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Last month we spent a week at the SCCA National Runoffs and of course dropped in on our friends in Registration. Two of our favorite Registrars, Ceci Smith from Cal Club and Terry Roberts from NEDiv, mentioned how much they loooooove the revamped onsite check in tool. That's music to our ears!  

After their praise we decided to take a little peek at how much usage the check-in tool is actually getting. Turns out A LOT! And since Brian likes graphs and I like images for my blogs, he put a few together for me based on the last 50,000 check-ins.  

Not too surprising that the highest check-in days are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but I would have thought Saturday would be the highest.  And it looks like a lot of you are skipping out on work on Fridays...

On to the next graph!

Even though it was 90 degrees here in California yesterday, I heard that Fall has arrived in other parts of the country and for a lot of organizers, that means driving seasons are winding down. To help you get through your post season, we've put together a list of 7 to-do's you should consider while making the transition to your 2015 season. 

Promotion is one of the most important parts of running a successful motorsport event.  But it's also an area that organizations struggle with the most.  And it's the reason why WE spend a lot of time and effort promoting YOUR events.  Below are 6 ways we spread the word and help you fill your events.

We're big fans of this quote. The more we can help our community grow, the bigger the community becomes. And that benefits us all. 

So I searched through our blog and pulled out some sage advice on how to run great events, straight from our organizer's mouths.  Maybe you can pick up a trick or two from our experts?

You probably already know (because we love talking about it!) that last year over 900,000 people looked at events on our calendar.  This is one of the many benefits of being a MotorsportReg customer.   We are THE marketplace for people looking for motorsport events and just having your event listed with us helps increase your registrations.  On a regular basis our organizers tell us they got a brand new participant because they saw it on motorsportreg.com.

Over the last several months we've been working on a little project to get even more eyeballs looking at your events (and hopefully registering).  We have teamed up with a few key syndication partners to help spread the word about your events including regional newspapers, major search engine sites and major (non-motorsport) event sites.

Many people don't realize but we make changes to MSR all the time - as frequent as multiple times per day.  Each update adds or improves the service and fixes bugs.  Many of these changes are small in nature so when Jennifer asks me, "What did you do recently?", it can feel like there's nothing newsworthy to pass along.  Thankfully I have a number of significant changes which makes writing this update a lot easier!

"What's in it for me?"

In our upcoming online seminar, Dean Case, Mazda Motorsports Communication Officer, will help you answer that question.  He'll give you the inside scoop on how to use the media to provide value to your partners (AKA sponsors) in his presentation- Winning Off the Track.

You'll learn

• The role of the media (it is not their job to make you famous)
• The difference between a press release and a sponsor update
• How to develop a plan to become the local hero
• The need for follow-up and why it matters
• The value of social media
• Details that make the difference

Webinar details

• Wednesday, July 30th
• Two times-9 am PST/ 12 noon EST and 1:30 pm PST/ 4:30 pm EST
• 60 minutes including 30 minutes of Q&A
• Hosted by Dean Case and Brian Ghidinelli
• Space is limited!

Reserve your seat now>>

Usually in our Pole Position blog title we highlight a person and their organization. But Sydney Davis is involved in so many organizations that we couldn’t fit them all in - MSR Houston, MSR Houston Charities, Houston Region SCCA, Gulf Coast Vintage Racing Association and SCCA Southwest Division. She’s one busy girl! She graciously took a few minutes out of her busy schedule to share how she runs successful events for so many organizations.

Sydney came from a racing family. Her dad and uncle started racing back in the 70s, and it's been a way of life since her first race at six weeks old. She wanted to be the first woman to win the Indy 500. But her parents didn't make enough money, so she settled on journalism with the hopes of working for a race team.

The opportunity to work at MSR Houston came along and she jumped at it. She’s been there since 2007, starting as an instructor and working her way up the ranks to Director of Events and Schools. In her spare time, not that she has much, she races an E Production Miata in the SCCA Southwest Division. She also enjoys photography, cooking all sorts of things, and making the occasional quilt. And yes, she has made a racing flag quilt. She takes it with her on race trips.

Many people in our community got their first glimpse into motorsports with their parents and an old car.  Some had a muscle car growing up and others still keep a "fun" car in their garage to play with when they're not at the track.  July 11th is a chance to show your pride for these old vehicles on Collector Car Appreciation Day.

The SEMA Action Network has created a day to celebrate these special cars for those who carve out precious resources and time to express their individuality through these machines: old or new; stock or modified; domestic or foreign. By taking over the streets to showcase the hobby’s diversity in a unified way, many more will be inspired to share our four-wheeled passion. 

I instructed recently for a new program organized by the Golden Gate Chapter of the BMW CCA.  For those keeping notes, GGC was the club for whom I built the original prototype of MSR back in 2002.

GGC has a successful ladder system that moves participants from low-cost, low-commitment entry-level activities like car control clinics to higher-cost and higher-commitment events like autocross and HPDEs.  The challenge they have faced is keeping advanced drivers in their program. Some go on to club racing, some become instructors, but others simply get lost in the vast wilderness that is "open track days".

If you're brainstorming solutions to this problem, you might throw out ideas like more track time, better instructors, or more liberal passing, to help retain those experienced students. Those might work but lots of groups do that.  GGC tried something totally different.  They purchased 7 GPS-based data acquisition units and invited 7 instructors with racing and data acquisition experience (who could translate the squiggly lines into meaningful instruction) to create a personalized "Advanced+" offering.  An increased entry fee bought the use of the data system, one-on-one coaching and double the track time to apply and learn from the intensive instruction.