Solo to be featured on High Intake TV

[Rob McAuley]

Folks,

It looks like our first Solo 1 weekend will be televised on TSN!

A new show called High Intake TV will be coming out to shoot the Solo School and/or Event #1 at Shannonville next weekend.

They are promoting track events for Sport Compact cars - encouraging drivers to Take it to the Track - and not the street.

They'll want to interview a few of us, so be prepared to have a camera shoved in your face!

They are looking at bringing 3 cameras and a host in his hot Honda, who we're hoping will enter and run for the day.

We'll likely set up some shots during Open Lapping at the end of the day.

If anyone has an in-car camera (besides Taylor and the Atkins), let me know. HIT may be looking for additional video.

They are filming 6 shows for TSN, then will be repackaging for a 26 show series on Global. They expect the show will be rebroadcast across North America. The first air date will be late June/early July (after hockey season ends).

We're hoping that they'll come out for other events, and inlcude us in a few of their shows. Let's make them feel welcome!

[Taylor]

Wow nifty.

... wish I could bring my Hot Honda on the track. :) Guess I'll have to settle for the Hot Toyota. (See that doesn't even *sound* right)

This should be great for Solo, regardless of which day the come to, though I'm kind of hoping it's the Event instead of the School.

Still either way, great exposure and with the exact message we're trying to get out there.

[TYSON]

Kinda wish I could be there for that!

I'm glad someone's taking a serious swing at this. With Fast and Furious 2 coming out this summer, this footage should get a lot of air time.

Come to think of it, maybe I'm glad I won't be there. Don't need the local cops seeing a three foot flame coming out the back of the car.:(

[roooo]

Nice! TSN needs something to broadcast besides Billiards ;)

Too bad I won't be there ...

[TYSON]

and the New York Dog Show! I had this idea last year, when during the playoffs, TSN broadcast for a week from the frikkin dog show.:mad:

[AirCooln]

Awe, great. I get the worst helmet head too! ;)

Im totally pumped about the weekend! Looking forward to it.

[roooo]

I remember seeing stickers for that High Intake TV show on the awful "PACER" Civic at the auto show. Unfortunately, nothing comes up in Google, and there isn't anything on the TSN website either. Shucks.

[Rob McAuley]

That's the one. They are working closely with PACER, and see Solo as a great way to get the Street Racers into something more legal.

I can't say for sure, but that Civic may be at the track in competition this weekend!

[Taylor]

While I'm all for moving the street racers to legitimate, legal and safe racing. I'm coming to a conclusion it's not going to happen the way we want it to..

Basically... there's too much ego hence the whole reason why they feel they have to drop trou on the street at a stop light in the first place. Most won't get into a race unless they think they can win it too. So when you pit them against actual "racers" (if we can call ourselves that), they more than likely will not step up.

Perhaps something in their life will change their view and then they'll move to this, but plucking them from that scene to this one is difficult at best. There's a maturity issue. Street racing has to be "not cool". Or rather, Solo needs to be made "cool".

I think ProSolo is the best transition for them, unfortunately ProSolo can't be advertised in the most appropriate fashion for that crowd.

Still I must agree I don't think they have access to all the right information to make the decision in the first place.

If HADA were more ricey (not that I want it to be) It could be a gateway. Unfortunately it's a group of responsible (not nearly as young) guys who drive sleeper cars for the most part. There's no flash.

Thankfully HADA is not like that, but in the context of pulling in street racers, it would probably help.

This is why I spent some time egging on DSCR guys with Chris a couple years ago. This is why I harrass the S2K guys to come out (which we've gotten a few, but notice how they don't have riced out cars). They're the guys who were looking for this scene in the first place and didn't otherwise know how to find it.

You get the excuses of "oh man that's too early". Or "I was gonna come but then...". Which basically translates to they think they're going to make a fool of themselves. Which is probably why they only go in a straight line to begin with. Basically the challenge to getting people into this sport is they think they'll get laughed at.. which they won't, but they don't believe that.

HADA was tight in with some younger guys on that edge of the scene last year, but in the end, they never showed for any events (minus a couple karting ones) and arn't memebers anymore.

How do we accomodate that crowd? Maybe if Pratte was out there with the shopping kart spoiler pulling "Drift King" style drifts through turn one on Nelson... :)

Let's have a drift class! with burnouts on the skidpad!

We also need the bikini contests...

Infiltrating a rice club could do it. Getting the club to hold show n' shines at AutoX events (course then you have to worry about the high-speed passes). Then they get to see what it's about. Otherwise, it's like pulling teeth to lure anyone over to "our side".

[Taylor]

The media could help (which is what I hope this High Intake show does).. they (the news media) had a chance last year at the PACER junket at Wonderland. But instead they show my car doing an AutoX course while they overdub talk about street racers doing it in a parking lot..

Umm.. *I'm* not a street racer.

Then they show a guy with a 9 second civic.. right... the message was good that the guy stopped doing it on the streets once his buddy died, but then they help validate the excuses by putting some dingbat on who complains that Cayuga is "2" (whatever) hours away.

Course it's also maybe a 2 minute segment in an hour show. Uhh okay.. so what? maybe 10 kids saw that?

So why didn't the media suggest there's 3 or 4 autocrosses a weekend across Ontario? Some in most peoples neighbourhoods?

Bah.

Hopefully High Intake is more geared towards the street scene and can inject the idea of Solo as a safe alternative. I think that's the only way to do it, since the news media is too selective about what's important and what they want to be biased or unbaised on. Take a show the *****s watch, and then make them realize what they're doing (street racing) is stupid, and what we're doing is cool.

Here's hoping...

[ADAM]

if we want to get these people out......we have to sell the series..they are not just going to show up...if we organized some of the solo 1 competitors and made up flyers and attended some of these "late night events" we could get some street racers off the street i am sure..

and if the police were really interested as well they would have thought to contact solo1/2 and some of the legitimate car clubs in the area to try this type of tactic...

sad fact is..either way its not going to stop..and in reality the "18 deaths" that have happened is not a great number at all compared to the traffic fatalities in general...

i think its more media hype than an actual danger to society..since most of these activities that i have seen are later than 1:00 and are in remote industrial areas

[Rob McAuley]

We also need the bikini contests...

Okay, I've got Perry, Nick, Dave Pratte, and I lined up for the bikini contest!

[Taylor]

That's not what I had in mind...:)

[TYSON]

Hey guys,

I'm kinda hoping this coverage will include the drag racing series as well. In the end the goals are the same, get off the street and onto the track.

Working the booth at the last car show really impressed me. A lot of kids were asking about it, including one guy who said he had a group of 20 - 30 guys with tricked out cars looking for a place to compete against each other. So many people came to the booth saying, "I've been wanting to do this for a while, but I never knew I could do it around here!"

The punks that annoy us all at every street light in town don't have their act together enough to come out for an event. Pressure / support from the police would be an excellent method of spreading the word. Business cards with SOLO contact information handed out by police officers during traffic stops would be helpful. Ticketing and harrassing competitors is not.

Hitting local cruise nights and show and shines with contact info is a good idea, I think. WOSCA is already signed up for a car show with the local chapter of Uncle Ben's Army ;) down here.

What are YOU gonna do to give the automotive hobby a better public image? I think we all can do a little more to help out, right?

[Logan]

I'd like to consider myself "knowledgeable" when it comes to the whole street racing psychology.
I'm 25, owned only Honda's before my current car, have friends that are into ricing it up, and some that do street race.
Personally, I have never street-raced. Solo 2 came along at the perfect time in my life, and my energies were (and are) directed that way.
I agree with whoever it was that made the comments along the lines of these "kids" (some aren't that young) not coming out because they are afraid.
Each and every time I talk to someone about coming out, I make sure to stress the "no pressure" points, that it's just for fun, and that they can't break anything (unless they really screw up).
As long as these people aren't actually timed, don't see any scores, don't have any official results, they are as fast as they want to be. Who's to say otherwise?
We need to force these people to come to events.
They will be upset they have to come, but they might like it!
We should have something along the lines of "option 4" (I don't think they do that anymore??)
When you get caught racing, you can choose to go to a solo2 instead of paying the fine and having the offence on your record.
It's nice that the police want to stop street racing, but they are the "bad guy" and will never have the marketing power that The Fast and The Furious will.

[Taylor]

When you get caught racing, you can choose to go to a solo2 instead of paying the fine and having the offence on your record.

Uhh... not sure that solves the problem. But I agree about handing out information during those "routine traffic stops". That's the big question right now.. do they have all the information to make a better decision.

Which I have to gather they don't. Hence the point of Wired, but I wasn't exactly gearing the site to attract rice(ers).

[Logan]

Perhaps that's part of the problem?
There is lots of information for people who are already interested, or are already involved, but maybe not enough for the "I heard about something in a parking lot with cones??" crowd?

I talk to everyone I can who has a car they put some money into, and likes to go fast, but getting them to come to events is DAMN HARD!
Maybe if we offer them a sweet car to drive if they come compete in theirs?

At our recent PMSC solo, there was a contest for the top 5 PMSC members compete in a mini-shootout in one members Maxima.
It was good incentive to try hard!

[TYSON]

The way I found out is that a co-worker had been to the PITL events in past years. He found the date of one a couple years ago and while there I found out about this website. I would have never know, even though I lived 2 minutes from the Hershey Centre.

[J.C.]

The big problem is the government wants to act like they want to help but in reallity they don't. Instead of using streetracers as an excuse to fund helicopters (wich is very costly) why don't they allow us access to their lots wich are vacant on the weekends? In Barrie we lost our lot when the property was taken over by the municipality. :|

[Logan]

Why don't we (all clubs) work through CASC to come up with something to take to the government?
A solution to street racing could be letting us (concerned citizens) use municipal lots...

[roooo]

Today's attention on street racing is like the attention on raves of 1999-2000. Give it another year or so and the cops / media / politicians will have found someone else to pick on ;)

[Logan]

True,
But I would like to take this hype and turn it to our advantage:
Better turnout's at club events!

[AcidGord]

Originally posted by Logan
Better turnout's at club events!

I had to read that twice. First time I read 'better burnouts at club events' :)

[Mark deSousa]

Hi All,

This is my first post.

For those who don't know me, my son Ryan and I race the Black 88 Mazda 323 GT.

I have been following the discussion about trying to attract street racers to the sport. My opinion for what it is worth is to attract the crowd to lapping days first where there is no competition and recording of times etc so therefore no intimidation....and most cases less expensive. Although these youngsters seem like they have nothing else to do with their money, an event like a lapping day will probably seem like better value for their money. When the fever bites them, then they can be an easier target to attract to SOLO 1 and the driving school where it is more structured and diciplined.

I also believe that it is the responsibility of a parent to be active in their childrens activities. I am fortunate that my son and I have a passion for racing and although the sport is a strain on my budget, I am committed to keeping my son out of the street racing scene by giving him the opportunity to go racing in a safe structured environment.

I think the show and shine is an excellent idea where CASC and the PACER program could partner and host the event and even give away prizes...like an entry to a lapping day event or two.
This might work with the CASC focus to be more noticable in the sport and could also help to get the association recognized as being proactive in the community. Any attention to our sport will increase marketing efforts and interest...therefore new faces.

Thanks for reading my post....happy racing and may I kick but in GT-2 (Currently I am still trying to beat my son...this is my personal goal. He always seems to be 2-3 seconds faster than me).

Mark

[roooo]

My opinion for what it is worth is to attract the crowd to lapping days first where there is no competition and recording of times etc so therefore no intimidation
...
I think the show and shine is an excellent idea where CASC and the PACER program could partner and host the event


Too late!
http://www.cscs.ca/
http://www.xtremespeedtrials.com/

The speed shops are beating everyone to the punch.

[TYSON]

I've seen the first one before, but I hadn't seen the second. "Highly Modified" is over 280 crank Hp?

Any bets on whether they manage to run more than one event? Or even finish the first one? It looks like they plan to turn everyone loose on the track in groups and tell them there are prizes and cash waiting at the finish line.

I can see it now! Clear taillights (Altezza's, Woo Hoo!) and three level wings flying everywhere! Pastel orange and baby blue body panels crumpled and smashed! Teary eyed *****s forced to turn their tennis visors the right way around to hide their anguish from their "homies", sniff, snuffle.:D

Seriously though, the turnout at the import drags in St. Thomas on Sunday were incredibly low, I guess the message still isn't gettin out there.

[ice/solo racer]

IMO with the classing system we have for solo 2 in particular,the *****s that do come out are so uncompetitive because of the high classes they get put in that they don't come back.
The casc needs to add the street mod/street tire classes as the scca has in recent years with a good deal of success.Without classes for those types of mods the usual hot rodded import(even domestics I guess)isn't going to have a chance in sp or the mod classes because of engine swaps/turbos/superchargers etc.
I know classing is only part of it,you first have to find a way to get the message out and than find a way to get the buggers out of bed to make it to registration on time!

[J.C.]

Glad to say the event went off pretty well. I only saw one car get into trouble and that was when the stratus acquired a flat tire and went off the track. He also lost his front bumper but that was the extent of the damage. That was my first time at TMP (Cayuga) and it was a fun experience, I just wish they had a bank machine somewhere.

http://www.xtremespeedtrials.com/

[roooo]

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So .. if it's not even on TSN's own website .. how do we find out when this is going to be aired?

[Taylor]

So whats happening?!

I've been hearing things like PACER is out of money...

All I know is my tape of footage they were supposed to return, they haven't yet. (not that I'd tried bugging them either but...)

[Rob McAuley]

No word yet. We've exchanged voice mails, but no air date mentioned.