Where are we going . . . DIESEL Motorsports!

Let me start out by saying that our agenda is "DIESEL ONLY", will be and always has been!

Why?

Our sponsors do want big crowds but they also want crowds who will buy their products - period.

What sense does it make to combine shows with a non-diesel crowd to draw people in when they won't buy diesel products because they don't own a diesel! Even cross-over markets have been explored in the past in order to expand the market. Rodeo people drive diesel trucks, we researched that avenue years ago for a sponsor and found  a large portion of them do own diesels but guess what they spend their discretionary income on - horses and stock!

Is it a challenge to find the diesel only crowd plus attract a crowd in the stands, sure it is but that is why we have focused main events in certain areas of the country. Yes, we are always looking for new markets and locations and that is what our affiliate programs does for the sport. We let local clubs and groups build those areas as we help them.

Does DIESEL Motorsports have a competing business like us?

Not really when you dissect what we are doing. As of now DIESEL Motorsports is the only licensed SFI sanctioning body for diesels! What does that mean? We hold the credentials to rent tracks, bring in our own SFI Diesel Techs, provide our own insurance, bring our own personnel and run drag racing, sled pulling and other activities so they fit diesel vehicles.

DIESEL Motorsports spends the Winter months attending trade shows and meetings lobbying for diesel as a sport with many different associations and businesses. All year we constantly market our sponsor's products to distribution centers such as WDs and diesel shops.

DIESEL Motorsports also gathers it's own demographics surrounding our sport through surveys taken during the events. No one else is providing this marketing information to the manufacturers.

We divide our business focus into three divisions, support for the competitors, marketing for the manufacturers, and advertising/marketing our niche sport to mainstream America.

Instead of contingency payouts DIESEL Motorsports pays out to competitors checks for each event. Years ago our sponsors decided this was more effective than contingency because it puts cash in the competitor's hands quicker so they can repair or upgrade their trucks and come back to compete the next week or event.

Do we spend our funding on fancy trailers, personal diesel trucks, fancy rigs - not so far! We had a plan when we started to run lean and give the funding back to the industry for a five year period. That's how you grow a market by giving back to it and investing back into the business.

Will we ever be NASCAR or NHRA/IHRA, doubtful but we are growing! Five years ago we started with 9 small events and 8 sponsors, in 2013 we are looking at over 60 events supported by over 25 sponsors!

That's the direction DIESEL Motorsports is going!

Local shops need to get involved . . .

So many times we plan our events that are surrounded by strong diesel shops. 

Why?

If there is enough diesel performance interest to keep your business open and profitable then there are enough diesel trucks to compete and draw a crowd.

Here's the problem . . .  and it's two fold!

We need local diesel shops to display at the events!

The local shops are competing and are short handed on help and resources to display at the events!

DIESEL Motorsports wants to drive the attendees/fans to local diesel shops to buy our sponsor's products! But we need to find out who those local diesel shops are and where they are located.

I know that the shops advertise and project their business by providing the top competing trucks at the events.  I know it takes all of their resources to bring their trucks and crew to the events so what can they do to further get recognized?

If local diesel shops within 100 miles of each event will email me their shop's info DIESEL Motorsports will announce them during the event and if they want to display I will discount the space.

So we have an event at Hebron, OH next week, any diesel shops within 100 miles can email me their info and I will announce them during the event!

This will help support local diesel shops while they are competing in the event.

Email shop info to: ronk@DIESELmotorsports.US

When will we take DIESEL Motorsports serious???

Do we want mainstream America or automotive motor sports to take DIESEL Motorsports seriously as a motor sport?

How did NASCAR, NHRA and others make the jump into a serious featured sport?

They all started as grass roots racing, NASCAR came from running moonshine in fast cars! They all started as get togethers with drinking, women and showing off their vehicles.

Once they started racing with organized rules, large sponsors, safety equipment, the parties seem to disappear, but they had a much larger fan base once they made the jump.

Why? Because they appealed to mainstream America as a sport.

When will diesel enthusiasts make the jump? Is it coming anytime soon or are we going to the wayside like the Sport Compact racing crowd and others?

There are a few racers and pullers who make the effort to appear as professional teams in DIESEL Motorsports. When will the diesel fans join their ranks?

The competitors realize their teams are a business and it takes lots of funds to keep doing what they love to do as a sport. Some have called and asked for help with getting more sponsors. They wonder how does DIESEL Motorsports get the corporate sponsors?

We get them by conducting ourselves as a business with sanctioning rules for safety, insurance and controlled events where mainstream America can bring their families to watch this new sport.

Realize DIESEL Motorsports and all the other diesel events have only reached less than 5% of all diesel vehicle owners in America. Think about that for a minute.

DIESEL Motorsports takes our sport seriously, when are the competitors and fans going to take it seriously?

Turnup exhaust a BIG hit . . .

. . .  but not with competitors!

It's a have to anymore when we are renting the drag strips, not only for the front linemen (track workers) but also for their property (concrete walls and signs).

Turned up exhaust extensions has been in sled pulling for years because if the turbo blows then the little fragments do not shoot off into the crowd with side exhaust trucks. That is why so many opt out for the straight pipes out of the bed (plus it looks cool).

One of the biggest problems at the drag strips is the fogging of the lights/lasers at the starting line. Most tracks have a "smoke the lights" and you are DQed. This is an easy fix for all concerned by requiring upturned exhaust extensions for drag racing.

Yes we heard a lot of yelling and screaming by the competitors because the extensions were selling at the track vendors for $40-70 dollars a piece. This rule has been incorporated in the rules for three years and this is the first year we are making it mandatory.

It's just good sportsmanship to do this for the personnel working at the track, the track's property, not fogging the lights and they want us back to the track because it doesn't interfere with their usual operations.

In fact we have been thanked by every worker and track owner since we have made it mandatory this year. Being good stewards of the sport make our truck owners look good . . . period!

DIESEL Motorsports has printed the rule in RED online, posted "read the rules" before every event and warned everyone before they show up at the tracks. But every time we hear complaining and griping that no one else is requiring this action.

That is what makes DIESEL Motorsports a sanctioning body for our sport, lead by example and show the others how to be safe. I'm just not patting ourselves on the back I'm stating that others who hold events should follow suit and do the same at their events.

We want mainstream motor sports to want DIESEL Motorsports at their facilities, and welcome our competitors with open arms.

Is it being responsible? You bet and all it took was a little clamp-on exhaust extension! Flo-Pro Exhaust has brought many to each event as well as other vendors, we will continue to ask that they are mandatory.

Make your own and save yourself some $$dollars, throw it in the bed and come to the next event. Use the extension not just at DIESEL Motorsports events but all of the events you compete, it's just a good image to project to the masses.


PS - Here is what happens when you try and make one out of dryer hose and duct tape - doesn't work!

Traveling to Diesel Events. . .

Traveling to the diesel events can be fun and adventurous depending on where you go and stay. Right now I'm staying at a Bed & Breakfast that is owned and run by a past Blue Angel pilot who survived three tours in Viet Nam and a pilot for the Blue Angels. His call sign was Bad Dawg, what a fun place to spend a few days and it was cheaper than the local hotels with a breakfast included that beats Perkins!

I remember the last time I booked a few years ago our entire crew in a Bed & Breakfast in London, OH! A few of the crew got there before we did and I immediately got a call from one of them asking WTH when I checked in they gave me a lavender bar of soap - lol! I asked if he had bathed recently, maybe it was a hint, and I told him not to leave a ring around the tub so we wouldn't have to pay extra for cleanup.

On another trip we stayed at a Bed & Breakfast one our crew members went outside to smoke at 2:30 am in the morning in his pj bottoms only in the early spring and forgot the door was spring loaded. He spent the next 20 minutes in the cold throwing wood chips up at the windows trying to wake his wife up to let him back in the building. Got a little cold out there and oh yea it was raining too!

These trips can be fun and the different stories we all laugh about and tell later make it worth it! Come this weekend to Numidia PA for one of the largest diesel shows on the East coast and make some fun memories.

Who likes who - who really cares?

Every since DIESEL Motorsports formed and went into business as the only licensed sanctioning body for diesel pickups the haters started hating.

You ask why diss or talk down someone who wants to promote DIESEL Motorsports?  Why pick on a business who is trying to expand the sport and bring it to the mainstream?

Is it because others want it unruly and no rules? Is it because they personally don't like the people running DIESEL Motorsports or other promoters?

What is their motivation? Is it business, product/market share, wanting to be the one on top?

Ask any diesel owner, fans, family members attending an event or most competitors and honestly - they don't care!

They want to enjoy the lifestyle of owning a diesel and the people involved. At each event while they look at each other's trucks, talking on Facebook, texting and emailing they all have one thing in common - they love their diesel trucks.

That's all that matters, the drama, the haters, the name callers doesn't matter to them at all.

I'm glad to hear that and embrace that attitude with DIESEL Motorsports attendees. I have been a target as my partner in DIESEL Motorsports and yes, it bothers us such people have to act this way.

We stay loyal to our sponsors and those who do business with DIESEL Motorsports, that's just good business. We protect our investments and business which is DIESEL Motorsports but our mission is to expand and bring the sport into the mainstream America.

A diesel lifestyle as a sport, that is what our passion is for the future. We strive to be optimistic and positive and leave the haters, name callers behind. Leaving negative energy behind and embracing a positive approach is healthier for our sport and all involved.

Ask any one coming to events who likes who? They don't care they are there to have fun as a diesel enthusiast and DIESEL Motorsports plans to accommodate them!

When it is hot get out of the kitchen . . .

We have all heard the old saying and it pertains to our diesel world when competition is involved.

Newer diesels are coming out that are faster, less smoke and tuned to compete multiple runs and passes.

Starting to replace the smoky one pass diesels who go down the track once and call it a day to party.

We are talking true professional competitors who have built durable diesel drivetrains that can perform and set records which require multiple runs (backed up by a second pass).

The same in sled pulling which requires heavy pulling in a short amount of distance (300 ft). In the larger classes the smoke is part of the show in pulling but the higher horsepower is still growing in all of the trucks.

In other words all areas are hitting new levels for performance diesel and the trucks are still being built by diesel competitors even though the economy is still weak.

More and more of the race and pulling teams are showing up in matching team shirts, wrapped trailers, wrapped trucks, sponsors on their equipment leaving a very professional feeling about the sport.

Almost 7 years ago I held a seminar in Indy on how to capture sponsors and look professional, not many can remember that session. It was held before a banquet in a small hotel conference center and a few teams did come to listen.

We have come a long way in seven years and I am proud of some of the teams who have stepped up and taken the lead as professional competitors.

Not all of our guys can afford to do this but it gives them a model to strive for in the future and we all come out looking like a sport that deserves recognition.