There is no more important topic.
The all volunteer, nonprofit club I'm part of has done an excellent job of cultivating new racers over time; since we started in 2009, we have turned over half to two-thirds of our regular cast while maintaining good turnouts and a diversity of classes. Believe it or not, we thrive while offering minimal open track practice. We arrive, build our tracks, practice for 60-90 minutes, race two quals and a main, pack it up, and go home.
Looking back, I would say it was our great good fortune to have organized ourselves during the trying years of the Great Recession. Lean, mean, sustainability is in our DNA. We've always paid our bills, and at the same time we've expanded our program from a single track pieced together from the remains of other programs to two complete indoor carpet tracks and programs for the indoor season, and a new, permanent outdoor paved track in a park for the outdoor season. Again, all of it financed through entry fees and racer donations. We have no corporate partners footing the bill, though for sure we have excellent partners in the Seattle and SeaTac parks departments.
Leadership
From the beginning, our club leadership has focused on offering a tightly run race program. We are competing for the time, energy, and money of our racers, so we waste little to no time. We have also strived to cultivate a program that serves everyone from the newest newb to national champions. I would say our best racers are aware of and take pride in the fact that new racers are showing up to race with our club. At the same time, we don't mess around on track. We work for our track time, so we race hard and serious, and I think that also shows well to our new racers. They see that this is an activity that rewards effort over time. It's worth the investment.
Program
We have maintained a very consistent set of classes over time, and we have largely followed ROAR's lead when it comes to our class rules. We run Stock and Mod touring, Stock and Mod 1/12th, F1, Novice, and Scale Spec. For those paying attention, the most important classes in the lineup are Novice and Scale Spec. Our only "skill" class is Novice. Everything else is a racer class. There is absolutely no expectation that people "move up" to faster classes. Personally, I don't believe in that terminology or concept. High skill, slow speed racing like we have in Scale Spec is absolutely the best venue for new racers to develop a durable interest in the hobby. The interest and luster of the class is enhanced by the participation of experienced, quality racers.
Sustainability
This sport can be maintained on a tight budget, in an expensive city, season after season. We are proving it. Expenses must be kept in line. Endless hours of expensive, open track practice for a few diehard racers is too often the death of a program. The key is not endless hours of practice. The key is reliable, sustainable venues over time. Our two batches of excellent gray CRC ozite have tons of life of them. We absolutely did not rush out to replace perfectly good rug, and we have no intention to do so, so long as there is good life in our rug. Our turnouts have suffered not one bit, and we do send racers to IIC, MHIC, Victoria, and other black tracks. We adapt. It's no big deal.
That's probably enough for now
