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| The CASA Chronicles (No. 5) By Glenn Hopper |
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KEEPING UP WITH THE CALIFORNIA ASPHALT SPRINTCAR ASSOCIATION |
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January 5, 2004 San Jose, CA. In this chapter of the CASA Chronicles, I sat down for a session of questions and answers with CASA president, Scott Clough. The following Q and A will shed some light on the upcoming 2004 season for the fast growing asphalt sprint car club. Q1. Producing a successful inaugural campaign with such short preparation times, questions of car count, and a track that had not experienced open wheel racing in a long time must have been a huge challenge. What were the most gratifying things to come out of the 2003 season at Altamont Raceway Park? A1. That’s easy. Establishing a partnership with Altamont management. And getting some race sponsors, Kenko Utility Supply and Acme and Sons. We had 27 different drivers compete in our series and had the largest number of cars in any division at the track on a few occasions. We also had great support from our core group of drivers, drivers who attended every race. And we had such positive feedback from everyone who saw us race. You know, we had several non-stop features, lots of good close competition, and our cars were fast. We had several drivers who qualified with average speeds of over 100 miles per hour and I saw some standing ovations from the fans who really enjoyed our product on the track. Q2. Given the collective successes, what was the most frustrating aspect to 2003? A2. We did have a few growing pains but most were fixed as the season went on. Those weren’t really frustrations, just, growing pains. We had a few areas we needed to be better prepared for like promoting ourselves and defining more organizational situations. We focused so much on actually making the races happen and being sure the fans and track management got their money’s worth that we had little time to address growth. Remember, all the people in our club are active racers- car owners, drivers and crews. We didn’t really have any CASA dedicated officials who weren’t also competitors. Myself included. So we did tax ourselves pretty hard. Q3. That said, are there any major changes from last year? A3. Yes and no. Yes, in that we have solidified some things from an organizational standpoint. While I felt last year was certainly a success, we needed to make things less club-like and more business-like, more official. We are filing incorporation papers for the club and will be taking a more business-like approach. We needed to address a few business issues. Historically, most successful racing associations have had strong business models that enable them to last. We’re in this long-term. And we’re better prepared this year. Q4. How so? A4. Our structure and responsibilities are more clearly defined. At our board meeting this winter we established our organizational structure. The Executive Board consists of myself as President and CEO. I’ll still have primarily the same duties; working with track management, coordinating sponsorships and the like. Carla McCreary will continue as Secretary/Treasurer and CFO. She’ll continue to handle the books, prize money payouts and keep all official documentation. Mike McCreary is again the Vice President. His primary duty is to provide his expertise and experience in all competition matters from race formats, basic rules, and car construction and safety issues. Speaking of which, we now have now defined the officers of the club. Ronnie LaManna will be our Chief Steward/Tech man. Ronnie’s been a sprint car crew chief, a fabricator, and he has lots of experience around these things. Because we’re a growing club, we anticipate him helping competitors get acclimated and comfortable and being more supportive rather than an enforcer. Don’t get me wrong, he will make sure the playing field is level, but like every CASA member he will also make everyone feel welcome. He will also have at least one other helper. Q5. So who are the other officers and what will they be doing? A5. The Executive Board, myself, Mike and Carla, will be supported by our new Chief Steward, and our legal counsel, Tim Hamilton, who will oversee our incorporation process and keep us aware of all the legal things we need to attend to. And you, you Mr. Hopper will continue to expand your duties as Director of Publicity and Media Relations, right? You’ll cover the races and series for print and associated websites, coordinate photographers, handle press releases and keep expanding CASA’s exposure, right? Q6. Of course. Hey wait a minute. I’m asking the questions here. (LOL) … Anyone else? A6. Yes. We want to open a member-elected position to the board. At our upcoming general membership meeting, the membership will nominate and elect someone who will be a sort of driver-owner-member representative, someone who will act as a liaison for all the competitors. This is important for a new and growing organization. At this point in our development we need to retain continuity in our upper management and still have solid input from the members. We incorporated for a lot of business reasons but want to maintain a member-driven club atmosphere. The elected Member-at-Large will be responsible for helping maintain that atmosphere. We anticipate the membership will elect someone who has the confidence of everyone involved. Q7. Earlier, you said yes and no to the question of major changes for this year. What won’t be changing? A7. All the good stuff! We still have Altamont as our home track even though we will have at least two travel races at other tracks on nights when Altamont is idle. We want to venture out a little bit, but we will still maintain Altamont as our base. What won’t change is our commitment to put forth the best racing possible- for the fans, sponsors, the track and our members. Even though we have defined our structure more, we intend to keep our informal, relaxed feel at the track. We’re hard-nosed competitors. We race hard. But we want to continue the camaraderie we experienced last year, with guys pitching in to help one another and keeping the good of the club in mind. We all worked well together last year and I expect that to continue. Like I said, we race hard but we all have a good time. If we’re not having fun, we’re doing it wrong. And we have our core group of drivers returning and expect several more to support us this year. That’s unchanged. We’re still growing. My phone still rings every day. Q8. That brings me to my next question, growth. What is being done to expand the series? A8. First, we have several new teams who have committed to running CASA. Some new guys have bought pavement cars and some are building brand new cars. And we have many who ran a limited schedule with us last year that are expecting to run with us more in 2004. Guys who ran limited schedules with us last year all said that they had a great time running our races and really enjoyed racing in a laid-back, relaxed atmosphere. They all wished they could run with us more but many of them had established commitments. So we’re expecting several new, dedicated CASA racers. Second, our schedule will include a few more races than last year. And we will have a few travel dates. Last year we got several inquiries and invitations to run at other tracks, especially after people saw the product, but we had to pass. We had to establish ourselves to our own satisfaction before thinking of expansion. That said- we want to keep all our options open for the future so we’re going to run a few travel dates under controlled conditions. Q9. Controlled conditions? Q9. Yes. We want to be sure we have complete support from the membership so we can put on the kind of show that will make sure we’re invited back again. We don’t want to just have a track schedule us on their calendar and sanction a race. We’re working hard to form partnerships with all tracks, like we’re doing at Altamont, so we can build for the future. Q10. The future. Okay, last question- for now. Give us a glimpse into CASA’s future. What do you expect as we approach opening day, and what do you expect at seasons-end? A10. Hey, that’s two questions. (LOL) Well the schedule will be finalized very soon, and I hope to announce some series sponsors in the very near future. We have several things pending already, and that information will be released as it happens- and before opening day. I expect by the end of the season we will have three track promoters that want us to run with them again and that others will be calling to book shows. We should average better than 20 cars a night and we will have expanded our fan base accordingly. When we started this club it was with a long-term future in mind. We haven’t changed that philosophy. We hope to grow and develop as a series and use each season as a building block. I said all last year that we were racing for more than that night’s race; we were racing for next year. That’s still true. This year will build on last year and build for 2005 and beyond. |
