How does KONI and Pimp My Ride even belong in the same sentence? hehe

Yo dawg, I heard you like racing, so I put a camera in your camera, so you can watch your race while you race your race.

I appreciate travel is an additional cost, we've already got FR500's from Auburn, WA in the Mustang Challenge.  Seems pretty reasonable to ask for an appearance in Seattle.

It think it would look awesome on Television: winding through natural wooded terrain, sweeping curves and hairpin turns.  PR truly is one of the most unique and challenging courses in the United States.  And there is history to fill the commentary on-air.

Mario Andretti and Al Unser have won USAC Championships here.

First question: Who do we get for a title sponsor? With all respect, I think KONI's tapped out just covering the existing KONI Challenge.

Second question: How many Hardcores can we count on? (A "hardcore" is someone running the entire series, say 10-12 events.)

Side note to #2: Does anyone know how the NASA racing org's rules compare to KONI Challenge? For that matter: How many series could be tapped for competitive cars, in total?

Third question: Where can we get Television time? I'm not entirely sure about SPEED, because I'm not privy to the business side of things. (Tho' with a "KONI West", there'd be enough races between KE, KW, and Rolex to warrant a Regularly-Scheduled Time Block -- heck, maybe even a show a la _This Week In NASCAR_. And with three series, one could conceivably arrange a schedule where the series do a rota, each one running every third weekend....)

Fourth: Where can a "KONI West" series run? I know "rovals" are unfavorably looked upon, but the fact is: That's where the prospective fans are.

Off the top of my head, I can think of the following tracks:

CA: Thunderhill (one race each direction?)
Laguna Seca
Sears Point
Willow Springs [Back-of-Beyond issues there...]
Fontana [Roval]
Pomona [not sure if this one's suitable for cars, or if its bikes-only]

OR: Portland IR
Grass Valley [not sure if this one's really meant for Fan-Accessable events]

WA: Pacific Raceways [facilities issues?]

AZ: Phoenix IR [roval]
Firebird [fan accessable?]

NM: Sandia Motorsports Park [Back-of-Beyond, at seven no-trump]

UT: Miller MP

KS: Heartland Park Topeka [a bit of a haul for WC teams]

Can't think of any other facilties -- would have to look at chasinracin.net for more.

Anyway, that's the start of the List of Unsolvable Problems -- anyone think of any others? :)

(Oh, and for god's sake, *STOP* putting modifiers in front of "unique" -- a thing is either "unique", or it isn't -- "unique" cannot be modified. Grr.... :) )

This subject has been discussed ad nauseam. If you all remember about two years ago, I challenged all of those west coast racers to come up with their own Koni West series. I even asked for a head count of teams that would "actually" run at that time. The count was something like three teams. As you can see, it's not gone any further than this message board. From my perspective, just discussing it here on the message board is not working. The number of teams are low and nobody wants to take the incentive to make it happen. Like I said two years ago, "Go out and prove me wrong." As of now, nobody has.

"Take the incentive?"  That must be a JJism for the the "initiative".  Luckily for all you out there in racer world, I speak JJ.  And, like he, I would all the vocal folks who spend their non-family hours on this board to put up or shut up.  But, since this is a non accountable board, with no penalties for foolish claims, we will let you vent at will with your fantasy racing schedule.  You may now go back to your non racing life.  If it was easy to make a living at racing, everyone would do it.  Even you guys stuck behind desks with racing screensavers would be superheroes.


Matt

Tell us what you really think... 


I happen to be a big fan of KONI and try to evangelize the circuit out here and often the impression is that KONI isn't a prestigious name.  My motivation is not to break you guys down but to build up an awareness and appreciation.  I think KONI is awesome.  Kind of hard to do that without making physical appearances around here.

Seems it would be a net positive, to attract the attention, but hey what do I know, I just have the screensaver.

For one: I freely admit there's not a hell of a lot I can do, myself. I can do "scut work", like hand out flyers, and maybe even write the odd (*very* odd) press release. But, as I've said, before, I am not independently wealthy, nor am I "connected with the railroad" as folks used to say -- and it's not just Speed which costs Money

That said: If I had some idea of who to talk to about generating that Money, not to mention acquiring the myriad of people for handling the on- and off-track technical stuff, that would be helpful.

I'm Little People -- I admit it. It doesn't mean I'm not willing to do what's within my albeit-limited abilities.

Aren't superheroes supposed to win?

Based from a city right up the street from Philly, you would think he would be ok with critical fans who like to dream. Tell me a sport that doesn't have a critical fan that likes to dream. This was a decent thread of a racing fans sitting around the cooler having a chat/dreaming about west cost tracks and GA (which I know nothing about and actually learned a thing or two from it).

You pick what you read and looks like someone wasted their time reading this that could have spent wrenching a faster car. Since you technically represent GA I would like to personally thank you for this "non accountable board, with no penalties for foolish claims..." 

At least I have one superhero team left from PA.

..and we wonder why NASCAR not only has more fans, but owns Grand-AM as well?

still is a decent thread here pepe ... take MC's cynicism lightly, he's just been hangin with JJ a bit too much. 
all these ideas for west coast races are great, main problem is not the race tracks, but the promoters (ownership/management) at these tracks. Or the lack thereof.
Where is Ralph Sanchez when you need him ? He was the absolute best in creating, organizing and promoting a race event. I was there in '83 when he created the Miami Gran Prix from scratch.
My point ; find a prominent local business to become the race event sponsor, get the entire business community in town involved, not just automotive related, but banks, retailers, professional services, gentlemens clubs, etc , get  local media (TV-radio-print) involved, get local drivers to race, then go after the race teams ...  better than average race purse, offer subsidies for airline travel, fuel costs, hotels at half price, on and on. If you have a creative race promoter at these venues, you will have a successful well attended event.
Used to be the case at PIR, is not now (or ever was) the case at Laguna, can't speak for the Sears or Fontana.  For the Koni Series, all you need is approx 18,000 ticket buyers and you have a successful event.
comments ?

"For the Koni Series, all you need is approx 18,000 ticket buyers and you have a successful event.
comments ?"

Looks like we're going to run in January at Pomona.