Jesse James learning to race!!!

[Dave65882]

Re: Jesse James learning to race!!!

What an interesting thread......Hey, i have been a fan since i was eight, many of you have had beers with me whether you knew it or not, so hopefully you know i am a down to earth guy. (here it comes)

Now that said, yes i want more people understanding and following the air races, I want more dollars coming in to ensure this will be around for my kids kids......but, I do not buy the any publicity is good routine. Now I know next to nothing about James, and he had the same ride i did when i got to go up in a 51 so i respect that....but are we really wanting the Paris Hilton crowd (other than the ovious benefits to us single guys)......I guess i look at it like this, I was taught air racing, i taught my kids, they will teach theirs. But much like my other loved sport, hockey, it will never be a main stream event. Instead of pinning our hopes on the what ifs, maybe we should continue to grass roots discuss the event and get people hooked via that route.


Hey, I am a finance guy so what do I know, but one thing I always enjoyed about the races was the true passion about them from all fans, and quite frankly it would make me sick to sit in the pits and here some socially ignorent stuck up person asking why the planes all had props on them........Unless it was a very attractive young women who i could swoop in and impress with my knowledge....lol, just kidding guys and girls

[MMPerk]

Re: Jesse James learning to race!!!

I guess i look at it like this, I was taught air racing, i taught my kids, they will teach theirs. But much like my other loved sport, hockey, it will never be a main stream event. Instead of pinning our hopes on the what ifs, maybe we should continue to grass roots discuss the event and get people hooked via that route.

Another very good point. Lots of good points being made here. I try to sell all aspects of what that one week in September has to offer. Some come to check out the races, some dig the air show, and others have come to see the aircraft of National Aviation Heritage Invitational. RARA puts on a great event that appeals to many. As for me, I love it all. I would love to see the likes of John Travolta and Tom Cruise, and others that enjoy aviation get even a little more involved with Reno. And while this may never be a mainstream event, the extra draw of a little 'star' power wouldn't be a bad thing...would it?

Anyway just a thought or two, a big thanks to Wayner for providing a place for us to 'cuss and discuss' one of my greatest passions.

LP

[Inverted]

Re: Jesse James learning to race!!!

Its that grassroots mentality that almost closes the doors on air racing for outsiders. Speed has a universal attraction, you dont have to be a pilot or aviation lover to enjoy air racing. But I think there are too many people who live in the past in this sport, wishing it would go back to the way it was, or holding it where it is now, stops progression. We really need to see this sport grow for it to gain the attraction and attention it deserves. Labeling future potential fans and or race pilots is the wrong way to go about it.

[Matt Jackson]

Re: Jesse James learning to race!!!

h34race makes good points,

Does anyone know anybody connected with Discovery Networks? Like the auto restoration projects that they've done, the same thing could be done for air racer. Pimp my P-51 may not really be that far off the mark. I can see the opportunity now a little better than a few days ago.

Time for some phone calls, and emails, and letters...do people even send paper letters anymore?

LP

He is no longer part of Discovery network. This is for his new show on Spike TV.

[Hans Oberev]

Re: Jesse James learning to race!!!

Yes, thanks Wayne for providing a "grass roots" forum for us fans (pilots and non pilots) to voice our opinions!! Thanks for not pulling the plug on this thread! One of its purposes is to provide a stomping ground to cus and discuss as stated in an earlier post. I am not a pilot but find this forum as a great medium to get closer to the "insiders." I do not need the John Travolta's, Tom Cruise's or Jesses James of the world to get me jacked up. To me it's all about the planes, mechanics and pilots. FYI, the crash and fight at Daytona between Allison and Yarlborough during the first live telecast on ABC jump started NASCAR into mainstream. I enjoyed Days of Thunder but I don't think as Wayne suggest, that Tom Cruise and Robert Duvall are responsible for it's current success... no more than Ricky Bobby is!! Spike TV will create awareness to a whole new demographic which is a good thing. Will they come to the races? Will they become involved as a race team?? Jack Roush probably has more influence in spreading the word to real fans and potential owners than these tv celebrities in my opinion!!

[Hans Oberev]

Re: Jesse James learning to race!!!

and sponsors too!!

[Propellerhead]

Re: Jesse James learning to race!!!

He is no longer part of Discovery network. This is for his new show on Spike TV.

I guess that means no cross-marketing opportunities with that hot wimmens at "L.A. Ink" then.

[TOR_DP]

Re: Jesse James learning to race!!!

I was going to avoid this thread alot...

However I feel have to say a few things:

I am probably going to offend many with this thread. Frankly if you hate me for telling the truth, I've got enough friends without you. Wayner if you want to edit or delete the post that's fine too.


1. Wayner is right. I've been in Film and TV production for over 30 years and the facts are that people (i.e. stars) are what leads to connections in sports. Example: Baseball cards, Dale E. dying (although I have a rant about that too), American chopper guys arguing all the time to get RUBs to want to buy Harley-a-likes, and on and on. Look, if the American chopper guys didn't argue and fight nobody would watch. At least not enough to pay for the production/distribution/merchandising.

2. Why don't the people on this forum who don't want tatoo-ed people, and beer drinkers, and "siliconed" women at the races also not want blacks, homosexuals, orientals, hillbillys, indians, atheists or anybody else there except for their sorry racist, bigoted, idiot-selves. Have not any of these haters ever seen their "hero" pilots drink a beer after the races? Or seen the Voodoo team in their "biker" leather jackets? Frankly you people are the reason the moniker "Ugly American" is applied just as freely worldwide about us as "Nigger" was to blacks in our most embarassing past. I hate that you cause me to be stereotyped because you are a loser who has to tear others down to stand up. I don't care if you hate me. All men are created equal, even you.

3. I have a true story to tell, its about an air-race fan, the exact facts of which have been changed for the obvious reasons:

The people had been standing at the packed fence for a while watching the planes taxi out. The person in question was approaching from the pits to the fence. Upon the fan's arrival, he moved and swayed with his Digi-whanger 9000 with 120000mm lens pointed toward the taxiing airplanes. Suddenly the fan decided he wanted to be closer, without all those pesky people in his shot. So instead of asking somebody, he established that the (about 10-12 years old) kid would be easiest to muscle out of the way. and that's what he did. "Hey kid move outta the way, you're ruining my shot". While moving quickly toward the kid. The kid, who was also taking pictures on an old 35mm SLR, turned and saw this person coming at them shouting and got out of the way. The fan assumed his rightful spot at the front. Realizing his pictures were now not possible, the kid turned and walked away from the flight line, head-down and into the crowd. Fan-man shot happy and oblivious that he'd ruined a precious moment.

I hope I'm never confused for a race-fan.


PS You might be inclined to ask why I didn't do something about this. Well, you can be assured that the kid got his shots from a fine elevated vantage point. Why I didn't confront the fan is another story: Have you ever tried to convince somebody to change religions? Talking to somebody so selfish and greedy would be just as futile.

I hope you don't hate me, but perhaps start thinking about what it means to be a race-fan.




More:

IMHO ANY exposure is good. My professional peers and air-show going friends have/had NO IDEA that air racing currently occurs.

The haters sound like they are afraid of the sell-out to commercialism and the ensuing increase in prices and drop in access. I can appreciate that. I cost me and my dad $28 to go to Daytona for the NASCAR/ARCA races in 1972. Now it costs more than that to park.

But, so what, If they get 500,000 folks a day to go and have to put a grandstand out in the valley of speed and every body has sponsors and there is a junior league, so what.

So then the races are truly popular?

[BUD_XXX]

Re: Jesse James learning to race!!!

After reading all the previous posts on this subject...here is my 2 cents worth....

This thing we have, we love, Air Racing..It isn't NASCAR, Formula 1, CART, NHRA, professional Baseball or Football. It never was, and it will never be, it can't. While those events have Network TV contracts, TV personalities, with round the clock coverage, they also have sponsors that have supported them for decades, with machines backed by the largest corporations in the world, that can mass produce machines that people like us can go out and purchase without reservation. They have weekly, if not daily news updates, detailing every detail of life of every Driver... they have a weekly story that they continuously update every detail, every spec of information, about every car that has a number.

But that popularity did not come overnight, it's taken over 100 hundred years to grow to the state it's in today... Ricky Bobby, Tom Cruise, and others, I don't think help the popularity of NASCAR at all, but they did tap into that popularity.... to make money, via a motion picture venture...
In deed NASCAR and the other are popular today, because people like you and me have followed that story, the Team's story, the Driver's story, every weekend for years. Who here hasn't been to a Sunday NASCAR party, or BBQ, where friendship mixes with racing cars...or whatever. Who here doesn't have a favorite NASCAR or Formula One Driver or team, (go "Junior"). We are product or years of TV and Marketing.

AIR Racing doesn't have that. Except for this very small, part time website, and barely a handful of others like it. We get almost nothing, from the press or TV. We soak up everything we can about air racing, about the pilots, about the gossip, from the Internet or hearsay from other sources, and word of mouth, and it's not enough. It's certainly not enough to attract the attention of the TV networks... It seems like a few years ago, there were a couple of TV shows that would put on a one hour show, and even a half hour show, trying to cover the Reno Air Races... and while there may have been one or two decent shows that were produced, It was not nearly enough to attract many new fans. I remember those shows being very hard to find, and while I was so thrilled that they even spoke the words (Reno Air Races), looking back those shows kinda sucked.... maybe with an exception or two.... And then it seems like there was a glimmer of hope for TV...until RARA and or SKYFIRE...I recall, "locking up" those chances for sports broadcasts, so they could sell more videos.....( I never did buy one, out of resentment I suppose) for a few years....

The sad reality is that we in the AIR Racing community (including us "plain old fans") are hear because we flew planes, or our Dad's flew planes, or worked on them, or were brought here early in life.... I don't know anybody I ever met at the Reno Races, that wasn't introduced to this sport from their friends or families, or had ties to the aviation industry in some way.... This thing we love, didn't come from TV...

Having said all that crap, publicity, has never been the key to the popularity of the Reno AIR Races. Tom Cruise, Tom Selleck, not even John Travolta has not increased our popularity by any measurable amount. Not even the NASCAR mega mogul Jack Rousch's recent involvment (although it seems to be behind the scenes involvement) seams to have had any significant impact, that I can tell…

And there can be no hope of attracting that kind of fan attention, or Network TV coverage, we can’t even get one of the most famous aviator of all time, Gen Chuck Yeager, to comment favorably, about our sport….We certainly are not going to see Cessna, nor anybody else pony up the kind of money it would take to grow our sport…the way some would like it..

So all we have, is a movie here or there, that kinda talks around the races, maybe a game you can’t even buy to play on your computer with, and so when a guy like Jesse James comes to talk about our sport, we better relish it, a lot, cause that’s all we are going to get… And let’s not forget that Jesse James came along at a time when TV shows grew hugely with all the Chopper and Biker shows that have boomed, and flourished with the help of guys like Jesse….perhaps because of Jesse James.

So, I welcome him, and anybody like him, and I welcome your comments about anything I may have mis-stated…

And until then, I await the sound of round, or the wonderful purring of the V-12, on an early September morning. See ya there!

[TOR_DP]

Re: Jesse James learning to race!!!

YES!

(snip)
Yeager anger deleted.
(snip)

[Leo]

Re: Jesse James learning to race!!!

Offend? Naaaaw!
Your example of American Chopper, I had a chance to meet Paul Sr. at an event as just a guy (no pretense, no fan chasing, etc.) and in that setting he is, just a guy. The rest is TV persona. I don't judge anyone on that basis, I'll wait till I meet them. Too many see the persona and think it's the person. Maybe that's why campaign ads work...
I would take you to task on the "fan" tho. I like to consider myself a AIR RACE FAN and would consider someone like that just a self important clod, not a fan. They are in all sports and most walks of life. I'v had to say "here, kid, stand in front of me" too many times over the year with a decidedly nasty look in said clods direction. They don't get it, never will.

[BUD_XXX]

Re: Jesse James learning to race!!!

To continue.... Too bad (maybe) it wasn't the Discovery Channel, If a race team just had one tenth the funds the Discovery Channel has put into Bicycle racing, That would be a well funded team...

But what the hey...Perhaps the Spike TV folks will be bombarded with positive responses, to the Reno AIR Race thing....and.....and ...Let's just hope and pray.....so lets ALL be positive and think good thoughts....
Whata ya think of a SPIKE TV sponsored Dago Red, oh yeah, now were talking,..... right?

It could happen, .....and my 401K plan will recover tooooo!

[TOR_DP]

Re: Jesse James learning to race!!!

Yeah, Leo I was just angry that anyone could possibly complain about coverage.


The idea that I'm not a race fan is plain silly, I am.

I was trying at sarcasm, and was angry instead... sorry.

After re-reading the rant i went a little overboard.

My Irish side must be showing.


(long deep breath)

[thunderstangfan]

Re: Jesse James learning to race!!!

lol i delete 9 out of 10 posts just for that reason

[Hans Oberev]

Re: Jesse James learning to race!!!

4881 views!! Who says controversial subjects /rivalries aren't healthy? If Jesse James interest morphs into an ownership position then good! Come on over the water is fine! Another well funded team means better racing and more excitement for the fans. I don't think we have to worry about Jesse walking away because his feathers may have gotten ruffled if in fact he has been reading this thread. I would guess that his skin is thicker than that and if anything, it should harden his resolve to bring his A game to Reno. "Haters"?? That seems a bit extreme! Relax!!