Whether Finland has a lot of F1 and Rally drivers or not (they do!) is immaterial. Finland also produced Jukka, a 2-time winner.
I stand by my points:
1) There is no way S.A. and Finland both should have two WCs while U.S. & Japan get one and U.K., Germany, Australia have none. Makes no sense at all.
2) All this amateur stuff is nice. But wouldn't it be far better to have a thousand fans paying $5.00 each for tickets to sit in the grandstand for every National? Perhaps entry fees would go down...
Wouldn't it be better for all kinds of products outside R/C to spend money on even E-main guys? (The back markers in NASCAR all have multi-million $$ sponsorships, and there are the Craftsman trucks along with with ARCA series.) Here in the U.S. there are local tracks all over the country, and every Tom, Dick, and Harry races there on Friday and Saturday nights. Those guys all get at least some help from their local auto parts store or pub.
Why can't we do the same? Why is this sport, perfect for TV with five minutes of action followed by a two minute commercial break, not on ESPN 2 every night at 2AM?
Yes, to start it takes somebody from that volunteer organization to write the press releases, and it's great one guy did that. Needs to continue! It takes somebody to invite the reporters out to the event and show them around, tell then where to get the best pix, help them understand what is going on. Maybe even let them drive a car during a break. These media guys are human, they want to be catered to. Those who do it reap rewards in the long run.
3) Dawn, I make reference to the 2003 Stock Nationals -- I am aware of no effort at all there to court the media as above. No press kit lying around in the hotel or at registration that I ever saw. And there were some long, carefully written posts on HobbyTalk where you and others dissed me pretty good. In at least one of them I volunteered to work free and asked to be contacted. Nobody ever did.
I'd like to flesh out my ideas for improving the organization and sanctioning of this hobby with you in person, not here. The discussion between you and me needs to take place elsewhere, perhaps in Scottsdale in March.
For those who may not know, Dawn is President of ROAR.
Sure am glad this terrible attendance at S.A. has led to spirited discussion, and, I hope, to improvements in the way our sport/hobby/business is run.
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