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Thumbs Up! Thank you PAS for listening. This is a much needed change.

Great News for April 12th...as it should be  USAC traditional non wing sprint cars without garage doors on top ....you know  the cars that actually do some passing.... will run First main.  Finally the support division runs last !!!!!

You are so right! Because you got to go in the pits after the races, you found out how cool sprint car racers are. Because of your visits to the pits the sport gained 1 more driver, 1 more car and a fan for life. I will bet you created some new fans in the stands too. Was it sitting in a sprint car that closed the deal for you? This is one of the most powerfull tools we have to improve the sport and it is really underused. How many kids like you never went to the pits because their  parents said it was "just too late" and they had to go home?

shorttrackautoracing.com

Joe

I think you have missed the point I am trying to make, first almost all top drivers come from the support classes. My point is if you want to grow the sport with fans in the stands you need to entertain the first timer to the point they say that going to the races is something they want to do again and again, and I'm not trying to say support classes do not play a big part of this sport but when you or anyone bring a newcomer to the races and its 4 hours before the main event starts its going to be boring to them and then it is hit or miss that the track will be good enough to put on a great show. If on the other hand the sprints qualify first, then run the heats first, then run the main first you have given that new fan the option of staying for the whole show or leaving after around 2 - 2.5 hours and the main event was on the best track possible. On the other hand if the support classes are run first and say they have four classes they can take up to 2 hours to finish the mains plus the heats and the track can become junk, then the promoter needs to work the track, during this time it can be very boring while you are tring to keep your guest or kids entertianed. Maybe I'm way off base but it seems to me that this can be avoided by running the sprints first, but I'm not a promoter just a fan that would like to see this sport grow. I would say that that everyone in California and Arizona are very fortunate to have Don Kazarian and Kevin Montgomrey running the shows.

Grady

PS sorry if I made it sound like you had an attitude

. 

I have to agree with grady the show is dragged out to long......... I have nothing against support shows. But come on 3 thats doing to muchhhh.. The other big issue is the track. The track cant hold up to that many cars. Even if it did its just dragged out too long. Too much talking instead of racing.. If he won give him his trophy and get back to racing. How can you bring someone new to sprint car race that take 6 hours. Your sitting there like yeah the'll be out in 2 hours haha like come on. Its almost seems like the sprints arnt the main show because by time they get out the track is crap. In my opinion get one support show either lighting sprint or young guns. the old farts either need to get in cra or get out plain and simple. Im no hater im a sprint car fan and thats what i pay to see. If it keeps up your not gonna have many fans ill tell you that much. AT LEAST REAL RACE FANS... 

NHL - Los Angeles Kings / Anaheim Ducks

Ticket Price - $25. Food Prices - Riduculous.

Parking $5 - $20

Show Starts 7:30pm. Show ends 10:30pm latest with Overtime and Shootout.

Soldout or near sell out of 18k+ seats 41 times a year.

Perris AutoSpeedway

Ticket Price - $25. Food Prices - Riduculous.

Parking - $8

Show Starts 6:00pm. Show ends 10:30 - 11:30pm.

Stands half empty, mostly empty by end of show.

Baseball on average is cheaper. I am not sure about Basketball...

That is not apples to apples, there are clearly more 'Sports' fans than Sprint Car fans but that is a reality that Speedway Promoters deal with in this area. Our show is 8 - 12 times a year, we can't fill the grandstands or keep the audience there. The complaints about dust are just noise to me, there is only so much to be done on a series of hot windy days, but the constant griping about time and the show dragging out. That, hopefully has begun to be addressed with a format revamp, but I worry if we don't start early, how late we run on "one of those nights..."

Wish I had an answer, but I keep going back to TV advertising in the Greater Los Angeles and San Diego area. Supercross advertizes TV and Radio and those shows sell out stadiums... big stadiums. Lucas Oil trucks I see advertizing too, and they draw huge crowds. Speedway's back home would run Radio and TV adverts... Hell, I was convinced as a kid the "Smoke on the Water" was specificaly written for Woodford Glen speedway and everytime I heard it I was bugging my father about going to the race track.

The main complaint here are that the show is too long and too many support classes. I couldn't agree more. Like any business, there are many factors here and all have to be addressed. The recession contributed to stuffing the back gate just to survive but it is not a tenable business model for growing the sport. We need to present A Show, not a series of shows. USAC/CRA 410 racing is the premier sprint car series in Southern California and should not be diluted with lower or miscelleanous classes. It needs a major sponsor, heavy advertising, a group of "star drivers" with some drama and a purse that draws both cars and attention. USAC needs to stop bleeding it's own premier West Coast series with 360's. There are plenty of tracks out there that cater to 360's. Traveling is not necessary, 12-20 shows at Perris is perfect for Southern California fans and minimizes expenses on car owners. It also allows proper streaming and production facilities to grow an internet audience. If I can afford the time or money to see more races than that, the choices are endless from Ventura to Phoenix to Northern California. I understand USAC is a national organization with prestige for drivers and the history to attract national sponsors. Where are they? I envison 5K to win each night, 40-50 cars, full grandstands and a national cable tv and internet following. Once again, California needs to be leading the nation. Don't believe the naysayers.

  As some of you know Kevin had already moved the Sprints up at Canyon; most recently the Copper on Dirt. 

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

Perris is the only Sprint Car track left in Southern California.  I believe there are enough fans in SoCal to fill the stands at Perris, but they are scattered from San Diego to Ventura to Barstow to Blythe.  Many of these fans have a 1-3 hour drive each way.  When the races don't end until 11-11:30 they don't show up.  I think we agree that the races are too long and end too late.

It would be nice to go "old school" and just run the big gun Sprint Cars, but the promoter never knows how many cars will be there so he "hedges" his show with support classes for financial reasons.  A lot of racers bring their families in the hauler to save fuel costs.  Moms and kids are stuck in the parking lot, in the heat, for hours with no food or drink, until the spectator gates open at 5:00 p.m.  If the pit gate opens at 2:00 p.m., most of the racers will be there by 1:30.  They go in at 2:00 and are (or should be) ready to race by 2:30.  from 2:30 to 4:30 nothing happens in the pits but "bench racing."  At 4:30 there is a ten minute pit meeting, and then it's wait until 5-5:15 to start wheelpacking.  At 5:00 the spectator gates open and some hungry, thirsty fans come in.  When the races end at 11-11:30 many fans have already left, and many more leave as soon as the main is over.  A few of us hardcore fans go into the pits.  But we don't live far away.

Here is my idea for a schedule for last Saturday's races:

Encourage all racers to pre-enter online to speed up the pit gate.  Put all items for pit meeting in a flyer handout at pit sign up.  Include timeline schedule for the evening.

Friday night - Track must be prepped and ready to race

Saturday - 2:00 p.m. Open Pit Gate, Spectators Gate and Concession Stands

                 3:30 p.m. Hot lap all classes.  first session - 5 laps

                                                           second session - 3 laps

                 4:30  -  Senior heats, Young Gun heats

                 5:30  -  CRA Qualifying

                 6:30  -  CRA Heats

                 7:15  -  Senior Main

                 7:30  -  CRA Semi

                 7:45  -  Young Gun Main

                 8:00  -  Intermission and CRA Main Lineup and Driver Introductions

                 8:30  -  CRA Main

                 9:00  -  Open gates to let fans into pits to develope relationships with teams and buy T-shirts, hats, etc.

                              (Steve Kinser sells about 70,000 T-shirts a year.  Do the math on that!!!)

                10:00  -  Fans are headed home

                10:30  -  Racers and track crew are headed home

So what do you guys think of this?

For more details on these ideas, visit ShortTrackAutoRacing.com 

Just basicly a copy of what Ventura does. Would have to be track prep between qualifing and heats. Starting that early during the summer would kill the track.

@ surfnsprint- If Ca is going to lead the way , first thing that needs to be changed is it should be CRA/USAC , the Car Owners of CRA should be in more control of thier own affairs , more like the org, structure of CRA, having a alliance with USAC on rules , insurance etc. could be a positive , bottom line if you want to lead , you need to be in control of your own destiny

I would tend to agree that Sprint Cars should be a stand alone show , one support class I think is a good show is the Stoga Labor day race with Sprint Cars & Midgets , one support class can work in certain situations

IIRC WoO has a promotional team that promotes most of thier shows, which limits the risk of tracks in booking a WoO show , maybe if we work a deal with the State Of Ca which owns most of the tracks we run on , working with the curret promotors to book 20 or so big Sprint Car Races that will work for every one involved , we might get to a point were it will sustain a big purse

There is a reason Sinatra, Elvis , Cash etc go last, The headliner always closes the show ! Entertainment 101 , you slowly build the excitment & finish with the big crescendo , design your race format accordingly

@ flash21- You bring up another great point as to why the headliner goes last as that allows kids & fans to interact with the drivers after the race & buy Tshirts etc , which suffers greatly if the Sprints run then 2 or three support classes run after them

I will shut up now to avoid digging myself into a deeper hole LOLLLL !!!!!!

The above Comments are satire & for entertainment
purposes only

If the PAS would put up a schedule such as this . ,,,,,, i would come back to the pas. ,,,, All sprint cars. ,,,, No other fillers  . ,,,, these shows are ways  to long. and the track surface will not support 4 classe in one day/night event..  If this were to happen there would 5 more of us fans back in the stands that I know of.   openning up at 2PM.     And over buy 9.30PM . ,,, That would be great. ,,,,,  A large amount of your fans have a large distance to travel to get home.   I know I could get  alot of the first time fans to come back and give it another try . ,,, thats  all they talked about on the way home. that was way to long.and at times really boring. ,,,,,, To much talking. ,,,,,,, loud music.   ,,,,,, And bring the cost of the parking lot back down to $5.00  . ,,,,,,,,,, Bottom line your not going two get back all the second time people to see the same old bull shit show ..  PARRIS AUTO SPEEDWAY  Needs a Big change  to get fans back in the stands. ,,,,, JOHN JENSEN. ... TURN 4 HOOD 

The  abouve post was a reply  BCB64 post 43 from post 462 .   '  SCHEDULE CHANGE '  JOHN JENSEN.

How do you figure Perris is the only Sprint Car track in Southern California?

Ventura runs Sprint Cars WAY more often than Perris. Santa Maria runs Sprint Cars. Both are in Southern California. Bakersfield is also in Southern California and they had Sprint Cars run this past weekend...

Also. Lose Driver Introductions and do a Parade of drivers and have ALL the drivers on the front straight during the Flag Ceremony. Like they do at Speedway... ALL drivers deserve to be introduced to the fans not just the twenty odd that made the main or took a provisional.

well I can't stand it any longer,all that really needs to be done is tighten up the damn show even with all the support classes,start the show on time and ditch all the useless down time ! keep it simple stupid (KISS)

ROB 

Here is the the way it should be in case Don is listening ; and this opinion is from a race fan and a driver ... USAC cra needs to run it's own show . Sorry to support classes but lets get real and with the times . No one wants to spend all sat night in the stands . Run a hour and a half show show .... Sprintcars only ... The big dogs . That's what people go to see , give em what they want . Don't tease em in the gates then drag em thru the night . And guess what they will leave wanting more and have the rest of the night to do whatever just as if they saw a movie . I reliZe don needs his back gate padded but here's the truth ...... The show is too fu$&ing long and we want a hard core , bangin show and that's it ! 

Simple ! 410 sprintcar show 90 mins short sweet and exciting . 

and maybe don can make up the back gate by running everything else together on the other nights 

Right over the centerfield fence! I would not change a word!

3 questions:

1. What is the plan to get from here to there? 

2. When do we start?

3. Who is going to drive the bus?

shorttrackautoracing.com

I disagree. Ventura runs karts, hobby stocks, sprint cars and half a dozen other divisions all on the same day and night. 9 divisions with about 10 entries each. I don't think that is a show. My plan for Perris was for a sprint car show. Sprint cars only. Sportsman divisions in the afternoon so friends and family can watch them race (the reason they came) and then leave whenever they want. Pros run the evening show so fans not connected to any particular team or driver and new fans can come watch the races at 6pm, go to the pits after the races (what other sport allows this?), and be done in about three hours. If they have to sit there for 5 or 6 hours, they won't be back. By the way, I think Jim Naylor is a good guy and I like the track. I raced there quite a few times as a sprint car crew member a couple decades ago. I think the track is a great midget track but a little small for 20 sprint cars. We went home with a bent race car a few times.

re track prep. There were 31 CRA sprints, 9 senior sprints and 6 young guns. That is 46 cars. Should be no problem.

shorttrackautoracing.com

I guess you and I define the term in different ways. It depends on how far you have to drive and how much traffic you will tolerate. To me that puts Ventura right on the edge. To me, Santa Maria and Bakersfield ( 2 tracks that are great sprint car tracks) are Central California tracks. I have made those tows numerous times and I have never gone to a race at Ventura that I didn't spend the night in a motel.

I really like your idea about driver intros. I simply added the driver intro comment because that is a tradition at sprint car and other races.  This, like other things, is something we do because we have always done it. It's a habit. Good Idea!

shorttrackautoracing.com

Loved the Hybrid Track!

Instead of heats for the support class Pill Draw Semi and invert the field for their main based on Semi Finish Rookie flags start in back no matter what! 

I think CLS EARNED their stripes to run their own show Saturday.   First time I truly enjoyed their races.