I probably wave the "support the sport" flag as much as anybody and I'm just as guilty of not doing it like so many as well. However, after I saw my brother picking up Josh Day's bike earlier, it got me thinking that he has to be one of the strongest supporters of motorcycle road racing that I know. Not because of the money he spends or the influence he has (quite honestly he has very little of either), but because of the time he gives. In the month of April, Kurt has done, is doing and will do, the following: Made the 10.5 hours to NOLA for the WERA round where he helped marshal all weekend and also raced in Clubman on Sunday and then went back out and helped finish marshaling the last couple races. (He also helped me in the pits and cheered me on when I raced). Then the 10.5 hour trip home, and turned around the following Wednesday, drove 17-18 hours to COTA, marshaled that whole weekend, left Austin at 5 Sunday night drove back to STL (went directly to work) and then left Wednesday night to get to RA to marshal the MotoAmerica round. I assume he'll be back tomorrow evening sometime and then we will jump in the truck Thursday for the Tally National this weekend, where he will marshal and race (and likely cheer me on again, as that's the kind of brother he is.) Then he will turn around the last weekend in April to go to the MA round at NJMP and do it all again. It's notable that he doesn't take vacation time to do this, he puts his 40 (or more hours) in ahead of time as he can't afford to miss that much work and doesn't have that much vacation time. In addition, aside from the weekends we go to WERA events, he travels solo much to my Mother's dismay. He does it because he really loves it and all the people that are part of it. I wish I was as committed to the sport as he is. He even went and got me an autographed poster from the M4 crew today even though I'm sure his free time was limited but I asked him to get me some M4 swag so he did.
I (maybe foolishly) accepted a Mod position on another forum for one of the ESS class bikes. For approximately half the members it's the first bike they've ever owned - period. My feeble attempt to promote the sport has thus far included the usual MSF and coaching recommendations, but I also frequently promote/recommend trackdays and instruction as well as setting up a 'racer' section to hopefully spark some interest. I'll usually post up info for volunteer track/corner worker opportunities so people can get out and see the events up close and for free. My devious plan is to try to get some of these guys out to the track so that ultimately we can get more new rider development and hopefully build the grids. Don't know if it will work, but that's the plan.
