Marketing & Growing the series
Someone mentioned in the thread on "what does FV need for the future" the idea of marketing and growing the series.
What ideas to people have for doing both of these? Has anything worked for you in your area that has helped 1) increase awareness 2) put new bodies in the seats.
Increasingly in todays world, more and more people turn to the internet for their information. Do we need to find a way to increase our web presence, a web page for example.
We need help from the SCCA!!
Good topic Jeff!
I very much like the idea of a "Formula Vee" Website.
In addition to www.formulavee.us/ There is also http://formulaveeracing.org/Home.html as a dedicated website to FV in the US.
The folks that started those sites were also very eager to help spread the word but as happens with everyone, time becomes scarce and updates become far and few in between. The initial desire to do the right thing can also be smothered when it seems like you're on your own. I'm sure Anna would be happy to get help with keeping it up to date and full of great info.
I do believe the lack of marketing hurts not only FV but all the classes in the SCCA. Maybe we should look to the National office to do a better job of helping the regions get the word out. With few to none spectators at any given race weekend, why would anybody know what we do? Ads in Sportscar do nothing to get people to the races. While an add in a major newspaper near the time of the event, that tells of great racing, so close you can smell it, all for $10.00 or $20.00 a day would in my opinion help to get people to the track. Pack a lunch with the family and go watch not one but eight races in one day. Once they see what is going on by talking to actual racers, there might be some people that decide to get excited about it.
So what would this do for Formula Vee?
Once they are on the hook, FV will be a logical choice to many. Just as many of us have landed here when we realized it's better to be able to afford to race a FV for a long time than some other winged thing for one season. FV is still the most popular open wheel class in SCCA and still the least expensive way to go road racing in a formula car.
What other class can you spend $6500.00 on a 30 year old chassis and win a regional championship?
We need to stop worrying about getting the younger generation and start targeting the people that have enough disposable income, a place to put the car, the ability to take time off a few weekends a year and are wise enough to see the value in racing a Formula Vee. But most of all we need to find the people that want to race.
How do we do that? By "we" I mean the National office of SCCA should be doing this for us.
1) There are way too many people that think they are "racing" when they do a track day. We need to target them.
2) We need to convince the guy/gal that is about to drop $60K on a BMW or Porsche he would be happier in a race car.
3) We need to find the people that will spend $400.00 for a ticket to see an F1 race.
4) Your idea here!
In a nutshell, SCCA Topeka should be figuring out how to find the people that have the resources to go racing first, and then we'll put them in a Formula Vee.
-Andy P.
NER