Category Archives: general

An Unexpected Off-season

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Every year from November to April, the short track racer has a lot going on. First, they reconnect with their family in preparation for the holidays. After months of spending every free in the garage, on the road, or at the race track, they take a well-deserved break.

In unison with the end of the season, reboot comes planning for next year. Racers will visit trade shows, gather new parts, and take their chassis to the builder for updates and corrections from the bumps and bruises of the past season. The lack of immediate urgency translates into more time in the shop, but the time is more controlled and predictable. You can easily say to your spouse; I’m going over to the shop for a few hours; I’ll be back for dinner and mean it. With correct time management, there is less stress to make it to the next event as the next event is still several months away (this is not to say you won’t be thrashing as the season approaches. We are still racers and that’s what we do).

So now here it is approaching April, you’ve spent the winter gather all the latest parts to improve performance. You’ve taken the engine back to the builder to have it freshened and ready to take on all challengers. You’ve refined your setup to perfection based on the plethora of notes gathered over the years and are prepared to load the truck and trailer and go racing.

Then boom! We enter a time in history none of expected; we are in a time of social distancing. The government has placed limits on attendance at events; there are businesses shut down; you face the possibility of “self-isolating” yourself for some time. And you say to yourself, but I’m ready to go racing, now what?

You are left asking yourself what can I do while I wait for the world to catch up. My excitement to go racing is at its season’s highest, and now the car just sits in the garage and waits and waits.  I can tell you I feel your pain. For our team, we race an indoor series with a Three-Quarter Midget, and the afternoon before the race, the state of New York banned all gatherings over 250 people. This order forced the promoters to cancel the event, and there was little chance of having it rescheduled. Baring a major winter snowstorm, who would have thought an indoor activity would be cancelled?

Now, moving forward, what do you do? The car is ready, you’ve stocked the trailer with spare parts, and your uniform is clean. You are ready for the season, but the season is not ready for you. Here at DDR Motorsports, we are planning on taking it as just an extended off-season and will be using the time to better prepare ourselves for when the season does open up. Weekly maintenance tasks such as nutting and bolting and fluid changes are not necessary for the time being, but what about learning more about the car? How about training the junior or new team members more thoroughly? You could research new sponsors or, at the very least, stay in touch with the current ones.

For myself and my team, we expect our first race to be April 18, and though they have not officially canceled it, with the current state of things, it is in jeopardy of being postponed. From a planning standpoint, it does not make it easy as you need to prepare still as though it’s going to happen, but the enthusiasm is not as high as it usually would be. Much like we do with our race strategy our team as spoken about the various avenues this could go, will the race go on or not, if not when will our season open up, what other projects can we do, etc. 

From our team’s standpoint, it is still the off-season, and we are preparing for racing it like any other off-season. This season just doesn’t have a start date yet. We also have a few other projects in the works.

Tell us what you are working on and what is keeping you busy during the unexpected off-season.

Doug Robbie
Owner
DDR Motorsports
#27 Tour Type Modified

DDR Motorsports looking for help

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Our race team is looking for someone to assist with PR for the team.
This position would entail working with the various Social media accounts, writing blog articles for the website and getting news out to the public about the race team.

The ideal person will have an outgoing personality, possess a strong passion for racing, willing to spend long days at the race track and willing to go the extra mile.

This is not a paid position but race day expenses (pit pass, food) will be covered.
This is not a sales or sponsorship seeking position.

Must be located in the New England area as we race in Mass, NH, CT, and Maine.

Send all inquiries for the position to jobs@ddr-Motorsports.com

2020 Schedule

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With the 2020 season quickly approaching, DRR Motorsports continues to pull together its schedule for race season.

The team will open up the season at the largest track the team runs on, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, by participating in the inaugural Northeast Classic on April 17 & 18. After two consecutive top-ten finishes in the team’s past two appearances in the Short Track Showdown, it was a no brainer to run the event. Opening the 2020 race season at a track the team and driver, Derek, Robbie, has had some success at, the team looks for a positive start.

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DDR gearing up for 2020

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During a recent warm spell, it was a nice break to get out and get some sunshine. For the DDR Motorsports Development team and driver Derek Robbie, it meant the ability to get out in the garage with the door open and feel the anticipation of the new race season not far away.

Beside the normal break down, repair and replace that occurs every year, during this off season the team has gotten a new home for the #27 Tour Type modified. They would like to thank Randy Tucker and Competitive Tire of Millis, MA for working with them to find a small spot in their shop for the car. DDR Owner, Doug Robbie has assisted Randy with his late model for the past couple of seasons, and hopes to get Randy back out on the track again in 2020.  

As with Seasons past, the potent Dodge power plant is at Ashaway Performance Engines (APE) under the awesome watch of Norm Perry to be ready when the team takes the track in April of 2020. Norm’s power making ability has been great over the past few seasons and the team see no reason it won’t be again this year.

During the off season, DDR driver Derek Robbie and Crew Chief Mark Giordano has continued to work together at the Indoor Racing Series to stay sharp for 2020. Back a week or so, Derek competed in the Allentown, PA event and though was caught up in a couple of accidents, Derek performed the best he has in this series to date. Plan for the upcoming races include Derek practicing the car at Atlantic City before turning it over to Matt Galko as Derek has some work commitments, and then back up to Syracuse, NY for the final race od the series.

As for the team’s race schedule this year, it is still a work in progress at the moment. The modified world is going through a shift and there are many options to look at. Currently there have been 19 dates released to the modified community in which the team could compete in. These include the MRS and Tri-Track series along with several open shows. There are many factors consider as we move forward into 2020 so stay tuned as we will release our schedule soon.

There is alo several other things in the works, we’ll let you in on as we move forward into 2020. Keep an eye on the DDR Website and the Facebook page as well as the Derek Robbie Motorsports Facebook page for details.

Doug Robbie
Owner #27 Tour Mod
doug@ddr-motorsports.com

 

 

Making sure they remember you

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We all know racing is a team sport and without the assistance of your crew, family, and sponsors you’d not be successful in racing. Generally at the end of the year you take your crew to the banquet or out to dinner, you take your family on a well-deserved vacation and you visit your sponsors with an appreciation award. These are all wonderful things to do for those you have established relationships with, but what do you do to assist in generating new relationship to assist you in increasing your success?

This question is asked over and over by racers usually in the form of how I get sponsors. It is the age old question that has no single answer. I know for us here in DDR Motorsports Development, the best recipe we have is interaction, this includes Interaction with the fans, interaction current sponsors, and interaction with potential sponsors. I cannot tell you the amount of support or recommendations we have gotten by just being a good guy.

Where is this going? Well, as many of you know I attended the Performance Racing Industry   (PRI) show last week in Indianapolis. If you’ve never heard of it, look it up. The PRI show is owned by SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) and is the biggest racing focused trade show in the world. PRI, while there you have the opportunity to see the newest products for racing and talk with those who manufacture the products. Really a great opportunity.

I have been attending the PRI show for 5 years now and one of the things I always make sure I do is thank those who spend the time to speak with me at the show. You see, the show consists of thousands of vendors and tens of thousands of people, that’s a lot of people in lots of discussions. During our conversations we do the trade show shuffle where they may scan our badge, capture our email address or exchange business cards, but how do I make sure I stand out. I follow up with them after the show.

Following up after the show is easy, but it does take some effort on your part. For me, I spend the time going through the catalogs and business card I collected during the show and select the ones I’m interested in learning more about or would like to create a stronger relationship with. I then sit down and write each of them an email thanking them for spending the time with me, maybe a small excerpt about what I learned from them and how I look forward to working with their company in the future. I personally just completed my list of 50 companies last night and have already heard back from four companies acknowledging my appreciation for their time. This is a small thing, but in times when thousands of people are knocking on your door looking for stuff, you need to set yourself apart from the crowd.

So the take away from this is say hi to everyone to show them you’re interesting, and use good old fashion etiquette as a closer to make them remember you.

Why ?

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Are you one of those people who look around the pits and does what everyone does? Do you set your car up just like the guy next to you? Do you have the same springs in the car as the leader? Do you run the same stagger as everyone else? If this is you, I pose this question, “Why follow everyone else?”

Doesn’t a racer want to win? So why not lead, instead of follow? Why not as ask why?

In today’s racing world of crate motors, store bought cars, spec tires, etc., why not strive to be more? If you have a true passion for racing you should be pushing yourself to the limit, be on the cutting edge, look to be different, not just follow the herd. But alas, this is what the majority of the racers do. They see someone buy an engine from so and so and they go out and buy one too. They put it in and run just like they did with their old motor. Why, why did they just spend all that money and not gain anything? Maybe they should have asked why to begin with?

If you are racing, shouldn’t you be spending time focusing on why something is done instead of just what is being done? Asking “why” is a powerful question. It forces people to think deeply. It forces you to tear back the layers and get a better understanding of what it all means.

Asking “why” seems easy enough. It’s just a little word, after all. So, why don’t racers ask this powerful question more often?

In my many years of racing, I have seen a lot of racers go to the local hot shoe and inquire about their winning setup and then proceed to put it in their car as is. They don’t try to understand why the hot shoe runs this particular combo of springs, shocks, etc., the racer just puts it in with the anticipation of running better. There is the occasional time when it works, but most times it doesn’t because the racer does not know why it should work.

This leads to the racer having a tough time distinguishing between why to do something and doing just what you’re told to do. When you ask why, you now commit yourself to spending the time revealing the real issue or effect. Now, you will be able to take the appropriate action in an educated manner, because you know why.

So you should not only ask “why”, but then also give an appropriate amount of time and effort to determine the real answer. It could be as simple as taking a few more measurements or a few minutes of thought or perhaps you will need to spend some time thinking about the issue. Reach out to knowledgeable people who will give you truthful, honest answer, research the reason for the issue or change, and sometimes return at a later time with an answer. When you spend the time asking “why”, it turns a “you should do” into a highly productive learning method.

When you challenge yourself to think it is what stimulates discovery, solutions and growth. This is what we at DDR Motorsports Development are all about. We want to teach you the why. There are many programs out there that will have you pay for the “solution” but never really give you the solid foundation to build on. We want to be different. Please feel free to reach out us with any question or comments as we are here to help.