Thats such a give up reply. Some people spend a lot of time and money on "just" club racing. What pro series do you race in?

People race to win, otherwise they'd be smarter to DE, so there should be a reward to win. If one guy is clean up, always winning, then that should drive you to make yourself better.

 

I don't think you got his point. I didn't see the point to be taking a shot at CR. Instead he was talking about the realities of the tire marketing opportunities and what could motivate a tire manufacturer to subsidize CR. Having the opportunity to "to advertise as the winner of Spec 996 wins on our tires" is not likely to one of their motivators anytime soon.

 

Sean, calm down. What pro series do YOU race in?

In reality, you both make good points. Perhaps the better approach would be to award tires to top finishers AND one other racer at random, as an incentive tio participate?

 

Nitto uses club racers cars in their ads, mazda uses club racers in their ads. Why do the tire companies show the winners of runoffs and nasa nationals in their ad?

I probably did pull the second quote out of context.

 

I'm fine, just discussing things. I wasn't taking shots at club racers.

What I was trying to get him to realize, this is a much better idea. Have the random tire give away set be some kind of spirit of club racing or largest advancing position change award.

 

PCA Club Racers of spec series? I'm sure their ads are very medium specific and targeted, and Nitto is trying to gain a foothold in a targeted market. Not so for Hoosier.

 

Exactly--hard charger or the like, or also maybe workers choice.

 

I understand your point, but don't 98% of us (club OR pro road racers) race because it's fun? Or at least that should be the motivation to spend so much time and money on this sport. Very few of us actually get paid to drive.

I really like that idea!

 

This is a GREAT idea.

 

Look the market for for Hoosiers, Toyo etc is in club racing. Pro racing sell street tires, but contingencies in club racing sells tires to club racers.

Toyo sponsors 944 spec and other NASA classes that use the RA-1 and now R888. That is good marketing for them for two reasons.

1) Spec tire class select tires for a number of reasons one of them is any contigency. So if you get selected a spec tire for class you WILL be selling alot of tires to drivers in that class. So any contigency works out as a 10% discount for all the racers in the class. Would you rather sell 500 tires at 10% off or zero tires.

2) Guys in DE or open tire class will look around the paddock to see what the fast guys are running and naturally want to run the same thing. If the "fast" guys are on tire brand XXX then you will sell more of that tire.

There is even a spill over on to street tires too in that if you make a good racing tire people will start to consider your brand for street tires too. The thing about race tires is that they get used so often than one guy may go through 5-15 sets of race or track tires in the time they go through one set of normal street tires on a street car. So despite the lower number of buyers for track tires they each buy more.

 

Fun is a by-product of of winning, for me at least. I'm not having fun finishing 5th.

 

Fun for me is being out there and bring the car and me home safely. Fun is also knowing I gave a good effort and did my best. Winning is really nice, but I would rather have good safe weekend and race hard and fairly vs my competition that to win easly. I have been racing since 2002 and I have a number of wins under my belt some hard fought and other due to just showing up. It is much more fun for me to fight hard and do my best and get 2nd than to win because none of the fast guys showed up that day and win running slow lap times.

As for contingencies... They help take the edge off costs.

 

I thought it would common sense, that showing up and beating cars 4 sec slower than you, yet in the same class isn't winning. Thats just showing up. Or being the only car in your class, is just an attendance award, not winning a race.

Take my winning comment in the context of racing, not winning without competition.

 

Agreed, but not much there for Hoosier.

 

Sean, with respect, you are a medium-sized fish in a very small pond. Go race where there are routinely 70-120 car fields, or go race entry-level pro, and you will not be winning, at least not initially. I surely would hope you are still having fun (and learning) finishing 5th, or 15th, because that would be the reality.