Originally Posted by
theproffesor
Attendance at Nationals is important, but not nearly as important to the hobby as local and regional. Nationals is only important to manufacturers and those that want entry into the worlds. So like > 3% in the U.S. If attendance at lower level races improves, it will (maybe not in the first year) inevitabely improve at the higher level races. Also how many actually attend the nats that aren't local or sponsored drivers that are contractually obligated to. There are some, but very few. And of those that arent sponsored or have attended a regional, how many are actually good enough to win on any given day. Maybe 3? So your worried about turning away less than a dozen people (how donthis hobby day in and day oit already), but more emphasis on lower level races could bring in numerous new poeple.
First off, the number of drivers who attend Nationals who are actually contractually obligated to do so is less than ten, and is likely actually less than five. Just because you have a 50% or 70% sponsorship deal doesn't mean you are contractually obligated to attend Nationals. As such, nearly everyone who attends nationals does it either out of desire (rather than obligation), the prestige that comes from winning a national title, or the relative few who want to use it as qualifying for IFMAR worlds.
All of those guys who attend Nationals by choice are the people who would be impacted by making Regionals a prerequisite. My off-the-cuff estimate is that this would be at least 75% of the racers.
Aside from commenting on the dodgy math, I also want to state that I am all for improving attendance at local and regional races. I just don't believe that an increase in attendance at those races should come at the expense of reduced attendance for our national events, as would happen with the prequisite/qualifier proposals that have been floating around.
Improve attendance at local and regional races by improving the quality of races that are offered, improving the marketing and communication for local clubs and races, and offering classes that are more appealing to current racers. Making it more difficult to attend nationals isn't going to improve local racing, it is just going to piss off the guys who are already dedicated to racing and likely already heavily involved in their local racing. Improving attendance needs to come from the bottom up, and from trying to bring new people into the hobby.