Absolutely! My wife and son to start. Through various conversations, usually when I'm selling a car, I've introduced a few people to Lemons. Always looking to find new people to bring into the sport.
Photography by David S. Wallens
Your assignment: Get someone new involved in the sport.
A high point of last week’s Orlando Roadsters meet–in addition to hanging with friends, seeing Miatas and taking some pictures?
Meeting the new owner of an NA Miata and handing her a copy of our Grassroots Motorsports Trackside Companion.
Why’d we have one over? Because she asked a very important question: How to get involved in autocross and activities like that.
Need one of these how-to guides for a buddy? Just click here.
And, related, enjoy some photos from the meetup. Remember, Orlando Roadsters meet the last Monday of the month at Ace Cafe Orlando. Save us a spot.
Absolutely! My wife and son to start. Through various conversations, usually when I'm selling a car, I've introduced a few people to Lemons. Always looking to find new people to bring into the sport.
In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :
Good to hear.
Trying to (slowly) bring my wife and two-year-old over to the dark side.
I'm working on a coworker she doesn't know it yet but she's an autocrosser.
I keep trying, so far I haven't seen anyone I've talked to show up at an event.
Then there's my most recent attempt when I was trying to explain how street classes work in autocross, before learning that I was talking to the person that helped you build the engine in your Porsche.
Been sending a co-worker GRM articles and talking about track days/autocrossing for a while. He just bought a Boxster, joined the PCA and is looking forward to playing with his new toy this summer!
Kind of. My friend came with me to the Challenge in the fall. He had come the previous time I went in 2016 but wasn't really into cars. Then he spent some time riding in the LMP360 at the firm and may be hooked. So maybe Nocones gets to take credit for this one.
I think I have talked my wife into coming to this year's challenge. Somehow this is what she is cool with doing for our 15 year wedding anniversary!
My kids got to go to their first Champcar race with me in December. Their mother had flat out refused to let them go while we were married because "a racetrack isn't a safe environment for little girls."
Guess what? They had a blast and now my oldest won't stop asking me questions about car classes, she has laid out fuel strategy for us, pit stop strategy, and she's 9. She loves it and can't wait to do more.
My girlfriend also went to her first Champcar race and loved helping. She was pit mom and helped with the kids. She loved it so much she agreed to go to the Rolex 24 with me and thoroughly enjoyed it. She's also itching to learn how to drive stick in the S2000.
Being into such niche things, we all have to be positive ambassadors to the sport or culture. I used to hate the gatekeeping that transpired in the F-body/LSx community when I was into that stuff. Same can be said for a lot of the overland communities. I also hate when people are treated like poop when they ask a question.
In reply to nlevine :
Nice!
Fun story:
Back in the winter of 2020-21 I was doing some shop cleanup, and decided to get rid of this old GE electric range that I'd had for years collecting dust. I posted it on FB MP and a few weeks later I get a call from a younger guy who wanted it. He shows up to my house in this ancient rusty Excursion and he looks like he's not even old enough to drive. Like, I could easily have been his father. I was naturally, then, curious why he'd want an electric range that was older than he was, so I ask, and he tells me he's going to convert it into a powder coating oven. This leads to more questions and us ending up chatting it up in my garage for over an hour about cars, racing (which he'd never done, but was interested about), and other stuff. Finally I help him load the range into his truck, he hands me the $30 for it (which at that point I was somewhat reluctant to take) and heads off.
We kept in touch and next rallycross season I invited him to co-drive my Volvo Amazon. We did a few events together and he really enjoyed it. Not to mention, he wheeled the car around pretty well. I helped him fab up some parts for an engine swap he was working on, putting an MR2 turbo mill into a '93 Camry. Which he's since gotten running and driving. And last August he joined our 24 Hours of LeMons team and drove two 90 minute stints at Thompson. He got zero black flags, had no contact, and turned in decent lap times. He's going to be racing with us again this year.
It's cool to have someone I can pass along some of my experience and mistakes to, and I've learned way more than I ever thought I'd know about mid 90's Toyota stuff. 
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:I keep trying, so far I haven't seen anyone I've talked to show up at an event.
Same, I find there are two types of people in this regard: those who just need to know when and where and how to sign up, and those who might appear to be or would pretend to be interested, but will never actually make any effort to show up. Those in the first category tend to either be teenagers or competitors in other types of motorsport.
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