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

It's the Mini Prom. Same venue & decorations, just something for the kids to do. 

1 360 driver making the top ten is not a good representation of a "Nationals" for 360 racing.

I'd allow them some grace. One of the 360 teaams made the top ten against 9 outlaw level teams & equipment with 360's dropped in. Seems like an accomplishment to me.

That's not my point. Having a 360 Nationals just to have 410 teams dominate it kinda kills the vibe of rewarding drivers that commit to running a full time 360 operation. Why bother with it if your beat before you enter the gate?

I'm kind of torn on this. 

On one hand, you can be very select about who you let in. Like a pro-am golf tournament, but don't allow any professionals in. Then you only get a crowd worthy of a weekly show, and probably a purse to match.

On the other hand, you can open it up to racers that fans are willing to pay extra money to watch and see what happens. Like an NBA team playing in a high school tournament. 

Where's the happy medium?

I agree. There's no easy solution to  an idea started with good intentions that turns into something that is against everything it was created for. 

I'm not torn.  As a fanbase, we complain constantly about how guys leave our grass-roots sport for bigger dollars in Nascar and Indy.  Now, not only do we have a few guys who keep coming back, but we have a couple of star-studded 360 Nationals, loaded with these couple of guys, and some of the top sprint car drivers in the country----and we complain again.  I think it's fantastic.  And if I'm a regular 360 driver, I want to beat the best guys they can put on the track in front of me.  

There's nothing "grass roots" with cherry picking a race a race in a division where that's the only time all year that they will bother with supporting. It's like letting the Dodgers play in the triple A world series.

Limit it to just full time 360 teams and end up with a grandstand that's even emptier than it is now. 

Crowd for a 360 qualifying night last night was not all bad.  I'll be in attendance tonight, and I'd expect a very nice crowd. 

I do agree with your point though.  It's the biggest 360 race of the year.  It should be all hands on deck.  

Holy hell, imagine flexing over passing two cars in the heat. That is really putting the original poster in his place.

The promotor has nothing to do with it it would be up to woo. I 55 leases the track to the woo and they run the show. Has done it that way for years. Some tracks lease and some pay the santion fee and run it themselves.

Knoxville did have a pass in last night's feature- one more pass than WoO did.

I don't know if that's necessarily true. Races didn't become high-paying, premier events because the WoO decided to randomly pay out more.

Biggest?

Fred Brownfiled paid $26,000 this year at Skagit. It's also been called the Summer Nationals in past years. Weird thing, the Brownfield family has asked that his name be removed from this race in the future. It used to take play at Gray's Harbor, but moved this year to Skagit. I don't know all the details. Will have a different name next year.

Edit: I acknowlede that the Nationals has twice the field. This race at Skagit this year had just over 50 cars. 

The ASCS golden boy Sam Hefertepe Jr is the prime example of a failed 410 driver, and yes I know he won an Outlaw show.  He's never been good in a 410 car so migrated down to 360s where he can win. If the 410 guys weren't there nobody would even look at the results let alone go watch or even watch on Dirtvision

I mean, myself and my friends have known the track promotor forever and have been told. (The one who just sold last year after having for decades). I know some people who just called the track in the spring race to see if the could sell raffles for a big local baseball team charity outside the gate and the track told them absolutley not not on woo nights the woo have the track and they wont allow it. But i mean if you dont know you dont know

It's all about leverage - I'd guess the WoO has a standard contract for 80%+ of its events and then probably negotiates the remainder individually. There's a ton of evidence to support this - at some shows only platinum members are allowed to have merchandise trailers on site, at others all are allowed. I wouldn't be surprised if the poster above is correct in that some events are simple facilities leases, collecting a flat fee and offering certain operational support, whereas others are a track truly promoting an event and paying the WoO sanctioning fee and handling all operations and collecting all revenue.

I'm also sure places like Knoxville, Eldora, WG, Husets are able to negotiate certain things that a one-off track that doesn't have a long history with WoO is able to. I feel like in the past few years Larson paid a resident who lived across the street from the track to place his merch trailer there, but there will be non WoO drivers selling in souvenir row behind the grandstands despite the Nationals being under WoO sanction because Knoxville controls it and sells the space, not the WoO.

i'd say the 360 Nats are still the premier 360 event - it might not pay the most to win or even the biggest A purse but it's close enough and draws what is clearly the largest field in the country at a top-tier facility with the consistently best racing surface. Like the idea of the Skagit show but it will have a long ways to go to bridge the gap. STN is basically dead. Honestly the race for runner-up may now be between the Skagit Nationals and the July 360 Shootout at Knoxville. 

The 360 nationals have become a joke! It's all 410 drivers running anywhere near the front. What is the point?????? Just drop the 410's back in! Top 410 drivers should be ashamed to cherry pick the pockets of the 360 guys IMO.

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