The Future of Motorsport Part 2

First and foremost racing exists to entertain participants and spectators. If it doesn’t do this it doesn’t exist.

How racing fits into the bigger picture, beyond entertainment, is that it should serve three roles. The first is to create consumer interest in advanced technology, which creates demand and markets. Secondly, it should spur technical innovation that has relevance to the larger issues of energy and transportation. Finally, it should encourage education in math and science and help develop future generations of innovators. All the while it must position itself as environmentally sustainable, not just with image but with actions.

Where racing is headed seems fairly clear. Electricity is definitely going to be the automotive energy source of the future. That means in the future there will be electric racing at many levels. It’s simply a matter of time.

Next, many existing race tracks were built in places that are far from population centers. Examples of these include permanent tracks like Road America, Watkins Glen, Laguna Seca, Mosport, and Road Atlanta. There is a tremendous environmental impact when tens of thousands of people travel to rural or far away destinations to attend races. Conversely, it is not suitable to have those same tracks in densely populated areas due to community opposition to noise and emissions. Racing has to come to the people while being able to accommodate community concerns.

Thirdly, with a limitless variety of recreational opportunities now available to the public, racing has to deliver more value to maintain and grow its base. The trend is moving from spectator to participant. People don’t just want to watch racing on TV. They want to be able to experience it in rich media on their terms as well as have the choice of actually racing. The sport will attract more drivers if it provides the arena for them to race in.

In the end, it always comes back to fundamentals. For motorsport that means establishing stable rules, attracting a large audience, and (most importantly) providing good, close racing on the track.

The Future of Motorsport – Part 1

Racing is great. I love it – actually I’m fanatical about it. But one has to wonder how sustainable it is in today’s increasingly environmentally conscious world. Is there a benefit or purpose to auto racing? I believe the answer is yes – if changes are made. But it’s going to take some explaining

First and foremost racing is entertainment. Any racing series that isn’t entertaining enough will fail. And that all depends on people: Fans, sponsors, teams, drivers, and the organizers. Get the word out, make it easy for people to watch and participate, and get them to come back time and again.

On track the racing action has to be exciting and close. Once they can exceed a certain speed, it doesn’t matter how fast the cars are. It’s how close the racing is, and how many different drivers have a genuine chance of winning a given race that matters.

Second, how can it be beneficial to society at large? It can advance the state of the art by encouraging the development of better automotive technologies. I’ll go into more detail about this in part 2, but in these days of fuel conservation and environmental concerns, any series that is not exploring its potential for encouraging the development of technologies that have real world benefits in energy conservation is at risk of becoming driven out of business because it will become irrelevant.

Finally, how do we go about doing this? We do this by making it accessible and enabling more participation on every level: Driving, team ownership, event promotion, and media. And much of that has to do with keeping costs down which, if done well, has the added benefit of increasing value.

The more people there are involved with a given series, and the more passionate they are about it, the better the show will become and the faster the innovations will come; provided the series was well run and the rules were solid. Innovation and stability are hard to balance. But it is by no means impossible.