want new folks like myself in the mix?

Bill

[Marlee Hill]

well, where are you located? It depends, it's definitely not easy, but we have people that come to our races all the way from Glendale, AZ (Jeff Conant). It's not easy, but it kinda just comes with the territory of racing. Right now I feel like I'm in a pretty decent location... for me, I have Parker, (~4 hours away) Bakersfield, (2-2 1/2 hours) Long Beach, (15 minutes) Puddingstone (45 minutes) & that's pretty much the area, but that's a lot better than some people, where their closest races are a good 8 hour drive! It just sucks that we are limited on the amount of water we have. However, me & a couple others are working to get more race sites to try & help from long travels.

[Ron Hill]

Apple Valley Marine

I for one, would like to get into the sport, ... but in southern California, it's so spread out, ... it might as well be a 1,000 miles to each lake and the gas to tow a boat, ... oh boy.

How do you overcome that if you want new folks like myself in the mix?

Bill

If you are out and about, head over to Apple valley marine, on Highway 18. Vivky and Mickey own the shop. Britney drives AXS and ASH....Good people. They go to Needles all the time a play with their boats!

[BillCNC]

well, where are you located? It depends, it's definitely not easy, but we have people that come to our races all the way from Glendale, AZ (Jeff Conant). It's not easy, but it kinda just comes with the territory of racing. Right now I feel like I'm in a pretty decent location... for me, I have Parker, (~4 hours away) Bakersfield, (2-2 1/2 hours) Long Beach, (15 minutes) Puddingstone (45 minutes) & that's pretty much the area, but that's a lot better than some people, where their closest races are a good 8 hour drive! It just sucks that we are limited on the amount of water we have. However, me & a couple others are working to get more race sites to try & help from long travels.

Marlee,

I'm in Hesperia and traveling to Burbank daily, So I'm not new at driving a long distance. I guess the only one I would have an issue with would be Parker.

Have you tried to see if Silverwood Lake is a possibility for racing?

Bill

[BillCNC]

If you are out and about, head over to Apple valley marine, on Highway 18. Vivky and Mickey own the shop. Britney drives AXS and ASH....Good people. They go to Needles all the time a play with their boats!

Ron,

I have planned on it many, many times, But he has hours that prevent me from going. He is not open Sat-Mon. The weekend is the only time I could go, ... and I cant play hookie, just to go there, ... I'd loose to much money skipping work to justify the visit.

Bill

[Dave M]

Question For You BillCNC

I for one, would like to get into the sport, ... but in southern California, it's so spread out, ... it might as well be a 1,000 miles to each lake and the gas to tow a boat, ... oh boy.

How do you overcome that if you want new folks like myself in the mix?

Bill

If you were to be compensated for your travels (fuel) would that spark your interest in driving further to races ?

[pav225]

focus

Let's keep this thread on track...

What's currently working well in Stock??

Mike

[BillCNC]

If you were to be compensated for your travels (fuel) would that spark your interest in driving further to races ?

Dave,

It's not really the cost of fuel so much as it is the time, but it does all add up. If I'm driving to Parker, ... I would need to spend a few days there to really justify the time. How many races are at Parker in a year?

Bill

[Islandmon]

Mike this is a good thread, thanks for starting it. Moving forward no one can deny that racer schools work. With that said graduates need to be pared with a strong mentor / mentors to help him or her in all aspects of developing a program that works from them. There are a lot of things that new folks just don't know from something as simple as how to fill out a registration form to picking out a good safety equipment or setting up a trailer ect ect. Beyond the nuts and bolts of things it's imperative that everyone feels welcome. So as mentors we need to make sure they are introduced to other club members in hopes of developing surrogate mentors. You ask what is working well in Stock, racer schools combined with a solid mentor program........just my two cents.


Sam,

[Hutch06]

Promo Material

Elek,
Great stuff!

We've had folks interested as they bike by and watch us test on a river near our house. We need to do a better job being ready to hand them something with more information....and a date for our Driving School.

I really like the idea of car/hot rod shows as well. I'll talk to Kip to see how we can promote on the website.

Can you share some of the information that you hand out?

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,

The few images attached are those of our postcards that we hand out at boat shows, expos, other racing events, etc. They were relatively cheap to do - much cheaper than a full out program. Nate Forshey did a kick a** job on the graphics and a non-racing connection gave us a great price on printing them. I'm sure Nate would be happy to do something like this for any other clubs as well.

We try to get programs to all of our club members so they can carry a few in their trailers or vehicles in case someone is interested - they're a pretty helpful give away too, especially as they list our race sites and sponsors.

As far as promotional events where we have a booth at such as a boat show or expo, we have programs from past years, these postcards, APBA sent us a smorgashboard of Propeller magazines and other material to give away, along with handouts such as fliers for Sorensen kits, and other random material such as that for those that may be interested.

A lot of times, as we have experienced, boat shows/car shows will swap advertising on your website/email blasts/social media promotion for space in their show. We are a unique enough of a bunch when combined with our non-profit status, associations tend to like us. We have been offered two space donations this year, of very significant cost. We're hoping to be able to take advantage of both.

[pav225]

Promo

Thanks Elek,
This looks great!

I see MHRA charges $50 for the school (an extremely fair price). If I remember correctly, MRC was about the same. We felt that by paying to sign up for the School, it was more likely that folks would show up.

What are other Regions charging for Driving School??

Mike

[pav225]

Thanks

Marlee,
Thanks for replying. You, and your family, have done a wonderful job growing the sport. Keep up the GREAT work!!

Mike