What are the ingredients for Excitement? First, invite over 600 of your motorsports friends to join together at a race facility known for doing big things. Add in nearly 200 volunteers to lend you a hand. Next, invite the public to see what the Sports Car Club of America is all about. Bring this all together by offering folks the opportunity to do Ride-A-Longs in actual Solo, RallyCross, and track cars, and let them do this for FREE. It’s like a day at an amusement park without breaking the bank.
The Central Florida Region of SCCA did just this on May 6 & 7, 2017 at the Daytona International Speedway. Several months ago the Membership Chair, Darren Gunn, came up the idea to make an event that would include all the SCCA programs that CFR offers. This idea was presented to the Regional Executive who said, “Why not. Let’s make it happen.” The concept was presented to the Board of Governors (BoG) at the March 2017 BoG meeting and the planning began.
Specialty chiefs from Solo, RallyCross, Club Racing, and PDX met to form a team to plan the event. The team also included BoG members, members, and other volunteers.
The Result? An event that brought over 1000 spectators to a regional event, over 400 Ride-A-Longs on the Solo, RallyCross, and/or the Daytona 3.56 mile road courses. Many of these folks tried all the track events, some even repeated the rides in different cars. One young lady tried a BMW M3, a Porsche, a Mustang and a Cadillac. She might be hooked.
Additionally, over 180 non-SCCA members climbed into the passenger seat of an SCCA car for the first time!
Even the Chairman of the SCCA National Board of Directors had a good time with the CFR Membership Chair: https://www.facebook.com/jagdawg/videos/10212466071788401/
Comments from Facebook:
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Everyone who put in their hard work into this Daytona Showcase deserves a huge round of applause. You people are the ones who make this whole racing world go around and are the true heroes here. Thank you all.
I honestly couldn't count the number of smiles I saw this past weekend especially of those who got to experience the track for the very first time from the passenger seat.
Congrats
B. Badenof
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Home from Daytona and the CFR SCCA Showcase. What a great weekend! The atmosphere was incredible. I had a chance to talk to quite a few spectators/guests thanks to the walking tours and just walking around. I think we did the SCCA Proud and hopefully generated a lot of interest! Thanks to everyone who made it happen! Let's do it again!
S. Perkins
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The club racing along with track day, auto cross, rally cross was a fantastic idea and I wish it would be a regular thing! It's the ultimate for the driving/car enthusiast!
A. Leister
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Thank you everyone who made this happen! Today was my first visit to an event like this. Tomorrow will be my second, and certainly not my last! Truly fantastic!
B. Dinquel
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