Originally Posted by
Stratus Racer
Rick, no one is disputing that quality of races. The Initial post is directed at RROC is in decline of invitational drivers attendance. Simply my observation. At Speedworld we were told that companies didn't want to send their invitational racers because they were afraid of swine flu epidemic turning pandemic. We all know that was hog wash.
I thought it is more of location and the tourist thing more than anything else. I too would like to see RROC return to its glory days. Back at Tamiya of course.
To me it seemed as though you were comparing club race number to RROC numbers which is like comparing apples to oranges.
The location is a factor but San Francisco is not exactly a place for tourists to avoid.
Invitational class suffers because.
1. An ETS race is scheduled consistently the week before.
2. This year the Euros warm-up was the same weekend and last year the Worlds warmup was the weekend after.
3. The TC market, although growing again, is not as big as it once was.
4. TC teams are smaller than they were.
5. Fewer NA drivers worthy of racing Invitational - of 33 drivers in the 2004 Invite class, 17 were Americans!