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New Idea: Old-Fashioned Hard Work

Go ahead, call me old-fashioned.

But I’m convinced that, in an age of easy-as-pushing-a-button new-fangled toys like Twitter and YouTube and Facebook, what motorsports business folk really ought to do to fix what needs fixing – ticket sales, sponsorship, TV ratings -- is roll-up their collective sleeves and return to the days of hard sweat-from-the-brow elbow grease.

This doesn’t classify as new thinking on my part – I’ve been talking about it for at least five years. The turn of recent events, however, has me more-convinced-than-ever about the validity of what should be received within the industry as a call for action.

NASCAR, in shaking-up the Sprint Cup championship with the most far-reaching schedule alignment in almost a decade, will open Chase 2011 at Chicagoland Speedway instead of the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. At first review, that would seem to make sense, given the importance of the media market and the population base to be mined as potential customers.

Except . . .  this was a theory behind shifting the prestigious first post-Daytona 500 event to California in 2005. It sure looked good on paper – driving all of that Daytona hype right into the country’s No. 2 media center. As we now know, though, and NASCAR (and International Speedway Corp.) have acknowledged by implication of moving off that date, that played as well in the land of Hollywood as Ishtar. 

Phoenix International Raceway now gets its chance to pick what many would think of as low-hanging fruit.

But the lesson of California should be it’s not that simple.

I was glad to read the quotes of Chicagoland President Craig Rust when his place in the Chase was officially announced.

Rust said it “helps elevate the prestige of the event and break through with the media as well as the fan base.” Thankfully, he then immediately pointed to the obvious elephant in the room. Or, I should say, bear.  As in Chicago Bears.

“We’re well aware (that the NFL Bears’ season will be underway and maybe baseball pennant races), but if you’re going to be in this market and in the sports industry, you’re going to compete against somebody,” Rust admitted. “You can’t run from it.”

Rust pledged an aggressive sales and publicity assault to get the Chase off to a, well, fast start.

Good idea and I hope every other track operator – are there any real “promoters” still out there? – does ditto. And a good place to begin the new would be with something old.

What the modern NASCAR culture lacks is one-on-one relationships. NASCAR, itself, was built by classic drum-beating publicists like Jim Hunter and Bob Latford and Big Tim Sullivan, Houston Lawing and others (and, in the Winston days, by RJR’s staff) who would travel into nearby cities on goodwill missions and go visit the newspaper, radio and TV offices. They knew the names of the sports editor’s children, the sports director’s wife, and -- yes -- the local media’s adult beverage of choice.

The upcoming race was talked-up, news releases handed-out, and ultra-valuable personal relationships built.

When’s the last time anyone followed in that proud tradition?

I know some current-day garage-area PRers who consider 140 characters on Twitter or pushing “send” on their laptop to be legitimate examples of “work.” Too many think a text is as effective as a phone call or a handshake.

It’s not. There is such a thing as the “personal touch” a touching some button on a keyboard doesn’t qualify.

Yes, make use of all the techno-tools out there. No, I’m not picking on NASCAR, because the sad truth is the same mindset has beset much of the motorsports industry. But NASCAR has climbed higher, achieved greater, and in these challenging times, has more to lose than Indy or NHRA or sports cars or any other series.

I’ll be watching and cheering with great gusto any such pro-active efforts. Chicago is famous/infamous for “creative” get-out-the-votes campaigns. Now, Chicagoland needs to set the example for other Cup and Chase tracks with a seriously considered and manual labor intensive get-out-the-fans campaign.

Go ahead, call me old-fashioned. History, however, has proven this to be true: Those ways have actually gotten the job done.

[ Next column:  September 7 ]

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(I.N. Sider is the pen name for an independent motorsports business-person who has a quarter-century of professional experience working in almost every major North American racing series. The writer is not an employee of Valvoline or Ashland Inc. The column is intended to inform, entertain, and stimulate thought on the contemporary motorsports scene. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Valvoline or Ashland Inc.)