I'm not sure I understand this sentiment. Out here in California, the
big time for-profit races tend to be the MOST exclusive. It's the
small-time private club events that are starving for entries and paying
higher track fees that are forced to admit later cars to keep the events
affordable. Small clubs can't afford to subsidise all their events to
the extent the profiteers do. They get major sponsorship, we don't. I
run with CSRG, which has had problems getting certain classes of cars to
show up at all. In order to keep the small-bore open wheel group alive,
they started admitting Vees and early Fords. The only problem with that
is that the other early Juniors stay away. It was either that, or
absorb the open-wheelers into another run group, which I really wouldn't
like. At the other end of that spectrum, Steve Earle gets 3-5 times as
many applications as he has grid openings. He can afford to pick and
choose, and he tends toward the oldest, prettiest and most exclusive
cars available. I never have a problem finding early Juniors to have a
good dice with at his events. At the Monterey Historics, there were 3
of us on a rubber band, trading back and forth at the back of the field.
What fun.
The one exception out here is the CSRG Reno event. It does have
sponsors and local coverage, but the location is less than ideal, so
they opened up the grids a bit to get entries. It's still not a profit
center, and CSRG is certainly not out to make a killing in the biz.
As I see it, the dillema is to either pump the events up with publicity
and sponsors to the point that nobody can get in, or keep them low-key
and let in later cars to keep the events affordable. I would like to
see more "creative" ways to keep the low-key events alive. CSRG has
made some good efforts in this area by having "theme" grids. They
promoted a pre-war grid at one recent event that brought out a good
showing. They also ran a "reunion" group for the H-Modified class at
Reno that was well attended. Joint events with other low-key clubs
(SOVREN) went well.
>As I said on this thread over a year ago, I'm suspicious of any racing
>group that is "for profit", as the incentive is to increase revenue and
>profit, not perpetuate a style of racing that is an "endangered
>species".
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