-- POSTED ON BEHALF OF PETE SOPER --
Since I lost my cookies that let me log onto SS, I haven’t been posting there, (and that’s probably a good thing sometimes) but a couple of comments on the thread Jeff started I felt a need to respond to, since I have you in my address book, you guys are the lucky recipients!
This is the one that I kind of choked on;
“Mark is dead on, EVERY organization/community that is based upon a personal interest/activity is promulgated upon this very natural process. Individuals and concerned entities give till it bleeds because they care about the issue, or share intrest, or seek personal gain. The latter lasts the shortest time, the other two are the life blood of any movement.”
I would firmly disagree with that statement “Personal Gain” motives don’t last- What planet has he been living on? Tell that to Bill Gates, Bernie Ecclestone or the France Family- they had visions for a self-sustaining, growing, profitable ventures and guess what- they, and thousands of other entrepreneurs across the country and around the world are all proving every day that such visions can be brought to fruition.
”Be it the VFW, Lions Club, Vol. Fire Dept, Political party, Religious organization, school club, and I guess rally organizer, frets over the same things. Where are the people going, where are we going to get new ones, and how do we raise money to keep the great cause going.”
In this day in age he’s probably correct that volunteer based organizations are having a rough time of it- but it’s been over a year now- and in case anyone has forgotten, our cherished Non-profit all-volunteer sanctioning body- SCCA doesn’t “do” rally anymore.
And I really don’t think that the principals of RA are doing it out of their love for the sport, although that is a factor, I think they took it over with a vision of seeing the sport and their involvement in it growing into a profitable venture, much like ARSG and others did in initiating NASA Rallysport, now almost 10 years ago.
Rallyists need to recognize that- the reality we are faced with is that we no longer have a volunteer/club/hobby outlet for our driving aspirations, rather we now have a couple of competing sanctioning bodies both trying to have a go at making Rally a viable venture- above and beyond one weekend a year which was about the scope of vision most of the SCCA organizers were willing to commit to (not all- mind you, and maybe not even technical majority, but with very few exceptions one per year was all I saw any organizers taking on- not that I’m complaining about that- it is about what we should expect in a volunteer/non-profit club model of operation).
So I would suggest that comparisons to the VFW, Lions, etc. are no longer valid, we should be looking instead to NHRA, Nascar, Supercross and other groups that are building, promoting, and running successful and I might add PROFITABLE motorsports endeavors, not that we need to “be like” them, but rather because we have a lot to learn about building a successful program in the USA from what they have done on their way to becoming what they are today.
I’ll admit that there were elements in SCCA that had such a vision, but they were struggling with the volunteer/club aspects of the club and often that conflicted with what they were trying to do, just ask Jens Larson how much he supported Spitzner’s vision (OK, so don’t ask him- we already know how he feels).
The new blood is out there, not everyone in the “new guard” is under 30 but many of us “older-new guard” are relatively new to the sport and many of us have solid visions of it growing beyond the backwoods fetish that most of the US still sees as Rally- and we are out there working with other organizers, and both sanctioning bodies- (some from the “old guard”-) who also share this vision.
7 years ago I didn’t even know there was any performance rally in the US, Next year I will be Clerk of Course for the Laughlin International Rally, and I will be working with the RA folks on the Reno Rallies, so we are out there and we’re coming up through the ranks as time goes on.
Don’t get me wrong- I’m not disregarding the need for “club” level events, both sanctioning bodies are supporting events at all levels and as long as either (actually I’d prefer to see both) are successful, we should continue to have plenty of options for participants to engage in the sport at the level of their interest.
That’s my take on it anyway.
-Pete Soper
SFR Rally chief
VP TRC
Clerk of Course Laughlin International Rally 2006