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

The "many" PA fans who won't go to WoO races also don't attend local races anymore either. That's the issue. It used to be the local Grove shows would pull a few thousand and many of those people would boycott WoO events because of the "circus" atmosphere and the crowd that brought in. Now many local shows pull way less than before and the big shows carry the year. Now the problem is, the promoters know the fans don't show for "regular" shows so they add a bunch of bigger shows to juice a crowd but you can only do that so much before there are too many of them. 

95% of Sprint Car racing will be almost exactly the same next season.  River Cities will still run NOSA Sprints on Fridays.  Jackson will still have their specials and Knoxville will run every Saturday.  Husets will still be the best Sunday night show.  The IRA will still be racing in Wisconsin most Saturday nights.  Ohio will still do Ohio things and PA fans will still dominate these discussions as if the universe still revolves around them and their dwindling attendance problems.  California and the west coast will continue to hold races and big events.  
 

My local track will still have UMSS winged and non-wing most Saturday nights and my neighbors will step up their game to 360's and hopefully 410's.  The crowd of old people like me will continue to dwindle as our race chasing gives way to walkers and no more night driving.  The recliner looks better every season and no worries PA fans, bars in central Minnesota do not broadcast any racing, it's all stick and hall and none cater to racing.

The Outlaws come within an hour of me twice a year.  The All Stars have never been here and we're too far off the main line to ever get a High Limit race.  Teams that run Knoxville are still going to race at Knoxville for the most part and that will be true of other weekly tracks and series.  The years that there were two competing national series didn't see a ton of weekly teams become travelers.  That will be the case this time as well if it comes down to head to head competition.

Stan Meissner

You're missing his point. He's talking about weekly racing. What you're saying is true. But try doing that every week Friday night then on 2 tracks on Saturday night then even a lot of Sundays between Susky and Selinsgrove and watch what happens. That can't be done weekly. The typical fan can't afford to shell out that kind of money every weekend. 

"biggest crowd this year the 50 was very close again thanks to Larson."???

Tuscarora 50 is one show I go to almost every year, 4 or 5 hr. drive, & its ALWAYS jam packed. I've never seen Larson there

I agree %100.

Isn't it now $20 to get in to most "regular" shows in Central Pa? Seems high for the area. Is that also keeping crowds down?

As someone who went to races way back in the 60's I think that ship sailed years ago.  All the hype today, big PA systems blasting during a four wide salute announcer screaming over the engines.  Half the field seems to be under 18, wicked slide jobs by kids from money, and the list goes on.  I don't watch wrestling but from the little bits of that I see it's the same over the top whip up the crowd hype.  That all came about in the more recent past.  If todays fans went to a 1960's IMCA race they'd probably get bored with the 25 second laps and lack a f hype.

Stan Meissner

I'm pretty sure Lincoln set the 20 dollar standard when they had the first china virus race when most public places were shut down. I heard the promoters thought it was safer for their workers and the customers to just deal in 20 dollar bills and not handling change that could possibly be contaminated, not sure if that is accurate but probably made some sense at the time.

Fast forward to today. Some tracks want to charge an extra couple of bucks to milk the crowd. It seems like half of the weekly shows are now considered special events and charge 25 dollars for basically a weekly show. Yes. I think it has hurt the crowds.

That race has had a huge crowd for years with or without Larson and you know that.

A lot of these "specials" only seem to be special for the teams and not the fans. All we get to do is pay an extra $5 to watch the same cars who are there weekly time trial and race for a little more money. Port has way oversaturated their schedule with "specials". 

Unfortunately there will be no all stars at least as we know it and it will be High Limit and WOO and there will be no agreement amongst the 2 and it is definitely not going to be good for the sport as a hole!  As of now from the information I have heard there are only 2 who run the WOO who are not  coming back next year but lots can happen in a few months!!

That's a fact

that's also a fact.  still packed every year...also a fact. 

Yeah so....and next year the race will be run on a Saturday without Larson and still have a huge crowd.

Fact

Open tire rule:  several top racing groups have tried open tire rule.   I believe that in the major sanctioning groups, with in their divisions that tried "open tire" or gave a choice of different manufacturers, were not pleased with the reults and went back to a single source and type(s).  

The fact man will probably blame the track surface and his imaginary poor racing for attendance issues next.

It's what happens when your so in love with your own opinions you believe everything you type to be facts.

I do not see Allstars/High Limit trying to run WOO out of business.  There has always been the  two groups, just different owners.  It will be up to the  teams to decide which group to race with.  I can see Allstars increase  purse to equal WOO payout.  Allstars have tracks they race at every year and I do not see them droping them to  grab WOO tracks  It will be interesting.  We do have room for the 2 groups because they have existed all these years together.

There's not enough sets of fast guys to go around if you're looking to fill 2 full-time, national series.  (Unless my math is bad)     The Outlaws have hit about the magic number of 12-14 full time guys to assure a show is full of good cars.