Hello all --

Following my nomination acceptance for Jim Wilson's PR position, I wanted to give everyone a quick hello and brief intro/bio...

I started racing with the club in 2008. I teamed up with Casey Dragos, Ara Maranian and Erik Cromer and had a fantastic season. Many fond memories of racing at Hastings and Pueblo and post-racing celebrations at "The 101" w/ Brownie, Marty, Hot Carl and Johnny B come to mind! :shock:

Since 2008, I've been an active member of the club and have tried to participate wherever and whenever possible (auto shows, etc). I spoke with Jim yesterday about the position he is vacating. He thought that I would be a good fit and after some thought and discussion with Jim, Wyeth, Scott and Tony, I agree. I have a marketing degree and a sales/marketing background from a career perspective, so that should help.

I have two main objectives if I am elected for this position...

First, we need to figure out a way to get expert members to participate more (e.g. volunteering, attending events, spreading the roadracing gospel, inviting 'paying' friends to races, etc, etc, etc). This will be the main focus for me. In an attempt to fill the enormous shoes left empty by Jim's departure, I plan to continue participating in events that promote the club and also researching and finding additional avenues and opportunities to promote our club/sport. As an example, I am a volunteer mentor small group leader for Colorado Youth @ Risk, which is a non-profit mentoring organization. I invited mentor/youth pairs out to the track for our last round @ PPIR and had a few takers. They showed up and were shocked at how amazingly cool and fun the sport was. I gave them a safety briefing and short tour of the pits/garages (Shane's Duc and Dalton's BMW were the faves). One of the mentors is a motorcyclist and is committed to coming back for a Super Street race and may just go "all in" as a NOV. Simply by organizing a small event at the track we now have exposure to the sport, a handful of new spectators and a soon-to-be new licensed novice for 2012.

Second, we need to increase grid size. The club, like any other business will only survive, and hopefully thrive, if there are people willing to buy into its product/service (in this case racing motorcycles). Super Street was an AMAZING idea and I applaud Scott and the club for coming up with and executing on this. I feel that we need to make better efforts in the transition between Super Street and a NOV's first actual season of racing. Having a long career in sales I know that, "you sell what is easy to sell". That being said, we all love racing and need to make it easier for people to come into the club and enjoy the sport that we do. During race weekends at the track I'm envisioning field trips, motorcycle shop sponsored customer appreciation days, cross-pollination/promotion between clubs (i.e. RMMM, SUMO, dirt, etc), camping at track for moto-tourers who happen to be passing through, etc, etc, etc... If I'm elected to this position I plan to be open to any and all ideas to provide exposure to both the club and sport. Let's all work together to make this happen!

Finally, why do I want to do this??? I'm sure some are running for a spot on the board to get some of their races comped. I'm doing it simply because I absolutely LOVE and am passionate about this sport and think that we have an incredible club here in Colorado. I eat, sleep and breathe racing. My wife Maria thinks that there should be RRA (Roadracing Anonymous). Between BSB, AMA, GP, WSS, WSBK and TT racing, I'm downloading and watching racing all the freaking time during the season. I even travel internationally once per year to watch a race (this year was the GP race @ Sachsenring). I am running for this position simply to become more involved. In 2008 our team was sponsored by a friend of mine that owns Brothers BBQ. Little known fact, Nick and his family are close and personal friends with the one and only Wayne Rainey. We held MotoGP and WSBK community viewing events that went over very well. I'd like to repurpose that idea at several locations for 2012 as well.

So that's that... I apologize for the incredibly long-winded post. I just wanted everyone to know who I am and why I am running. If I get nominated or not, here's to a great 2012 race season!

And... To put a face to the name for those not familiar................