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

  My good friend the Iron Sheik sent me his opinion of BMS

Knoxville Natioanls attendee since '95
Favorite Tracks...River Cities, Knoxville, Cedar Lake
Favorite Drivers...S.Kinser, T.Kaeding, K.Madsen, S.Smith
Proud Canadian 

Man if I had posted some of the stuff the last bunch of posters have, the Badlands/Brennan die hard defenders would be after my skin! I have not once stated that I wanted Badlands to fail. But it was pretty obvious early on that Brennan was going to be his own worst enemy in this deal. And as much as his defenders want to bash Knoxville and Tod Quiring, Knoxville management and Tod can hold their heads high in how they refused to get in to a pissing contest with Brennan and behave as he did. Kudos to those of you on this thread that have recognized the facts. I have a tremendous passion for sprint car racing, and still, I would like to see Badlands succeed. I think there's a better chance that will happen if Brennan gets in to the mix and works with the NSL and Knoxville towards sprint car growth in the Midwest.  But I doubt that he's going to give that an effort.

You could have had this race at any other Midwest track and had double the car count and a full grandstand. If it was grand forks having this race/purse there would be full representation from woo, nsl, and Nosa. There'd be 50 plus sprint cars in the pits no doubt in my mind. 

Knoxville Natioanls attendee since '95
Favorite Tracks...River Cities, Knoxville, Cedar Lake
Favorite Drivers...S.Kinser, T.Kaeding, K.Madsen, S.Smith
Proud Canadian 

The best thing that Chuck could possibly do for his track and sprint car racing is to put someone else (that knows sprint car racing and doesn't offend everyone that matters) in charge and give them his wallet to run the place.

Go back to racing 410's on Sunday night, send an apology letter to the WoO, NSL and Knoxville, start working with those groups and the with the money he is throwing around he would have big car counts of quality cars.

Husets used to have big crowds on Sunday nights. There's enough population to draw from within 20-30 minutes and a lot of people that did make an hour and a half drive to the track when the car counts were good, and would again.  Hell, what else is there to do on a Sunday night. The three parties involved, Badlands, Knoxville and the NSL/Jackson Motorplex could create a Tri-State weekly series that would attract other cars to the midwest and make this a hot bed for sprint car racing. 

My feelings exactly.....Chuckie Cheesy needs to GTFOH for the betterment of sprint car racing in the Midwest. Spoke to several fans drivers and other people in the know at the Natls, who want nothing to do with BMS and the loan shark. I applaud the drivers who attended tonight that want to make some big $$. But I respect the ones that didn't attend even more. Im sure tmac dobs and TK are loving the $$ but I cant blame them for that. They race cause they want to earn big $$ and they love the sport. As the owner of a race track, you have to be a good neighbour as well and if you wanna play in the sandbox with the other kids, you have to get along. 

Knoxville Natioanls attendee since '95
Favorite Tracks...River Cities, Knoxville, Cedar Lake
Favorite Drivers...S.Kinser, T.Kaeding, K.Madsen, S.Smith
Proud Canadian 

That was exactly Tod's plan until Chuckie stepped in. I honestly never understood Chuck's plan to change the nights. I mean, I could see his theory but never understood why he would actually do it. From a business stand point, he took over a turn key business that had been a gold mine for years. Make all of your upgrades, hell even change the name if you like. But why in the hell would you change the nights?!?!

Husets was already making bank as a Sunday night track. You had a HUGE fan base that religiously went to the track every Sunday night. That was their thing to do on Sunday nights is go to the races. Now, all of a sudden you change your big night to Saturday and have to "re-train" so to speak your already established HUGE fan base to now go to the races on Saturday night instead of Sunday. It just does not make good "business" sense.

It would be like someone taking over the NFL and saying, "Ok, my name is John Smith and this is how it's going to go down. We are going to switch our main game day to Saturday instead of Sunday. Who cares about everybody that follows college football because I am going to be bigger and better than anything ever before!" Not quite the same exact thing but it is pretty similar if you think about it.

I find it hard to believe that Husets and the Rubin's were "making bank." Why would they sell if that was the case? Regardles, chuck sure as hell hasn't turned a profit either. 

-Austin Rankin

The term "making bank" has no place in sprint car discussions

Everything is for sale for the right price. Plus, running a race track isn't easy. The Rubin's weren't getting any younger and knew the right opportunity to sell wouldn't come along every day. You obviously aren't from the area. Trust me, they haven't been roughing it the past 26 years. Don't get me wrong, they worked their asses off and deserve it but they did quite well in those 26 years.

That's actually a helluva good analogy. I'm not from that part of the country so I can't speak as to what the support was like for the previous ownership but what you said makes sense 100%. I follow sprint car racing throughout the rest of the country and even down under as best I can from here in Central Pennsyltucky and I thought what Tod was trying to do with the NSL was brilliant as far as bringing some unification to that area of the country and really taking advantage of the opportunity to make it a sprint car hotbed. It's a shame Chuck had to step in and do what he did but I'm not surprised. 99% of the track owners, promoters, and series owners within the sport understand that working together for the betterment of the sport as a whole is the way to be most successful. Unfortunately, Chuck is all about Chuck and nothing else. He wanted to come in guns blazing and he thought that with the money he had and his connections to the rock and roll world, he'd become everyone's favorite guy. He figured he'd be just like the cool kid on the block who had all the expensive toys that all the other kids wish they had. He doesn't care about sprint car racing or making it better. He only cares about himself and his huge ego. I still hold out hope that he'll see the light, mend his relationships with those he pissed off and do things the right way because just like blazer, even though I'll probably never attend a race there, I'd like to see Huset's and every other sprint car track be as successful as possible because we're all better off if sprint car racing as a whole is as healthy as possible.

Well it doesn't sound like he's (Brennan) done yet....got it from a friend last night from the pits that Brennan's plans for next year is to run all sprint car classes weekly on Saturday nights, rather than have the sprints split Sat/Sun like they were this year. (and to the Badlands "goons" I'm not going to reveal who that came from so kiss my ass!) Time will tell if that's a fact or if he was taking a poll or testing the drivers thoughts about it. From the sounds of things, the drivers present last night were not in favor of that. So if that's the case, and he makes the change, further developement of sprint car racing in the midwest is still stymied by a roadblock.

How was the crowd last nite?

Evidently you haven't been to Husets/Badlands in many years.    The old  Sunday night crowd has disappeared over the past 5 years.   Cars counts were getting slimmer and slimmer.   Some nights they were lucky to have 12-15 410's tops with a few 360's in the mix.   Very few tracks run sundays anymore.    I don't agree with everything that has happened this year but at least I am open to see what the changes will bring over time.

Up here we have had 6 tracks change hands, either to other owners or closed up.   3 of those basically got run into the ground by the Rubins.   Lake County got sold off and closed, Rock Rapids has had 2 different organizations & Husets.    I-90 committed a slow suicidial slide which most likely never would of opened this year and is sitting idle. (Thanks Lyle), Park Jefferson has seen new promoters and Jackson which has new ownership.

One question I always have ponder while going to Husets over the years is "Why do we have to always settle for the leftovers on sundays."" ????     Even in the old modified days it seemed liked we raced 3 times a week.   We would run Fridays at Rocky, Lake County or Jackson on saturdays and Husets on sunday.   Even twice on sunday when they had races at the state fair in Huron on Sunday afternoon and high tail it back to run Husets on sunday night.   Heck we even did Lake County sat, night, drive to Spencer for the Sunday afternoon dustbowl and run back to Husets.    Husets had a good field of cars back in the 70's with C features common but since 1976 it all started to go down.   Many people got tired of busting their asses to run 3 nights,  parts were getting to expensive ( I can remember when a damn good cam cost $50).

One old timer said years ago right after the Outlaws started said, "This is going to hurt local racing bad so bad.   All those guys are getting free parts, tires, frames and guess what, the locals are the ones that will be paying for all that free shit they get.    

Back to racing Sunday nights....if it so great why is nobody else doing it???????   Forget the NSL/Knox/Badlands family fights.   Outside of those that drive for a living with spare parts for their spare parts in the upper midwest there really is only a couple.  Most have  REAL jobs and kids and being a parent is more important every time....

I can't disagree with anything you stated. Hell I witnessed all of what you said....and put my fair share of miles on too. I was just simply on the other side of the fence (the stands). Doesn't mean I didn't pay attention and watch the trends. So why are Ohio and PA so successful, and in the midwest we're going backwards? It isn't because of the population difference, either. We have enough population and sprint car fans to support the true sprint car tracks in our area. You discount Sunday racing at Badlands because of what took place in the past. That being the case, we're saying we're not going to learn from the past. That's the first mistake. I have no doubt that Sunday night at Badlands could have the largest weekly fan attendance of all three of the major tracks....Knoxville and Jackson being the other two, of course. But I don't think Badlands can achieve that standing alone. Badlands has the history and tradition and a large population within 30 minutes, let alone all those within an hour or so. The bottom line is this.....it was never even considered to cooperate with the existing sprint car dynamics in the area. Does it happen for the three tracks the way it was with our sprint car population. No.....we dont have enough cars and drivers that can run a circuit like Jackson/Knoxville/Badlands. But....we don't have enough cars to run two tracks on Saturday night, either, and that is proving out. Bull shit on the fact that those two tracks are 270 miles apart. People act like all the drivers either live in Knoxville or Sioux Falls. What a laugh.  Drivers WILL travel! So the solution is this....find a way to draw more cars to the upper midwest. Three tracks running two nights won't do it. It takes three tracks running three nights. That will attract the driver that races for a living. It will also attract new sponsors. Does anybody know how many new sponsors jumped on board when Tod Quiring announced the creation of the NSL? A bunch....and that's a fact! Increase the population of sprint cars, and then special shows at other tracks during the week will work also, which is what the NSL attempted to do. Growth make everybody a winner. Funny, Chuck Brennan really did have a chance to come in to this deal and say "look what a difference I made". He can still do that if he chooses.

Last night was raised to 10 grand to win.

What would you two say if husets went back to sundays and still had the same car counts??? Cuz that's what would happen. Give up the idea of a 3 night weekend every weekend...it's not going to happen and even if it did, it wouldn't be as successful as you think. That's a lot of miles for 20 plus drivers to put in every week. Point being you'd see just as many if not less on sundays. 

Only thing is I doubt that he cares he is taking a bath. Seems like his ego is just as big if not bigger than his bank account. I just don't know what this guy's game is and what he is trying to accomplish. I'm all for buying a race track if you are fan and wanting to improve the sport and you are free to run it how you want to. But no one can sit there and say the way he is running things is not out of spite of the whole NSL, Tod Quiring issue last year.

Changing race days from Sunday to Saturday is one thing and if you feel you can make more money is one thing. But posting car count totals of your track versus another track running the same night is just wrong and stupid. Every promoter has said for years that you try to have cooperation with other tracks as much as you possibly can.

The goal should be to make the pie bigger for all. not to take as much of the current pie as possible

Sundays doesn't make any sense for them, But neither does alienating the major players in sprint car racing.

I hope they have a reboot next year because the money beong paid is outstanding, the facility, for all I've heard is outstanding, but the folks in charge need to figure out a way to play a bit more nicely with everyone involved.

I have no dog in this fight, never been to Badlands/Husets, never been to Jackson and only been to Knoxville for the Nationals the last 12years but the only way for a 3 track series of these 3 tracks is for Knoxville to change nights to either Friday or Sunday (which I do not see) because they are the one that is the futher distance of the other 2 tracks.  It would be too costly and put alot of strain on teams running back in forth for 3 nights of racing (see mileages and times below).  None of the drivers you mentioned raced Jackson on a regular basis before Tod Quiring (who I think has done wonders for the sport) purchased that track and runs NSL races there most Fridays. Nobody complained that he does this against River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, ND which is 365 miles ( 6 hours) away.  

While Chuck may be an a$$ for some of the things he has said and done, he also has done some good by giving the drivers/teams a chance to make some more money which I am sure they need. He has also gotten some of the other tracks/series to raise their purses also which again is good for the drivers/teams and sport and which will make it easier for new teams to start up. Like I said Chuck is an a$$ for some of his doings but so are the drivers (not counting the WoO) that did not attend this race this weekend.  They complain about there not being enough high dollar shows and then when there is one and they have an off weekend at Knoxville they do not attend. Is them not attending really doing good for their sponsors, I think not.    So you can see there are more a$$es in the area besides Chuck.

So just enjoy the racing you have, because tracks have to make money to survive and Sunday nights do not work anymore because beer sales are a big part of the profit and fans do not drink much on Sunday's when they have to go to work on Monday. Also alot of driver's/teams do not race on Sunday's because of having to be at work on Monday.

So by looking below, if a 3 track series could happen, which way would be most beneficial to drivers and teams?

Jackson, MN to Knoxville, IA = 238 miles (4hours 15mins) + Knoxville, IA to Sioux Falls, SD = 316 miles (5hours) for a total of 554 miles (9hours 15mins)

or

Jackson, Mn to Sioux Falls, SD = 99 miles (1hour 40mins) + Sioux Falls, SD to Knoxville IA = 316 miles (5hours)  for a total of 415 miles (6hours 40mins)

for a savings of 139 miles (2hours 35mins) . Now say that this is for 15 weekends = 2085 miles (38hours 45mins). Most teams in the area could not afford that extra expense in time or dollars.