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Topic: Number of Classes on Race Night Email this topic to a friend | Subscribe to this TopicReport this Topic to Moderator
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ChadPatterson
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December 04, 2010 at 12:00:11 PM
Joined: 10/08/2007
Posts: 164
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What is your perfect show in terms of number of classes? How many hours is the perfect show? Do you like sprints and stock cars together or keep them seperate?

Chad




StanM
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December 04, 2010 at 05:01:27 PM
Joined: 11/07/2006
Posts: 5548
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Reply to:
Posted By: ChadPatterson on December 04 2010 at 12:00:11 PM

What is your perfect show in terms of number of classes? How many hours is the perfect show? Do you like sprints and stock cars together or keep them seperate?

Chad



Wow, that's a tough question Chad. First of all thanks for getting the ball rolling and posting and please don't take me seriously because I get goofy every winter so I think most people are used to it and just ignore me. Smile I'll be alright when the snow melts.

In a perfect world I'd be a "specials snob" and chase around the country in a motorhome following the biggest shows. I'd take the big World of Outlaws shows, some non-wing racing down in Indiana and even sneak out to some of the big Late Model and Modified shows (don't tell my Sprint friends). I think it's all pretty good racing and during my years of covering weekly racing at Cedar Lake I made a lot of friends in all the divisions. I didn't stop following those other types of racing because it wasn't good but my first love is Sprints and now after a decade long drought of hardly any Sprint shows there's more open wheel racing than I have the time or money to follow. Something had to give and it sure wasn't going to be Sprint Car racing so I backed off from the Late Models and Mods.

I guess I'd have to say that I like a two class show whether that's two classes of Sprints, Sprints and Late Models or Sprints and USMTS Mods it doesn't matter as long as one of the classes is Sprints. Where I run out of patience is these six and seven class shows that go until midnight. I'm there to see the top classes, no offense to MWM or Supers, etc, but my time, energy and resources are valuable. You're not going to see me talking about how awesome the Hornet or Pure Stocks were, they're entry classes and at the very bottom of the pecking order. I'm sorry but I'm not there to watch people learn to race, I would prefer a fast efficient one or two class show of premier classes. What can I say? I grew up three blocks from the State Fair when it was still dirt, one class of cars with no junk. I understand that back gate promoting is necessary in today's world but my earliest memories are of one and two class shows. Get me in and out in 3 1/2 or 4 hours and I'd be happy.

Events such as the Masters and Jerry Richert Sr. Memorial are right up my alley.


Stan Meissner

tkat
December 04, 2010 at 05:16:16 PM
Joined: 02/17/2009
Posts: 18
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The # of classes is less important, than if the show keeps running ... the size of the track plays a major role in determining how many classes, and length races should be ... people pay to see green flag laps, not parade or laps under caution ... the bigger the track, the worse it is in that respect ... like any form of family entertainment, you need to try and have people on their way back home in 2 1/2 to 3 hours ... send them home sorry to see the evening over, and they will be back ... if they leave the track glad to finally get out of there, and you might not see them again until they forget how drawn out it was ... the hardcore race fan will stick out pretty much anything that gets tossed at them, and come back for more ... but in this day and age, with all the entertainment options available, and entertainment $$ at a premium, there is even going to be a dwindling # or hardcores ... JMHO


ChadPatterson
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December 04, 2010 at 11:35:47 PM
Joined: 10/08/2007
Posts: 164
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Hi Stan, I like to read racing stories so I don't mind throwing some posts out there. Passes winter by just a little faster.

I would like to see weekly shows have 3 and at the most four classes of race cars. The show needs to be done with 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Look at most major sporting events and you will see the events last less than three hours. There's a reason for that. The American public's attention span is not long. It's not because we are stupid but rather very busy with a lot going on in people's lives. They want to be entertained and then move on to something else.

The classes should all be distinctly different. There should be a clear entry class, intermediate, and expert. For example, hornets, stock car, and sprint car. Or maybe pure stock, modified, and late model. Tracks should never have two types of modifieds. There are some that have three types of modifieds. It is too much of the same thing and it is boring.

Local racing is like a buffet but the only problem is every track is offering the same menu and the food has become stale. Tracks needs to cut the fat from their menu and get right to the point. Having too many classes is like having too many opening bands at a concert. By the time the main band comes out (i.e. sprint cars) the crowd is bored and just wants to go home. The tracks should end the show right at the climax of the race night. At the end fans should be starving for more but instead they are stuffed with over-priced, undercooked food. Sorry, I will try to stop with the food analogies.



grp
December 05, 2010 at 01:20:09 AM
Joined: 12/06/2004
Posts: 713
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I prefer 4 classes, but I would have to agree with Tom that more classes are not the worst thing as long as the show keeps moving along and gets done within a 3-3 1/2 hour time frame from start to finish. I don't mind sprints and stock cars together on the same program. Very hard to find an all sprint car show unless you are at Knoxville Raceway.



StanM
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December 05, 2010 at 09:41:34 AM
Joined: 11/07/2006
Posts: 5548
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I'm not much of a Friday night racing fan but my reason for not putting a lot of emphasis on Friday races doesn't have anything to do with the actual racing. After a long week of office work I like to pickup some cold ones on the way home, cut the grass, and maybe even spend a little time on the recliner when I'm done. I prefer to attend most of my races on Saturday nights because I'm more rested and with Friday free I get a jump on the yard work and can concentrate on racing during the weekend. Friday racing adds an extra night of charging batteries, rushing home in the traffic to pickup my gear and get out to the track before they start and a couple hours spent on the computer doing photo work and sending stuff to media sources. If I get home from a race at midnight I don't go right to bed but work on the computer until 2 or 3am. That's a long day after getting up at 5am so you can see why I prefer Saturday nights for my racing. Before I started my websites in 1996 and writing/photography in 1999 I never went to Friday night races as a fan in the stands. It just didn't fit my lifestyle.

Up until the past couple of seasons I would generally reserve Friday racing for specials only, the Masters, USA Nationals, Princeton National, etc. If I was on vacation I'd go during the week but for the most part I stuck with Saturday night. Since the UMSS has been on the scene I have been going more on Fridays and when I get a run of five or six weeks of two nights per week I get way behind on the home and yard projects. Sometimes during the height of the racing season I'll get so far behind that I have to take Fridays off so I can get the grass cut. Like most of the rest of you I've got family, wife, kids, grandkids, relatives, etc., so there's plenty more going on than just work and racing.

The past couple years I've been making an effort to attend all of the UMSS races and have only missed one or two so far. Now if I attend a Friday night track a half hour from home by my way of thinking I shouldn't be get home later than I do from Arlington for example which is a 1 1/2 hour drive but that is what has been happening. I haven't been attending the Cedar Lake weekly show since I've been chasing the UMSS but have heard that they're running four classes and doing a great job of getting done around 9:30 or 10 a lot of nights. I remember getting out of there early enough to stop at the convenience store in Osceola and pickup some cold ones which makes my post race computer work a lot more enjoyable. LOL I wish the same could be said about some of the nearby Friday night tracks but I have gotten home as late as 1:30am and still had two hours of computer work, battery charging and camera cleaning staring me in the face before I could hit the sack. My grandkids stay over sometimes on Friday nights and it really sucks to be up til 4am because some Friday track can't finish their show at a decent hour then having a 4 y/o lift up your eyelid at 6am wanting you to get up and watch cartoons.

So there I am on Saturday morning sleep deprived with yard work needing to get done, photo and writing deadlines and I have to leave for another race by 3pm. That ladies and gentlemen is why I like a fast, efficient one or two class show. wink


Stan Meissner


StanM
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December 05, 2010 at 08:50:53 PM
Joined: 11/07/2006
Posts: 5548
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P.S. If there are Sprints on a Friday night I'll give my best effort to be there regardless of my personal preferences. Lets hope we can see more tracks working within the kinds of time parameters that will keep families with kids and tired old men like me coming back week in and week out. wink


Stan Meissner

jah42
December 06, 2010 at 10:21:35 AM
Joined: 11/26/2004
Posts: 1841
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3 at most and none should be called modifieds. All racing should be done no later that 10:30. Prefer 10:00. With multi classes there should be no intermissions, etc.



sprntr
December 07, 2010 at 06:47:56 PM
Joined: 12/05/2004
Posts: 465
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3 classes - Sprints, Midgets & Super Modifieds.

 




grp
December 08, 2010 at 12:22:18 AM
Joined: 12/06/2004
Posts: 713
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You change the number on your sprint car to 14 Steiny? lol

That is one cool older era photo!



ebecker
December 23, 2010 at 11:18:17 AM
Joined: 09/11/2008
Posts: 71
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Any amount of classes, as long as they don't all look alike.. I can't stand watching the "fast version" and "slow version" of a class. Honestly, it was VERY smart of the UMSS to run the "limited" sprint class as wingless. Now, they aren't the "slow winged" cars, they are just the wingless sprints. Good move! Nobody cares what the lap times are if the racing is good. These will be half the weight of a B-mod, so even with the same motor they will seem relatively fast. Even if the B mods were made to run production bodies or something they wouldn't end up as the "slow mods" (no matter what the lap times say)

At Rice Lake they have pure stocks with 305 and street stocks with 350. Same looking cars, so it gets kind of old watching them unless I know some of the guys. Good car counts though (from what I hear), so it must be working for them.



D-6
December 23, 2010 at 07:37:09 PM
Joined: 09/03/2008
Posts: 49
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Good questions Chad. I'd say 3-4 classes. I don't care what some of the classes are as long as there's sprint cars involved in the show. Then if the shows can be done by 10:30 - 11:00 it'd be perfect. Some of the race nights such as the Mighty Axe Nationals drag on forever. They even start the shows earlier and we still never seem to get out of there before midnight or later.





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