Region 11

[FWR]

Someone around here mentioned that the 2003 changes to the ROAR rules were supposed to be out in January. Are they out yet? Where do we find out what they are?

[Mal]

Not sure if they have the updated data but you can get the info on www.roarracing.com.

[Exterminator]

Do you know if ROAR is working on reconizing the monster truck class as a racing class? I know that there is big intrest in the t-maxx will ROAR wake up and get some rules laid down so these guys can race?

Also is there any move to reduce or drop the track membership cost if the track doesn't need ROAR's insurance. Seems to me that there is no reason for a track to be ROAR if all ROAR does is charge them rather large amounts and they recieve no benifits. I think by giving the tracks ROAR status the tracks would want to get more members into ROAR.

[Skid Marks]

Tim,
If a track wants to run a regional or national event they need to be a ROAR track for at least a year. If the track wants to do that they need to stay current. Also the "huge" amount of money that ROAR charges the tracks is not as much as you think. If they are a ROAR track, they do need to make their racers ROAR members. SARCAR does it, Rose City does it. All the ROAR clubs do it without any complaining. As far as a T-MAXX class I havent been told about anything in the works for that. If I hear anything I will post it here.

r

[coolrcdad]

Any update on the dates for the regionals in Tri-Cities?

[Skid Marks]

Its going to be the 3rd or 4th week in March. We are still trying to nail down a date. As soon as Darren lets me know, I will post it

r

[Skid Marks]

It looks like ROAR has made a new position called Promotions Director. Here is the letter that was sent by her. (yes it's a chick!) I'm glad to see Rick is taking charge. I will be talking to her as well to see if she is going to seek t.v coverage for our sport. I'll keep you posted.
r

Hello!

First, let me introduce myself.... my name is Dawn Sanchez and I have been appointed as the ROAR Promotions Director as of January 13th per nomination by our new president and acceptance of the existing Executive Committee members. Basically, my promotional experience comes from my day job as a licensed hearing aid specialist here in New Mexico of which I have been working professionally for 12 years with the same company. My RC experience, well, not as proliferate, but I have been involved in this hobby since 1996 when my ex husband got involved with our local off road track. I have never been a great RC wife sitting by quietly in the pits watching my "man" run his racing so I got involved with the daily business of the club, running races and mostly promoting the larger venues the club held. We ran the Region 10 off road championships in 2000 and 2002 and state championships several years also. The largest venue held at the offroad facility is the Annual Southwestern Tumbleweed Classic, normally held in the fall. I recently remarried... another RC'er... ha ha... and continued my involvement with the club working on enforcing ROAR rules and promoting the RC hobby the best I could in our state. I have never pursued regional responsibilities due to quite a bit of enthusiasm and a wonderful job from our Utah counterparts who have held the office for a number of years. (hello Teresa!!)

After Rick Wilson won the election for ROAR president, he asked me if I would be interested in leading an entire promotions team to make some major changes in the attitudes of ROAR from the membership and work as an official when the capacity was needed. I agreed and well... this is the reason for this email to you all!

Let me be the first to say congratulations to those who were re-elected and the newly elected! You all have quite a job ahead of you... and I am about to ask for more of your help. I believe the successful promotion of our chosen sanctioning body MUST come from each of you and participating with the promotions team during our ideas and implementation process... There is much work to be done. Let me explain.

The team started out with a discussion of answering the age old question, "WHY JOIN ROAR?" That is not such an easy question to answer. Many of you are track owners and have run across the experience of, for example, the kid just purchasing a new RTR and itching to run on your track.. but you have to explain they need insurance and need to fork out another $30.00 just to be a member of an organization they will never understand. My goal is to change that.

What can ROAR do for the membership? Well, why not help a little financially with National events to the host tracks? I am not saying that ROAR should and can provide all the funding - but why not help? I believe the host tracks do need to take a bit of responsibility in raising funds but I also believe there is help out there in the form of national sponsorship to assist with trophy costs and miscellaneous funding. We are working on such a program that we will generate funds and divide equally between the 10 host tracks each year to defray costs. Also, we have contacted several (and looking for more) trophy companies that we can contract for a standardized award for national events with a low cost so the host tracks do not need to think of that concern also. Possibly, t-shirt companies and manufacturer support for hand out rulings. The sponsorship program is in need of your help of potential, non-industry folks who might be interested or have helped sponsor one of your races. Please, contact me with names and numbers and I will do the leg work if you wish.

Also, we must have more tracks in each of your areas to join so we may have more choices from bids for these races. Not only to increase the competitive level in the nation but have more tracks that accept the membership and have a standardized and consistent ruling to run things by. Basically, go racing where ever you wish and know what to expect. We are generating what we call a Track Pak to assist new tracks in getting things together a bit more... again... WE NEED YOUR HELP!! You and only you know what your tracks in the regions are like, what they lack and what they need to stay successful. I need to know all of this so we can focus on each track and give them what they need.

In this track pak, we will include a video...yes, a video.. basically showing tracks around the nation and hobby shops so each new member can see this is a nationwide thing and will bring the national aspect of this hobby right inside their living room. Nothing like home, huh....??? (if any of you are available to do a little filming of racing, talking to your locals, hobby shop store fronts and the happy part of our hobby, please do.. on VHS please and mail to me??)

And finally, we are looking into a national point series program.. racing against the nation and not leave your home track is the idea behind it. The award will be a ROAR national driver for what is going to start with two classes on road and two classes off road until the popularity takes off... with a banquet and all for the driver in their home town. Basically, the idea is to promote more national racing and encourage better participation at your regional events and the national events held in your regions. This point series is in discussion still - we are working on ways to make it basically equal to each track. We have devised a plan based on the Winston Cup Point series program.. but still needs some work. (if any of you have better ideas... I need them!!)

See?? ROAR can and will do a lot for the track affiliates and the members.. but it starts with you guys!

Respectfully,
Dawn Sanchez
ROAR Promotions Director

[Exterminator]

I have had some thoughts along this line. (yea I know but it didn't hurt to bad).

My thoughts are come up with some kind of computer ranking similar to the way they run college football.
So that if you are running against stronger competition you would recieve a higher score for the national points than you would if you were racing less experenced drivers.
You or your track turns in the weekly results from racing and that is ranked and points awarded based on position finished and competition level. Each individual would then be able to recieve a national ranking.

This could be started based on the world championships.

Current world champion would be ranked #1 and so on down. As those drivers go to races their competition would be entered into the data base and recieve a ranking. and so on. till all ROAR members would be ranked then it would be up to them to seek out higher grade competition to improve their ranking.


Just some thoughts.

[Wild Cherry]

A ranking system would be way to complicated to achieve..

I myself think Roar sould create driver catagories....

In other words...

#1 National Pro
#2 Pro class
#3 Sportsman class
#4 Beginner class

Pro, sport, & beginner points are earned in regional events, the regional director can mark your licence at the end of each event, these points can then be handed in and recorded when you renew your Roar membership.

National Pro`s points are earned by completing in Roar national events .

These points you earned can be used to stack the qualifier`s in Roar nationals & regional events...

It would be next to impossible to rank every driver in the USA .
It not such a big thing however to rank the professonals , there only gona be 10 racers in da A-main in a national event.

regional directors can oversee the points earned by racers in their own seperate regions...

[Exterminator]

A ranking system would not be difficult to achieve. The tennis world has been doing it for years and the governing body keeps track of all tennis players in the world.

The Classes idea is also a good way to break up the ranking system. It's also similar to the way the tennis is broken up into juniors and seniors and pro level players.

[Wild Cherry]

Well the whole point of all this discussion is Roar needs to some how built back the value in racing regional events.

Heck , most really cannot deem spending extra dough on a Roar membership & spend their money on a road trip for the regionals anymore....

The Commercial Tracks themselves know they can run a race with out Roar dipping into their profits....


The big question for all is wants in it for me ?

answer: besides a write up in Rev-up, thats it.
If your lucky , Roar might even send your Rev-up in the mail...

[Exterminator]

Cherry,

That is exactly the reason for ROAR to come up with a ranking system, You would be able to gain in ranking by doing well at the regionals. Assuming that there were equal or higher ranked people at the race. And you won.

Example,

Say you are ranked #20 and you attend a race and win against someone who is ranked #10. You would move up in rank to half the difference.

If you just beat the #19 person you would be #19 and they would move down to #20.

This system would make large races more important to attend and more valuable to potential sponsers. Also it would give racers and tracks a very important reason to become ROAR members.

Now this is just a idea. Fine tuning and things could come later.

Anyone that knows how the tennis system works or knows anyone involved with the USTA might be able to gather more info on how thier system works.

[Mal]

I've played in the USTA system ... Not sure how this could be incorporated into RC.

The USTA doesn't give a certain amount of points for beating a particular player. Each tournament has a set number of points. The bigger tournaments, the grand slams, give the highest number of possible points. Making it past certain rounds gives you points.

During the grand slams people with the highest number of points would be placed in a more favorable bracket. The higher ranked people wouldn't see a seeded player until late in the tournament. A lesser ranked player would have to play a seeded player right away.

All this would do is widen the gap between factory drivers and club racers because the quals would be stacked. Plus, an average driver that attends all the races would be ranked higher than a an exceptional driver that attends one big race.

Not sure how nascar's point system works but I'm sure it's better than the USTA system.

[Exterminator]

hmm,
this points system might work. If you figure that maximum points would be at the world championships. and don't use it to seed the field just award points based on finishing position at the end of the race.

therefore,

World championship 100 points possable.
National Championship 75
Regional Championship 50
Club Championship 25.

So a driver could have a shot at 250 possable points. The driver that finished the year with the most points would be ROAR Class Champion.

Just a thought.

[Mal]

In my opinion, there are too many sponsored drivers in RC. Most people don't want to travel to a race only to be beaten by someone who has all their stuff paid for.

I don't think it's a ROAR problem. I think most of the problems fall on the manufacturers. Not only do they come out with new items every year, costing the racers money. They sponsor anyone and everyone. I don't think you should be sponsored unless you finish in the b-main, or higher, at a nationals (Or win regionals). Can't afford to go to nationals? Then you don't get sponsored. You need to put in the time and effort if you want to get sponsored. Plus, I think those sponsored drivers need to be reviewed twice a year. You're not performing after 6 month? Too bad you're dropped from the program.

Sponsored drivers cost companies money which costs you money because the consumer has to pay to offset costs. Sponsored drivers also cost hobby shops money because they no longer buy from the hobby shops.

Races in the area and nationally haven't changed. They have the same format. The only change is that sponsored racers have increase 1000%.