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

Well, it is time for my subscription renewal. $300 versus FLO for $200. For years I have kept both, but with the World of Outlaws looking like it could soon be the World of Outlaw with dimished fields, do I really want to plunk down the cash to see a lesser brand with crappy broadcst quality?

I'll bite... who do you see as the heavy hitters on the other side of the fence?

I prefer dirtvision due to the weekly tracks they have also. If the WoO show is pissing around doing track rework I flip it to a weekly and watch that. 

Fist off, my original post wasn't meant to be a flame, just an honest evaluation from a fan of 60 years.

Other than the obvious (Sweet and Abreu), I believe that there is much more room for drivers like Sunshine, Reutzel, Marks and now obviously Scelzi to really grow into top contenders in the sport over the coming years.

Strip away Gravel, Macedo and Kofoid and I think that the 2nd tier HL teams are of a higher caliber than the current WoO 2nd tier teams. Schuhart is fast, but just too inconsistent to meet the level of performance needed to ever win a championship, in any series. Same with Haudenschild (I don't understand how he keeps that ride). I think Schatz is done doing a full schedule after this year, unless one of the aformentioned drivers gets bumped. Balog shows promise, but he has a long way to go to be a chamionship contender.

I truely think that Kofoid is the brightest future for the WoO, he is on the brink of making a lasting mark with sprint cars in general.

The flip side of the coin for 2nd tier HL drivers are Peck who I think has peaked and Pursley who shows a ton of promise. 

Then there is the differentiator of potential earnings. If, and  it's a big IF the HL can deliver on the advertised potential earnings. I just don't see how the WoO can compete for top notch drivers over time and in turn, the HL will make inroads to some of the marquis tracks, they have proven this year that they can not just survive, but grow with many 2nd tier tracks on their schedule. 

Notice I never mentioned Larson, that's the feather in the cap for HL. Love him or hate him, but he has name recognition and that is huge. Like it or not, it does make a difference and will only make the HL bigger and bigger.

Now back to the original post, I haven't written off the DirtVision subscription just yet, but I will probably wait until the off season before reading the tea leaves to decide if it is worth it.

Last flo renewel was $160, are they up to $200 now? Still a good deal. Flo has HL, Port Royal, IRA, NARC and USAC. 

A

I'll do both as long as I can afford to.  If I couldn't in the future, and I had to choose one of the other, at this time I would choose DV.  Even though I have a seasonal camper at Knoxville, I am quite a distance away, and I like to watch the weekly shows I cannot make.  On top of that of course is the ability to watch the WoO shows.  Everyone can claim all you want that there is more talent on the HL series, but as of right now, the WoO is the only opportunity to watch ALL of the talent in the country come together---even if it isn't every week.  When the time comes that the HL puts the clamps on its drivers, I'll have to evaluate.  Until then, there are numerous events I can watch all of the HL and WoO talent come together on DV.  Can't do that on Flo.  

Same here.  Depending on what track the WoO is racing and car counts I might prefer watching Knoxville or Grove weekly shows.   I tried Flo a couple of years ago and wasn't impressed.   I'm sure it could have changed but will stay with DV until it's not worth my money. 

What we have are 2 watered down series, no true national champion, a fan pissing match, and a handful of car owners who are in way over their head chasing a mirage in the desert. 

Each streaming platform should be knocking their prices down about 30%. 

FLO also has the ASCOC, the Lucas Oil and MARS Late Models, Chili Bowl and FloRacing Night in America midweek series and some shows from Lincoln. Oh, the Empire Super Sprints are on quite a bit too. 

I renewed flo in mid July and paid $175. It's interesting to see the difference in pricing other people are paying for renewal. I'm not sure if I would pay $200 or more for flo unless they had better service.

Now that sums up things very nicely! 

I don't understand the "2 watered down series" angle.  For decades, the World of Outlaws had 1, 2, or 3 cars at the top that dominated the season.  There were about 6-8 cars that had a chance to win 2-6 races, and another 2-4 cars that could potentially win a race or 2.  Now, we have 2 series with just about this exact scenario.  The HL series has almost no one running full time that had previously run with the Outlaws:  Sweet, Marks (who hadn't run the WoO in 6 years) and Gio pretty much by pure chance running less than half a season.  

Why is this considered watered down?  I'm sick of hearing "Gravel's only winning because the rest of the Outlaws suck" when I can look back over the decades and see exactly the same results in every single points year.  Just because guys are "legends" doesn't mean they were at a level to compete with Steve Kinser in 1987.  

The World of Outlaws lost Brad Sweet, and that's it.  Gio just picked up a mid-season ride, and no one else on that tour was a full time Outlaw anyways.  

I do miss seeing some of these guys under one umbrella BUT

Do you think one series could handle all these guys?

Do you think the streaming services have improved?

Do you think the purses would be what they are now?

Do you think we'd have the car owners interested in traveling, that we do now?

I think both series need each other. 

Competition breeds improvements...

Keep It Real

My flo renews here in mid September and it cost is 190.67 to be exact!

You left out USAC!

Seems like some folks have zero interest in wingless (USAC fans call them "Traditional" ) sprint cars

I prefer them, in theory, but too many of their stars have gone to wings cause they pay more &&&

Its a shame, IMHO

I agree on the championship side, in that it's still extremely difficult to win the WoO title and Gravels accomplishments are not watered down.

The fields on any given night are definitely watered down now though. Alot of what makes up High Limit were the best "true Outlaw" teams like Rico, Marks etc...who now race w the WoO a lot less. They didn't race for points but now they only show up when there's no conflict. That leads to some lesser fields. Not just with the WoO but also alot of High Limit shows that they took over from the WoO. 

In my household, Flo wins hands down. Just way more sports on Flo than DV, who knew compettitive dance? 

In my house we always have some sort of sports on be it baseball, hoops, track and field or some other sport that Flo offers. For the money I can't think of a better value than Flo and you get to see all sorts of racing from all over the world.

Rod

Forgot to make mine a reply to Holden, just covering the series he missed. USAC is the best part of FLO. Smackdown was incredible but all we ever hear on this board is WoO and HL.  To each their own but if that is all you care about then you aren't really a sprint car fan. 

Personally I don't care which one or both streaming services others get anymore than if they prefer Netflix or Hulu.  Myself I like watching Knoxville and Husets weekly along with select WoO Sprint and Late Model races.  On the High Limit side Kyle is busy with the chase and pleasing his day job boss and isn't likely to race again this season.  A couple favorites got hurt at Eldora and aside from that I watch some IRA and USAC.  if a racing fan watches that kind of variety the head butting between HL and WoO gets tiring.

I find that I miss Dirtvision more because of the weekly racing and would prefer that but review the budget every year as they're over $500 combined.  I have been unable to attend races this year on account of eight consecutive months of medical issues.  If I am able to get back out there I would cut back on streaming.  Pretty soon football starts and I'll barely watch anything but the bigger shows.  

Stan Meissner