Perhaps a little compassion?

Are increasing gas prices only affecting transportation means for everyday people, using their cars for activities they do on a daily basis? Absolutely not. Besides affecting major shipping industries, travel industries, etc., an industry that hits very close to home for me is being bothered.

Ok, so most people don’t have much compassion for Motorsports, but those of us who work in it sure do. On the weekend of May 5-7, the U.S. Sports Car Invitational took place in Monterey, CA at the world famous Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (MRLS). Sure, most people think “Great, a race, they’re wasting oil anyways, who cares?”. It goes beyond that. The Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula (SCRAMP), a non-profit organization, is the administrative body for all race events that take place at the track. Everything for one race week is planned well in advance, and when you are counting on a certain number of cars to show up for an event, and gas prices rise, it is a loss in ticket sales and revenue that affects SCRAMP.

Ann Bixler, Vice President of Event Operations for SCRAMP, sat down with me and discussed the affects that the gas prices have on SCRAMP, and the racing industry in general. “Not only are the increasing gas prices affecting fans and organizations, they are also affecting the promoters”, Bixler said, when asked how this affects an entire race weekend. Much of the fan base for races at MRLS come from San Francisco and San Jose, and many of them did not want to spend the money on gas to travel to Monterey for the weekends, let alone a single day, so they decided to stay home and most likely waited for the race to air on TV. Bixler added, “The Fan count was down 10% from last year’s event. Also, from 15 to 20 competitors did not run in the MX5 Cup race because it cost too much money to bring their cars here from back East”. The MX-5 Cup series is based on the East Coast, and many of the competitors did not expect gas prices to rise as much as they did. This becomes an issue, as many competitors, organizations, and promoters plan their budgets a good 4 to 5 months before the race season starts. Bixler concluded “If gas prices stay the way the are. We’ll see the schedule changing.”

For now, the gas prices are ridiculous, and we all can agree, lets just keep our fingers crossed that with summer on the verge, the prices don’t increase too much more.