Racers thoughts

[Smartalec]

Hi all,
In recent chats with both Tony Truman and Dave Church an idea came up about how to create more crowd "interaction" at primarily, the national off road meetings. I'd like to run the idea past everyone and get some feedback on here as to your thoughts and suggestions.

The idea is simply this, if we take a typical national entry of around 120 drivers and everyone participates. Each person pays £2 and for their money they get to draw a driver out of the hat, this driver is "theirs" for the day and in the finals if their driver wins then they win the money. The amount of money won is obviously dependant on how many people participate and how many finals there are. In the above example the amount of money won on each final would be £20, this is enough to create interest and not enough to spoil anything, it's basically enough to cover your petrol (for most people) for the weekend.

The main point of this is nothing to do with the money, it's to do with the fact that potentially for EVERY final there could be ten different people (and their mates) cheering for someone they might not have even spoken to before. This coupled with the commentary of MC DC and MC TT would be interesting/loud LOL.

I'd prefer to have one of the major distributors contribute prizes so we didn't have to rely on the money aspect but you all know that won't happen. I think a couple of quid is well within everyone's reach (at national level) and I think that this would create an excellent atmosphere for the finals. How many times has the K final been watched by anyone except the marshalls? ........... it would be good for someone who's constantly in the last final to be cheered on by one of the top boys

Your thoughts?

[Lee]

Thats a cool idea, i like the idea of cheering on someone that you don't even know

[Stu]

I do like that idea, but it needs to be optional.

It could be built in easily, if a winning driver does not belong to anyone then second place comes into play.

[telboy]

You could sort it all at booking in. When you go and book in, you pay yer £2 and draw the ticket from a box. Easy.

Good idea too. It'll give encouragement to those that are not as talented as the top drivers.

[Smartalec]

Originally Posted by telboy

Good idea too. It'll give encouragement to those that are not as talented as the top drivers.

That's right, I feel there's not enough support for the younger/less talented drivers especially as at National level you could win the B final and get nothing.......... i'd shave my head if I ever got near to winning the B final LOL ........... what happened to the days of trophies and stuff?

[Stu]

Originally Posted by telboy

You could sort it all at booking in. When you go and book in, you pay yer £2 and draw the ticket from a box. Easy.

I don't think it can be part of the booking in procedure.

Only when the confirmed heat list is posted can the process of sorting names for the draw start - so it can't be done until after it's been posted after practice #1.

Plus Stu already has his hands full sorting the actual booking in process.

[dave g]

but you will still only have 10 people cheering drivers on per race..but good idea tho

[Smartalec]

Originally Posted by Stu

I do like that idea, but it needs to be optional.

It could be built in easily, if a winning driver does not belong to anyone then second place comes into play.

Yep, should definitely be optional. Everyone is entitled to one draw or one go as it were and if there are say ten names left in the hat at the end then if someone wants another draw they can on a first-come first-serve basis until all the drivers are taken. That way ALL entrants should get someone rooting for them.