Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

~ THE Q. II) ~ _ :c: Cr.l (j :... U ART OF PRO'IOTION Experience and luck help, but nothing Make. up for nerve and a lot of hard work.' by Dick Ranney The Art of Promotion is just that, an art. It takes y-.s for some to Iaam it, others _m to h_ a knack for it. In my opinion there are only two _ys to evaluate it and that il by a c o _ t ln~ in your spectators and your riders. Promoting to ma is. much fun • winning the main IMInt or beating the fastest man on the race cou,... lt il a f.ling of g. .t 8Itlsfaetion and a constant challange. If you can imagine, trY having an ice race in the dead of the winter with 367 entries, get.........,one out to practice more than once, start the races at noon and be in your car on your _y home by a quarter to five and know for certain that llYllrything il done property. By that I "..., the parking lot il cleared and all the retu. il pickad up and you are the last one to Well, al...- _..,thing is done, for when you get homa you stili h_ to call all the news people in your erea and give them the highlights of the deY'1 lMIn1S and of cou,. write an erticle for Cycle News. I would not advile enyone not willing to work hard an~y to stick with it forever to offer the first hand of help. It is something thet calls for tllet little bit of extra work from the individual and once you're in, you hate to tum down the deres. It can be the most r_arding thing soma people ever do, and no doubt it will give them some of the happiest moments of their lives. When you can look around ami . . ..tlraI thousand people and perhaps hundreds of riders enjoying themselves, tllet is when you reap the penonal r_ds, seeing people have fun. And when the day'llMInIS are owr a few of theta people _Ik up and say 'Thenk You. I really enjOyad your program today:' For IMIry penon that teUs you something like this you know there are'counll_ othen w ~ ~ Sl!me way. 1_. Settle things with the neighbon ahead of time. or you may have a fight on your hands. Now comes the question of how we get these results. Well. it sure doesn't come easy. It comes from men who are willing to take a dere, the men who are willing to accept a challenge, from the men who will trY to do the seemingly impossible. It comes from men who will concentrate, from men who are always public relations conscious, and from those who will be constantly thinking of new and better ways of doing things to make a better program. I have helped on probebly about 30 races and hope from here forward I can pass on some of my experiences. First of all, you must find some property to start your promoting on. Then, by all means, be sure vou won't be shut down on race day becau. some little old lady doesn't want motorcycles going by her hou. two miles up the road. Get permission from the local governmental body. It may be a township zoning board, or simply a letter from the township board would be ..fficien.. But whetever you do get something on paper, then if there is a complaint and officers are called· you have written permission and that makes it very difficult to stop your program. There is one more item in this ante we must cover and that is neighbor relations. It would be a good idea to offer these people an all~ason pass. Then is a good time also to listen to their dislikes about the situatiQn and see if you cen ease the problem somehow through an improvemant. This is the time to be very diplomatic. Now presumablv you have the property according to Hoyle and are ready to prepare the grounds for a race meet. In my estimation the atmosphere you create here is one of the most important things you can do. If you have a trashy area it will invite trashy people and not the people you would want there. I strongly recommend mowing the grass the day before the event because tIlere are not many things that smell nicer than freshly mown grass. The next item of importan.,. is toilet facilities. There is no doubt that too often these are overlooked. You should have more than enough toilets to .rve the amount of people you estimate will be there. Toilets can be built cheap and made portable for use at another event. Then keep them clean and painted. Now comes an item I guess I must be some kind of fanatic about. This is spectator safety. But to make it short and simple I suggest a woven wire fence all the way around the race course at least 30 feet back. On the average T.T. course I wO.uld estimate the cost to run near $500. This may .em like 8 lot of money to some clubs but it is sure worth it for the peace of mind you get knowing the chances of some small child running out in front of a motorcycle are very slim. Now we are getting to the point where we separate the promoters from the rest of the crowd. I am talking of prerace promotion. This the mllior challenge. This is where the good talker, the persuasive one in your club comes into focus. This job takes a special breed of individual. At least three weeks before your event .nd out a newsletter to every possible source of news madiurn in your area. I hear people time and tima again say, "We can't get any publicity at all in our area:' All I can say for these people is, "How hard did you trY?" You have to do a little more work here and trY, try, try again and again if necessary. When people say "Can't:' here is a dare and take it as such. Here is where you can have fun and reap some personal rewards. You might do something that nobody else could do. When I accept a dare such as this I go full steam ahead until I conquer or get defeatlld. If defeated just chalk that one up on your mental blackboard and figure on re......ing the problem and coming back to it at a more opportune time and confront it again with perhaps some .... tools of persuasion in mind. As for getting things on radio, T.\I., or in the _ _ r I first suggest the newsletter with these five wl: wllet, where, who, when, why, and sometimes how. Another suggestion is to purch_ some radio time. In this part of Michigan $175 wm buy thirty, 30 ~d spots and thatl a whole lot of talking to a lot of people. As for television, I find it best to personally call the chief sportscaster and very politely tell him what I have going end that I would appreciate any help he could give me. For the n_ape~ it IOmetimes takes a10t of .lIing. Again I suggest contacting the chief and ask if you could meet personally with him or a member of his staff. Then give him in som. detail what is going on and if possible have him write up your coming event elong with a local hotshoe. The most IMPORTANT thing il to get the results back to the news madia as soon es poosible after the event is completed, within the hour if possible. Now don't be afraid to trY t,",- things ~ you are probably not going to do worse than anyone el., end chances are no one has ever tried anyway. LeO go now to another important aspect and that is the race tract<. Here again I kind of go out of my tree on _fety. There is one thing that really grincls me and that is sOmeone sticking a tire about a foot in the ground, figuring tllet will keep the riders on the course. Nothing is going to keep them on the course, no matter what you do. About the slickest thing I have IMIr seen for cou,. marke~ is a tire cut horizontallv on one side then _ halfway in the ground with the flappV cut side towards the race track. It il also good to have escape routes. Just go around your track and imagine It throttle stuck and leave plenty of room for the man to get out of trouble. Dust is probably one of the biggest problems for many clubs. I believe oil is the best cure and can be obtained locally from service stations usually for about a penny a gallon. There are other methods .,ch as chloride, brine, and just plain water. Something should be used if you have a dust problem. The next issue is that of an ambulance. I have al_vs felt that any club not having qualified first-aid people on hand should not be allowed to ever promote an event of any type. Usuallv the services of a local ambuldnce company or funeral home can be obtained for frea or a very small cost. Have YOllr ",,"ouncer give these people a lot of aclverti_nt. Whenever I can I make a deal with th. . people for say $25 for standby service plus their meals and a flat rate of $10 or $15 a run to the hospital. I am quite proud that any time a rider is taken to the hospital the,club hes always picked up the tab. If we can't pay a small tab like this for a fallen rider, insight to humanity has been lost bV tho.. sponsoring individuals. As for concessions, they are a good money maker but are a lot of work if you are not . t up for it. It il a job in it. If and if it can be farmed out for a cut of the profits, I thinI!-, its for the better. Many times this is a good place for charity. Local scout troops, Lions Club, Band Booste~ or PTA are usually willing to grab this opportunity to make some money. I, with many other people, am 100% against selling any acholic beverage at any event for the simple reason that there is a time and place for everything and a motorcycle race is not the place to sell .beer. If the club has to sell beer to show a profit they have no doubt mi.-d the boar someplace along the line and probablv should not be promoting races in the first place. Now it is race day and you have your signs up along main routes to direct people to your course. Your men are at the gate by nine to start collecting your hoped·for profits. You have two men or more if necessary in the signup area with your sanction posted in an obvious place. Your track personnel are wall versed on thei" responsibilities. There is a small pamphlet available from the A.M A. on these duties. The ambulance people are instructed on when they are to come on the track. Practice, to my notion, should not last more than two hours and should end 30 minutes before race time. At this time some nice relaxing music could be played over the public address system or your spectators could be informed on some pr...race gab of what is or might happen during the course of the days sporting event. At th is time is when you make the nicest friends in the world, your riders. To me a happy bunch of riders is the greatest asset any motorcycle club could have. I will tell you why. One time a friend Jnd myself, along with the help of some riders and a borrowed checkbook, tried to promote a race that was cancelled. I think we must have commined every crime of promotion. Like I said, the money wasn't ours and my name was on the checks for about $300. To make a long story short the law came and the law won. Thev were very nice about the whole deal, but tliey had a complaint and we had no township approval. So it was quite simple, I would be at the gate to give back anyone his money who so desired. Just a few people took their money and I lost $2.00 on the whole deal and gained one heck of a lesson. This is why I say that happy riders are the best asset any motorcycle club can have and that 99.9% are willing to help whenever they can. So whenever you can help these fellows out, they are the greatest. Beer isn't recommended. I this is the only way you can show a profit, quit spending good money on races and open a b•. If you run your program me same every time. the riders soon will learn this and will be on the line and ready to go when it!; time. If at all possible, have a separate starting chute. It will make your program go much faster: When one heat is checkered the next one is ready to go as soon as the track is clear. One time I was fortunate enough to get some good advice from a man who had been around motorcycles for ..bout fifty years. Put on your show SO fast that people nave to really pey attention to what is going on, and have them on their way home in three hours. The whole idea is to make them think about the whole days events on the way home. That way they get two shows for the price of one. Since he told m. this I have been watching and you will be able to see too that even adults start to tire at the end of three hours, and children get almost unbearable. The starter is probably your key to a smooth program. The only advice I can give this man is to be firm. People will respect you far more for sticking to the rulebook rather than giving in to something that is not right in the first place. Another key man is the announcer. He is the man who lets everyone know what is going on. I have done this and it is one of the biggest jobs I have IMIr taken on. First of all, I consider this man's most important job is to be certain the national anthem is played or a pledge of allegiance to the flag is given. And surely, weather permitting, the flag must be flown all day. The announcer needs a lot of help from the checkers on the line to do a good job. For most sportsman events about a dozen good men can run the lMInt quite well. Everyone must be versatile and be able to do any job except starting or announcing. Those two require somewhat of a specialist, although it is good to have an ace in the hole all the time, if needed. After you have promoted your first event make a list of all the things you Qid and u~ to promote it. Then u. this list for a reference each time you put on an event. You will no doubt add to it many times through club discussion after each event. Be open minded and constantly be ready for suggestions that may help make a better program. As for spending the profits, I am somewhat outspoken. It is mV feeling that there is going to come a dey when recreation weas are going to be in big demand. I believe it would be a wi. investment for anv club to purch_ say 20 acres and constantly add to it. I don!! mean by building a big fancy clubhouse, such as some guncllibs do, for this puts your club in a position where you cannot rest. You will have to make payments and taxes. I think people spend too much time in life worrying about the materialistic things such as fancy homes and big automobiles. Motorcycling should be a hobby, and a hobby should not be work. If you just hIM! a nice place with a grove of trees, a picnic area, a place that is ektan to get into out of the rain, and a sand trail to rid. motorcycles on, what more could a motorcyclist ask for except maybe a swimming pool and a place to promote. I sincerely hope I have helped soma of you people and do wish you would accept some of the many dares the wonderful world of motorcycling offers you. But please remember I am not going to be there to say, "I Dare You:' You will have to _ the dare for yourself and pursue it on your own. Then is one more WIIV to look at it. You will gain an entire new concept in life, one that is indescribable, you will be educating vounelf and bettering motorcycling. So I say to you "Look sharp, Be sharp, Be quick about it:' happy promoting.

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