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

Excellent point. Burlington packs the house when they have $5.00 nights. Very little empty space in the stands on those nights. Same thing with Grundy County in Morris IL. Bring the prices down and people will come. That of course does very little for the purse or the operators costs, but it is the truth. Maybe the problem with local shows is that the show gets to be boring. People are not as rapidly attracted to short track racing with all of the options that are out there to spend their money on. That and of course the economy is bad. I am not saying that I want the prices lowered, I am just acknowleging the truth in egras's post..................

We are in the same boat--I am not in for lowering the prices either.  But it is amazing how a couple of bucks will shy some people away--and I mean people that can afford it with no problem.   I don't know the answer.  Seems like they are on the teetering point of keeping the purses alive and keeping the stands full enough to support the purses. 

Truth be told purses have been ludicrously low for a good long time. I don't think that in the coming years the purse is going to be an issue for racers because there is not going to be one. The shift over the past 25 years or so is more towards cheaper classes to raise car counts which brings out people who will spend ludicrous amounts of money to shine in classes that pay nothing anyway, and promoters are not stupid, they see this.  Local shows can not afford to pay the purses that lesser valued classes would like to see and racers will spend whatever it takes to get to the front, which drives the cost up for everyone in the class. It is a viscious circle. My bet, and I would hate to see this happen but I think that it might in another 20 years, is that local shows will become trophy class racing and if there is any payout at all it will be re-embursement for pit passes.  We need to find a way to put the excitement back into going to a race. If it is exciting for the spectators people will come. We need to find a way to generate that excitement.

Hey Sprinter, I know this has been brought up before (because I brought it up a few years ago)--what do you think of motor claims?   If purses don't go up, the cost has to come down, doesn't it?  I remember at my local track in the Pro Stock class, they had a motor claim rule--If you finished in the top 10, you could claim the 1st or 2nd place competitor's motor for $500.  If they refused, they lost all points and money for the night.  It was used once or twice too.  There were a couple of guys--Darren Miller being one of them (if you've ever heard of him) that had some monster motors for a Pro Stock class.  I can't remember if his motor was claimed or not but he ended up in Late Models the next season--so the claim rule worked for that situation anyways.  Just curious--not saying there is a place for it in sprint cars but the racing is much better in the support classes and lower classes when the competition is very equal.

The cost to compete is a very touchy subject in which there are some excellent points to be made on all sides of the isle. That having been said, yes, I believe that if your goal is to have a low cost regulated form of racing a claim rule is a great idea. I have seen it work. I know of a couple of tracks where the claim rule has worked really well. I am also relatively certain that it would work in Sprint Cars. I just don't know that there are many people in the sprint car world that would have the stomach for it. The biggest problem is that regulated classes require due diligence, and that adds another expense and more time to the show. For the competitors that is, it does not really effect the audience so much. When we are talking Sprint Cars however it is rare that they are the support class at any local track. Sprint Cars are usually viewed as one of the upper classes, whether they really are or not. I am not passing judgement here, that is just the way that it usually is. But yes, I believe that a claim rule in a heavily regulated class is a good idea.

Could you imagine the effects of a motor claim rule in the World of Outlaws?  (I know this will never, ever happen--just playing make believe here)   But seriously, could you imagine if you could claim ANY competitor's motor that finished in the top 10 that night for say--$5000 or $10,000?  And I mean any competitor in the race could do it--WOO regular or local driver.  Holy crap!! 

Now, on a local level, I think a claim rule would be great for sprint car racing.  I am assuming there is no claim rule for the 305's or 360's at Knoxville or any other track nearby, correct?   At the very least, force the big pocket books to the 410 class.  I would think in the long run it could make the other classes more competitive, possibly draw new cars and maybe the racing would be better.  ?   Would this help the draw on fans?  

(chime in on this--I may be blowing smoke out my ass--I don't know--I've had a lot of people tell me lately that I am a complete moron--maybe they are correct)

My son had the opportunity to be part of the color guard during the MonsterJam event this past weekend @ Knoxville. 

After attending it got me to thinking about how Sprint Car Racing (and all short track racing for that matter) can attract all these families that showed up in DROVES to attend this (the line to GET INTO THE STANDS stretched from the main gate to the highway and from the main gate to around turns 3 and 4 at one point in the evening) and there were still people buying tickets at the ticket office @ 7:50 (the show started at 7:30 and only lasts 2 hours)).

Friday was estimated at 4500 and Saturday as estimated to be over 10,000 (I heard numerous reports that Saturday outsold ALL events for the season with the exception of the 4 days of Nationals including the 360 Nationals Finale and next weeks Late Model Nationals).

Is it the advertising? 

Is the fact that the show starts @ 7:30 and ENDS at 9:30 (on the dot I might add, not one minute earlier or later) - they have a schedule and that's exactly when things happen.

Is it the family friendly atmosphere that they promote (all kids tickets were $7) but their souvenirs were $15 for a snow cone in a Grave Digger cup and $15 for cotton candy with a styrofoam Grave Digger hat, other souvenirs costs between $5 and $30 and I think EVERY KID had something in their hand by the end of the night.

Is it the atmosphere (with that many people there, you felt like you were at a rock concert as the stands were abuzz (although a majority of that buzz was from ages 12 and under).

Whatever "it" is, short track racing needs to learn from it and PACK the stands as my own observation was that there was "maybe" 25-30 minutes of actual action during that entire 2 hours, yet some people paid $27 (reserved seating) to get in while the cheapest adult tickets were $10 - if you bought in advance and had a $5 discount coupon otherwise they were $15 in Advance and $17 at the gate (a Family of 4 spent a MINIMUM of $34 to get in as EVERYONE required a ticket unless they were under 2 years old).  A family of 4 to get into the races costs $38 (using 12 and under as kids which is how MonsterJam priced their tickets as well. 

It doesn't appear that cost to get in is the issue (like many believe), maybe it's the entertainment value - maybe short track racing doesn't provide enough "entertainment" for these families (and by that I mean, the formats are too confusing, the racing takes too long to line up (kids have a short attention span - most events the Monster Trucks ran lasted 90 seconds or less), or the announcing doesn't get people excited even when nothing is going on (MonsterJam did a GREAT JOB of keeping kids engaged even when nothing was going on).  The drivers of the trucks came up INTO the stands after each "event" was completed and gave out a T-shirt and even gave a trophy to a kid.

While my son wasn't overly impressed (he still likes the races better), it was obvious that he was outnumbered by a long shot....

Start weekly dirt racing programs ON TIME.Start at 7, end no later than !0. Keep the prograam moving.

AND NEVER MENTION "MONSTER JAM" ON THIS FORUM AGAIN!!!!!!!!

I don't think you're a moron by any means...

THe only thing I have to add is this.  A competitive OPEN motor for IMCA Modifieds is running over $10,000 these days (and they can't turn near the RPM's or have near the HP of even the LS7 enging that Schatz and Shaver were trying to get tracks to adopt).

I guess for me, I think local tracks should push for the LS7 motor (they cost around $25,000) and they (the tracks) can push the WoO to adopt it as well (face it, the WoO can't survive without local cars and local tracks).

It may not be the right answer, but $25,000 motors are still wayyyyy cheaper than the $58,000 motors they are running today.  (problem is that there are tons of motors out there already, do you make them obsolete and make everyone spend a bunch of $$$????)

look around and try to locate the segment of fans who do not have gray hair...it ain't happening for the next generation.

most of the young people into sprint cars are driving micros or have a family ride.

anything short of a paved drifting track in the infield...I think we are screwed!