some things to do a better job at to get more new people involved:
- Most kids my son goes to school with don't even know our local track exists. One of my ideas is the racing community should get into local events with our karts to promote it (e.g., parades, festivals, etc.). Getting more kids interested is the start, then it's mom and dad.
- What is mom and dads big holdback when they get asked by their kid if they can race? For us it was how do we get involved. Someone was kind enough to let us test drive a kart when we visited our local track. Someone above mentioned rental rides. This is a good idea so the kid can figure out how much they really like it before mom and dad drop thousands of dollars.
once we get them started what do we need to do better to Keep them:
- Mechanical/technical help: I may be the exception but I was not a wrench turner and didn't even own a socket set or wrenches. For me it was a little bit intimidating going to the track when we first started. I did not know who I could ask questions too, most people were busy or seemed unfriendly (even if they were friendly).
- some kind of financing or long term rental: nothing in racing is cheap.
- Access to information: Bob's is great, but there is a lack of online content for racing, especially oval racing.
- Improved speaker/sound systems: the first few months I cannot count how many times we missed the grid due to poor sound systems and the rush to get the karts lined up.
If my son wasn't so set on being a race car driver I think I would have walked from discouragement just from the things listed above.
Also a big disappointment was we watched some of the tracks we were at make a bad call and then change it and then change it again. When there is a call to be made and it keeps changing the crowd can start to get a little out of hand. My point being most tracks need to make a decision and stick with it for the sake everyone. And yes we suffered a bad call or two against us but we understand the track teams do the best they can.
All this said, if asked today would we do it again I we would tell you hell yea. So I think it really is mostly an entry problem into this sport.