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

I knew some would try and blame poor attendance on the economy,but you are wrong. Die hard sprint car fans are very passionate about the the sport,and yes,they did speak by not going,just like they spoke when some wanted to make the cars self start.The poor economy would not keep the fans away,they would beg,borrow or steal to be there if they wanted to.You can spin it all you want,the empty seats told the truth.

people been talkin' bout the lack of past atmosphere for 4 years now.......

no doubt - this race has lost much of its luster in many circles.

But it's naive to think a fuel stop would chase that many people off. It would be all the other stuff mentioned in the this thread before it would be about a fuel stop.

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

I personally did not make the trek this year for money issues. I'm broke and without a "real" job. 7.50 an hr just isn't cutting it but it's work. I finally got to come back to kville last year after about a 7 year layoff. I will say it wasn't quite the place/atmosphere I remembered in my teens but still fun nonetheless. Also boring fast track racing. The best races I saw growing up in the early 90's was at the big tracks with small hard tires and big tanks and driver's winning races. Now they are follow the leader and 1/4 mile tracks have been the best races of the year (Lima, Attica, I-55) I think there is mutliple factors playing into the attendance but economy is the main one. I will say that this whole fuel issue doesn't help my choice in attending. I WISH THEY WOULD JUST RUN THE BIG CELLS! Make it mandatory. 40 laps shouldn't be too big a deal. They run 40 at Eldora. (I know it is a smaller track but close enough maybe they do 40 in PA I don't know only been there once and think it was 30)

They could do what they do with the taxi cabs and line them up in proper order.... push off... start lining up right away and that would cut down 2 laps. There are ways to make this work but no one is willing. 50 laps is awesome but there is no way with big tanks they will ever make that.

Really though 50 laps isn't that much for you guys saying SPRINT cars. I enjoy lap traffic anyway because god knows winged sprint car racing has become freight train racing anyway until traffic is involved. So I will always be a dirt track winged fan for life but it is becoming tougher and tougher to find good races at fast tracks anymore and spending money on these races is a tougher sell than before. They just need to flat out adress these issues as an entire community and not just as series/tracks. But that will never happen because promoters hate to work together.

Knoxville Raceway does not pay for them to come....... SPEED wants to come......

Can you imagine goin to work on Monday trying to make the right decisions to make everything just perfect for, oh, say a half million individuals who probably want something different than the next one? And then have rain take any chance of making that happen, leaving even yourself unhappy? Yeah, sign me right the hell up.....

Savage

Two good post's out of this, not bad.

one---fuel stops in sprint car racing suck because unlike nascar thy are not necessary and are a wast of time----there was a time when sprint cars didn't run fuel tanks that were made for midgets and it was part of the drivers ability to compensate for the fuel being used during a race---i'v enjoyed sprint car racing all my life (50yrs) and in that time 2 Major things have come along to take some of the excitement out of it (dont get me wrong it's still very exciting ) #1 wings i can remember a driver saying if thy start running wings on our sprint cars every super-modified jockey around will start thinking thy can drive a race-car and just look at where dirt track super-modified racing is today #2 fuel stops i know when thy have a fuel stop at my local track 1/4 of the stands gets up and leaves---and no i don't think fuel stops have anything to do with fan count this year at the nationals this event is to big for that.

Two---Lets talk about the lack of anything any different than 5 years ago. I mean its the same stuff year after year. The rule book has taken away what made our sport great. Going to see who could build a better mouse trap has been gone for years. Gibson never mentions the Dodges, there are no Fords, the chevies are all built by the same 4 guys, the chassis all look the same because of all the rules etc etc. The legend drivers are old men now so we better get some cool wicked fast equipment back. Wed should have been radical hammer down barely holding on the steering wheel shit and instead it sucks because anyone with more than a weeks worth of experience can ride around wide open within 3 tenths of the fastest guy in the country.

Some other good tid bits as well, but overall put these two together, and they hit the nail.

Kenny

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

Oh, and get MF'd on a public worldwide forum if it doesn't work, or get accused of padding your pockets if it does.

Savage

id be willing to bet races were cancelled because of SPEED(didnt want to stick around a long rain delay)Especially when they have another (GREAT EPISODE OF PINKS)from 2 years ago to show.GOTTA BE THE STUPIDEST SHOW EVER ON SPEED,PLEASE CHANGE YOUR CALL LETTERS TO speed not SPEED FRIKIN IDIOTS

Never said the track doesn't pay for the broadcast and that is my point exactly; SPEED doesn't need the Knoxville Nationals and proved it when they packed up and left a few years ago. If the ratings were strong then SPEED spends a little more time in negotiations and preparation leading up to the event. We are fortunate to get what we get as it is.

If attendance revenue continues to decrease then the track may choose not to pay SPEED to put together a live broadcast of the event in hopes that attendance figures would rise.

Did anyone consider that the reason for low crowd counts is:

1. Winged sprint car racing sucks

2. Knoxville doesn't give a shit

3. Race fans finally are getting smart and realizing reason's #1 and #2

4. Why leave home when you can listen to it on the internet or watch it on TV?

Kyle Ealy

Editor - Midwest Racing Archives
www.midwestracingarchives.com

This will all be fixed by next year for the 50th anniversary 50 lap A-main. Rumor has it once the "Cash for clunkers" program is done,Obama will have a "Cash for small fuel cells" program which will allow you to trade in your small tank and upgrade to a larger one. Once this happens,the fans will once again return in droves to the Knoxville Nationals.So get your tickets early for next year,since tickets will go fast once this "Cash for small fuel cells" is announced.

WTF,,, "they cant go 30-40 laps"... now I have heard it all... What they cant do is go 40 laps with the tanks they use.... they can make 30 easily... and if they dont,,, too bad.

Your post is full of ignorance. Try again!

i am saving my $ for the Johnny Key at Ocean, the open 360 non-winged show at Petaluma, the Louie Vermil classic non-winged USAC at Calistoga and the GOLD CUP ------8 days of racing----4 tracks 1/4,3/8 & 1/2 milers----4 deferent types of sprint cars ---all big events ----all packed into 2 weeks---and i will see most of the cars that are in the nationals main at at-least 1 of these events and some of the cars in the nationals main at all of these events and it will all cost me less than the trip to Knoxville would have god i love nor-cal

Robert Bond    San Jose Ca

I've been helping out around the track for years and selling 50/50's the last 3 and the crowds are definately not what they were 5 years ago. The dollars spent per fan has also dried up quite a bit. We used to sell 50/50's by the 5's and 10's and now it's by the 1's & 2's. The t-shirt vendors also said they had a very bad week. Remember seeing everyone with 2 or 3 bags of shirts milling around in the past? Not the last couple of years. Sounds like the economy to me.

About the Knoxville does'nt give a crap post-Sounds like sour grapes from one of the people Savage was talking about that you just can't make happy. Knoxville has the greatest dirt track facility in the world and it did'nt get that way by accident. In the 70's it looked like a thousand other tracks across the country, now take a look. Every single person from Cappy to the fairboard to the vendors and custodians takes great pride in being part of it. The whole town busts it's butt to get thing as good as we can to host our fans and we love Nationals week. If you don't stay home!

1 team dominating i thinks hurts. whether its kinser Schatz or even if it was the crowd favorite Wildchild. Having one team dominate hurts. Me and a couple of people i have talked to don't want to go because Schatz is so damn good there. Until we get a new winner and light that fire of "anyone can win" in the fans this will a small factor.

That's the spirit,tell the fans to stay home.I love K-ville,I believe they made a mistake this year though.Next year if they go 50 laps,I would totally understand having 2, 25 lap segments with a fuel stop between,I think most wouldn't have a problem with that.Did the planned fuel stop keep some at home this year,yes I know for a fact it did,and those numbers added up.I still wish Knoxville the best,and wouldn't have wished this weather mess on them.Hopefully it will be a better year next year.

So then how do you explain the fact that that Nationals were at their peak when Steve Kinser was just crushing everyone and his winning was all but a foregone conclusion? The car count was never higher than it was during Steve's dominant period in the early 1990s and the stands weren't empty, either.

Lefty- that's the spirit, admit that attendance is down the last 5 years, then tell people to stay home!

Genius, sheer unadulterated genius!!!!

Poor choice of words. The post was directed to Kyro. Of course we want the stands full.