Under a beautiful full moon in TRP’s group hospitality area overlooking turn 1 of the raceway 70 attendees consisting of 32 drivers gathered to discuss Tucson Raceway Park’s future. The meeting started with Tucson Raceway Park’s General Manager Dan Ruth asking the attendees to do a self introduction with name and affiliations. It was great being able to see everyone from an eager 16 year old girl who just got her first racecar, Devin Bilbo, to veteran tire specialist Jim Doughty from Carrol Shelby Goodyear in attendance.
Dan opened with a brief history of sorts telling of how and why he and his wife Joyce, ended up at the Park, followed by a report on motorized racings current status in Arizona and North America in general.
Dan then laid the cards on the table and gave a quick overview of the tracks financial wows and how important it was that something positive come out of this meeting. The open meeting agenda had a statement at the bottom that was designed to keep everyone on track and keep the dialog from swaying from the task “Save TRP”. The statement was “Discussion limited to constructive ideas for survival of racing at TRP. We are not here to discuss rules, tires, classes, race day operations, personalities or how everything was better before. If you see a problem and want to address it, you need to have a solution!
The nights dialog started with one of the Late Model competitors asking if we knew why some cars were home in their garages and not racing. To answer that, GAT Racings Paul Banghart and Champine Performance’s Ned Champine were brought up to address the crowd. Both stated one common denominator, MONEY! It was also thought that there were a few Limited Late Models sitting around that did not race because of the perception they could not be competitive. The fact was brought up that three feature events were won this year in a Limited Late Model configuration that proved it could be done!
Many great ideas flew around the room for the first hour of the meeting with someone every so often wanting to talk about the forbidden and swaying from the issue. One of the great ideas that we will implement immediately was a pre entry concept that will help both the competitor and the track. The 2007 Arizona State Champion, Joe Paladenic spoke to the group about his perception of the raceway. Note: Joe has been responsible for well over 50 butts in the seats each and every race day due to his unselfish efforts in Sierra Vista. Joe went on to say the future lies in our lower classes that are affordable to all and that those drivers get the bug and later move up. Was he ever right on!
As ideas went from volunteering to car shows, one common thread surfaced. Everyone wanted to do their share, but there truly was no vehicle to get it done! As the meeting began to stall, Dan called on Scott Rueschenberg, driver of the Blue Oval project and six time Late Model feature event winner, to present his unique marketing plan. It quickly became apparent that Scott had struck a nerve as the room began buzzing with activity, some questions of how could this be and some with how do I sign up? One could see attendees on their cell phones calling a friend to say you won’t believe what we’re talking about here tonight. The optimists and the pessimists all surfaced and in the end, virtually everyone was ready to get on board. The racing divisions each selected Team Captains who became responsible for communication and follow through of the innovative plan and when the meeting came to a close, a tentative date for racing was set as September 13th with an open practice set for the 12th.
The Twin Bomber Enduro’s are still set for Saturday, September 20th and pre entries are flowing in.
Only time will tell if this can save TRP, but if everyone stays on track and works the plan, we will all succeed!
See you at the races!
Details of the plan to follow!
