Hello Fellow San Francisco Region Members,

Once again, I am asking for your support for another term on the San Francisco Region Board of Directors. I have served on the Board for a long time, and I believe that experience has value. I know where we have been, why many of the decisions we live with today were made, and what has worked and what has not. But experience is only valuable if you are willing to use it to help determine where we go next.

Over the past term, the Board has made real progress. Most importantly, we have gotten the Region back on firm financial footing. Financial stability gives us the ability to stop simply reacting to problems and begin investing in ideas that can improve the Region.

One of those investments was hiring a full-time Regional Manager… John Hunter. For years, we have had plenty of ideas about things we could or should be doing; but implementing those ideas often fell to volunteers who already had full-time jobs and other responsibilities. Having someone whose full-time responsibility is to help move the Region forward gives us an opportunity to turn more of those ideas into reality.

We have also started broadcasting our races live on YouTube. For the first time, family, friends, sponsors and potential racers who cannot be at the track can follow the action as it happens. I believe this is an important step, because if we want our sport to grow, we have to make it easier for people outside the paddock to see and understand what we do.

But these accomplishments also lead to a much bigger question: What does the future of SCCA racing look like?

There was a time when SCCA was the industry standard in amateur road racing. If you wanted to go wheel-to-wheel racing, SCCA was where you went. Today, the motorsports landscape has changed dramatically. There are more organizations, more events and more ways for someone to get on a racetrack than ever before. Meanwhile, SCCA is too often viewed as the dinosaur of the industry.

That doesn’t mean what we do is obsolete. Far from it. One thing SCCA still does extremely well is wheel-to-wheel racing. The competition, the variety of cars, our workers and race officials, our history and the quality of our events are things worth preserving.

The problem is getting new people through the front door. The barrier to entry is simply too high. Getting a competition license can be complicated. Before prospective drivers even know whether racing is right for them, we ask them to invest in expensive racing gear, find or purchase a race car, and arrive at a driver’s school ready to race. Compare that with some of the other ways people can get on a racetrack today; and it isn’t difficult to understand why attracting new racers has become a challenge. And attracting a new generation of Workers and Race Officials is a challenge facing every racing organization today. SCCA’s training and licensing programs are recognized worldwide and we should be capitalizing on this.

We need to look at that driver recruiting problem differently. That includes exploring alternative sanctioning options and asking whether every event we conduct has to be done exactly the SCCA way. I am not suggesting that we abandon SCCA or the things that have made our Region successful. I am suggesting that we be willing to explore different approaches which could make it easier for someone to discover wheel-to-wheel racing and eventually become part of our Region.

We also need to rethink how we communicate. The WHEEL Magazine has been part of the San Francisco Region for generations. I previously pushed the transition to digital publication when the economics of printing it every month no longer made sense. That change saved the Region significant money while allowing us to provide more photographs – in color, more timely race coverage and more content.

Now I think there may be a new role for the printed WHEEL. Instead of thinking of a printed magazine simply as something we mail to every member, I see it as something our members can share. Imagine having copies available at the track that racers can give to sponsors, potential sponsors, family and friends. It also could be used to attract potential Workers and Race Officials. The WHEEL can become more than a record of what we have already done. It can become a tool for promoting who we are and attracting people to our sport.

Technology also gives us opportunities we have never had before. I am currently working on the concept for a San Francisco Region app that could put much of the race weekend directly into the palm of your hand. The goal is to provide live Timing and Scoring, live race announcing and current Region information in one place. I also want to develop a much better classified section—one capable of gathering available listings from multiple sources so that someone trying to sell a racecar can reach a nationwide audience, while someone trying to enter the sport has a much easier way to find a car.

These ideas all have something in common: removing barriers. We need to make it easier to discover our Region, easier to become involved, easier to follow our races, easier to buy and sell race cars, and ultimately easier to become a racer.

I don’t believe the answer is to throw away the history and traditions that made the San Francisco Region successful. I believe the challenge is figuring out how to take the best parts of that history and make them relevant to the next generation of racers.

I have been around long enough to know how we got here. I am running again because I want to help figure out where we go next. I would appreciate your support for another term on the San Francisco Region Board of Directors.

Blake Tatum

See you at the track!