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

Nothing really disappointing about 40 cars given the weather forecast beginning ten days ago......maybe there will be additional turnout for Saturday night.....again, the damned weather plays a huge role!

41 on a night with 59% chance of.  I’ll take it

Mother nature didn't cooperate on Thursday.  Friday's show will run as normal with the Thursday show moved to Saturday afternoon.  Could be a $50K day for someone!  That place is really a gem.  Nice folks, great venue, and the new config rocks.  Balog, Polyak, Brown, Eliason, Madman, Jeffrey, McCarl x3, TK, Dynamite were just some of the non-WoO drivers mingling with the crowd. 

Thanx,
Bruce

"support your local track and stay positive"

I think there's more than the weather affecting car counts this year.  I keep an eye on the Late Models and Eldora's Dream is a huge deal that typically draws over 100 but I never paid attention to the exact numbers.  Someone I know posted that they're down to 78 cars this weekend so it's a fact there are fewer cars across the board this year.  Late Models share the similarity with Sprints that they're expensive to run so the fact that their car counts are down kind of caught my eye that it's a trend that's affecting all of dirt racing.

Personally I'm OK with 40 or 60 cars as opposed to 100 or more as I'd rather not sit through dozens of Heats and an alphabet soup to eliminate the 75 who don't have a chance of making the Feature.  Some people don't think they got their money's worth if they can't sit on a plank for eight hours but at my age I'm over that desire.  A good 40 car show featuring the best in the business with Heats, a B and maybe a C and an A Main is a long enough night for me.  

Stan Meissner

I mentioned this in a post on social media but will repeat it here as well regarding car counts.  My local track Cedar Lake has their big $50,000 to win USA Nationals every year the first weekend of August.  Their car counts are nowhere near what a race at someplace like Eldora typcially gets for the Dream and World 100.  That is because location is a big part of this as well.  CLS is a couple hundred northeast of Jackson up in western Wisconsin so both are considered a long haul by racers who are more centrally located.  Nothing they do can put them over that hump and increase the counts to what tracks in other parts of the country can draw.  Location is a big thing and factoring in that it's an Outlaw show where non-WoO teams are often running for the crumbs that fall off the table it makes it hard to draw those large numbers up here.  That is just a fact about living up here in the upper Midwest.

Stan Meissner

That's why the emphasis in Southern MN, IA and the Dakotas, primarily SD, needs to be directed towards increasing the numbers of racers in those areas.  Not an easy task to accomplish. There may be a crack in that door once we know the future of Husets/Badlands. I too am okay with a 40 car count.....but the general fan seems to think the greater the number of cars the greater the racing.

Correction to my observation about the Dream.  I just saw the post again and there were 78 cars but if memory serves me that's a significant drop.

The real issue in my mind isn't so much the tracks or fans as it is the decreasing number of car owners and sponsors in this sport, all divisions and not just Sprints.  I know that this is a Sprint Car board but if the weekly Stock Car and Modified lineup suffers then these tracks fall on hard times.  They're dropping by the wayside at a steady pace but we don't read about it here because we're focused on the big Sprint tracks.  Fact is that a lot of the Sprint specials play out at places who's existence depends on the weekly shows.  In an indirect way that does affect Sprint Car racing.

I'm seeing some of these six and seven class weekly shows with 8, 10, 12 car fields in a lot of their classes.  There is a tipping point where fans lose interest.  Racing at the grass roots level is different than other sports in that the average working man is both customer and competitor.  When competitors in those entry levels can no longer race there is a tipping point where the show gets so watered down that fans lose interest. 

I'm not "talking smack" or wishing for the demise of the sport.  I'm just posting the kind of subjects that come up at promoters workshops where they have to force themselves to look at the hard questions.

Not to imply that things are hopeless but anytime the fields are 5 or 10 cars fewer than they were the previous season it gets my attention.  Personally I think it should serve as a warning sign that costs need to be addressed but that is probably the hardest sell in motorsports to suggest those kinds of changes. 

15 years ago I'd have been all over this new incarnation of the Jackson Nationals.  My Jackson Nationals attendance goes back to the early 80's, not every year but my first one was under the VFW banner to put it in perspective.  Unfortunately I'd have to drop a $500 bill to go to this event and cover pit pass, gas, meals and motel.  Seven weeks from retirement and a fixed income, charges all paid off, it ain't going to happen because my "accountant" would make me sleep out in the shed if I spent that kind of money.  A far cry from when I was a kid in the early 60's and could see the IMCA big cars from all over the country for something like $2 three blocks from my house. 

Stan Meissner

I think there's 2 reasons the Mansfield race got more attention, maybe 3 if you factor in the winners share. First is that the track is located in OH which is a hotbed for sprint car racing, with a ton of good 410 teams plus it's centrally located to draw teams/fans from the east and the west. Second, I think the fact that race was NOT a WOO sanctioned race made it much more interesting. At least it did for me. With the WOO elsewhere that meant the winner could be damn near anyone and almost certainly increased the car count - as now a lot of teams feel they have a better chance at taking home the loot. 

As for Jackson, 40 cars of which most are topnotch, is more than enough for a great show. However it doesn't really neccesitate a 3 day show. With last nights rain out, IDK why they wouldn't just make it a 2 day event instead of running Saturday afternoon. The track crew is definitely gonna be busy. I think Jackson is heading in the right direction with making the track a little smaller which means racier and easier on motors, plus having huge paying races like this.  

A

That's what I was thinking that three days wouldn't be necessary for a 40 car field as they don't need to be split into two nights.  I just signed up for the 30 day deal and now I'm not sure if I'll be able to view the rescheduled Thursday race.  They could go either way, the race took place on Saturday so it's covered or they could block the Thursday in which case I'll wish I had signed up last night despite the obvious fact they weren't going to get the show in.  I'd gladly give up the 30th day to move it back to cover tomorrow afternoon if they play hard ball.  I'll be at the CLS WoO race the final night of my 30 days anyways and that was the original plan.  Didn't think of that technicality until today.  I guess I'll know when I tune in tomorrow afternoon. 

Stan Meissner

Please keep in mind the AGCO Jackson Nationals is NOT a "split field" event.  ALL cars run all three programs.

What John said.  3 full shows.  

Why would you not have access to Saturday afternoon‘s race assuming there will be a broadcast? You have access to everything they broadcast for 30 days.

Trust but verify.  You are correct, they are essentially allowing people who subscribed today an extra race program by allowing them to watch the rescheduled Thursday race tomorrow afternoon.  I don't know if they have a way of blocking specific viewers but they could have gone that route if they wanted.  I emailed them so things are cool. 

On a side note I started a race thread on my facebook page and got someone to sign up for their first time so I made Dirtvision an extra $39.  I'm trying for more new members and if successful will put in a plug as their new social media marketing person.  Why not, I have written stories and taken photos so I might as well add marketeer to my resume. 

And good luck to the guy from the neighborhood tonight while I'm busy promoting. 

Stan Meissner

I hope you enjoy it, I really love watching all the races. 

They got a lot of rain down there so the track took a long time to widen out.  The Heats we're pretty much follow the leader without much passing.  These A Mains should be pretty good.  

Stan Meissner

Yeah Stan, hard to make a track like that work with the amount of rain.  Side note, miss your forum.  Lived on that for many years.

Thanks for the tip of the hat to the old long forgotten Minnesota board. 

The track was so heavy that the cushion didn't move up much all night.  Saturday 7:45 am and there are showers moving through around the state with some heavy ones showing up as reds on the radar so not sure how it will all shake out for this afternoon and tonight.  I have to get the lawn mowed and clean up the man cave.  My son and my neighbor who has his son racing a Micro Sprint at Princeton are both coming over.  Should be a fun night for the finale. 

Stan Meissner

That was a really good a main for a Saturday afternoon race track.

For those that went, were there any announcements for 2019 Jackson Nats? Definitely a race I want to get to in the future.

Not that I heard, unfortunately.