Oh, I really must bring up the celebrity connection to my blog. It also happens to be an Australian connection to my blog. I recently got a visit from legends of their own genre; Jamie McHugh, several time Australian national Super Sedan champion and Glenn Seton, multi time V8 Super Car champion. I do have several readers from Australia, and feel privileged to have worked with these guys during their brief stint in America.
Jamie is building a new car for the up coming season in Australia, and ventured across for a month of racing to look for new ideas for his new car. Al Atkinson, of Heiser Trailer Sales, provided a car for Jamie to run for the weeks that he was here. He had a little trouble acclimating to sitting on the left side of the car, but turned in some good finishes during his trip. It was evident the first time I saw him run a car that he is an exceptionally talented driver, but he was just a little out of his element. Click here to finish reading Australian Legends Jamie McHugh and Glenn Seton
Let me first say that the goal of people should not be to make racing cheaper so more people can afford to do it. That is a waste of time. If people want to make something cheaper, let’s concentrate on health care costs or the general cost of living. These are things that will make a difference in society. That is where cost cutting will make a difference. I keep hearing people complain about the cost of racing going up and that we need rules to keep the cost down. All these rules do is increase costs by forcing the people with the money to spend more to get around the rules; further escalating the costs. Cost saving rules cost everyone more money or more time and headaches policing this increase in rules. Now all that being said, let’s sit down and talk about ways to go racing with the money you have to spend. There is a way. Don’t be discouraged! If someone wants to race bad enough they will find a way.
The first thing that comes to mind for me is that there is a class of car for everyone. If you want to race dirt late models and support it solely on a ten dollar an hour job, you may need to rethink that. Click here to finish reading Racing on a Budget
It’s been a while since I wrote a post. And I’m sorry for that, to my loyal readers that have come to the site for the past year since I started this blog. It seems to me the biggest problem people have with their cars is getting the cars to turn well and still get enough traction. Some people I talk to confuse traction with either a tight or a loose race car. To me a balanced race car is one that turns when and where you need it to with the steering wheel. I run into so many people who think that it is totally normal to turn off there right front brake or put excessive amounts of rear brake to get the car into the corner. A good balance to a car is one that responds to steering wheel input without the used of excessive brake biasing.
Well, Wild Inc. purchased a shock dyno now and I’ll be going to Ohio to pick it up this weekend. I thought I would do another post about shock absorbers and what I have been thinking lately. I really got digging into the new Integra IDA shock. I really can’t wait until we get the dyno because I am really interested in working with it a little more in depth. I tore into one a couple of months ago and really liked what I saw. First, I believe they have done a great job of cutting down on the hysteresis present in many canister style shocks. Hysteresis is basically a lag time in the responsiveness of the shock. There are many things that can cause this. An expansion and contraction of the hose that connects the reservoir to the shock is one contributing factor. That’s why the length and composition of the hose is very important. The longer the hose, the more possibility for it to flex. Also, if the hose is not rigid enough it can swell under pressure and cause a hysteresis problem. The IDA corrects all of this by putting all of the adjustable parts along with the gas reservoir inside the shock body eliminating the need for the hose.
Schlieper has the task of promoting his sponsors brand
Companies pay big money for the opportunity to have their name splashed over anything and everything a race team has. So what does a sponsor get for their money? In a simplified view, the company gets introduced to a race teams tribe. I say race team because I think we are entering a time where team members are contributing to the teams brand, and the tribe that follows them, as much as the driver does.
In big time NASCAR racing, the identity of the crew chief and some other key crew members, can contribute to the total brand of the team. No longer are they hidden behind the drivers own brand. They themselves are building their own brand and their own tribe. This can be greatly beneficial to the sponsor. This simply means a bigger tribe to promote their products.
So what is the teams responsibility to the sponsor. It just isn’t enough for the name of the sponsor to be splashed on everything a team owns. That is why it is so important that a sponsors brand match a team brand. The teams followers need to identify with what the sponsor is trying to sell. There are still many high profile sponsors that are happy with the old traditional name splash and the interview name dropping, but are they really getting their moneys worth? There is an old saying in the advertising; “Only half of the advertising actually works, the problem is finding out which half.” With consumers having more choices than ever over the products they buy, a companies marketing must target their potential customers much more precisely. Click here to finish reading Motorsports Marketing; Promoting Your Sponsors Brand
What’s going on with this East Bay thing? This has been the place to be in years past for some of the best racing in the country. This year; no lift speeds, but no passing either. Over priced food, with pizza a shopping mall food court would be ashamed to serve. Car counts down, with some of the best in the country choosing to skip it. Admission fees are up, well at lest they will be able to send their kids to ivy league colleges. It doesn’t appear to be the place to be in February any more. Lets just put all that past us and talk about what is going on tech wise down here.
After hearing from many the end of the swing arm era at East Bay, there were several Rayburns that did quite well on opening night. Mike Marlar won on a hammer down limited passing track. The swing arm is just a consistent smooth driving car and he didn’t bobble too much. The other notable sight is that Bloomquist racing, after never really running well here is coming to life. His cars are smooth and controllable even on some of the roughest parts of the track. Click here to finish reading Turning Tires, Yaw, What is Going on with East Bay?
I did a racing seminar yesterday and some of it was about what it takes to be a successful racer. This guy talks about making money, but success is success no matter what you want to try and achieve. I will try and do a little more on this subject for a future article.
One thing I haven’t touched on in some of my tire articles is the old tire circle theory. It is in every major race car handling book I have on my shelves; I have no idea where it first originated. In a very quick, one sentence analysis, it says this: To operate a tire at the very limit of it’s traction ability, there will be a trade off between the amount of acceleration and the steering angle or the amount of braking and the steering angle. To use 100% of a tires traction for acceleration you won’t be able to turn the wheels, or you will break traction.
I think the point of the traction circle is to illustrate that there will always be the trade off in traction between side load and either acceleration or braking traction. It all boils down to tire stretch. To get the highest amount of either acceleration or braking traction the tire will stretch have to stretch only in the fore or aft direction. To get the maximum amount of side bite, the tire must only stretch in the lateral direction. In the real race world we hardly ever only load the tire in only one direction. Click here to finish reading Dirt Track Tires; Traction Circle
As fan attendance slips, tracks struggle to try and stay afloat. Since fan attendance has been dropping since the nineties. Tracks have scrambled to correct the cash flow problem by increasing the back gate and by adding more classes to bring in more paying entertainers to their venue. What we really need to do is bring the fan base back to grass roots racing. Bring back grass roots racing as an entertainment venue instead of having racing more as a club/ hobby venue focused at entertaining the participants. We have to ask ourselves some questions before we start trying to attract people back to the races. First; where did the fans that packed grandstands in the eighties and early nineties go? And, second, what do race fans want to come back to. They seem kind of like loaded questions, kind of like the meaning of life. If we knew the actual answer to those questions, we could solve most of the problems involving grass roots racing today. Click here to finish reading Motorsports marketing; What Race Fans Want.
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