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

Tractor pull....Monster Trucks....Prelude with NASCRAP stars...whatever happened to the home of the sprint?

They're mostly freight train races! Bring on the pulls & Monster trucks.

Train races?

I saw 2 All Star shows there last year that were great. Put them in my top 20 of nearly 2500 shows.

AS noted there have been some awesome races there, but they seem to be few and far between at times, due to track conditions, some due by nature others....well track prep.

Sometimes I've left there feeling like I'd rather have watched wheel barrow races or people carrying a spooned egg in there mouth, other times I'll talk about the race for weeks.

Doesn't seem right that they'd venture this far away from their roots. Someone once suggested the hold snow mobile races as well. I did like the variety of big blocks, motorcycles, etc. But that was like once per year, now they've ventured into something that obviously brings in more $$$ for their expenses. After all there are no All Star races, reduced USAC races and 360 NRA races on the docket. One wonders where it all headed.

Meanwhile Waynesfield puts on a pretty good show and is local as well or even Lima.

Race tracks are an entertainment venue and they've got to turn a profit. I'm reminded of something that happened last season at Cedar Lake Speedway. They run Late Models as their top class and CLS is the home to the $50,000 win USA Nationals so a lot of great taxi drivers have come from that area of western Wisconsin. They have an annual School Bus Night where area schools prepare buses to earn bragging rights. The stands are packed with high school kids and their parents and each year it rivals some of their record crowds.

So anyways, after the buses were done with their exhibition "Feature" the Late Models lined up for their final event of the evening. The field included former Eldora Dream winner Jimmy Mars, John Kaanta, Justin Fegers, and several other talented Late Model drivers. As they're lining up for their Main Event there was a mad rush out the gate and by the time they took the green over 50% had gone home. This isn't a Late Model vs. Sprints thing but it illustrates how tough it is for promoters to get young people interested in the hard core racing of any kind. Put school buses, monster trucks, demo derbies, trailer races, thrill shows or any of that other bullsh*t on the track and stands are packed to the rafters. It left us hard core racing fans scratching our heads wondering how to get these young people interested in the actual racing. That's the trend I'm seeing everywhere I go, they like the novelty shows better than the actual racing. A promoter has to take that into consideration and cash in on it nowdays.

Stan Meissner

Been going to Eldora 30+ years.....I will admit 410 wing heat races are glorified hot laps but the features can be as good as you will see anywhere... The non wing races are as good as you will find anywhere!!!!! Eldora should try a weekly format around their big shows...Non wing 410s,late models,modifieds,and stocks....This would affect Waynesfield and Lawrenceburg but I think the big E would average 30 sprints and 40 late models with a decent purse structure and points system...I believe people would support this kind of format at Eldora but it would be at the expense of the other tracks......

Stan - Excellent example of what's happening to our beloved sport. Unfortunately it's very, very true.

Stan

Excellent example. Great job. I would like to add part of what makes the school bus racing so exciting to those people is for one nobody had any idea where anybody was going to finish. Second is that these people have a connection to the people involved in the race. It's family members, co workers, neighbors, people you went to school with, people you have done things with in other sports with, etc. Bottom line the hardest working most talented teams probably ran up front not the team with the most or biggest plastic cards. That's what sprint car racing used to be and that's what used to put people in the grand stands.

Calvin