Forum: Oklahomatidbits.com General Forum (go)
Moderators:  /  David Smith Jr

If Enid had new promoters would it make a difference if you race there. I can't find the pole option for this so if you would answer yes, no, or it does not matter. Please feel free to explain your answer if you like. Just a question to see if thats the problem with the record low car count or if it's something else. If anyone knows how I can make this into a pole question please let me know. I think there will be more info that way, Thanks.

I believe the record low car count has to do with several different things...

Some have to do with promoting, some have to do with the economy.

I will try and explain myself and keep it brief, as for the promoting, you can only tell guys "if you dont like it go race somewhere else" so many times before it happens. If you are going to put on a good special show then give it more than two weeks of advertisement(needs at least 3 months so people can plan the trip). Dont lower the payouts!!!! Get the rules back in order for factory stocks and pure stocks, I mean really these are supposed to be entry level classes but the rules have gone by the way side. In sportmods, there should always be a motor claim, special event or not. Get the fairboard to give the concessions back so the promoters have a chance to make some money.

on the economy part, its hard to maintain a modified, unless you have deep pockets, and race week in and week out. I seen the biggest drop in modifieds when the economy fell apart. Im guessing that we wont see these guys that left the class come back, unless they win the lottery, because its such an expensive class to run(my favorite to watch).

Enid has a very awesome history for its racing and I believe if the fairboard were to give back the concessions to the track and if the promoters would make some changes in advertising, you must fill the seats to get sponsors, get a real announcer that actually knows racing, do some special shows with time to plan to come to it... I think a 10,000.00 to win sportmod show would bring in a record number of cars. ADVERTISE ADVERTISE ADVERTISE and do the show the first week in march...

Just my thoughts...

Jayson

Jayson Ellis

I don't feel that the economy has had as much of an impact as the promoters lack to follow their published rules. It appears that every situation has a different rule depending on the drivers involved. They sure enough need a tech that is willing to abide by the rules and able to DQ someone for being illegal. I was in the barn with an emod driver when they pulled vaccuum and compression and one driver was told the vacuum port on the manifold is to be 1/4" unobstructed and his was not, yet he was not DQ'd. Wrong is wrong and rules were written to keep it competitive. The pure stocks have gotten to be ridiculous and the factory stock is what the old street stocks were. Streetstocks are now prostock. Several drivers have chosen to go race other tracks, instead of the home track due to poor teching and promoters not following their own published rules. The claim attempt and protest at Winter nationals in the Emod division was BULL since it stated in the rules that each driver was to abide by their home track rules.The two involved were at their home track. I am in the process of building a pure stock, but will probably race elsewhere if the promoters stay. As for the concession, I don't think the current promoter will pay workers for the concession stand since all the track officials are volunteers. I hope that the fairboard sees the discrace that the current promoter has brought to the Enid track and declines his contract for next season. Unfortunately it will take a new promoter a few years to rebuild what has been destroyed. Drivers will have more respect for promoters who abide and enforce the rule they write and publish. Don't be scared to make someone mad.

If they keep that two face tech man that lets who he wants to get away with anything and don't know anything about cars except very little about Toyota's there is NO WAY!!!!!! They think this year was bad wait tell next season. They might as-well and go ahead and pack it up!

I DON'T PLAY GAMES I JUST, GIT-R-DONE!

the only thing that i know for sure is that there has to be some kind of a change....

whether its the promoters, the people they have working there, or just a different way of promoting. Im not sure which one is best but there definately needs to be change..."anyone who keeps traveling the same circle and expects a different result is insanity"

I would think that a tech person should know about racecars and what to really look for and how to check the cars correctly, I would think that a flagman should know when to wave a green, yellow, red, white, checkered flag, I would think that a promoter would actually thank each and every driver, each and every nite, personally for coming to his track to race, I would think that the announcer would actually know something about racing and how to generate

excitement in the crowd, I would think that the double charging at the pit window and the ticket window because of rainouts would stop (in all the years I have been around racing, this has been the only place that I have seen do this).

I just hope that Enid Speedway can get back to what it once was, there is alot of work to be done, alot of bridges to be rebuilt, but it is all possible if the people want it bad enough!!!!

Jayson Ellis

Jaydad you hit the nail square on the head, I haven't been to Enid in about 2 yrs. But with all of what you said you are rite except one thing. Money to guarantee the purses for one year then every thing should fall in place once again. If a track owner/ promoter has to run it on a shoe string budget,well thats when things seem to go wrong...

 Randy       

       DIRT TRACKIN
"When it's wet slide it in"

I will agree with alot of this but one thing in there defense they have ALWAYS paid what they said they would regardless of the car count or anything else. I raced night out here this year when there was 4 street stocks and they paid the same as if there were 20. They need to be rules enforced is the thing i think should happen. If your gonna have any kind of racing you HAVE to tech and follow the rules and procedures. That goes for claims or anything else. Dont change the rules for USMTS guys who come to our track once a year just so they can run. They work there asses off on getting the track ready so we can race everyweek. Winternationals we got 1 inch + of rain and the pits were horrible but they worked hard and we had a great track all weekend. They do a great job but in my opinion the rules and rules enforcement needs to change. Not everyones on a wine budget. I have been to alot of other tracks this year that are worse so im not complaining at all.

Did I say anything about Enid not paying their purse????..... NO.... You can pay the purse and still be on a shoe string buget. I was saying that it don't always work....

 Randy       

       DIRT TRACKIN
"When it's wet slide it in"

You said money to guarantee purses. They have always paid good here. Better than most places actually. Guess i took what you said wrong.

I'm fairly sure its not the payouts that are the problems. Just like Dustin said, Enid has always made the payouts and they do pay better than most here in Oklahoma. There are a few tracks in Texas that pay 750.00 to win to the sportmods but those tracks are getting 35 - 40 sportmods a night. The payouts are not the problems at Enid Speedway.

Jayson Ellis

I honestly think the flagman is one of the biggest problems there. Not the only problem but it is one that needs to be taken care of. Nobody likes to go to a track and have there car destroyed. And when it is due to the flagman not knowing what color of light is on and what flag he is throwing then thats a problem. To many times at the winter nationals was the yellow on and he was waving the green. The guys up front see the yellow and slow up and the cars towards the rear think its time to go racing. To many cars are destroyed over this ignorance. Tempers fly when the guy up front gets ran over and honestly it wasnt his fault cause all he saw was a green flag. The flagman needs to find whatever orphas his head is up and pull it out.

Bottom line is who cares some of you people in Enid, would not be happy if you had a first class promoter and racing program. Because somebody would find something to BITCH about and point your finger at somebody else. And I said SOME of you NOT ALL (a selected few) but thats what makes it bad for everybody else. And it keeps fans like myself and others that WILL NOT make the trip to support your track!!!!!!!!!!! We got our drama down here so why would I drive an hour and a half to see the samething 20 min from the house and alot better racing.

 Randy       

       DIRT TRACKIN
"When it's wet slide it in"

Then why are you even posting on here. If you can drive your 20 mins and see the same drama then drive it. We "Bitch" because we want the car count back up and want to see some good racing. Not to many years ago the pits were packed and so were the grandstands. The track has a problem and for the first time there is a post on here where people are talking about the problems rather then fighting about them. You worry about your track and we will worry about ours.

Yep it's the same thing over and over and over and over. Nobody up there wants to solve your problems all yall do is BITCH about it. And nothing ever gets done about it.......

 Randy       

       DIRT TRACKIN
"When it's wet slide it in"

Rules need to be writtin in stone and not changed for some people and not changed year after year. Some people cant afford to keep up with rules changing every year. There are no entry classes. Pure stock needs to be a bone stock car, they are cheap and its a cheap way to get new people into racing. No one wants to go out and spend $3k-$4k on a pure stock which is the old factory stocks just to get out run by guys that have been racing street stocks and modifieds for the last 5-7 years. I always thought cruisers were a very entertaining class and alot of people like to whatch them. It got alot of people out of the stands and behind a wheel and gas pedal, since they could be bought for $500. Some thing need to be done to factory and street, whether combine them or get rid of street, unless people some what commit to racing that class next year. Just my 2 pennies.

I think the very original post of this thread was way off.

I mean no disrespect to anyone at all. But something like that should never be a poll question. Because there are too many intangibles. One could think the promoter a dick and still race there. Some could not have a prob with the promoter - but still race there under a new one. And still more like/dislike the current promoter - but how could they know for sure if they would still race there or not - without knowing who the new promoter would be and what steps they would take to improve the show.

The idea of that being a poll question just reeks of an attempted public lynching. And is not constructive at all. Who could even answer objectively? I mean, the question in and of itself is damn near rigged.

There has been a lot of hubris on here throughout the entire season about Enid. A lot of discontent obviously. But where are any facts. And by facts I don't mean talkin crap on the promoter. Back at the beg. of the year - quite a few different people mentioned the lease or whatever being raised rather extravagantly on the promoter. Even the people that were griping about one thing or another was acknowledging this fact. Where has that gone?

I remember the beg. of the year the initial discontent was - if i remember correctly - pit passes being raised and the purse also cut. And it was mentioned that this was a direct result of the lease being significantly raised. While hoping this can be clarified - lets assume something like that did happen - how is a change of promoter going to be any different? Convetional wisdom suggests that if the lease is so high - hardly anyone would even be interested in promoting that track - because if it isn't profitable what is the point. If something like that did happen - it would seem the promoter did a fine job to battle through it.

My only personal thought bout enid was that they should always run some NCRA shows there every year. I was under the impression that they could not because of the financial side of things - but then they ran a pretty sizeable purse/show for their winter nat's. So now even I question it. I sure as hell don't know what is going up there. It seems I am not alone either.

So it begs the question - what really happened at Enid? What happened over the offseason and at the beg. of the year up there? I think some cold hard facts would be much more constructive than a poll question that lacks objective fundamentals. What actually happened up there? 2008 wasn't a horrible season for Enid. 2009 kind of was. What happened in between? Anyone see what I am getting at? What happened on the financial side? what other contributing factors were there? I don't view economy as even a POTENTIAL leading factor - Oklahoma has been one of the LEAST impacted states by the recession. I could our economy as why maybe car counts at dirt tracks around the state maybe went down on average by a couple/few. But it doesn't explain the huge drop off at Enid. Thats the only op I have related to the question. So again....what really happened?

I ask all this purely out of curiosity as I don't have a dog in the fight at all. Haven't even been there since .....hell I think 2006. mighta been 07. I just remember it was NCRA mod show at the end of May - either 06 or 07 (David should know - I remember seeing him there). I mention/ask just because it's interesting just as a dirt track fan. And to maybe get some facts out there so this thread won't end up like many of the other Enid-related threads have this year.

How much would could a wouldchuck chuck if a 
wouldchuck could chuck would

You are correct in many facets about the poll...

I'm sure there are those who believe that a new promoter will bring back what has been lost but it wont be that easy... it will take a lot of hard work, by the current promoters or new ones. It will take getting the correct people into the correct positions...security, photographer, tech man, flag man, announcer, pit steward, ect...

As for what exactly caused all of this to get to this point, I believe it was a number of things. I have seen and heard track officials cuss drivers and tell them if they dont like it to go race else where, I have seen a driver lose a championship over some "jerry springer" bull crap. I have seen some fans get escorted out by security in a very rude manner, this was over whooping and hollering after a judgement call but the kicker was that the wrong fans got escorted out. I have seen security threaten to escort a man out if he didnt pick up his (1) beer can. I have witnessed some crazy incidents and not one time has the track ever issued an apology (like for having the wrong fans escorted out). I have seen the tech guy tell everyone they get one chance at compression check and then when one didnt make it he let him flood it down and recheck. I have seen the rules get bent so many times for whomever, the rules should never be bent for anyone!!!!

I believe its a combination of things that have hurt this track and I believe it can get back to what it was just a couple of years ago. It wont be easy at all but Im sure if its supposed to be then it will be...

Have a great weekend and GO POKES!!!!

Jayson Ellis

I have been both a driver and a official and can say there is crap on both sides. As a driver you all ways think it should of been called your way and as a official you get more cussings by the drivers then you can imagine and I will admit whether I'm a driver or a official if some one is going to cuss me they better be ready to hear it back. I myself or have never heard anyone at the track tell a driver to go race some where else, but I'm not in all the places at once. Nice one about the jerry springer hope you weren't talking about me, but it was funny.

JIMMY MINTER 'AKA'dirtrack234                  
Yesterday 
is history, 
tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift. That is 
why they call it the present.

I keep preaching.....and maybe some day my simple voice will be heard. Oklahoma needs to have a common Sanctioning body with common rules across the State for all classes.

With the current situation it's too easy for Track Promoters to make/break or enforce rules.

If there were a solid Sanctioning body such as the ORA (Oklahoma Racing Association) across the state that set the rules and could work with other Sanctioning bodies in all classes so there are no surprises or Chassis, Tires, Spring, or Muffler changes to be able to compete at any Race Track. This would surely fill the Pit Area with cars from everywhere.

And would leave the Track Promoter to do his job of Promoting his Track by filling the Grandstands and not dictating rules that only apply to his Track.

This ole biness (business) of the Track Promoter saying "we gunna run our own rules down here" are killing our sport. With common Rules (enforced) it can only help make better Racing for the Fans and Racers alike.

AMEN!!!! BROTHER!!!!! For all Tracks!!!

 Randy       

       DIRT TRACKIN
"When it's wet slide it in"