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

I keep coming from a latemodel perspective where midweek racing is huge. Castrol, XR, Summernationals, both national tours, and even regional tours schedule midweek races regularly. With streaming can come sponsorship and more growth of the sport. It definitely has to be done right. The XR and HTF series have blossomed due to streaming. They own their own. XR has their hands in alot of pies and HTF is becoming the premier series in the South (which needed a boost). I don't think HL needs to change too much. 55 to 65 races a year with the freedom to race when the series is off or take time off is great. Both latemodel national tours only schedule about this many shows and it seems like who is the next driver or how many drivers will win a million dollars or more. With Flo backing, I can see HL maybe putting on some races themselves. Outlaws already do this as well.

I have just enjoyed all the sprint car chatter and speculation this year. It has been refreshing (when constructive). Sprint car racing had gotten a little mundane, but now even the off season has been a buzz. Thank you sprint car racing.

I keep coming from a latemodel perspective where midweek racing is huge. Castrol, XR, Summernationals, both national tours, and even regional tours schedule midweek races regularly. With streaming can come sponsorship and more growth of the sport. It definitely has to be done right. The XR and HTF series have blossomed due to streaming. They own their own. XR has their hands in alot of pies and HTF is becoming the premier series in the South (which needed a boost). I don't think HL needs to change too much. 55 to 65 races a year with the freedom to race when the series is off or take time off is great. Both latemodel national tours only schedule about this many shows and it seems like who is the next driver or how many drivers will win a million dollars or more. With Flo backing, I can see HL maybe putting on some races themselves. Outlaws already do this as well.

I have just enjoyed all the sprint car chatter and speculation this year. It has been refreshing (when constructive). Sprint car racing had gotten a little mundane, but now even the off season has been a buzz. Thank you sprint car racing.

First this would be great for sprint car fans on flo more racing but.....

First, I believe the high limit product was good and some young and hungry bucks raced HARD!  Eventhough  my perception between the stand alone WoO and HL - was that HL just seemed to be harder racing (the carrot so to speak earning a charter - wheres WOO Platinum is established) - HL was still despite tough racing struggling for most midweek crowds. 

It is not a coincidence - Chase removed from his signature line/phrase just prior to green "and the grandstands packed" for a reason.

Those will solely argue it is about streaming monies - well if tracks can't get butts in the stands they won't host unless flo ponies up to the tracks and/or HL gives the break/reduced purse/sanction fees for the mid weekers.

Additionally  one could make a very valid arguement WOO has been the most successful traveling series over the last forty years and they have primarily thrived on Friday-Saturday shows.  Some may not recall WOO dipping their toes into the midweek reduced purse/fees shows some of which I attended  at Lincoln - history says it will not work for in Lincoln's case a multitude of reasons -  nor is it sustainable.

Third - if tracks owners/promoters thought midweek shows were/could be the draw some may think they are these sprint car hotbeds such Central PA would run more midweek shows.  Williamsgrove Friday, Port and Lincoln Saturday - with Baps, Selinsgrove trying Sundays not midweek shows.

For more midweek shows to be even considered by less established tracks or tracks in non traditional sprint car hotbeds tracks will most likely require an incentive to take the risk......were other tracks that are established wont even entertain the risk of a non weekend show.

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In my head, I agree with it not costing that much for a weekly operation. I was surprised when I heard Dominic Scelzi had this to say on The Driver's Project podcast.

"I was actually just crunching numbers. To me, I feel like it costs us $6,000 - if we don't tear anything up - a night to drop the back door. That's everything included - that would be wages, that would be engine rebuilds, tires, insurance on the truck and trailer, rent on the shop - the whole shabang - fuel, and everything included is $6,000. And then you look at - you get a sponsor, you're gonna run 65 races a year and you get a sponsor that's $130,000, now you gotta come up with $4,000 a night."

The quote goes on further but he talks in 2021 being the first time the "car" was profitable as a business.He ran 35 nights and made $76,925 according to SprintCarRatings - this may just be purse money and does not include tow/t-shirts/other revenue streams such as sponsorship. Taking his $6,000 would put rough expenses for that year at $210,000, though it's very likely 2021 expenses were much lower. Even after factoring that in, that'd leave a $133K gap for those additional revenue streams to cover. That's also not paying himself any of the winnings and putting every cent back into the car. 

I also wonder if this gets viewed at in a similar vein to some Pro Sports Franchise owners primarily view their teams on their annual balance sheet and not as an asset that has largely increased in value. The types who say they aren't making any money despite owning a multi-billion dollar franchise that was purchased for far, far less. In the comparison here, I'm wondering if these napkin calculations factor in when equipment gets sold down the road - feel like that would be somewhat easy to overlook. 

I know racing sprint cars is really expensive, and I'm almost certain a majority of teams doing so are losing money. I'd be shocked for a weekly team to be spending $4-5K, unless we're really kind of twisting the rules and including operations like the Macri 39M, Brown 21 or similar Outlaw-comparable team. For example, I am far from an expert in Ohio racing, but I just can't see Jeff Ward putting that much into his car for Cap Henry to race. 

Kind of derailed the original point of this post - I'm wondering if the TSR calculation factored in the new tow money. That $800-1000/night would make a world of difference when budgeting out a season.