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Tag: road racing

  • Driver Ego: The Key to Building a Successful Racing Series

    Driver Ego: The Key to Building a Successful Racing Series

    The Stephen Cox Blog is Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance

    The easiest way to increase car count in short track racing and amateur road racing is to keep your drivers happy. Really happy. Fortunately, there is a very effective and affordable way to do that.

    It was four o’clock on a Sunday afternoon, August 29, 2004. It was blazing hot at the Hallett Motor Racing Circuit just outside of Tulsa. Although we missed the setup and were posting slower-than-usual lap times, we won the GT-2 qualifying race after the leader retired with a broken supercharger belt.

    I climbed out of the race car drenched in sweat, knowing that I’d won a race I didn’t deserve. The track owner, the late Mike Stephens, was setting up victory lane and preparing to hand out trophies to the day’s winners. I stopped by to chat with him just before the main event and jokingly asked which trophy was mine. Mike laughed and then responded with some of the most truthful words ever uttered in motorsports.

    “Stephen, I’m not in the racing business. I’m in the ego gratification business. I promise we’ll take care of you.”  

    World Racing League championship ring

    The racing driver in me doesn’t like to hear that, but it’s true. Drivers want to participate in events that reward their ego. They’re interested in events that leave behind detailed records so that future generations can see and recognize their efforts.

    Records matter. Even the small ones. Heat race wins, track records, qualifying race wins, entry lists… these things are important to many racing drivers. They want to know that the series keeps careful records that will be made widely available and preserved long after their careers are over.

    Some may call this nothing more than childish ego. Your drivers and teams will consider it an honest, justifiable pride in years of hard work. But ultimately, what we think doesn’t really matter because human nature remains the same.

    The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series is now re-writing their record book to include drivers who won A-main races during multi-day events. Previously, drivers who had won feature races on anything other than the final night of the event weren’t credited with official wins. Now they are. This brings a host of new, officially recognized winners into the record books. It makes a lot of drivers and teams very happy, and it didn’t cost the World of Outlaws a cent.

    World Racing League president Joey Todd offers a championship ring to the winners of the U. S. Endurance Championship at the Circuit of the Americas every December. Almost every racing driver I’ve ever met would trade all the trophies and accolades he’d ever earned for just one championship ring.

    It’s also a smart public relations move because a ring is worn regularly and continues to advertise for the series for decades to come. Championship rings hold a special mystique. Nobody gets a ring for participation. Few people will ask about a trophy after it disappears into a closet, but everyone wants to know, “Hey, how did you get that ring?”

    Midvale Speedway has begun posting the names of their track record holders on the front page of their website. It gives drivers something to shoot for. It shows that the series is interested in promoting their own teams and recognizing achievement at their track. It’s a great move that costs the track nothing.

    Every racing series and local track should have a master record book that is digitally distributed at no charge to the racing media, permanently posted on the series website and sent to every online racing database after each season. It should include every team and driver possible, and every record imaginable.

    It costs nothing to include short track heat race wins, track records and class champions in your record book, but your teams and drivers will take notice. They will appreciate the recognition.

    For better or worse, I really believe that Mike Stephens was right. We’re not in the racing business. We’re in the ego gratification business.

    Stephen Cox

    Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions

    Driver, FIA EPCS sports cars and Super Cup Stock Car Series

    Co-host, Mecum Auctions on NBCSN

  • What November 18th Means for Sports Car Racing

    What November 18th Means for Sports Car Racing

    Stephen Cox Blog Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance

    As racers and motorsports enthusiasts, most of us like to keep our ear to the ground about what’s happening in our sport. Who could have predicted the explosion of $500 “crapcan” endurance racing, the declining attendance in NASCAR or the amazing rise of Formula E? What’s next in our sport, and why?

    I must admit that the success of Formula E took me by surprise, especially considering the intense controversy surrounding electric vehicle racing.

    Personally, I don’t take a side in the debate. I drive stock cars, sports cars and anything else that has four wheels and brakes. Yes, I watch Formula E and enjoy it. I also watch Indycar and sprint cars and local hobby stock divisions. If they raced tricycles, I’d watch that, too. I don’t discriminate. I just love racing.

    Once Formula E became established and financially viable, it was only a matter of time before an all-electric sports car series was introduced as well. That series is now here.

    The Electric GT Championship (EGT) will hold its inaugural “Day of Light” on November 18th at Circuit Pau-Arnos in southwestern France. What is a “Day of Light?” Think of it as an American-style “open house” without the potluck dinner. The idea is to introduce the public to the series, which is scheduled to race in eight European nations in 2018 along with possible stops in the Americas.

    Full disclosure – yes, I’m one of two American drivers slated to compete in the Electric GT Championship. But believe me, I’m as curious about this whole concept as you are. The tracks and cars are all new to me. I anxiously await press releases and new information just like everyone else. Although I’ve spent some time with the series principals (they’re great people and sharp businessmen), I don’t know most of my fellow competitors and all twenty international drivers come from wildly different backgrounds.

    If nothing else, it will be pretty incredible to watch F1 test drivers, international road racers, Indy 500 pilots, 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers and Dakar Rally veterans mix it up in cars that none of us have ever driven before. That alone should be worth the price of admission.

    On November 18th I’ll be glued to my computer, checking out the EGT Facebook page. That seems to be where new information on the series is first released. They’ll likely post new photos of their cars, and probably some news and interviews with a few EGT drivers (I won’t be there – I’ll be in the US preparing for Mecum Kansas City on NBCSN).

    If you want to know the inside scoop on the future tides of the world racing scene, I recommend following this event. EGT’s “Day of Light’ begins at 10 a.m. local time in France, which is 5-8 hours ahead of most American time zones. Some news may already be posted by the time American readers get up that morning.

    Remember, 10 years ago no one thought they’d be tearing down grandstands at Daytona. Thirty years ago it was unthinkable that one day Indianapolis would have no bumping but the World Racing League would draw nearly 100 amateur endurance teams to Texas Motor Speedway.

    Forget personal allegiances. It makes no difference if you’re a hardcore dirt track guy, an endurance racer or a nerdy computer whiz who wants to see electric racing take over the world. If we want to know what’s coming next in our sport, we have to stretch ourselves and look in unlikely places for under-reported trends. This is one of them, and it’s worth keeping an eye on.

    Stephen Cox

    Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions

    Driver, Super Cup Stock Car Series & EGT Championship

    Co-host, Mecum Auctions on NBCSN

  • Salty Dog’s Grand Prix and the Future of American Racing

    Salty Dog’s Grand Prix and the Future of American Racing

    Stephen Cox Blog Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance

    I started late. I didn’t drive in my first professional auto race until age 21. Before that, I was addicted to go kart racing. No, not the World Karting Association or the National Karting Alliance. I’d never heard of them.

    My karting career began by paying $5 for 10 minutes of track time in a five-horsepower, 25 miles-per-hour fun kart at tiny, tourist-driven venues during our family vacations. We stopped at go kart tracks from Virginia to Utah. Any track, anytime. It wasn’t real racing, but it was the only racing I had.

    The tracks were minuscule. The karts were poky rent-a-wrecks. Sometimes they didn’t even require a helmet. My first races were on tracks like the Salty Dog Grand Prix against other vacationing kids, most of whom never realized they were locked in bitter competition with a teenager and his visions of grandeur.

    Several days ago, while returning from my entirely unsuccessful run in the Super Cup Stock Car Series American Racer Twin 50’s at Jennerstown Speedway, I stumbled across what appeared to be an abandoned rental kart race track. The sign said it was “The Salty Dog Grand Prix” of Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania. I parked the Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions van and started walking. The track was closed at the time but the gate was open.

    It had apparently been closed since 2015, though information has been hard to come by. The property was well kept but a sign in front of the track advertised karts for sale, which means they probably have no intention of re-opening soon, if at all.

    Maybe it’s just me, but I believe that little go kart tracks like the Salty Dog are perhaps the canary in the coal mine for American auto racing. I’ve made it clear many times why I believe the average age of race fans continues to get older and older. Kids are losing interest in automobiles, and those who don’t care about cars will never pay to see anyone race them. Until the automobile is again viewed as a teenage ticket to mischief, personal liberty, speed and late-night fun, interest in cars will continue to decline and the snowball effect on motorsports is inevitable.

    I hope the property can reopen because it’s tough to see time move on from places like the Salty Dog Grand Prix. The asphalt is still good. The tire barriers are solid. The pit area and outbuildings are nicely maintained.

    Yet people just don’t flock to these venues as they once did. The world is too full of I-gadgets and screens and distractions. And lame superhero movies.

    And cheap milk shakes masquerading as status symbol coffee drinks. And discredited evening news programs that claim everything else is fake. And social media that’s not.

    The more hear from Bruno Mars, the better I like the smell of gasoline.

    Long before I landed my first sponsor or won my first race, I looked forward to the simple purity of racing a cheap go kart on tourist tracks. No qualifying. No mandatory autograph sessions. No driver’s meetings. Go kart racing was all fun and no pressure.

    Go find yourself a kart track this weekend. No, it’s not “real” racing, but for millions of Americans, it’s the only first-hand motorsports experience they’ll ever have. And that’s surely better than the alternative.

    Stephen Cox

    Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions

    Driver, Super Cup Series and EGT Championship

    Co-host, Mecum Auctions on NBCSN