Sam, it's numbers - you'll get more regular contestants on any three or four drag strips or dirt tracks on any given summer weekend than show up to compete at Bonneville all year.
WE think it's important - but in the broad spectrum of motorsports, we're a gnat on a pimple.
Well... and the sport only has itself to blame for that. Especially true of the drag strips of the nation, but also of the road courses and now even circle tracks as of late, they offer better options for entry level racing. There is one single event all year that welcomes street legal cars. The wrest of the LSR community poo poos the very thought of someone driving to an event, racing, and then driving home. From what I can tell at a few levels the SCTA is almost purposefully stand off-ish to new comers. It's a freakin' great sport, and it deserves to go on, but I don't know if i CAN go on without making itself more accessible to the totally clueless (such as myself). Also, The NHRA, IHRA and SCCA from what I can tell do a damn site better job and promoting their sport. Now true, those events have the advantage of not holding their events out in BFE. The first step in getting more people interested in bonneville is arranging more events in urban areas (or suburban areas) on air fields. 1 mile and half mile events for barely modified street legal vehicles held once a month in every state would be a HUGE help. Get people to show up for those, more often, have 4 to 6 events for street legal vehicles per year out on the salt and out el mirage and you'll see numbers come up and come up fast.
Don't take this the wrong way, but honestly, dealing with the SCTA and the way it runs races makes it all seem too serious and intimidating on the surface of it. It's off putting. Even if one puts those feelings asside, there isn't much of a chance for anyone to experiance "the way things really are." So people scratch the surface, get intimidated, and piss off back to their local drag strip. If there were more events at air strips where people had more chance to be exposed to the world, those people would more than likely stick it out and participate. It's why the ECTA is experiencing so much growth.
With those conditions in place, getting people behind your cause is going to more than just an uphill battle, it's going to be uphill, on mud, in a hurricane. It's gonna suck.
