[FrankR63]

No Seat Saving of any kind at any time. List a gates open time, stick to it. Reserved seating is prevalent in every type of event, have that and a good bit of general admission. Seat saving kills it for many, many first timers and even for some that have the racing sickness. Promoters that allow this have no clue how much damage and ill will this causes, most unfortunately don’t care.

Inform the poor first timer sitting in the first few rows that they are about to be annihilated. Use signage and announcing, a track person walking the grandstands talking to people, informing them. Should always have some representative in sight of the fans. This person should NOT be Uncle Charlie but someone with some people skills that enjoys what they do. Teenage kids, from the pits or track would be good for this. Let them in free for this. Track shirt, nice pants, you know, what anyone in their right mind would wear – presenting a friendly face of the operation. Think about it!

Rope off a part of the pits, park 10 cars and have ALL the drivers there for 1 hour. Advertise this. School the drivers on treating kid’s right. Give out some shirts, hero cars and other crap. Have some pop to hand out. Stickers. Mandatory or you go back 4 rows.

Announcers. For god’s sake shut up during the racing. Give good solid info before the green. Follow up with finishing order and any pertinent info. Explain hot laps, qualifying, heat races, line ups and so on right before that particular deal hits the track – before the engines fire. People in the stands do not need nonstop ear splitting blather; give it a rest at times. If you going to play some music, keep that to a level that people do not have to shout over it. The announcer and sound system can make or break it for a new fan and has chased off many potential fans.

Spin outs, stopping on the track, wrecks, running in the track. All this has to be done with some sense of urgency yet over and over it is not. You must keep the show going.

Do as much as possible for the kids in attendance. Make them feel a part of it and make them want to come back. Something needs to be done to allow access to the racers and cars after the event. This goes all the way to running a quick show and making team participation mandatory.

I fully realize what these track owners and promoters are up against. W/O these hard working risk takers were all in trouble. However, I feel that the fact that there may be new fans, fans with kids and such sitting in the stands is lost on the track personnel. This should be in the front of the mind not the back.

Scan the grandstands, lots of gray hair. We need new blood in this thing and we need it now. Much of how we are going to do that starts with the basics.