Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

I know it's latemodels and modifieds - but did anybody attend last year's innagural Gateway Dirt Nationals indoor race last year in downtown St louis? I'm thinking seriously about going (14 - 16 December this year). Curious what you thought of it, would you go again, crowd size, parking, all around costs.....

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

If I remember correctly the first night, everyone was complaining about how terrible it was but the second night, people were raving. 

I’d search the 4m.net archives for people who went and what they thought of it. 

Everyone I know that went was extremely impressed,  most booked their hotels as soon as they announced the dates for 2018.   I guess there is a hotel across the street with a walkway or tunnel direct to the arena and most agreed that was the best place to stay.   

The first night was a cluster duck but they worked out the logisitcs quickly IIRC.   

Best race event i went to last year.  Thursday was a train wreck, but Friday and Saturday was great.  Hotels figured out there was demand and prices were much higher this year, but you can easily stay 15 mins away from downtown and drive down each night, parking was like $10 a day.  Not a bad seat in the house, crowd size was pretty good considering it was snowing, i'd expect a huge crowd this year.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. That hotel is already sold out, but I found an Embassy Suites downtown for what passes as reasonable these days.

Was it a single groove crashfest? Sounds like it's all the top teams in both classes.  Very tempting....

Many teams complained last year about the lack of pay. They were saying that unless you made the feature the final night, you did not get anyting in return. Yet, they charged a large entrance fee, and pit passes were high also. Most said they would not return. Now this year, the payout has not even been brought up. 

$100 for lates 10th on down on Friday. $0 for any mod, or late that did not make the a-mains. Many teams ran all three nights and did not get a dime in winnings, or any tow/show money. Seems like it was kenny Wallace that posted a $2500 check he wrote to pay for his entry fee, and pit passes for his 5 man crew for all three nights. $300 entry fee per car. Nuts. $25 to $35 general admission. 

Might be a good event to spectate, but I bet car count is down this year. 

They are increasing the purse by $100,000.   See the following link:

http://www.gatewaydirt.com/2017/03/07/gateway2017-2-2-2-2/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJOEu7nowuU

I don't even want to watch this stuff at my local track between Sprints.  More power to them

I have some friends that did go and said it was a really good show.  They showed me video of the Saturday night A and it looked like a very good show.  If I lived close, I would consider.  However, I'm with Maddog, would rather see some sprinters run the same venue!

i went last year and it was amazing! we flew from minnesota rather than drive which actually saved us money so for parking idk, the hotel that we stayed in was ok besides them forgetting to turn the heat on for us.  however, there is a lot to do there.  The racing was good and I had little to no complaints (however i am a hardcore race fan). Friday nights late model feature won dirtondirt late model feature of the year and it was AMAZING! they cut the time trials down from 3 rounds to only one this year which will be a HUGE improvement plus added a race of champions heat for the first night.  crowd was a little light for the first night but the last night the bottom bowl was packed and it sounds like they will be opening up another level for seating. ticket price was spot on in my opinion.  Beer/drink prices were insane i think like $9.00 a beer/drink (the stadium controlled concession stand prices not the promoter)...however the second and last night we snuck our own stuff in... i brought legitimately 30 beers in on the last night and my buddy brought a 1.75 in...but idk how closely they will be looking this year.  get there on time for qualifying as you will definitely enjoy seeing the first car out shoot rooster tails on the fresh track.  All in all I had an amazing time as a fan of sprint cars, late models, and mods. I would highly reccomend going to this event and I would go again if I could if I didn't have to coach hockey that weekend for the high school.  

car count isn't down they cut the field but still added an additional 30 mods...