Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

A·VIEW.FROM.THE ric Johnson .FENC E . .B yE h ile goi ng throug h a renowned a u to racing p u b licat io n a few days ago, I ca me across a ve ry in ter esti ng article tou ting the p ositive effec t com p re hensi ve m arket resea rch has h ad on th e su ccess of au tom obile racing in Ame rica. Thr ough reading th e article, it becam e apparen t that the sport of su percross could g lean a tremen d o u s amount of knowledge and insight about thei r fan ba se and ove rall marke tin g potential through a com pre he ns ive , ind epth market research program. To put the role of marketing research into perspective, one ha s to look no fur ther th an vol atile p olitical war be in g waged between the tw o premier Indy Car circuits in th e United State s - th e fledgling Ind y Racing League (created by Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony Ge orge) an d th e prestigious and u ltracompetitive CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) Indy Ca r Wo rld Seri es . If yo u are not hip to th e current even ts in the world of automobile racing, the two club- toting sides are caught up in a struggle that is so intense and nas ty, it cou ld very well damage the integrity and we ll-being of the sp ort for years to com e. In an effort to take control of American Ind y Car racing, the tw o w ar ring sanctioni ng bod ies ha ve been invo lved in a pol ari zed confli ct that has been going on n ow fo r ove r a v ear, w ith th e m o st e v olatil e ba ttl e y" t to b e fo ught. O n Mem oria l Day Week end, the Indiana polis 500 - th e biggest sing le-day sporting event in the w orld - wil l be boycotted by the star-stu dded, buck-up CART teams. Fee ling th at they are being back ed into a comer by George and his IRL-series (due to IRL-sp ecific rule changes and a su spect qu alifying system for the Indy SOD), CART w ill field and promote their own race, th e u.s. 500 at Michigan Intern ational Speed wa y (on the very same da y). In an am azing dis play of po litics, mudslinging an d constant verbal bash ing, the tw o sides have beco me so very belligerent tow ards eac h othe r tha t th e history and p rest ige of th e Indy 500 m ay ve ry w ell be in jeopardy. It is a war of tw o worlds. To get back to the point at hand, in an effort to s how w hich series is th e stronges t and most promising (you know - the strongest will su rvive ), the IRL an d CART sanctioning bodies have recently commissioned in d ependen t researcher W m e nt va lue o f th e e ven t a n d w ould return in '97. They also found out that 50 percent o f th e fa ns in terviewed were from out of state, and 85 percent of them w ould return again in '97. The IRL also learned that th e m ajority of the fans interview ed were lookin g for a new type of racing "product" and series th at touted new d rivers an d venues, with th e majority of these resp on de nts stating tha t the IRL series w as superior to the CART series (although this assumption seems a bit funky seeing that it was th e first even t th e IRL had eve r run) . Th e Beha v ior Research Center then con tacted the same resp ondents by ph one one week later to procure add itional feedback on purchase beh a vio r, d emogr a p h ic ba ckgrou nd , lifestyle inform ati on and television view ing habits. Sound familiar? W hi le the tw o resea rch firms w er e looking for answer s regarding fan opinion and feedback on the two competing race series, they were also ga theri ng and "distill ing " priceless dem ographic, qu an tita tive and psychogra ph ic informati on fro m th e overa ll Ind y Car racing fan base. Despite all of the prob lems, it is ad mira ble to th ink that the tw o sanctioning bodies w ould comm ission studies to le a rn m o r e a b o u t th e ir fa n b a se . By spendi ng m on ey on an "o u tside. of the box"-thinking, far-reac h ing, comprehen sive stu dy , th e two series are able to learn an am az ing am ou nt o f in fo rmatio n on just what makes their particular fans tick. Not only are qu estions answe red regard ing a particular fan 's likes and d islikes of an eve nt or a se ries ex pl aine d in det ail, but a data base is crea ted abo ut that fan 's age, income level, occu pa tion, purcha sing pa tterns, TV view ing habits, personality traits and overa ll op inion on what he or she thinks of the racing as a whole. Perhap s, more th an an ything, it lets the o rganizers an d promoters know where th ey stand w ith their fan base. Ever hear th e phrase "Let u s know h ow w e are doing?" These indi vidual stu d ies do just th at . In recei ving fee d back from the re s p o n d en ts, each s an ctio n ing b o d y knows just w ha t their strong an d weak p oints are - and can react accordi ngly. Additionall y, th e in form ation coll ected from th ese ty pes of surve ys (also com m iss io ned an d utilized by such o ther prest igi ous sa nctionin g bodies suc h as NASCAR, NHRA, SCCA, WSA and the FIA) is collated, tabulated, arranged and firms to generate qualitati ve an d quantitative market research su rveys to motor racing fans . The objective of each the two quarre ling sanctioning bodies is to prove, throu gh fan o pinion and p ersona lity p oll s, that its respecti ve se ries has th e m ost m ar ketin g a n d en te r ta in ment po tential. Present w ith in the swirling controversy tha t su rrounded the premiere lRL race in Orlan do , Florida, last month w ere two ind ividuall y commiss ioned marketing su rveys. One, referred to as "RaceStat Indy," was commissioned by CART and exec u ted by Performance Research and the othe r, an IRL-commi ssioned stu dy , w as generated by the Behavior Research Cen te r. Th e tw o in d iv id u al research firms utilized di fferent tac t ics in their info rma tion-ga th e ring proce ss, but att em p ted to reach th e sa m e goal - to sho w that the serie s they we re collectin g an d tabulating d ata fo r was the m ost prestigious an d important. The RaceSta t - Indy rep ort uti lized a telephone survey technique in w hich 254 race fans w ere contacted (a fte r b ein g qu alified from a large grou p of people to ensu re that th ey w ere in fact true ra ce fans) and fed objective qu estions from a moderator reg ar ding their though ts an d opi nions on the CART Indy Car Wo rld Series. Through the detailed survey it was determined that Am erican race fans were far mo re in favor of the CA RT series an d felt that CART was correc t in the tactics th ey w e re usin g in fig hti ng the w a r aga in st th e yo u ng an d u n p ro ven IRL series. Also recorded in the survey we re va rious opinions of the respondents, their lifestyle information, purchase p atterns, d emographic back ground, TV viewing habits and bran d awareness. The su rvey wa s profound ly de tailed an d comprehensive and provided the CART sanct ioning body w ith no t only answers th at th ey wa nted to h ea r, but inval uable backgroun d information abo ut the ir fan base. The IRL / Behavior Research Ce n te r s t u dy utiliz ed a " r a n d o m interce p t method " (th at is, an "exit poll" such as the type util ized by th e m ovie studios). Upo n exiting the IRL Indy 200 at Disn ey World, 494 race fans present at th e event w er e interviewed and poll ed o n th eir opinion of the race and the IRL seri es in ge ne ral. What th ey concluded was that 90 p ercen t o f the fan s p oll ed w ere extremely satisfied with th e entertai n- pre s ented to various p otential sp onsors in an effort to obtain corporate support and sponsorship do llars. Wh ich br ings me to su percross. It is no great secret th at th e sport of su percross is experiencing an un pr eced ented am ount of specta tor su pport and public accep tance. Or lando, Minneapolis, Ana h ei m a n d Sa n D ieg o have a ll drawn re cord cr owds tha t w ould m ake a ny m oto rsp ort s sanctio ning bod y env ious. Wh y? What is goin g on? Wh at brings the fans o u t? Do th ey like th e ra cing? Do th e y like th e ra cers ? W ere th e y impres sed with wh a t th ey wa tch ed? Would they wa tch it on TV? Would they su p p o r t co m p a n ies th a t s u p po rt th e spo rt? Will th ey com e back next yea r? Will they bring their friend s? With the sport thriving and thou sands of spectato rs comin g ou t to w at ch the races, it may be a very good time for the AMA and promoter grou ps to get togeth er and com missio n a bi g-t im e m a rket research stu dy to find ou t ju st what is going on . By learning more abo u t the fan base of supercross, th e sport's po we r broker s can get a feel for w ha t is working an d what isn 't and w o rk towa rd s th e futu re. In addition, a solid data ba se can be crea ted to find ou t just what type of spec ta to r attend s a su per cross even t. Whil e we all have an opinion about what we enjoy (and don't enjoy) a bout supercross, hearin g it d irectly from the mouth of the average fan and spectator can pr ovide invalua ble insight. It is im pera tive to kno w you r fan or co ns u mer. If yo u h a v e eve r had th e chan ce to view a NASCAR eve nt proposa l (I hate to keep bea tin g a dead horse her e), it becomes very clear that the Dayton a Beac h, Florida-based sanctioning bod y has a concise and clear understan d ing of its spo rt and overall fan base. No t only is the sport of NASCAR Winston Cup raci ng described an d presented in viv id beauty and detail, thei r sp ectator base is profiled and analyzed so com prehe nsibly that any corpora te ma rketin g m a n a ge r wh o leafs th rough its pages cou ld not help but be im p re ssed . Wouldn 't it be grea t if the su pe rcross marketing peopl e who are out pounding the pa vement in sea rch of the almighty sports sp onsorship dollar were armed with the same typ e of professionally tabulated mar keting amm unition? r.\ I·LO K GBACK;.. . O IN 25 YEAR SAGO... M C 16,1971 AR H n esti m a te d 100,000 s pec ta to rs w at ch ed 100 0 e n t ra n t s thr o u gh the s t reets on th e fir st day of th e Elsin ore (C alifo rn ia ) GP , w ith John DeSoto t a k, .. in g the over- !!:il"""-SO?2!£:< all w in . Sun- ~ da y' s big winner a~... _ '-._ was the same John DeSoto, having a very good weekend indeed... Joe Smith beca m e the first rider in motorc ycle d rag racing history to break th e ninese cond mark, with a qualifying run of 8.975 seconds at the March Fuel and Gas Cha m p ionsh ips in Bak er sfield, Ca liforni a... Normally, Randy Burak and Bob Kane, firs t and se cond in Open Juni or D iv is ion A co mpetition, woul d h a ve A been the stars of Junior Da y at California 's Indian Dunes. H owever, they were upst aged by third- p lace fin isher Steve McQueen . Paul Newman and James Gar- ~~i1n~~lI ner were also spo t- l~ ted . En d u ro by the narrowest of margi n s. Melt on too k the overall w in from Darryl Kuenzer, 18-19... Scott Harden m ade it th ree of a kind at the Gam blers Mot or ~;c y l~e Clu b H are Scramb les at Search~~c~ light, Neva da, cap tu ring overa ll honors for th e thi rd successive ye a r. Ke vin Welch too k first in the 250cc Expert class and fourth overall. ... 15YEARS AGO,.. MARCH 11,1981 he main event ~-. 5Y AR G .., E SA O of th e Atlanta, M CH 13,1991 AR Geo rg ia , ou nd one of the AMA 250cc ro und of th e AMA Na t io n a l C ha m pio nsh ip Su percross Ser ies Seri es a t Florida' s Gat orback belonged to M ark Cy cle Pa rk sa w number- one plate Barnett from th e hold er Jeff St anton play th e underfirst la p. " Th e dog to Jean-Michel Bayle , who led on ly thing I h ad start-to-finis h in the first moto. In th e in my mind after I go t ou t fro nt :=~~~...:::~~!~ se cond moto the Frenchman again got the ho leshot, but the Michigander w as wa s to beat ' em bad able to pa ss for the overall win... Scott enoug h so everyone knew w ho I was." C'rno n, M ark, we know you were thinkS u m m er s s u ccess fu ll y d e fen d e d h is in g a bo u t bein g on the cover of Cycle n umber-o ne plate at ro und one of the Ne ws... M ik e M e lton won Georg ia's National Championship H are Scrambles 100-mil e St o n e Mo u n tai n Na tio nal Series at Rockne, Texas. Summers com- T R p leted the 72-mile course 32 se co n ds ahead of Te rry Cunningham ... Th omas Stevens blasted th e field in the Expert Solo GTO class during the AMA /CCS Sprint Finals in Daytona Beach, Florida, winning by over a minu te in the 14-lap, 50-mil e race. Stevens averaged 107.034 mph . - I~

• Cover