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

I'm not picking at you but some of the others.  And I know this is going to sound really stupid.  But when I go to the races I just go to enjoy them.  Again I know this sounds stupid but I don't give a shit what times they turn in hot laps.  I don't care where the winner starts, I don't care what the format is, I don't care how many cars the winner passes.  And even dumber of me I don't go home and dig through the stats of the races, I just go with the eye test.  If I enjoy a race, I'm not going to let some stat tell me I shouldn't. 

Back in the 2000s Terry McCarl would start either 10th or 12th or maybe even further back every week at Husets and win it seemed like.  Was that great racing?  Personally I got kind of bored with it.  This is not a knock on McCarl or any other drivers in the field but it seemed like he had so much more car than everyone else, it was like watching a college basketball team against an elementary school basketball team.  But according to a few on here those are great races by their statistics.  I was bored with it. 

However last year at Husets I remember a race where someone started on the front row along with Dobmeier.  The other guy was a lot faster and had a huge lead but then they would get into traffic and Dobmeier would slowly reel him in and it seemed like anytime he got close there would be a yellow.  Eventually the guy leading got into a wreck which sucked.  According to some people on here that was a bad race, the leader came from the front row.  But I enjoyed it, I would've liked to see the guy leading not wreck because it was fun watching Dobmeier get through lapped traffic so much better than him.  

If I was someone who was involved with sprint car racing, I might care about those stats but I'm not, I go to be entertained and most nights that I go, I am.

Nobody can hijack a thread a thread like you , you clown. You view every thread, no matter the subject, as an opportunity to turn it into a "bash Port Royal" rant.

You don't "speak the truth", you speak 100% bullshit, 100% of the time, and you bring this once-good board down with you being on it.

Not interested in any rebuttal - save your breath.

You did hijack the thread because it has nothing to do with Port Royal you try to make everything about your opinion. We all get it we've heard it over and over. If you want to bitch about Port start a thread and piss and moan all you want just don't shoe horn your opinion ito every thread especially when it wasn't asked for or needed.

Suckers.

Says the narcissist asshole.

You do know they were just messing with you when they told you not to come back don't you? They do get many laughs about you taking it so seriosly. I have some complaints about the place also but I direct them where it might help rather than on a message board.

I'm the same way with the possible exception of "that feeling in my chest".  Hooking up F4 Phantons to a catapult is 1000x more intense than any race.  I stood in the infield with a camera for years and the first couple laps got kind of intense.  Not so much the rumble as the prospect of cars spinning into the infield.

I enjoy watching the streaming broadcasts but it has gotten so damn expensive to chase them that I don't go to many races anymore.  Been there and felt the rumble, all beer drinking back in the day was limited to after the races a few times a season.  I owned a pop up camper I used to haul to the multi day events but these days I'd need a motorhome to be comfortable.  To me that was the fun, camping at the track and hanging out after the races with a few other photographers and some of the racers and mechanics used to stop by the fire ring.  For me it was always a hands on two day social experience and I rarely came near the stands.  If I'm going to make a racing trip nowadays it would have to be Knoxville, Husets or Jackson where I can see Sprints instead of six classes of Stock Cars and Modifieds locally.

When I chased races with the camera I'd forget who won by the time I got home.  Maybe it's the short upper Midwest summers but before I started dealing with health issues I made a day out of it.  Get to the track around three, walk the pits, take pics, talk to people, then go down to the infield the rest of the night.  It never had anything to do with sitting in the stands drinking beer.  I've got a neck full of braces and screws and six hours on a metal bench turning my head back and forth is hard for me.  I am not into stats and every minute detail like a lot of fans are.  I too go by the eye test and social end of it.  There are two Sprint Car drivers up here in Forest Lake, my neighbor Luke drives a 305 and Tatnell drives a 410.  I am leaning towards a trip to Husets if I go anywhere this year.  Perfect place to dig the camera out of mothballs and drag a lawn chair with me.  I could do that and be able to rest my knees and enjoy all the things I like about racing.  The trick now is to siphon a few bucks out of the vacation budget and convince myself to do all that driving and pay for everything myself for races I can watch from home.  The deal breaker usually comes down to traveling alone and convincing my wife that I should dive into the savings.  
PS, sorry about the rambling post.  If there is a downside of sitting home streaming races from Lincoln half way across the country it's not getting to chat with other racing fans.  I tend to ramble on anytime the subject comes up and cabin fever is brutal by March 1st.

Stan Meissner

That all makes sense, but usually a come from behind win is more enjoyable than a "follow the leader" parade, no?

Of course here are exceptions, like the Dobmeir race you mentioned....

Most of us don't care much about lap times either

Crawling under jets and having them throttle up before running out from under them can rattle fillings out and leave the hearing a mess. Constant tinnitus, hearing aids and a VA disability so that's another reason to back off.  I always wore hearing protection while taking photos but it's still pretty intense standing in the infield.  I miss that aspect, being involved in the sport in the sport in that way.  I've got a different pespective because of that but aged out.  That happens to everybody but watching races from Lincoln helped fill that need.  I haven't set foot in PA since firefighting school at the Philadelphia Navy base in the early 70's.  Would be a fun trip but have too many other priorities.

Stan Meissner

We all know the "follow the leader parade" type race you're talking about.  No, I don't enjoy those races anymore than you do.  However my point was there was a few people using a few stats to say if something is a good race such as Winner from the front row percentage, Average starting postion, Winners from outside the top 3 rows and Deepest winning Positions.    There were a certain few who though these stats indicated whether it was a good race or not.  There's even a genius on this board who can tell you based on times they run in hot laps if it's going to be a good race or not.  And I'm here to tell you those stats don't mean anything.  Have a format that starts fast guys up front and have a format that has the fast guys start in the back and guess what, you'll skew those stats considerably without changing anything with the quality of racing.   I've seen a ton of racing throughout the years and can tell you these stats have never factored into my enjoyment of the race.

To play devil's advocate there is only one stat that I heard NASCAR use about 15 years ago, but not since, that could possibly help with determining if a race is "fun" to watch or not.  That stat was called "competitive passes" basically it counts the entire field and a pass that happens while racing.  It could be for position, it could be a lapped car but basically it's how many times a race a car passes another car competitively.  Say a guy starts 10 and wins but there's a wreck in front of him that wipes out 8 cars, he's not credited with 9 competitive passes, only 1.  But say he laps 10 cars those would count as competitive passes. 

Even though I think that stat is much better in my opinion, I still say who cares.  It's a sad time that we need stats to validate whether we enjoyed or should've enjoyed our entertainment.  A statement I've heard many times that is so true is "A bad day at the races is still better than a good day at work" at least from a fan's perspective.

Dude were you dropped on your head as a kid or something?  Seriously what is wrong with you?  You probably should've paid a little more attention in school because AN ANALYSIS OF SOMETHING IS AN OPINION OF THAT, NOT A FACT.  It's funny a person who throws around the word "fact" so much should know what it means.  YOUR OPINION OF SOMETHING IS NOT A FACT.  If you don't believe me google it.  Another thing I've wondered about is a statement you say "You can't handle the truth".  WTF does that even mean?  That literally makes no sense.  What is the truth and who or what's to say you have it (considering you don't know what a fact is)?  And how is it you can determine someone's ability to handle it or not?  If you're not going to answer those questions please don't respond, I don't care to hear about Port Royal and how you hate it.  ALL I WANT IS AN ANSWER TO MY QUESTIONS.

Am I the only one on who finds this board tiresome anymore because one toxic person has to hijack every thread and turn it into an attack that is totally unrelated to the actual thread topic?  I have nothing against the guy personally because I don't know him but this constant bashing ruins the whole point of the board for everybody. I know this has been mentioned before by others but I'll try again. I know it's hard to not chime in when the lunacy starts but if the rest of us don't bite and just skip right over those posts and only respond to those posts that are actually on topic we would all be better off for it and would enjoy the board far more. 

It's actually him that can't handle the truth. The truth that Port Royal has become the premier dirt track in central PA with the best facility, the most big shows and they've also figured out how to make racing on a 1/2 mile track exciting and entertaining with lots of passing and back and forth, instead of just a high speed stomp and steer, strung out, single file parade which he apparently prefers.

A

That's what I said a few posts back. You said it more-tactfully than I did. 

He does ruin it for everyone. And I agree with your last sentence 100%.

You said it better than I could and your also spot on. I'm done arguing with one clown with a moronic agenda.

Each race is different, & each fan's level of enjoyment is different & subjective

So BS Trousers was trying to use stats to arrive at an objective opinion of which track is better

I don't agree with him, but have no problem with the method

But you're right, "level of enjoyment" comes down to personal opinion

You're right of course

Its hard enough for me to resist the urge to reply, its gonna be harder for EVERYBOY to follow thru

I'm willing to try..... Its like when I was little & my older sister used to tease me. Mom would tell me to ignore her... as if a little kid could "ignore". I guess I'm still a little kid in many ways, like plenty of others here. Why else would we spend time & $$$ watching cars go around in a circle really fast?

You apparently don't even read your own posts. They are extremely dumb.

A

The best advice is to ignore him.  Everyone else is doing a good job of it.  He's just looking for arguments.

Heard it was a good race. He did pass the 48. Also heard what the stats won't show which is there was six restarts in the the first fifteen laps with lots of attrition in front of him. Can't say that for sure as I didn't see it and updates were hard to follow because of all the restarts. Just as the stats will show Sundays race as pole position win they won't show he was third with a couple laps to go. They also won't show that the guy who was fourth with a couple to was only a better run off turn two from winning it.All in all though on a sunny windy afternoon Port's race was pretty uneventful until the last five or six laps. This on a track that would have had laps in the fifteens at the start if not for a rough spot in turn one All things at both tracks that stats won't show.