JHew84

iTrader: (9)

I don't see anything wrong with hosting two major events a year... if sevenstock and RR are both organized who's to say they won't each be a HUGE success??

I can't disagree that traveling all the way to CA is one hellova trek from central michigan. While I'd be more than willing to do it when I have the time/resources it would still be nice if a major event was held closer.

eletor

i would love to see an event the size of 7stock in the midwest/east coast. like what was said earlier money is always a concern. the cost to get there and back... and the cost of missing work to go. i love my rx7's but i'm not sure how well they would make it cross country. i have driven them both on 500 mile trips but a 4000+ mile trip scares me. and i'm not taking the civic to 7stock. i totally think this could work, if you build it... the midwest owners will come.

Railgun

Ok...now, what about some of the business owners? What kinds of things would bring you to this kind of event? What can you offer or suggest? This doesn't mean forking over some cash or items or whatnot...but being in the biz, you can attract more potential business...but how?

How about some quick bulletpoints with suggestions?

hanman

The NUMBER ONE PROBLEM: Location.
Trying to find a track with all of the offerings that we had at IRP is the real problem. IRP is a perfect blend of what you are looking for. The road race track, the drag strip, and and area large enough for autox. BUT.... the issue is price and availability. Weather was the fatal blow to the RR event. EVERY YEAR! But, don't let that fool you, it wasn't really the weather, it was not being able to book the track at the right time of the year.
At that time of the year the chances of the weather being bad are very good. If they could have booked the track another four to six weeks later, now your talking. But, the track was not available. That's the real problem. Then add in the expense of the track rental and insurance and now it's a formidable problem. Are you willing to pony up five to ten thousand of your own money to make sure this event takes place? If the weather is nice, and you do a good job of promoting the event, and get lOTS of sponsors involved, you have a chance of getting that money back. But, it doesn't take much to go wrong and then you are going to lose your ***.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to see this thing get legs. But, there is a lot to overcome.

hanman

BTW, realistically you are looking at an 09 event. This would be almost impossible to pull off this year.

Railgun

Oh yeah...I had NO intention of trying to get it going this year.

While weather contributed to the participants of the event, it wasn't the demise of hosting it per se. But that's where experience will be the huge benefit to pulling this off again. Those miscues can be learned from and protected against.

I know of the costs involved, which is why I'm dying here that Aron hasn't chimed in yet, nor has any business. I'm already discussing this with the Indy folks and they're interested (the 8 side anyway). The more we get involved, the better the chances are we can pull it off.

As far as the location thing, again, there ARE places, and depending on where, the locations can be split a little provided they're within a couple miles of each other (but no additional costs are involved). For example, a track/strip on campus and we gain permission from some owner of a large p-lot to setup an auto-x course. Think Mazda's zoom zoom event. Worse come to worse, we can piggy back the track event/costs with another club if they so desire, but they'd have to accept that it's a rotary-centric event. Most people I've spoken with from other clubs seem to be OK with things like that.

rolfs_7

what business' are around here.....Banzai is the only place i know of that has anything to do with rotary's, but i dont get out much. i would love to drive to cali...but thats not realistic. if somthing came this close to me i would be there in a heartbeat. im 2hrs away from indy and about the same distance from chicago.

ducktape

Just a note about the drags. A good idea would be to have open/grudge racing, interspersed with eliminations over the course of the day. Define a class system (example: NA, PA, and brackets). Run one class at a time, and split record keeping responsibilities up by class (NA guys keep score for PA, and vise versa).

1987tIIc

iTrader: (1)

well, we could call our local rotary shops and get them in on it, it would deff. boost their business

Railgun

There is:

A-Spec
RX-7 Store
Maybe CJ Motorsports
Rotary Doctor still around?
AIM
J&H Racing?

And perhaps we can go outside of the region a little as well.

Ducktape,

That sounds like a good idea. Anyone who drags should help out. That will def keep additional costs down. Not to mention that they can watch everything as well.

rolfs_7

i forgot about AIM, i guess i dont get out much. have you found any good locations yet?

1987tIIc

iTrader: (1)

rotary doctor is deff. still around, just talked to him yesterday, havent mentioned anything about this tho

Railgun

So mention it.

ducktape

Ludwigmotorsports.com - Louisville, Ky... (Participated in 2005)

Railgun

Cool...

So how can we get them involved? Those who talk to these guys a lot, please mention this thread to them. Let's get them in here.

zinx

iTrader: (3)

I don't think J&H racing is still around, you wouldn't want them as a sponsor anyway.

How about Banzai Racing up in Pierceton?

Railgun

Well, I haven't dealt with many anyway so...what do I know.

I just didn't mention Banzai as it was already mentioned, but of course they're on the list.

DRTHVDR

iTrader: (7)

I never attended any of the "Rotary Revolution" events but I have been to the last two years of "Deals Gap Rotary Rally". I've had a great time and the road/people couldn't be better. It's a very relaxed event with a road that was made for our cars. I'm going this year even though I don't have an FD in my garage (still shopping).
I'm from Michigan and I drive all the way down there to attend. My wife goes too!
It's a centrally located event for all us "East Side" people.

It's held at the infamous US 129 AKA "The Tail of the Dragon" at the border of Tennessee and North Carolina.

The more the Merrier!

Details can be found here:
https://www.rx7club.com/deals-gap-rotary-rally-157/

New, updates, announcements, webpage and forum for the event are located here:
http://www.dealsgaprotaryrally.com/

Railgun

Thanks, but please keep this on topic. There are many that are aware of the event and I certainly am not trying to compete with that as this is something of a much different nature.

So just a couple of quick thoughts...

I'd like a definite decision on location no later than 5/31/08. This would give us enough time to get the logistics in place to secure said location. Dates will somewhat be subject to what's possibly available, but a range will need to be figured out by then as well.

George84

I still have some emails from the 2004 and 2005 RR here were a few of the people in those emails that I kept;
-NoPistons.com/RX-7Parts.com as a Secondary Sponsor
-Speed Machine Performance offered an exclusive group buy to Receive a Free Hand Held Controller or Laptop Adaptor with software with any purchase of a Microtech Unit to paid event attendees
-A-Spec Tuning as a Secondary Sponsor
-Steve Kan Tuning & Seminar
-Leatherseats.com as a Secondary Sponsor
-RX7Trix as a Secondary Sponsor
-Jesus Padilla from Kilo Racing and his 3-Rotor Naturally Aspirated Rotary dragcar(the dude with the blue FC drag car that could not go down the track do to the rain in 2004, 9.95 seconds at 131.75 mph)
- I know cpracing.ca was there also

Thats all the stuff I could find in my old emails, I can foward them to you if you want. I will also look through a few old boxes, I think I still have info form the events.
I think IRP might still be the way to go, but I would get prices to rent the track at a few different tracks at the time of the year you want the event to happen so you know how much sponsorship help we need.

nick812

yea sounds like Fun I missed outon the last RR.

fdfreak

iTrader: (1)

Ive never been to any of these, but have do the tuner mags come out? Even if it started off as a smaller event, if you had a magazine come out and do an article on it could raise the popularity for the following years.

hanman

Railgun, try contacting a track before you go to far. That is still the MAJOR problem. There were NO dates available at IRP for the last event, that's why we ended up when we did, with the subsequent weather issues.

Another track to take a look at is Heartland Park in Topeka KS. It has all three offerings, drag track, road track, and room for AutoX. But, again, I think finding an acceptable date is going to be the issue.

Ray Crowe from Malloy Mazda had a truck there at the last event too. He was very popular. And the guys from LeatherSeats.com were real troopers. They went ahead with their seminar even through the bad weather.

Railgun

Are you sure that's why the last event was on that date? Not because that was the date that it had been for the previous two years?

I think that they tried to move it, but at that time, it was too late.

As far as dates, believe me, it's a pain to get a good date. Those that use the track every year basically get a first right of refusal. Sucks for us.

I'll take a look at the track there. The key with dates is not to interfere with other larger events, which I have as SS, MRR and DGRR.

I've been meaning to give Ray a call as I need more things. I'll mention it to him then.

hanman

Yea I am sure. I talked with the guy running the RR event. I can't remember his name, but he was the most visible of the two guys who organized it. He told me that was the only date that he could get, but that he thought that he might be able to get a date in June the following year. Of course that never happened. The weather absolutely killed that event. Two years in a row.
He also told me that he was out of pocket several thousands of dollars on the event and doubted that he would see any of it back.
The keys to success of this event are date, location, sponsors, and getting the word out. I don't know how many participants you need to make it successful, but unless you have the other ingredients, it won't matter anyway.

If you go back through some of the old threads about RR, someone mentioned another track, maybe St. Louis? It had all three venues also.