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

Having attended most Chili Bowls, since the installation of the huge exhaust fans years ago, the exhaust fumes and dust have not been a major concern, until this year.  What is the reason for the unexpected change?  My group has had the same seats for over 20 years and this year the dust was the worst ever. It has gone from being a bit of a nuisance to being uncomfortable.  Late in the features, it was impossible to even see the cars between turns one and two, because of the dust.  All longtime ticket holders around us were also vocal about the excessive dust.  What happened? Did some of the ventilation equipment fail?  Was it track prep?  Different clay?  Could softer tires, hooking the cars up more, be a factor.  Whatever the reason or reasons, the issue needs to be addressed.  Others thoughts?

We have only been going eleven years, but something was diffferent.  The Larson Bell battle was great but dust and fumes were worse than I can remember 

Emmett H. is well aware that something must be  done next year.  Dirt does wear out, it get ground finer and finer.  Good dirt is also hard to find.  I guess they use the same dirt every year.  Saw race on TV and it was dusty for sure.  Dirt is very unpredictable and is difficult to get right every time.

Tuesday and Wednesday were acceptable, Thursday was horrible, Friday was better,  but Saturday night was the worst I have experienced since the new fans were installed.  We all commented on the layers of dust on the bleachers before the 6pm break.  Also the cushion was much higher earlier than normal.

Will that keep me from coming back?  Hell No!  

Tuesday and Wednesday may have acceptable but both nights were more dusty than in any previous years. The dust won't keep me from coming back either but I will come more prepared with a better resperator and faceshield.  What concerns me is the future of the event.  I don't know what the figures are but a huge portion of the crowd is on the South side of 60+ years old and made up of die-hard race fans.  Will there be future younger fans and new fans that will replace them?  On Friday I met a first time couple that said they were race fans and really looked forward to the event.  They left just before the qualifying races started, because of the dust.  Doubtful that they will ever come back.  How many others had the same experience and displeasure for the event because of the conditions? 

Was definitely not watered near as much as normal. Most top drivers love it when it is slick as often the extra experience shines on the slic k track but the event did not have much lap traffic and flip count also higher than average.i was not impressed

Don't forget Tony Stewart was not doing the track prep this year

Was Lanny Ross Edwards helping with the track prep this year?   Both him and his Dad were known for prepping tracks with little dust.   I remember watching a youtube video with him talking about how he hated dusty tracks.   

There was a lot of twitter conversation about the poor track prep from different drivers and teams.   The running joke was that since instead of treating the tires they should have treated the track.  

It should have been obvious the first night that there was an issue with the track but from my viewpoint, nothing changed during track prep to make it better.  In previous years, as I recall, more water and tilling between races was used. 

The banning of tire dope had a fair ammount to do with it. 

Please explain. How

Tire prep will come out of the tires and adhere to the race track, in turn locking some of the dust down into the race track. is that the only reason? Of course not, but if you look at the variables, no tire prep is absolutly one of them. 

What they need to do is raise the purse. It's embarrassing I don't wanna hear oh we race for the driller. A lot of money is being made, no reason a bump up in purse money couldnt happen 

350+ drivers and owners say they could not give a crap about the purse.

Is Emmett making a killing between the Shootout and Chili Bowl, I suspect so... are the car owners complaining?  Not that I have ever seen.  

99% of the people at the Chilibowl don't give 2 shits about the purse. The number 1 reason any is in any type of business is to make money, not to give it away because they make too much of it.

If this race paid $100,000 to win, how many more cars would be there? What incentive is there other than you think the people running the race are making too much money to increase the purse? Serious question...

First of all you're 99% claim is highly exaggerated and I'm not talking about people talking about the drivers You go find a driver that's making 40 or 50% of whatever he makes that he wouldn't mind making an extra thousand or $2,000 is for a night's work and get back to me. 

Find me a driver who'd turn down making more money and while you're at it name the 350+ you say who could give a crap about the purse

Ok, we are talking about raising the bottom purse? Sure any driver would like to put more money in their pocket. But you are talking about the Chilibowl not just any joeblow saturday night at podunk speedway. Your numbers above state giving all of the drivers an extra $2,000 for a nights work. assuming they make 50% of what the car makes, thats adding $4,000 per driver! At the Chilibowl thats almost $1,500,000 in purse money alone! That is just saturday night! 

We all know that that is not possible, how about this, give every driver an extra $200 each night they race at the CB! Thats $150,000 in increased payout. Tell me how that conversation will go? What is the incentive for the promoter to do that? more cars? better competition? Higher ticket prices?

If the CB next year pays half of what they paid last week, how many cars do you think would be there compared to the 350 cars this year?  My Guess is 300+ still. 

Agreed, purse is fine.   This is still a fun event and even though big money is starting to creep into the pit area.....everyone still shows up for the fun of racing.   

We'll keep it simple and just agree to dissagree