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

Would that be a lot different if a regular 360 driver won 7 of 11 races?

Obviously the actual dollar amount doesn't affect fans, but it also should be obvious that Bigger $$$ attracts more good teams & drivers, so its better for us peons!

Thank you, I've never understood why fans care so much about the purse.  The only thing higher purses have done for the fans is drive up the ticket price.  It has no bearing on if it's a good race or not.

I don't necessarily care about the purse b/c I don't see any of that going into my pocket, but I know it may attract more drivers. One thing you constantly hear around Knoxville and PA, is the great weekly purse. 

At least for Knoxville, you add track time for the Nationals and a good purse I think it attracts drivers. 

There are numerous factors that go into "invaders" dropping in at Knoxville for a weekly show, or a driver that may be in between shows, and will stop by Saturday night for a decent check. 

IMO the top racetrack should be paying one fo the top purses for all of their weekly and special races. 

Keep It Real

I would think the payouts at local tracks would reflect on the income from their shows. National or big shows have other factors to influence the payouts so it is hard to come up with a system that can be applied across the board.

I don't look at the purse. I go to the track to watch and enjoy the races. Hopefully there is a decent car count and good racing.

Not every driver/team wants to move up. If their local track only runs 305's or 360's they may be happy with success locally.

Drivers running multiple classes to get more track time is smart and not cheap education.

See my previous comment: Bigger $$ attracts more & better teams & drivers.... better show

Nope staying in central PA.

Let's go Sprint Car Racing!

Knoxville - Best Track In the USA!
Eldora - 2nd Best Track in the USA!

The link didn't work. Knoxville increases their weekly payout for 360s as well. 

Keep It Real

It just opens up to a lot of questions and gray areas about where do you draw the lines. In no particular order, and certainly with no coherence of thought:

*Did Reitzel win because of talent or funding?
*Could one of the faster 360 drivers have done as well in the same car?
*Suppose a 410 racer who doesn't run up font races both classes?
*Should any 360 racer that does super good- maybe not 7 for 11 good- be forced to move up to 410s?
*What about older 410 racers who are slowing down in their careers? Should TMac and Sammy be allowed to race 360s?
*At some point, doesn't it just seem like you'd be trying to keep the *good* racers from racing against the others?
*Would it be penalizing a driver &/or car owner who has the resources and desire to run 2 classes?
*In the end, does it really make sense to have 3 classes of any type of race car on the same weekly program?
* At the local race track when I was a kid, they had sprint cars, hobby stocks and super stocks. If a racer won the hobby stock points championship more than once, he had to move up to super stocks. That thought process made sense.
*Whether we want to admit it or not, maybe the sprint car world should be something like that? An entry level class for hobby & weekend racers and a higher class for the guys looking to move up?
*Somewhat related- it seems like I see advertizing that suggests that some tracks have 2-3 different levels of stock cars and 2-3 different levels of modifieds. Why bother? I lived in Wyoming for a while. The local track had 6 classes of cars, each with about 4-6 cars each. Not good.
*What would the Knoxville field look like if they only had 410's and 305's, but poured the 360 purse money into those two classes?

So, where am I going with this? All over the damn place I guess.

Two of the largest races dont have big purses.IMCA Nationals in Boone around 1K cars and Chili Bowl 350+ cars and over 1200 in the Micro Shoot out. They did raise purse to $20K to win Sat night but all the racers statedThe Driller  was more important.but all the micros were $1K plus a coveted Golden Driller.So its not about money to some. Just making the A at the Nationals or Chili Bowl is special.In all reality the racers and owners them selves are partly to blame for the high engine costs and it wont change. There been groups that tried to control costs by spec heads but failed. Harder tires and smaller wings were also tried but $ seem to win out. You cant stop people with money  from spending and it wont change.Many years ago[over50] many top teams bought 327 Corvette engines right from local dealers put mag,cam.heads and injector and competed well and if motor broke sometimes they got another one

Why not? Other tracks have adopted a rule in the past that a driver can only run in one division a night. Seems very easy.

I'm curious what other tracks run both 360 and 410 sprints?

Does that really make for a better show?  Some of the best sprint car races I've seen, they were racing for $500 to win.  Also Do you think a show is automatically better if they are racing for $1,000,000 vs. $50,000?  Wouldn't the same people be there?

Actually seems really stupid!

Do people actually pay attention to these details?  Beautiful night, cold beer, good food, plenty of cars in all divisions' who even looks beyond that?  

Stan Meissner

I guess Im not understanding your logic here?? I have been attending Knoxville since th early 70s and I am pretty sure the last increase they had on ticket prices was back in 2008 or 2009 which was raised to $15 per person. Knoxville has had numerous increases to the purse and left the ticket prices alone for the weekly shows.

I would say yes.

We can all agree that most of the top drivers are running the best paying series, and the running the highest paying races? 

Not saying a good race can't happen, which obviously it can, but the whole premise of what attracts bigger crowds to "special shows" b/c they know either better drivers will be there, or a greater quantity of better drivers will be there. 

Keep It Real

"Wouldn't the same people be there?".... no, thats my whole point. Bigger $$ attracts more & better teams

Of course any race might be more competitive than another race

Sometimes the most competitive race is in a support class

Let J. Geils explain it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rrlm01OIZ4