Regional participation thru July.

[brian]

Below is a recap by division, of Regional and National races so far this year. As you can tell, some divisions are stronger in Regionals others have larger National programs. overall entries are slightly down from last year and the number of events is clearly down as well. It is interesting that entries per race are higher in Nationals which kinda contradicts the costs issue. Maybe it's a quality issue, any theories? The reading may be a bit challenging since my columns have disappeared in translation. Sorry.

REGIONALS

# of Races 7 4 5 22 17 6 46 14 8 129
CLASS CEN GL MW NE NP RM SE SP SW TOTAL

FV 19 9 7 111 65 15 81 23 1 331

NATIONALS
# of Races 4 5 9 9 9 4 10 7 10 67
CLASS CEN GL MW NE NP RM SE SP SW TOTAL

FV 20 63 30 105 51 39 57 41 68 474

[hardingfv32-1]

... It is interesting that entries per race are higher in Nationals which kinda contradicts the costs issue. Maybe it's a quality issue....

membership's
Please expand.

I think it is the economic psychology of the membership. Even though the GDP is back to pre-recession levels the membership's psychology is still lacking any confidence in the future. They are going to restrict spending until their confidence is improved. The depth and reasons for the recession are going to prevent a rapid change in confidence. Also, the longer racers are away the greater chance that they will never come back. With entries down, costs will only climb, so racers will have another reason to stay away when they consider returning to the track

A smart management team would see that entries are not going to improve and plan accordingly. You can see from the reduced event numbers, that the Regions are already starting to adapt. Now it is time for National to downsize.

Brian