Location for the 2025 Challenge ?

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

Stampie said:

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

Sounds like you're the point man for Texas.  Get the ball rolling and if you do well maybe you can convince 2 other people to do Cali and the North.

We would have to convince the Tom and the Magazine Management to go along with a hairbrained scheme like this. They may not want to.

Mrs. Snowdoggie works as a Creative Director for an ad agency. She does Fortune 500 stuff like Toyota and Johnson and Johnson. She has also worked with Richard Rawlings and Gas Monkey Garage. A lot of those Gas Monkey T-shirts are actually her design. She knows a lot more about promoting car events than I ever will. She has connections to other people here in Dallas who put on big charity events and such. She would be the point person for something like this. I would have to talk her into it.

I'm just a paper pusher and a part time grease monkey.

Well start at the basics.  Call the tracks and ask about renting them for a weekend.  Tom said he'd love to have 100 so do that as a best case.  Track rental/100 = cost per car.  Then do it with a worse case of 50 cars.  

Stampie said:

In reply to maschinenbau :

I like driving winning cars. 

How would you know? 

Ranger50 said:

Andy Neuman said:

In reply to maschinenbau :

Other than having your own youtube channel to gain views what events really give a lot of coverage? or any basically guaranteed coverage?  

Define events with coverage? 
 

Sick week/summer/66, HRDW, and Rocky Mtn race week have a decent amount of coverage in print and digitally without resorting to fb or the tubes. Now Cleetus has his fdrm+ up and running for some events outside of Bradenton....

I can easily jump onto floracing and get coverage for the outlaw radial series or lights out/no mercy events.

I get my NMRA coverage either attending the local events, under 6hrs one way drive, or waiting for my event recap email on Monday if I haven't had my FB feed filled with friends posting about the event. 
The only events I really don't get coverage for is World Cup at MIR or Yellowbullet nats at Cecil....

All the Gridlife festivals have live streaming with really really good coverage, camera angles and commentary. 

In reply to maschinenbau :

I've driven one when it sat in the same driveway as the last place finisher from that year.  The winner was much more enjoyable.

maschinenbau said:

Stampie said:

In reply to maschinenbau :

I like driving winning cars. 

How would you know? 

Oh, that's easy.  He buys them a decade after they won.

A few notes:

I know the Gridlife folks well, and I've heard the economics of their live streams.

Gridlife's live stream for one small event costs at least a few times the gross revenue (not profit, not net, gross) of the $2000 Challenge. And that's for a stream that isn't nearly long enough to cover even a big chunk of the $2000 Challenge autocross. 

Call the tracks and ask about renting them for a weekend.  Tom said he'd love to have 100 so do that as a best case.  Track rental/100 = cost per car.  Then do it with a worse case of 50 cars.  

FWIW, track rental is about 10-20% of the cost of hosting an event like this. Heck, we spent the same amount renting portable toilets as some autocross clubs spend to rent their whole site.

In reply to Tom Suddard :

I didn't say it was cost effective. They asked for examples, I provided them. It's not a feasible endeavor for everyone... or even them to be completely honest. But it does draw eyeballs.

Tom Suddard said:

Heck, we spent the same amount renting portable toilets as some autocross clubs spend to rent their whole site.

can confirm, the Challenge porta-potties were top shelf.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

Tom Suddard said:

Heck, we spent the same amount renting portable toilets as some autocross clubs spend to rent their whole site.

can confirm, I (Angry Corvair), single handedly destroyed at least 3 port a pots at the challenge.

Ftfy.

Tom Suddard said:

A few notes:

I know the Gridlife folks well, and I've heard the economics of their live streams.

Gridlife's live stream for one small event costs at least a few times the gross revenue (not profit, not net, gross) of the $2000 Challenge. And that's for a stream that isn't nearly long enough to cover even a big chunk of the $2000 Challenge autocross. 

I know you and I talked before about getting better internet access at the track.  Now several years later I think it could be done without the questionable activities on my part.  A WAG but I think I could set up something for around $100 that would support three cameras or so.

I can talk to Bill Strong from champcar and figure out how they do multiple cameras for an entire endurance race.  

They stream live to YouTube and the coverage is excellent imho.

I can't imagine they spend too much on that, but I can find out!

A closer location could've saved some time and money but I have no complaints about the Challenge being in Gainesville so I could take or leave a location change, but I'm a bit let down by the date change. A late March date is going to make it even harder for those of us in snow country who don't have heated workshops (to say nothing of testing opportunities, for those who manage to squeeze in any testing before Friday night in the hotel parking lot), and it could make driving to the Challenge on summer tires, or even bringing summer tires to the Challenge in a trunk or trailer that falls to outdoor temperatures overnight a questionable proposition.

I used all but 2 of the warm-enough days in March this year to do routine annual maintenance and a couple of mods on my 86, and by the time the Challenge date came around, I still had winter tires on, last year's brake fluid in and a sway bar change not quite completed. If I'd used even 1 more of those warm days I could've done it in time, but that was a relatively tiny amount of work compared to what any under-budget car would need. If you don't have a heated workspace you'll basically need to have your Challenge car ready for the trip before winter starts.

In reply to GameboyRMH :

Agreed. The date is the #2 reason I haven't been there yet. October was hard to make it work, March/April would be pretty much impossible. #1 reason is the 2500 mile round trip. 

In reply to Tom Suddard : I have a question about something you said earlier. "We're a niche media outlet, focused on serving a small community of about five million people (all of you) as best we possibly can."

What does this mean? Five million forum readers? Subscribers? Autocrossers?Magazine sales? With a goal of 100 cars, that's still an incredibly small engagement. Can't even see 0.1% from there. But if you get over 100, is that too much to manage? Or are you looking for more spectator numbers vs competitors? I assume increasing eyes-on product and sales is the over-arching goal.

In reply to llysgennad :

I read it as we are a small community out of five million enthusiasts.

Mrs. Snowdoggie mentioned the fact that simply moving the event from Gainesville to Atlanta would increase the car count and bring in more spectators as well. That would put you in a major population area. There are a lot more media sources to send press releases to. More places to promote your event. That would put you a few hours closer to some Northern cities to draw from. Cheaper flights from other cities to a major airport for spectators. Still in the Southeast so the hardcore people wouldn't complain. 

Just a thought.

GameboyRMH said:

A closer location could've saved some time and money but I have no complaints about the Challenge being in Gainesville so I could take or leave a location change, but I'm a bit let down by the date change. A late March date is going to make it even harder for those of us in snow country who don't have heated workshops (to say nothing of testing opportunities, for those who manage to squeeze in any testing before Friday night in the hotel parking lot), and it could make driving to the Challenge on summer tires, or even bringing summer tires to the Challenge in a trunk or trailer that falls to outdoor temperatures overnight a questionable proposition.

I used all but 2 of the warm-enough days in March this year to do routine annual maintenance and a couple of mods on my 86, and by the time the Challenge date came around, I still had winter tires on, last year's brake fluid in and a sway bar change not quite completed. If I'd used even 1 more of those warm days I could've done it in time, but that was a relatively tiny amount of work compared to what any under-budget car would need. If you don't have a heated workspace you'll basically need to have your Challenge car ready for the trip before winter starts.

I get that it's nice to be able to prepare the car as the event approaches, but in the end, you have the same amount of good-weather time available to prepare a car whether the event is in late March or late October. But I can only imagine the benefits of being ready months in advance (i.e. before winter sets in) instead of procrastinating until the month before (as I have done more than once now). But I really am empathetic, except with opposite months. It's seriously tough to wrench from June to September here in Florida without a climate controlled shop. Heat sickness is a very real possibility. Hell, it's just mid April and temps have already been in the 90s and I got sunburnt in an hour while hanging doors on my Mustang this weekend. Summer is essentially a write-off for me.

Indy - Guy said:

In reply to Tom Suddard :

Indianapolis is the Racing Capital of the World.  Just sayin'

 

IRP would be cool.