A month has passed since new Richmond International Raceway President Dennis Bickmeier experienced his first NASCAR weekend at RIR, but there has been little slowing down since. Even though the Wonderful Pistachios 400 marked the final race of RIR’s 2011 season, Bickmeier has kept busy getting to know the community and ramping up plans for next year. So much so that he has rarely seen the inside his office at the track.

  “I’ve been to a lot of luncheons, a lot of breakfasts, a lot of evening functions,” Bickmeier said. “I’ve not been in the office a lot.”

  Bickmeier has utilized the meal functions as a means to further introduce himself to the Richmond community while providing as a sounding board for improvements at RIR.

  “Being able to talk to people who have been around for a long time and been to the racetrack and hear their stories has been a huge benefit for me,” he said.

  Since being named president of RIR in mid-July, Bickmeier’s world has been a whirlwind of events. His first month was spent going back and forth between Richmond and Michigan to coordinate races at two different tracks simultaneously. Immediately following the Michigan race, Bickmeier packed up his family for the move to Richmond just in time to get his kids started in school, which happened to be race week at RIR.

  “We’ve been running,” he said.

  So much so that other than his children’s possessions, little has been unpacked.

  Ironically, now that race weekend has passed Bickmeier’s real work begins. “October and the first part of November are really key for us on what we’re going to do, who we’re going to be going forth,” he said.

  Under the continued economic slide selling tickets has not gotten any easier. “We’ve got to find some new ways to change some things we’ve never tried before,” he said. “What those things are I don’t know.”

  But Bickmeier has been formulating a few ideas derived from visits to the parking lots and camping areas during race week. “I spent some time out in Lot D on Saturday,” he said. “I think the staff thought I was crazy heading out there. Boy, what an atmosphere out there. It had a real college football feel to it. I thought it was interesting to see.

  “The tailgating is something that I’ve never seen to that extent,” Bickmeier said. “When you talk about people’s race day traditions, a lot of people I talked to, especially out in Lot D, that’s their tradition.”

  Because tailgaters arrive early in the day, Bickmeier wants to come up with ideas to give them more to do. “Our midway experience is something we’re looking very closely at,” he said. “How do we redefine that area out there, add some more attractions and make it more enjoyable for the fans?

  “There’s not a lot of flow to our midway and stuff and it’s one of the things we’re really looking at and can we get some money to redefine that area out there,” he said.

  Bickmeier actually stayed in the camping area over the course of race weekend.  “I went around the campgrounds in the evenings and visited with some of our campground guests,” he said. “I learned a lot from them, what they liked and some of the improvements that they want, so we’re working on those.”

  Bickmeier would also like to expand the camping area capacity. “I think Michigan has a great camping culture,” he said. “I think we have some opportunities to grow our camping…If you talk priorities, that’s one of the things we’re looking are really closely.”

  Michigan International Speedway has approximately 8500 sites for camping. In comparison, there are approximately 800 at RIR. “I think there’s an opportunity with the land that we have to grow camping,” Bickmeier said.

  Two areas of performance Bickmeier was especially pleased with over the course of race weekend were traffic and the interaction with the track’s neighboring communities. He received little negative feedback in either area. 

  Feedback is very important to Bickmeier and he has made himself open to any fan who wants to pass along suggestions. They can email him directly at president@rir.com or info@rir.com.  “(It’s) just a great way for me to interact with the fans,” he said.

  Race weekend also provided an opportunity for Bickmeier to show off RIR to his International Speedway Corporation bosses. “We spent a good two and half, three hours on Friday walking the facility,” he said. “I think that was good for all of us to do that. No golf carts; we walked it. We walked from here (office), through the midway and around the track and we needed to do that. I think that was very positive.”

  Though it was expected, Bickmeier breathed a sigh of relief last week when NASCAR announced RIR will retain its two race weekends for the 2012 season. “Those are year-to-year contracts, you never know,” he said. “That’s why I think we need to continue to put on a good show for the fans, take their feedback and use it.”