[HARFprez]

One of our 2 biggest off season events of the year is our Monte Carlo night this coming Saturday night. social hour begins at 6 pm with gaming at 7 pm. Admission for members is only $10.00 (which includes 1000 gaming credits) and for non-members is only $25.00 (which includes a 1 year membership to HARF and 2500 gaming credits), HARF members who bring a non-member will also receive an additional 500 gaming credits, & members who renew their memberships that night will receive an additional 1500 gaming credits. Gaming begins at 7 pm with all the usual Vegas style games of "skill" but none of the Vegas pressure, our friends from Elite Casinos take care of all the games and offer friendly tips to help you along. Gaming lasts about 2 hours, earn as many credits as you can to use at our Monte Carlo auction to follow which will include great racing memorabilia and gifts for you to bid on. Once again this year we will be at the Brickyard Crossing Golf Resort (main floor) 4400 W. 16th St. in Speedway (the old Speedway Motel) & the new $5.5 million dollar round-about is now complete and open to make it easier for you to get to the party. Our local race drivers are always admitted free and we start you off with 500 gaming credits. Auction items are always gratefully accepted, so any old drivers gloves, sheet metal, or your leftover racing shirts from the 2014 racing season we would love to have for the auction. A "Grand Prize" will be given for the nights overall top scorer, so there will be alot of surprises during the evening. If you're a regular you know how much fun we have or if you've always said you mean to come out, this is the year to join us...so to cover the 4 "w"s...
Hoosier Auto Racing Fans Monte Carlo Night
3 hours of bench racing & gaming fun
Saturday night, November 22nd, 2014
The Brickyard Crossing Golf Resort 4400 W. 16th St. Speedway, In

Hope to see you there, bob.

[treecitytornado]

Looking forward to it, Bob!

[HARFprez]

Less then 24 hours till this great party. Make plans to join us. Help HARF help auto racing and its fans.

[treecitytornado]

Looking forward to it, Bob!

[HARFprez]

Hours away now and just received a great GMP Vintage Joe Saldana 3n1 sprint car diecast from Gearheads racing toy store in Cleremont. If you've never been to Gearheads you're missing the best racing toy store in the midwest, located right beside the main entrance of IRP (Lucas Oil Raceway), open on Fridays and Saturdays only.

[HARFprez]

BOMBED!!! Not sure yet if this yearly tradition can continue or not. We put this event on as a great chance for race fans to come out and enjoy a fun night with fellow fans, some bench racing, some gaming and some drinking but we are seeing very little participation. Every year we need 100-120 gamers to attend just to break even on this event, this year we had about 35, so you do the math. Changes are being discussed to breath life back into this great event but as many theaters, restaurants and now even churches know.when people don't show up, they disappear.

[Danny Williams Sr.]

Bob maybe most of the members like the free or discount race dates and care little or none for any other HARF event. ******** of officers (a very important event) normally has 30-35 members attend and Monte Carlo as you stated about the same this year. Awards celebration in January is always well attended by fans, but drivers seem to ignore the banquet even though they are being honored for their achievements by HARF and the fans.

I first attended a HARF banquet in the late 1970's when George Seats asked me to come as his guest and sit at his table. My wife, Mary, and me have supported HARF in some way ever since then. I can recall seeing many drivers that raced at Indy, USAC and local tracks attend HARF events on a regular basis. The current generation of drivers don't seem to care about attending HARF events to mingle with the fans (the people that buy the tickets, hot dogs, popcorn and drinks at the race tracks) that allow these drivers to make a few bucks doing something they enjoy.

If the fans or drivers, car owners and team crew members have suggestions as to how to make HARF a better club, please feel free to reply to this post or contact Bob Black or other HARF officers (you can see the officer list on www.harf.vpweb.com) and fire away.

Well enough of my rant.

[scottyCbus]

Many of the free race dates last season were on nights were other tracks were having big races and I for one are going to choose the bigger races every time. I think the fact also that IMS didn't give out the normal time trial day tickets because they raised the price of admission on first day of qualifying is why. May have led to people not signing up for the club. I didn't this year because of those reasons and the fact my son who is a teenager is working and cant travel with me as much is another reason. But I plan on signing up next year because this is a great club and I very much would like to attend the banquet in January. I hope things get better in 2015 and I know they will. Its saddening to hear that the Monte Carlo night did so poorly. Maybe its time to think of another event to put together and start a new.

[MIKE HEIMEL]

Well Said Danny !!! Yes, Its sad to see the attendance at the Monte Carlo. Thankfully the banquet is still doing ok, Im not a Funny Money Gambler but try to attend anyway !! As for the tickets to IMS it was their call not HARFs. And its only 15 Bucks a year and if you catch at least one track on A HARF night or only get the newsletter whats 15 Bucks ? Like Danny Said, Rants Over !! Good to see some racin friends last Saturday night. And Thanks To Sam Richie for putting up the videos.
Happy Thanksgiving To All And To All A Good Off Local Racin Season !!
Mike

[TrevorMoody9]

HARFprez,
I hate to hear that this event was not successful. It sounds like a great time and a good event. I would have loved to attend, but I wrestle for IU and wrestled in Philadelphia this weekend. I have come up with a few ideas for HARF events that might be more successful during the off-season.

-HARF Legends Night: From my experience, race fans love meeting their heroes, especially from a time gone past. I am only 20 years old, and even I greatly cherish being able to meet drivers from the past. There are many past Indy and USAC drivers in and around the Indianapolis area that would be more than willing to give of their time to help a great organization, such as HARF. I would propose a night of a nice dinner, a live auction, and a Q&A session with the racing legends. I attended the Indiana Racing Memorial Association fundraiser at IMS in October, and it was great. They invited Mel Kenyon, Tom Bigelow, Ed Carpenter, Al Unser Jr., and Johnny Parsons Jr. to the event. They also had a restaurant cater a nice meal, and there was an auction going on all night. As a broke college student, this event was worth every cent of the $100 because I was able to meet and have conversations with some of the best drivers this country has ever seen. I think the ticket price could be greatly reduced to say $50 for a HARF event to be able to attract a larger crowd.
-HARF Daytona 500 Viewing Party: Since Eleanor Vogler has moved away from the Indianapolis area in the last several years, there has been no organized Daytona 500 viewing party for the many race fans around the Indy area. The Rich Vogler Scholarship parties were a lot of fun with live auctions, silent auctions, raffles, and a nice catered meal. I believe this could be a great way for HARF to make some money while bringing the race fans together during the off-season to do some bench racing. I attended many of these Daytona 500 parties as a kid and always had a great time.

Even better, HARF could combine these two events into one and host a Daytona 500 viewing party with the legends. Invite five or six Indy racing legends to the party to spark interest with the fans, and then have the whole concept of a legends night and a Daytona 500 party all in one. These are just a few ideas off the top of my head to help HARF bring the fans and racers together during the off-season. I hope these ideas help in some way.

Trevor Moody
IU Kelley School of Business 2016