Creating New Race Fans - The Old Ways Still Work

Growing up in Richmond, Virginia I was so lucky to have 2 newspapers (morning and evening) that provided extensive coverage of auto racing, including Saturday stories, accompanied by great photos of the Friday night races at Richmond's Southside Speedway. Those papers also provided good coverage of the weekly races at Langley in Hampton and at South Boston, Va.

Due to the efforts of Richmond Grand National dirt track co-promoters Paul Sawyer and Kenneth Campbell cultivating the local media and making extensive use of "advance" men (drivers & other racing personalities) by taking them personally to the newspaper offices and television stations, the Grand National events there in the 60s received huge local coverage.

It was because of the local newspaper coverage focusing on Joe Weatherly's wins at Richmond and extensively covering his January 1964 death at Riverside in 1964 that I finally made my first foray to a Richmond Grand National race in spring 1964 at age 15. Though I now live in Charlotte - the supposed motorsports hub of the universe - I find the motorsports media coverage here greatly lacking. For instance, with many weekly tracks in the area, I have never once seen an article in the Charlotte paper covering weekly racing, recently or back in the 80s and 90s, even in the Tom Higgins-era. It was all devoted to GN/Cup.

It is my firm belief that good local racing coverage in the daily hometown newspaper can drive folks to race tracks, both local and national venues. If our papers aren't covering our local weekly track, we should be screaming at the local Sports Editor. That's something I have never done here, but plan to start.

What brought this subject to my mind this morning is a simple "Letter to the Editor" I read in the Daytona Beach News-Journal from a transplanted New England Yankee praising their racing coverage and photos and telling how he now plans to attend the Daytona 500 because of the great coverage of the Rolex 24.

Over the years I loved the DIS coverage in the Daytona paper. Many years ago it was my first exposure to great color photos in a newspaper. They even used to run special editions after the qualifying races. Great newspaper coverage can create race fans and spread the word. We should demand it in our own communities. Hats off to Godwin Kelly at the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Here's the letter to the editor in today's Sunday Daytona paper:

Racing grabs another fan
By KEN GILLEO, Orange City
February 5, 2012 12:20 AM
Posted in:

Letters to the Editor

Wow! What fantastic racing coverage of the Rolex 24. I'm a recent transplant to this area and in a few short months, your newspaper has transformed me into a motorsports fan. If it's got a motor, it's exciting.

I'm working at becoming a fanatic -- or maybe all motorsports fans become fanatics. In New England, motorsports gets an honorable mention twice a year. So, what a thrill to see the excellent racing car photos on the sports page, and even on the front page. Great website, too. Your writers are top-notch, with so much experience and historical perspective, that every paragraph is a good read. Coverage of in-between events, like testing and the Turkey Run, are also very helpful.

I'm still trying to "get up to speed" on the various aspects of motorsports, so your in-depth articles have been a big help to a newbie. Thanks so much. And I'd like to thank your newspaper for making me realize that I just had to see the Daytona 500 -- "The Day that Lasts a Lifetime."

--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 03/31/17 05:11:16PM

I can relate to everything that has been said here. The Charlotte Observer never carries info on the regions short tracks, and in such a "hotbed" of area action. But, the one thing that I believe is missing these days is the fact that most weekely race tracks do not have anyone to send the local results to the paper in a timely manner, much as do the high schools have to do thier own reporting to get the info in a brief.

Growing up in Roanoke, Va, we had some of the best racing writers in the daily newspaper. As a kid, I read Dick Thompson's write-ups before he went to Martinsville Speedway and really helped to put the media in the forefront of racing coverage. I still have one of his columns from 1964 reporting on Fireball Roberts condition in the hospital. Then we had Bob Adams and Steve Waid, who started his racing writing career there.

Back then you had to have a good relationship with the drivers and tracks, not a herd of sponsor reps that panned canned, politically correctcomments. Reporters were trusted and would hold a story if a driver asked him not to report it for a week or so.

The only newspaper that I know of that still sends a writer to the local races is the Winston-Salem Journal, because "The Stadium' is so popular among the locals. In this day of got-to-have-it-instantly news, I think the daily newspaper has lost some of its iconic reporting tasks.

I too agree with everything that's been posted here, and I've tried to implement this very concept with local media. Their (Myrtle Beach Sun and the Wilmington Star News)reactionwas very surprising. In both cases, both papers were almost offended. They instantly reminded me this track's location (Dublin, NC) was "not in their neighborhood..........or reader-ship market" Acknowledging the validity of such technical/physical facts, I pointed out that both of these papers had active participants at this race track, and as such, had an existing niche with potential for growth. My logic fell on deaf ears, and both indicated they would possibly have a superior give me a call. Right, never happened. But, it does make one wonder why this prospect was not even considered.

Such a response is additional evidence of stock car racing's lost generation. While the sport's top level has been trying to re-define itself by capturing a 'new' audience, its abandonment of the grass-roots level has inflicted the greatest damage. Accordingly, the sport's connectivity with the greater population has plummeted. Contemporary sports writers are stick-and-ballers and, other than NASCAR, know very little of the racing's lower levels.

I was recently approached by the sports editor of Southport, NC's State Port Pilot. Although the entire subject was foreign (to him), he'd heard bits and pieces of an old local track, the Leland (NC) Raceway, and was fascinated. Somewhere along the way, he was told to contact me. I provided enough info, and other pertinent sources, he was able to develop a multi-page sports feature article. Thinking I was establishing a foothold, I reminded my editor-friend of the possibility of future articles......there's a treasure-trove of such info, if he was interested. I've never heard from him again, except, to say the article was a smashing success and another recent email thanking me for my help........as he was awarded some type of yearly journalism award from the NC Journalistic society (or some such group).........for his article on Leland Raceway.

Is print media the same as it once was? Will the traditional newspaper even survive? Who's the sports writers now,anyway? We are in a period of transition, and it appears the information conduit has already changed. Venues such as this (racers reunion.com) are powerful, and will be one of the techniques for saving the sport. True, it's different, it's not the 'main-stream' media, but it's effective. Can you say Historic Cleveland County Speedway, Columbia Speedway, Middle Georgia Raceway.......? I know I can. Welcome to the future!