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

Its quite easy. For example take the 305 racesaver. Keep it sealed affordable for the LOCAL men and women to run. Now Grandpa cousins co workers, etc will come watch their LOCAL racer. How many times does a driver bring in alot of relatives and friends. Give kids a discount cause they will spend it at the concessions stand. Have spotless clean bathrooms for the ladies and good quality cold beer. If tracks and organizations would curtail the cost of the classess there would be more cars. More cars equal more people in the pits and hopefully in the stands.

Its quite easy. For example take the 305 racesaver. Keep it sealed affordable for the LOCAL men and women to run. Now Grandpa cousins co workers, etc will come watch their LOCAL racer. How many times does a driver bring in alot of relatives and friends. Give kids a discount cause they will spend it at the concessions stand. Have spotless clean bathrooms for the ladies and good quality cold beer. If tracks and organizations would curtail the cost of the classess there would be more cars. More cars equal more people in the pits and hopefully in the stands.

I live 3 miles from Eagle Raceway. I took my son until he was around 15 and did not care to spend Sat. night with Dad. (heck he even sang in front of the whole Eagle crowd one time when a delay waiting for an ambulance or something at 6 yrs; old.) Him and a few friends went 2-3 times as a group on their own and stopped in the years from 15-19. I asked them as they got older and were fixing to go out when they were “packing up” on Saturday afternoons at our place. Always was the same reply: “$10 is a lot to pay to get in”. I agree, and if they bought a pop, etc it was a $15- $20 night. My son is 21 now. Him and the 3-4 guys that in all grew up within 10 miles max. of the track and none of them are now fans. In my mind there is a short “witching period” from the age of 15-19 that if young potential fans have a choice of going out cruising around or to the races and the races are cost prohibitive they are a lost fan for life. My son won’t go with me even if he knows I will pay for the whole night. It fell out of his blood. THAT IS A REAL WORLD STORY OF HOW IT HAPPENED to my son who owns 2 diff. turbocharged cars and is a mechanical engineering student at UNL, so he is not a kid that was not into cars. Maybe it could have holes shot into it but the reality is this is how my son and his friends ended up and they had a track 5 mins away and at least 1 Dad that was encouraging them. It makes me sad but on the other hand I saw it unfold and what happened makes sense. Yes, I could have given my son money to get in but he is not going to go if even 1 or 2 of the 3-5 guys cant afford it. MAKE IT AFFORDABLE FOR YOUTH AND YOU AT LEAST HAVE A CHANCE OF MAKING THEM FANS FOR LIFE. Hell I recall going to Eagle as a Sr. in high school. There were packs of guys from Lincoln, surrounding areas, etc. Hell fights would break out because there was so much 16-25 yr old testosterone filled youth around! 

You're singing to a large choir. I have repeatedly expressed my opinion of this issue on this forum but you have explained, by example and first hand knowledge what it is in reality. Promoters, pay attention!!

^^^ That is VERY TRUE about making it affordable for the YOUNG fans to attend. I luckily got to go to a race to see my uncle at about 4yrs old ... and absolutely LOVED it and it hooked me for life. If you don't make the kids fans very early (at an impressionable age) they will unfortunately find other things to get interested in (like senseless video games) and then it's an uphill battle from then onward.

I agree that anyone under college age should get into races at a discount - remember they will get their parents to spend many multiples of that 'discounted' admission price on additional concessions and souvenirs --- at least my son does...

Phil Taylor

home-theater-systems-advice.com

I think a lot of people can trace their love of auto racing to a family involvement. I have cousins still involved in auto racing today just because they piled in with us to go to the races as teenagers. Without my father's early love of auto racing, I'm not sure if I would be the fan I am today.

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Not disagreeing with you at all, but you are really hitting on two different issues. Ten bucks is not that much to spend on entertainment, even for a teenager. The real issue is that your son didn't think that going to the racetrack was worth his ten bucks. It's a matter of priorities, and for whatever reasons racing has fallen off of his radar. I guarantee you if he was madly in love with a girl, and I'd imagine he is or has been, then I betcha he would not hesitate to spend way more than ten bucks to be with her. I'm guessing he has spent more than ten bucks on two different turbo powered cars hasn't he?

The real issue here is making racing appeal to younger folks. Maybe part of this problem is that many of our younger stars are heading for NASCAR as soon as they get the chance? I really don't know, but it does bother me that younger people aren't really as attracted to the sport.

No disrespect intended Bob, but it'll never work. Sprint car racing has never been good on TV, and it never will be. If you tune in to a 3 hour broadcast of a sprint show, you're going to get 20 minutes of racing action (maybe) and the rest is interviews and other stuff that would bore anyone but the most diehard fans. I'd look at it this way, if TV was going to make sprint car racing bigger it would have happened a long time ago.

I like what Skagit does keep all the drunks isolated from the families, who wants to here F that and F that all night long.

I think this is dead on, I feel that most racers and track promoters have forgotton that this is a entertainment business and you haft to run it like that. If you go to a concert they dont start the show 45 minutes late if you go to Lowes in the morning they dont open till 8:00 when they are suppose to be open at 7:00 they are not going to be in business very long. I think it has to do alot with promoters not being very organized in this day in age you haft to be detailed on what your doing people dont have the patience any lack of waiting around for anything.

Ok, where is he going then where it costs him less than $10 to get in and he can buy concesions for less than $20??

I highly doubt it's the movie theater, Last time I went, it cost $12 per Adult and $9 for kids. For a family of 4 that was $42 to get in. Drinks were $3.50 for small x 4 and Popcorn was $3.50 for a small and $6 for a large. So, we spent another $20 on concessions before the movie even started.

The I-Cubs (Triple A baseball), has cheap tickets $7, but concessions are $5-7 for drinks, $5 for hotdogs, $4 for popcorn. They get your $$$ at the concession stand instead of the gate.

Conversely, we go to the races and it's $15 for adults = $30 and my kids cost me $4 each (under 14), so I saved $4 on admission compared to the movie, but spent $10 more than the baseball game. Drinks are $2 each and popcorn is $1.50. I get everyone a drink and their own popcorn, and spent $14 at the concession stand, saved another $6 compared to the movie and between $20-30 if we went to see the I-Cubs. So, I'm currently $10 ahead of where I am when we go to the movie and $10-20 ahead of where I am when we go to an I-Cubs game.

Here's the real kicker, even if my favorite driver doesn't win, I can say that I have never seen a terrible night of racing. However, I can say that I've sat through HORRIBLE movies where the previews looked good. Even my kids have walked out of the movie theater saying "that wasn't a very good movie, wish we'd done something else instead." I'm not a huge baseball fan, but they do a good job of keeping you entertained between innings, you just end up spending a lot more $$$ at the concession stand than at the races.

It's not too expensive, it's about educating even us DIE HARDS about how affordable it really is when you compare to other forms of entertainment (Baseball, Movies, Arena Football, etc.).

One of the big problems that exists is the lack of stars at the local short track. Tracks no longer promote their local driver as being a star, everyone is just another Joe Blow as far as the casual fan is concerned. I remember when races at the local track felt like a big deal and winning meant something. Nowadays a lot of tracks don't even have victory lane ceremonies, they just hustle the winner off the track to get the next class of junk rolling. The whole atmosphere says "This doesn't matter, let's get it over with so we can start drinking." So the general public pays to see movie STARS on the big screen, or they pay to see PROFESSIONAL baseball players, but they can't be bothered to go see the rednecks chasing each other around the dump of a dirt track. Change that attitude and crowds will come back, but if promoters keep treating their drivers as nuisances who aren't worth the paltry purse that they get paid, that attitude will persist and continue to drag racing down the current road to oblivion.

Perhaps few promoters ever visit Hoseheads, but some of their employees do and read nearly every thread because they ARE interested in what's going on and hearing people's concerns.

However, having said that, I wish people would not lump ALL tracks together. Of course there are those who don't do what it takes to keep the drivers and fans happy, but a lot of them do. I think that Eagle Raceway is one of those, because the owner/promoter was a driver for a long time and is STILL a fan of racing.

We average around 2500 people a week and I believe the track is actually showing a profit (or at least darned close to it). This contrasts with a lot of not just dirt tracks, but businesses in general in this day and age. How many tracks have we seen close in just the last 5 years, and how many are hanging on by a thread; struggling just to keep the doors open??

Between Kid's Bike Night (over 350 bikes given away), 2 Fan Appreciation Nights ($5 admission) and the Driver Appreciation Night (Free Grandstand Admission) and all of the extra things Eagle does each and every week we manage to keep the fans coming.

I do also wish to express my agreement that going to a dirt track race is pretty darned cheap entertainment, considering the fact that you get 3-3 1/2 hours of fun for a low cost (Eagle hasn't raised admission prices since I can't even remember when!!). The 2 examples previously stated are prime examples of the alternatives for spending your cash. You pay more and get less!!

I think that the problem lies in the 'Instant Gratification' world that we live in today. The younger generation moreso than their elders are used to getting what they want NOW and not waiting for anything. They get bored too easily and move on to the next new shiny thing that grabs their attentions. Add in the fact that teenagers generally are more interested in the opposite gender than almost anything else and they are a hard sell to say the least.

Dirt track racing isn't broken, but there are problems. Those problems, however, are NOT universal.

I am lucky enough to work at one of the best tracks 
anywhere.

I wish Eagle would drop a class but Im sure they are making extra money with the pit passes. Lots of times I would be heading back home by 10:30 when they ran 4 classes. I also think having a good announcer is a HUGE thing. Dont have some BOZO flapping his lips because he thinks he has to say something.....anyway the answer is go to Eagle Raceway and take notes on how they do it. I remember lots of times I got tracks in time for hot laps and they just started rolling in the track....never ever been that way at Eagle.

Keep It Real

I used to attend knoxville every saturday . Always with the thought of racing there one day . I got older and actually bought a sprint car . I realized that without a last name and enough money to own a small country that I was just gona be a back marker .That dream quickly ended ! The feeling of conection or a real posibility to race is the key to getting kids to the track. When a kid is sitting there and says dad i want to be a sprint car driver how many dads can set them on the path to be a sprint car driver? As a dad of a son I dont even take him to knoxville just because in my mind why put a thought that is not feesable in his head ? Most kids have a better chance making it in the NFL,very few will but they have the chance to try. The few that make it to victory lane in a sprint car are the same last names that have been in victory lane for decades.

I think if the water truck was used more, to keep the dust down would help alot to. I have taken alot of people to the races and asked them how they like it, they say, to dusty and the time trails were boring. Most tracks have transponders, so time them while they hot lap, to set up the heats.The ladys don't like to be covered in dirt so they won't go. No Ladys no teenage boys. I love racing but when it gets dusty it screws my sinuses up for a couple of days. Anyway the people I took to the pits to watch had more fun because they could see all the work that goes on in between races, and talk with drivers and crew.

The first step is to improve the product on the track. A lot of the key points have already been made, but they are worth repeating.

• Start on time.
• End at a decent hour.
• Have a curfew Nothing speeds up a show like a curfew.
• Have a closed pit. Watching a car come to a rest at the top of the track just so he can race to the pits when the yellow comes out to change a tire drags the show on too long.
• Have a good announcer. Tell him to shut up and let us enjoy the night outside with our friends.
• Have a set intermission (or none at all)
• Limit the number of classes. Best case is four classes that look different.
• Keep the show moving. Have mulitple (at least three) tow trucks.
• Have clean facilities.
• Put some thought into the conscession stand (Have a coke/candy only line and a food only line)
• Water the track.

A lot of people have mentioned competing against a movie or a minor league baseball game. The local race track should bench mark themselves against this items. What do they do well? What do we do poorly. If I were a casual fan which one would I want to go to? Once you solve these issues, then you can work on getting the word out, advertising, car shows, etc. However, you need to fix the product at the track first.

How many times have you heard a first time fan ask the following questions:

• What time does this start/ Why are they running late? I have to do something tommorow morning.
• What class of cars are these? The look just like the last two class of cars.
• The bathroom is disgusting.
• Is it alway this dusty? I don't know why anyone would sit in this dust.
• When is it going to end? I am tired of sitting here all night and I need to get the kids home.
• This isn't very fun.