Promotion and Administration. Never the twain...

Formula One was once a disaster. It was disjointed, disfunctional, and constantly at war with itself. At one stage it was on the brink of collapse with ongoing threats of a breakaway series' and so on.

Touring Car racing in Australia was the same. There was one-sided racing, crowds leaving in droves, and manufacturers disagreeing on the regulations. Off-track homologation wars became almost as entertaining as the on-track action. As a sport, it barely survived on the support of enthusiasts, rather than thrived on mass public interest.

So what happened?

Let's look at F1: The rules-maker in Formula One was the Paris-based FIA (International Automobile Federation). They controlled and administered everything from the technical regulations to who got paid and how much.

In 1971 little Bernie Ecclestone created FOCA (the Formula One Constructors Association) which represented the teams. They did things like guarantee the venues and circuit owners minimum fields, and in return gained more prize money and better facilities. Teams who joined FOCA had part of their travel costs paid, were guaranteed a percentage of the TV revenues, and so on. By the early 1980s, the FIA and FOCA were clashing so regularly over control of the series, the power struggle threatened to destroy F1. It was a mess. To get the two groups to agree was one thing, but agree on what? Well, that was the defining moment. Perhaps a little clashing is what's needed to effect a change…

To put it simply, it was agreed that FOCA would handle the promotion and marketing of the sport. The FIA would handle regulation and administration. The rest is history. Formula One is a worldwide hit, and the incomes it generates are astronomical.

"Perhaps a little clashing is what's needed to effect a change..."

Now to Aussie Touring cars, and you can repeat the above paragraphs, with different names. The control of motorsport was always CAMS'. Then came the Touring Car Entrants' Group (TEGA), who were formed to protect the interests of the teams. They policed certain aspects of the entrants' behaviour, but also watched CAMS like a hawk to ensure the regulations didn't stifle anybody and the prizemonies were fair.

TEGA then became a separate entity which sold a partial interest to Sports Entertainment Ltd (SEL- and there are your key words right there- "Sports" and "Entertainment"). From that point CAMS, either voluntarily or by default, accepted that it was in the best interests of Touring Car racing that they handed over promotion and marketing of the category to this group. AVESCO was formed.

The original team in 1996 consisted of two people, one of them Tony Cochrane. They embarked upon extensive marketing research, studying many other sports promotion models, not only motorsports, to find patterns of success. Like it or not, motorsport had to be treated less like a sport and more like an entertainment business.

The result - tired old touring car racing was given a facelift. Now it's the third most watched sport in Australia and a viable export.

"Personally, I think Tony Cochrane is an annoying, power-hungry twit..."

Personally, I liked things the way they were. I liked the old touring car racing without the hype and pomp. But I'm an enthusiast. There's simply not enough of us to pay the bills. Personally, I think Tony Cochrane is an annoying, power hungry twit who was obviously teased a lot at school. But the fact is, he turned touring car racing into a spectacular product and sold it to millions. For this, kudos to him.

Clearly, those who are torturing over regulations, policing, administration and organisation of events should be freed from the burden of promoting and marketing the events to the outside world. That is a whole separate area of expertise. Promotion and marketing tasks should be handled by promotion and marketing people.

What's more, this can be done on any scale, whether the multi-million dollar infrastructure of F1 or V8 Supercar, or at the rudimentary club level of grass-roots motor racing. Here's why I think so:

For starters, it's inevitable that those hard-working faithfuls who donate their time and effort to administering the sport they love, become cynical towards those who don't. They become entrenched in tradition and routine. They become protective of their sport and don't like to see changes.

"...public relations, promotion and advertising is considered a bit of a wank, to put it colloquially."

To these hard-working and well meaning folks, a person who is good at "selling" and "promoting" is considered an outsider, and not part of the "boys club" who slave over supp-regs, timing equipment, and entry forms. The flamboyance and creativity required for public relations, promotion and advertising, is considered to be a bit of a wank, to put it colloquially.

This is all perfectly natural, but not at all helpful.

Furthermore, people who are burdened with chores like organising supplementary regulations, entry forms, receiving and collating entry fees, consulting with CAMS over technical regulations, and so on, are hardly likely to have the time nor the inclination to go out into the big wide world and create interest in the show that they are putting on.

Here is just one example of a V8 Supercar PR requirement; All race vehicle livery and colour schemes must be designed by qualified graphic design professionals and approved by the promoter. Most of the crowd don't even realise that the show they are seeing is literally colour coordinated in every possible way to "look right". All the crowd knows, is that it just looks right.

It's only when you go back ten years and see the plain coloured cars with their stickers, that you realise just how different it all looks. There's an idea which works. It looks good, it SELLS. With all due respect to the guy who posts the supp-regs, he may struggle to come up with an idea like that, let alone have the ability or the time to police it.

Recognising this, based on the clear evidence, the solution is simple. Whether a multinational group of millionaires or a loyal group of club level enthusiasts, there has to be a clear split between those administering and those promoting a category. There must be communication and consultation between the two, naturally, and lots of it. But they must be separate, autonomous and independent, whilst working together.

Sound impossible? It's not. Bernie, Tony and others have proved it. The only difference between AVESCO and the local Superkart club is the size of the resource pool.

Don't knock the guy in your club who knows how to sell and promote. If your category is showing a decline in numbers, he may be the only one with the answer. Then again, a little clashing may be what's needed to effect a change...