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Red River Co-op Speedway Will NOT Be A NOPA Member Facility in
2007:
Date Re-posted: February 4th, 2007
Written By: Terry Blacklance
I've received phone calls, emails and visited with several
personally regarding what is happening with the recent
development of RRCS not being a '07 NOPA member. I will not
try and explain for them as that is not my place to do, so
I'll direct you to their management for that. For now they
have made their decision to move on, and we'll wish them luck
with that.
Regarding what's going on......unfortunately NOPA and it's
structure is experiencing the repercussions of the bigger
picture issues of Wissota vs. DTRA. Walls are being built and
unfortunately the things NOPA was built on.......are failing,
and they have been for several years. Thus the recent changes
to inject life back into the organization and the structure
considering more driver involvement.
As for NOPA....what does this do? At this time we've lost one
of the facilities and I'll even go as far as saying an
important one. NOPA's association over the past eight years
with Victory Lane/RRCS has been enjoyable and I'll still say
they have one of the regions finest and untapped race
facilities a lot of drivers have not experienced. The
unfortunate part of being a small regional organization like
NOPA is that when you lose a track it does make it
noticeable. But NOPA's philosophy has been to work regionally
and only look at member tracks that are within or on the edges
of the current boundaries if that track approached us. We
didn't seek out members but did try to provide another
resource and group of promoters to work with besides what
those tracks currently sanction under.
Anyway.....rather than try to qualify RRCS decision to not be
a '07 member, I'd like to just remind folks about what NOPA
was about in the beginning.
NOPA (Northern Organized Promoters Alliance) was started as a
regional organization to create partnerships between race
facilities surrounding the Red River Valley. At the start the
philosophy was to find and work on ways for
Promoters/facilities to work together on........
1. Promotion of not just individual facilities but dirt track
racing regionally.
2. Minimize the competition for drivers and fans by finding
ways to work in cooperation for those same people. (Gate
fee's, rules, advertising etc)
3. Resource for promoters to share ideas concerning
promotions, advertising, cost sharing, track maintenance,
completion etc.
4. Minimize or slow the cost increases of entry level race
classes including at that time Street and Pure stocks that
gave new racers a place to start.
5. Eliminate scheduling conflicts with cooperative scheduling
with less overlap (not racing on the same day type of thing).
Gentlemen's agreement which provided racers and fans with a
cooperative schedule via print and web.
6. Creation of a "Points system" that was to encourage and
focus on a more local travel....and the governing of that
system through cooperative rules and sanctions. And to provide
a celebration for that.......which was the NOPA banquet with
hardware etc.
7. Elimination of at that time.......Track fee's that were
becoming the norm. Tracks were beginning to charge individual
memberships each year and the thought was to just charge ONE
fee that became the NOPA membership fee.
8. Meet regularly to address ALL of the
above......"Association".
Those were the premise of NOPA in the beginning and NOW.....
to include with what I term as recent important changes.
So with that in mind......I'll address a few things I feel
strongly about now. You may or may NOT agree, but I'm
commenting from a unique position.
First thing I'll say is that even today I completely believe
in the premise of NOPA. If I didn't...I wouldn't have
continued to put in the time and effort it takes to maintain
an organization like this. From the start I've known that
anything and everything is subject to change......and
sometimes change is uncomfortable and/or change is good. I
also knew.....that when you work with people.....you WON'T
always agree and you need to allow yourself room for
compromise, and most importantly be open minded and willing to
listen. I used to begin EVERY meeting with that comment
because I understood that we were working as a group with
widely different ideas and thoughts even in a small setting
like NOPA. It was important to understand that in order to be
successful we'd have to be open to compromise and sometimes
feeling uncomfortable.
So where is NOPA now compared to the start and how did we get
here. I don't' think we could pin point one thing. But I
will mention here a few things that I believe are key. Again
I'd qualify this by saying that I know there are underlying
circumstances that force these reactions and I'm not labeling
them right or wrong. I think that the changing times and the
economy has played a huge part in the struggles of racing in
general over the past ten years. It seems like everything
focuses on the dollar.
First....considering the premises for NOPA stated above.
"Association" has been forgotten. At the start our promoters
would meet regularly, addressing all of the above goals. I
think over the past several years that has become
uncomfortable for some. Yes promoters would come when they
could, but they were getting tougher and tougher to find times
that worked for ALL. And I truly believe in order to move
forward your participants or stakeholders need to be at the
table.
Second..."Stakeholders", from my stand point racing has
changed so much it was important to include more
stakeholders. I was hearing that week in and week out.
Drivers, fans, potential sponsors who all had an opinion and
desire to build racing. Right or wrong again.....my thoughts
as the facilitator of the organization was to find a way for
this to happen. Especially considering my perceived view
that promoters alone were becoming less interested in the
above goals as a whole....and more focused on governing of the
rules. Again understanding there was underlying reasons for
that....right or wrong. But what I was and am trying to find
is a way for both drivers and promoters to work together.
Third...being responsible to those we serve. Again as
a Director of Operations I felt responsible to always remain
open to new ideas. Sometimes these ideas were perceived to be
that of the "messengers agenda", and some folks found it hard
to see these items on the table more than once even though
they often came with modifications to the previous. Including
such items as rules, organizational structure, procedure and
marketing. It was and still is my goal to make sure that any
idea brought to me be at the very least mentioned to those
who can make changes. And quite frankly....if something was
presented as more than just words, meaning on paper and with
results they definitely made it to the table.
fourth..."Change". Anything and everything is subject to
change. I believe that if you aren't open to change
you remove your chances of existence. It's how you change and
what you do with change that are key. For NOPA....has it
changed? Yes... will it stop existence? For the
acronym...maybe, that is yet to be seen. But what I will say
is that I do believe we can succeed and find a way to make
things work in the regions Motorsports. The best thing we can
do is continue to communicate positively and be open to
suggestion or a combination of suggestions. For now
NOPA drivers see one less place to receive NOPA
points.......but if that's all you thought NOPA was for, than
it may certainly have changed for you a lot.
So what next? At this time we will continue with those
promoters and drivers that want to work together through
NOPA. I've already heard some pretty positive and encouraging
thoughts from both promoters and drivers, so we'll do our best
to keep you posted. Facility memberships will be going out
this week and we'll have more of an idea of tracks remaining
the week of February 19th. Either way...drivers you can be
assured you'll have a place to race and be heard.
Sincerely,
Terry BlackLance |
