ORSCA should avoid online arguments
3/8/06
The Internet is both boon and bane to racing series everywhere. It’s a godsend especially to second-tier (not necessarily second-rate) organizations by offering a relatively inexpensive method to showcase star attractions, provide timely results, and publish rules and regulations. These sanctioning bodies don’t enjoy the budget required to print and revise detailed rulebooks, or get their message out through traditional press outlets, but any Web-savvy teenager can put together a site that keeps rules and results up to date and boosts their position in the crowded entertainment market.
On the other hand, the online presence allows every yahoo with a keyboard and a modem to throw their two cents in on everything from how soon race results are posted to where a sanctioning body should be heading. And no one knows this better than Johnny Fenn and his Outlaw Racing Street Car Association (ORSCA), now entering its third season featuring Outlaw 10.5, Limited Street, EZ Street, and three heads-up index classes.
The latest dust-up on ORSCA’s online message board regards the possibility of allowing Outlaw 10.5 cars to sport sponsorship logos. Traditionally, these cars have raced strictly on the strength of their owners’ wallets and current rules limit advertising to a banner across the windshield or a small decal on the hood scoop, the idea being to preserve the cars’ “street appearance” and appeal for the fans. However, over the last couple of years the cost to compete in the class has risen drastically, prompting calls from some teams to loosen up those restrictions and allow at least limited on-car signage (for my take on this, visit DRO’s archives at: //tocher/vi_8-1.html). In other words, the money genie is out of the bottle and she ain’t goin’ back.
I think Fenn realizes this because he recently tested the waters by posting an artist’s rendering of Mike Stawicki’s Pro Mod Camaro with a couple of tastefully placed sponsor decals, along with the comment, “Anyone that says the logos on this wicked ride takes away from the look of this car may need to have an eye exam.” I’d say that’s a pretty clear signal from the president of the organization as to which way he’s leaning now.
Predictably, this got many of the ORSCA faithful crying foul, and led to some pretty nasty comments and accusations from racers and fans alike. I’m not going to rehash the entire argument here; let’s just say I see where each side is coming from, but if people truly want Outlaw 10.5 to grow beyond its regional roots, sponsor logos—love ‘em or hate ‘em—are going to have to find a place. And although I agree that Limited Street could step up and fill any void that grassroots outlaw aficionados may feel, I’d add the caution that it, too, could just as easily follow the same path in short order toward the need for sponsor dollars.
You can lament all day long about how 10-wide racing has changed, how the teams have too-big rigs, how the engines cost too much, how the older cars are outdated and essentially worthless—but that’s the whole point. Outlaw 10.5 has changed. And why wouldn’t it when $10,000-to-win purses are now the norm and it takes $20K or more to attract all the heavy hitters? Racers being racers, they’re going to spend more if they think they can win more and inevitably they’re going to look beyond their own bank accounts to keep up with the Joneses (or the Kirks, or the Lynchs, or the Barfields, or whoever has the latest trick piece).