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

Nobody is arguing that Sunday nights haven't worked and wouldn't work in the future for the locals.  I believe the point is that Saturday is generally the best night for entertainment venues.  In my area Fridays are good, Saturday is best and Sundays come in at 3rd place.  If I'm paying nine million for an entertainment venue or even 1/4 of that price I'm going to want the best chance possible to succeed.  Late Model, USMTS and the big Sprint shows would all be a piece of that puzzle.  If we were talking your run of the mill little dirt track out in the boonies selling for under a half million local Sunday shows are fine.  If the price doesn't come out of the stratosphere I don't see it selling anytime soon.  

Stan Meissner

That's a plan that should work. You've hit all the hot buttons I think. Regardless of which direction a new Husets would go as far as working with other tracks, that is what it takes. And the night that is open and has always been open and has worked in the past for that facility is Sundays. To try and force other tracks to make the change of racing night isn't right at all. You're also 100% correct about it not happening overnight regarding car counts.  But like you I think car counts would rebound significantly.

Absolutely right on! Doug Wolfgang and many other drivers made Sioux Falls and the surrounding area their home for many years. I can see Sioux Falls attracting drivers and their families to the area if the racing conditions are right. There is plenty of opportunity in Sioux Falls.

If my bid is accepted, Badlands will be the baddest little bullring in sprint car racing, @ the nations #1 sprint car racing facility.  There is not a more fan friendly venue in the country. The views are the best, the towers rock, and yes, the bathrooms are better than at Best Buy, plus the action on the track is second none.  When you consider the timing and scoring system, replays on the big screens, the pay-per-view/tech at the track, and the on-track product, nothing even compares with this slice of dirt racing heaven.  The speedway will work with the other area tracks to schedule weekly and special events to benefit the car counts, the drivers and the fans. 

Resurrecting the NSL or whatever the future version of the NSL might be would be a high priority, as a multi-track championship series would obviously benefit all involved. 

The weekly Sunday schedule would lean towards every other Sunday swapping  2 or 3 fendered classes (1 per night), with 305's/360's swapping weeks and the 410 as the featured class, weekly.  There could be special Fendered Friday's or 360 Saturday's events when scheduling permitted without stepping on other area tracks.  Involving the other area tracks in multi-night points events such as a "360 SpeedWeek" between Park Jeff, Casino, Jackson, Wagner, Miller, Rocky and Badlands seems like a no-brainer, right?  Annual visits by the WoO, ASCoC, and ASCS as well as hosting USAC at least annually would be a priority. Midgets at Badlands would be something special, I am sure.  Working with Midco and/or the local media outlets to televise a Fendered Friday or 360 Satruday event at no charge to the viewer at least once per year would also be a priority.  

Personally, I would shoot for hot laps to start around (3-4PM), opening ceremonies NLT 5pm.  With reasonably priced concessions, tickets in the $15-25 dollar range, the option to bump your ticket to a tower ticket, season passes, special events, maybe a concert or two mixed in, it would be hard to screw this up. 

Maybe rebranding it as HoseHeads Speedway would be a way to get all of us on the same page as fans, friends, drivers, crew members and supporters of sprint car racing in the area.

Thanx,
Bruce

"support your local track and stay positive"

I think so, but hey it's just me. I agree car counts would rebound as long as everyone from the owners to racers to fans are patient and remember the "don't know what ya got til it's gone" feeling. As well the owner has to do their best to avoid going too big to fast.  I would bet, ran right and carefully, within 3-4 years B features would be being run. 

But were getting ahead of ourselves, first Brennan needs to compromise his price and someone is going to have to pay more than they want. What's it worth? Whatever 2 fool's agree upon  

I have never said Sunday nights would not work, but being able to play  $5000 to win with good payout through the field and or tow money and don't forget the other classes of cars purse plus the tracks operating expenses  for 15 Sundays in a race season, that is a dream and fantasy unless you have someone stupider than Chuckie buy the place. 

I could work with that! We'd have to be careful about too many specials, etc on Friday and Saturday .  I know you are saying working with other tracks, but unfortunately and maybe more importantly we have to work with area homeowners to avoid future issues. But I like your thinking.  And yes, USAC midgets were awesome there. The late Kenny Irwin put on a clinic there  

You never answered any of the questions, why is that?  All of your proposals for Huset's are pretty much the same of Chuckie's on the purse and such but the only difference is to run on a Sunday night. The only bullshit here is what comes out of you. 

You are right on with that post .  With the population around Minneapolis St. Paul and surrounding areas how many race tracks are around there in a 100+ mIle radius and how many race on a Sunday? How many tracks tried but failed or than either switched nights? 

How about if someone smarter than “Chuckie” buys the place?  Some people around here are always looking at ways to ensure failure, which is not the way to a brighter future, in racing or in life.  I personally think if you treat people/drivers/teams fairly, put a fantastic product on the track, and make it worth it for fans/friends/drivers/supporters to attend your events at a facility that is clean and enjoyable to go to, and doesn’t alienate a large portion of the general public, HoseHeads Speedway will be an unbelievable success.

My god, there is a successful drive-in movie theater and a dirt track in my hometown of 1200 people.  Obviously, its the greatest town in SD, but its in the middle of nowhere.  This isn't rocket science.

Remember, the current owner has made no friends amongst the local fan base.  His main business was to loan money to people who couldn't afford it at rates that basically ensure they can't get out of debt and continue to be haters, forever.  A continuing sources of revenue to go along with a continued source of hate.  Most people either hate him (and therefore his products) because they owe him money, or hate him because his business makes minced meat out of their friends and family.  Others, especially here hate him for other reasons.   I am 100% sure people didn't attend precisely because of the moral hurdle some are required to jump in order to support the place.   As a matter of fact, I was initially one of them.  I did get over it, and eventually attended every race possible, because I personally made the decision that sprint car racing was more important than the career choice of the guy promoting it at my favorite track.  I am not denigrating the guy, just trying to point out that the South Dakota consumer can be savvy when it comes to these things.  We all know how the ballot measure turned out.  That alone should tell you something about what and how people think, right or wrong.

There are ways to promote a race track, and make it appealing to almost everyone, the last two owners/promoters (Rubins and CB) at this one, by all accounts were really piss poor at major portions necessary to ensure success.  They failed for whatever reason to see the larger picture.  One promoter put almost nothing back into the facility and ran it into the ground, the other put almost everything into the facility, but forgot or never understood how to get people in the community to feel involved or invested in the product. 

There is little doubt that with proper promotion, getting the communities involved, and appealing to a larger slice of the general public than CB tried to appeal to, attendance could be pushed through the roof, especially with the upgrades CB made to the place, which is what ultimately makes the purses possible (revenue).  Combined with the pit gate, concessions, advertising and other revenue sources available to the future owner this place will become much more historically significant than it already is.

You can strive to make history, or as many around here do, dwell on the negative parts of it.  I will choose the former. 

Thanx,
Bruce

"support your local track and stay positive"

Cedar Lake is a Saturday track and offers the biggest multi day shows and are 45 minutes from the east end of the metro.  Ogilvie has stepped up with some of the big FXE promotions Mod shows and WoO Late Models and is about 1 1/2 hours.  Elko stopped their dirt experiments.

As far as Sunday nights go there aren't any near the Twin Cities.  Off the top of my head Sunday tracks are Proctor near Duluth, Eagle Valley in Wisconsin and whatever they call the Former Golden Spike near St. Cloud was Sunday but moved to Friday when Princeton went IMCA.  Weekly shows are having a tough time, big specials still draw well.  

I wouldn't even pay the Husets asking price for our most successful tracks.  Come to think of it I would even have second thoughts paying 1/4 of that 9.45 million.  If I was looking for a cheap Sunday night Sprint track St. Croix has been sitting idle for two years and I know the owner.

Stan Meissner

The thinking on the Friday/Saturday specials is for example, if Rocky, Park Jeff or Jackson is having MSTS 360's or Lates on a Friday or Saturday, HoseHeads Speedway could host them for a HoseHeads Double/Triple HoseHeader on the night they aren't at Rocky, Park Jeff or Jackson as way for the teams to hit another race without having to drive to some track several hours away or worse, go home empty handed having not hit any other track.   

Again, it about working with the series, tracks and drivers, not against them. 

Thanx,
Bruce

"support your local track and stay positive"

I'll answer (again) any damn question you have. Check out what others are posting about making Husets viable again. Pretty much all with the same themes. But first off......I had no problem with many of Brennan's plans......look back at my posts from very early on......the only problems I percieved from the get go was that of his failure to work with other tracks, his ego, and his moving race nights to Saturday. Not to mention later on his refreshment prices, and his fan unfrienly policy of no returning to the grandstand area without a new ticket if a fan had to leave for some reason. To me those things all smelled of doom, and I and many others were right. But more than a few of you insisted the problem was that Knoxville or Jackson refused to move to Sunday nights. And you are still questioning that even after your guy has long gone and left the fans in that area high and dry. So let's reflect on what is and isn't bullshit! That's why I say, get over it. Knoxville and Jackson are going to do just fine regardless. So the problem at hand becomes how does Husets/Badlands make a comeback? And your way is..........?

Except for North Star Speedway up until the early '80's, and the barnstorming IMCA days of the Early '70's and earlier, dirt tracks featuring sprint cars in the Twin Cities and surrounding areas have been non existant. One key reason is that the racing fan base in the metro preferred the full bodied cars on the paved short tracks. At one time those paved tracks in the area were packed every weekend. But property values, noise and other issues caused those tracks to close down. And very few metro areas that have a full roster of the primary proffessional sports also have a flourishing weekly racing program. As we know small tracks like 1/2 mile and smaller are found in smaller markets in most cases. Especially dirt tracks. There are very few exceptions to that. So the Twin Cities is a weak arguement. Going much north of the Twin Cities and the season is shortened considerably, also. That and the outdoors activities.

To be fair and honest, I don't believe that was ever the policy.  You had to work to even have to pay for a ticket many nights.  I walked up to the window and was either handed a free ticket because it was a special for vetereans, or health care workers or first responsers or some other reason, or the CC scanner wasn't working so they just waved people in free of charge (not kidding), as happened the first night I visited Badlands.  Which could be the source of that rumor.  If you were waived through the gate because the four square scanners were down, and you later left and then came back after the scanners were working, you'd probably have to justifiaibly pay, right?  I never once had any problem getting back in with my ticket stub if I had to go out to the car on any night. 

From my experience, I don't think the concessions prices were/are much different than Jackson or Park Jeff are they?  Been to both this year and it $4 or $5 for a burger, $3 for a 20. oz pop.  Really, its crazy what is charged at the convinence store ($2.50) and grocery store for a pop, so I don't think any of these tracks is way out of line.  Bear in mind, you can't get a #2, beef, medium with cheese at Taco John's for under $9 dollars, either.

Thanx,
Bruce

"support your local track and stay positive"

Cool.....thanks for setting the record straight on those.

Again I told you earlier that Chuckie is not and was never my guy, never went to a race there while he owned it. Plus you never did answer my questions regarding Knoxville. I don't expect Knoxville to move to Sunday nights but let's just play devil's advocate for a bit  (because isn't that what you are doing for Huset's right now),  do you think Knoxville could pay their same payout as it is right now if they raced on Sundays all season long? Do you think they would get the same amount  attendance of fans?  Do you think they would get all the same cars there on a Sunday night? You know that the answer is NO to all the above questions that I asked and asked you in a earlier post  that you never did answer. But my answer to  your question regarding my way on running the track is that it sure as hell would not be on a Sunday and I would not step on the toes of Knoxville and Jackson. If you and others  think that I am being negative that's fine but all I am being is being realistic. There is no easy or good answer to any of this because if there was somebody would have made some sort of offer on the track and it would be open by now. 

The main point of the question was about racing on Sunday nights,  not about the class of cars. Iowa has many tracks and there is a lot near Knoxville,  why don't you think any of them tracks have not picked up 410 sprints and run on Sunday. Most of the tracks that run on Sundays except for specials, will only run your smaller classes of cars with lower purses because of the reasoning that everyone has to be back at work on Monday. 

    Well, if we're being honest.....

    In 2016 I went to Badlands 6 times. One of those times I bought a ticket. The other 5 times I had been given a ticket. In fact, there were so many tickets being given away that at one race I gave a man and his family 4 of the extra tickets I had. Before doing that, I had contacted half a dozen friends and found they all had been given free tickets. Two times I was given tickets by strangers as I walked in through the parking lot. I think a lot of free tickets had been given out to bolster the crowds.

    On 2 occasions I tried to talk the security guards into letting me out to grab a jacket out of the car and then come back in. Both times I was told I'd have to buy a new ticket. They said it was due to "insurance regulations". Several people I know faced the same hurdle when needing to go out and get a jacket for a kid. I know of folks who never went back because of that. I'd also note that I always seemed to be hasseled by the security guys at the north end. A lumpy, balding guy in his mid-fifties wouldn't seem to be the guy smuggling in contraband or foreign fruit, but they singled me out most every time.

    I didn't go to the concession or beer stands, but from where I sat I could see that the north concession stand was always very congested and slow moving. I did heard a lot of grumbling about warm beer- which should be a federal offence by the way.

     The bathrooms on the other hand were spectacular.

I was never a big fan of racing 410’s On Saturday.   I think I understood his philosophy in general(ND cars), that doesn’t mean I liked it.  And that doesn’t mean I’m talkin out of both sides.   I understand that for it to work moving forward, Husets would have to run 410’a on Sundays. however, as mentioned above, blazer, among others think it’s so easy to say that running Sunday’s will have such huge car counts. I simply looked at modern 3-6 year history, and that isn’t the case.  

And to to your point about racing Saturday’s and getting “even fewer cars.”   I dare to bet (I’m guessing, not stating) there were more ND drivers that showed up on a Saturday, than Knoxville cars would’ve on a Sunday.       Not talking caliber. Just strictly numbers.