Mahler9th

Yes. Understand the variables, define "success," and as part of the latter, identify/characterize existing challenges, frustrations and unrealized opportunities.

And take into account "the future."

$65k?

I think that some Spec911 "builds" were well north of 2x that amount even a decade ago.

Not all of that money made the cars more competitive.

Nowanker

Absolutely no reason at all!
But... taking a survey and implementing the (sane) recommendations are two different things.
Management must first want to change.
Once/year, the BMW dealer would take an hour to seek input from all the technicians, about how to streamline our operations, smooth out any wrinkles, and boost productivity.
Many, many fine suggestions were offered.
After the first year, it dawned on me that they really didn't give a sh*t about our ideas, that they just felt if we had the illusion of input, we might all be renewed and productive again.
In the 7 years I was there, the only suggestion/request that was acted upon:
"Can we get some *** gaskets for the sh*tter?"
And that is the literal truth.

Jared Rodeheaver

Correct, there needs to be an action plan from the gathered data or we are just wasting our time.

GlenL

This is really the problem. PCA CR is becoming too exclusive with growth mainly (only?) in high-end cars. The number of guys who will start in racing with a six-figure car, and 5-figure weekends, is very limited.

I'd like to see some real data on what classes are showing growth and decline but, to be sure, the original letter classes are nearly gone. The idea of putting safety equipment in a regular Porsche street car and going to race was hugely popular. I see those people, who may have moved into faster equipment, leaving the ranks each year.

PCA needs to foster new racers and welcome beginners whose budgets are 5-figure cars and 4-figure weekends. There are a lot more of them that GTA/C/D drivers..

Nizer

I trust everyone knows you can at least get live timing via Race-Monitor.com. Not the same as true live streaming I know but I'm not sure that's realistic given cost is already a major issue for any club hosting a race.

Agree with all the other suggestions.

100%!

Personally, I love seeing the newer factory race cars at events as long as they embrace the open PCA culture, which has been my experience.

multi21

Has anyone mentioned grid girls and Swedish fish?

93 FireHawk 968

Great thread! As someone who use to race 5-6 times a season over several years and in different Cup cars, the costs escalated beyond what I was willing to commit, regardless of whether it was affordable to me. When an average race weekend approach's $12K, all in, and assuming you dont hit or get hit, it creates a "what am I doing" thought and what else, where else can I spend this level of cash. My son, real good driver, did a bunch of spec Miata driving with SCCA then a few PCA races in a 944. For a young guy, most forms of racing cost a lot today and certainly beyond the reach of most. Especially those with young families, too many competing priorities, time and most importantly $$$. I paid his way thru racing alongside my own and the invoices to support this were eye watering but worth every penny based on the incredible smiles across both of our faces and memories we made. We just returned to the track last week in an SP3 car and as cheap as it is to run, it still cost several thousand dollars for 2 days when you add everything up. This will always be a sport for those well-funded, but I believe the pool of participants will continue to decline as costs across the board continue to escalate.

redmill

Since its been covered above, ill skip over 3 things i agree with.
1) Escalating costs for established racers especially at the assumed more price sensitive end of the field (SP1/SP2/SP3 and some boxsters)
2)The dwindling models and inventory of < 20 year old Pcars that can be turned into a 'racer' for $20k ish.... i started 2012 with a 951 ready to race (slowly) for $10k.
3) Arms races within the 'budget' classes (SP3 spec is looser than expected)

It wouldn't hurt to look at the recruitment from the bottom up. I assume new faces show up aided by:

1) PERFORMANCE SHOPS: They are shops attending/supporting at races, that have a fair amount street/DE customers and have some DE engagement(loan the shop for DE tech) . PMR/Provost/Eurosport seem to have a consistent presence at east coast races.. They bring in new faces...Are the shops rewarded or charged for showing up?

2) Racers bringing in new racers via DEs... - I dont recall hearing anything ever from the my region regarding racing despite a large (Formerly?) (and profitable?) DE program. I dont think a bunch of clubracer magazines left on coffee tables is going to do much for new faces.
Its almost like fraternity recruitment... you have to be where the potential pledges are... Demystifying racing and making it seem 'doable' is what will generate more interest with people already doing DEs. The pitch used to be: 'keep your street car pretty' get a cheaper race car (have all the safety stuff) and no more waiting for point bys. Bring a lemons car to an open marque DE, a lot of people wander by and ask questions because that seems like a easy leap,

incentivizing or coordinating that in a decentralized manner could be tough

Schattenbaum always seems to have the right attitude with the DE and CR gang. Maybe we can do more at NJMP and to have the racers mingle a bit more with the DE crowd.... Have national buy a box of saltines for a BYO happy hour.

FWIW, i am at best a mid pack racer, consistently mediocre but amused by a profound lack of personal improvement or success.. Mindful of expenses and aggravation levels. Im here to have fun, on and off the track..Meet a new face or two. have a laugh, i want to bring the car home in one piece and not dampen anyone elses good time. I think there is mutual familiarity with a third of the pack which reduces a lot of concerns .... driving with cars of comparable speeds is definitely a big part of why i race rather than doing DEs,

Would my PCA CR pledge name be 'need the dues'? Not exactly an easy sales pitch, but then again, you need butts in seats, so somehow emphasizing fun over competition a bit couldnt hurt. I am sure there more than a few that hung up their helmet early because they saw winning more important than the sum of all the other enjoyable parts

IMHO getting car counts to levels to sustain more races for the next few years requires the boxster build and running costs to be 'reasonable' by using stock off the shelf components, cheap gas, cheaper tires . Strict spec.

tgsmith4845

This is a great point. So often the jump from DEing to club racing is not readily understood or known by folks who have an interest in making the leap, and PCA doesn’t really do a good job of explaining it. We recognized we had this situation in my region (GGR) last year and implemented an Introduction to Club Racing program. We now have a local club racer take 5-10 minutes in the DE Drivers meeting to talk about club racing, how to make the leap, to anyone interested. It really seems to mean a lot to hear a local racers story about how he or she went from DEing to racing. Takes the mystery out of it.

Jared Rodeheaver

My wife. She asked were their podium girls. When I told her not only the fact there were not any but there wasn't even a podium she was shocked.

LuigiVampa

Finally, someone bringing up the important issues.

It is important to remind DE drivers that DE is not racing, which PCA does over and over, but the problem is this leads almost to an anti-racing bias.

In my region if a driver states an interest in racing they are paired with an instructor who is a current or former racer, but that's as far as it goes. If a driver isn't vocal or proactive about racing they would never really know that there are people who would help them.

Bottom line - PCA doesn't really do anything to grow racers from its DE programs.

NaroEscape

A few years back (many years now that I think about it) a couple racers and I thought about putting together an "Intro to Club Racing" seminar, similar to the one our region does that's an intro to DE (that we stole from NNJR). It never happened because the then PCA Club Racing chair got wind of it and wanted to approve it and make sure it was vetted by legal, insurance, club racing, etc, etc, etc. He and I never got along anyway, so I just dropped it.

Our idea was to invite anyone that wanted to explore club racing. Talk through the basics of car prep, driver prep (required gear), the licensing process, race starts for the practice starts (which we no longer do unfortunately), rules, what to expect your first race and beyond, have a recent rookie racer speak about their first race experience, show some video, etc. and have a lot of Q&A interaction. Expanded thoughts was to have a bit of a mentor program where a new racer is helped and guided on their first race with a veteran racer. Maybe even provide lunch.

We've found that the DE intro we do had been amazingly successful (don't know how it's doing now as I'm not very involved with the region operations anymore), so why not do it with racing?

Now that I am typing all this, I can see an opportunity here to maybe put something together and have NaroEscape Motorsports sponsor it. A bit self serving yes, but hopefully can generate more racers as time goes on.

Oddjob

Far from official data, but I had looked at a some numbers a couple years ago. Just added up #’s of drivers that showed up in Rennpoints by class.

Nowanker

Do most PCA HPDEs even have open passing classes?
Thinking about that situation from years ago, GGR was strictly point-by.
Wasn't until I started running the NASA HPDE group 4 that I ever experienced open passing.
Kind of an important intro into racing....

dgrobs

HOD "D" Group has open passing with no points required.
Some still point in that group (I do if I don't know the driver and visa-versa, but if I do know the driver, then no point).
I do not know of a PCA region in North America that does this though. The lawyers.....