66 replies to this topic

[BUTTBEAK]

I was told this buy someone who carries a radio, first hand,....... and I won't say whom it was for their protection. This is by NO means an attack on the people that do all the actual labor intensive work at the speedway, hats off to all of you that actually love racing, and volunteer your time, expertise and efforts to keep us and the speedway alive!

[MileyTHEmonsterFAN]

It's hard to get a grip on car counts this early in the year. Many folks simply aren't ready. But Pittsburgh hasn't drawn many cars other than crates for a few years. I could see them dropping weekly racing and going to a specials only format. If they are promoted right and pay well, they have shown they can draw nice crowds.

You are correct in this assesment. For the last few years PPMS has averaged around 10-15 late models a week. And the gap between the good teams and the guys not as competitive is very wide. As another poster stated, the track is so large that you can really see the disparity between the guys with money and guys without. Also there are drivers who do not run every week, so if everyone who raced there showed up on the same night the count for lates would be decent. But what happens is Steve Baker will race and Brandon Burgoon will not for example then the next week Baker is off and Burgoon races. So you always get around the same amount of cars. Truth be told the crates have carried the track for the past few years. They produce the biggest field and usually the best racing weekly. I could see them going to specials only for Late Models but the problem there is 80 % of your crowd is there to see the late models. If they are not there every week you will see the crowd go from 100 to about 25 people. That is why I am anxious to see what kind of fan turnout they get for the Sunday night 100 lap crate race with no late models on the card.

[huckinfillbilly]

I personally love the track as a fan and it is close to my home but after many seasons of the gate prices going up and out of this world food prices and seeing none of the money being put back into the facility I will no longer go there I will drive the extra hour to go to a track where they re-invest some of our hard earned dollars and show us as fans and th_e drivers some appreciation its sad to see such a great track going to hell due to greed

[racer67x]

I personally love the track as a fan and it is close to my home but after many seasons of the gate prices going up and out of this world food prices and seeing none of the money being put back into the facility I will no longer go there I will drive the extra hour to go to a track where they re-invest some of our hard earned dollars and show us as fans and th_e drivers some appreciation its sad to see such a great track going to hell due to greed

heres something I ran across on the net..thinking it pertains to this thread showing how you build a fanbase instead of destroying it.

http://web.a-znet.co...1w/don-mrtn.htm

RIP Don Martin..

[galloomp]

heres something I ran across on the net..thinking it pertains to this thread showing how you build a fanbase instead of destroying it.

http://web.a-znet.co...1w/don-mrtn.htm

RIP Don Martin..

Thanks for posting that Danny, was worth reading

[D1RT]

heres something I ran across on the net..thinking it pertains to this thread showing how you build a fanbase instead of destroying it.

http://web.a-znet.co...1w/don-mrtn.htm

RIP Don Martin..

Thanks for posting racer67x!!!
And that is exactly why Lernerville was packed with fans and cars EVERY Friday night and for their special shows.
And doing the exact opposite is why Western Pa. tracks are now struggling to put fans in the stands and drivers in the pits to support their tracks.

[BaconBits]

heres something I ran across on the net..thinking it pertains to this thread showing how you build a fanbase instead of destroying it.

http://web.a-znet.co...1w/don-mrtn.htm

RIP Don Martin..

That is a pretty awesome article.


You know what's funny about it though?

You know how there's some people around here that claim Lenerville's surface was so much better years ago? Well, this article mentions how slick Lenerville got, and how Don himself admitted he kept it slick and smooth.

Edited by BaconBits, 19 April 2014 - 08:38 PM.

[lrnvlFan1w]

heres something I ran across on the net..thinking it pertains to this thread showing how you build a fanbase instead of destroying it.

http://web.a-znet.co...1w/don-mrtn.htm

RIP Don Martin..

I read that a few years back.

Really is a good read.

Maybe Don promoted it so well because he was part of bringing it from nothing.

[racer02]

Where were tommy beck 91, jayme beck 92, kari gasser, micaeal davis 7m, crusher 72 Norris and of course the LEGEND??? they'd have 16 or so lates

maybe invite the e-mods back would help out???

Jayme Beck is back on the asphalt in a former Neil Brown car. Not sure if she will be running any dirt this season.

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[Skull]

That is a pretty awesome article.


You know what's funny about it though?

You know how there's some people around here that claim Lenerville's surface was so much better years ago? Well, this article mentions how slick Lenerville got, and how Don himself admitted he kept it slick and smooth.

That article was written by Dave Wickham (sp?), for those that didn't know.

By the way, the track was still fast with a cushion most of the evening back then. It could and did get slick at times, but mostly only during the period when this article was written, in the early 80's when Don was running six divisions, and/or during extended dry periods. Anyway, they knew how to make a track both fast and smooth consistently. Talk to some of the veteran drivers if you don't believe me. A good friend has thousands of laps around there and he'll tell you about using 12 or more tear-offs during the feature.

I don't want to hear any more bullshit about slowing the cars down and making it safer, either. It's the cheapest way (lack of track prep) to do it, so that's the way it'll be done. It has nothing to do with safety. Refer to the discussion about the rotting bleachers and then get back to me with how much WRG is concerned about the safety of it's competitors and spectators. The LM race was ok, and the Stock race was good, but it always is. Other than that, pretty uneventful mostly because the track prep sucked, period.

Edited by Skull, 20 April 2014 - 08:31 AM.

[Walt Wimer]

The stock feature was the best of the night!! Those guys deserve more credit than they get!! Walt

[kk19]

The track actually has too many grooves and it's too easy to pass there. It's hard to fault a track for being too racey, but with 7-car heats you will typically only see 1 lap of passing before they are sorted from fastest to slowest and the rest of the race is worthless. The fastest car could start last and they will blow past the entire field in turns 1 and 2 on the start and the race is over. I've seen that happen quite a few times out there. You won't see any long side-by-side battles because you can pass cars there like you're taking a leisurely drive down Route 22. Hartman almost started last in the second Pittsburgher feature a few years ago and passed the entire field in 19 laps, they could have thrown the checkered on lap 20 because the race was over after that. 20+ cars at least makes it more interesting because the leaders have to pass some lapped traffic.

I actually thought that since the owners sold off some of the land and sold Motordrome that they would actually make an investment into the track. I guess I was wrong. It looks like they will run it into the ground until the grandstands won't pass inspection anymore then sell it off. It's a shame when track owners don't have the passion to try to make their track a first-class facility.

Sayingthe track had to many grooves and is to easy to pass on might be the dumbest thing I ever read on here what do you wnt a 1 groove track you cant pass on ?

[BaconBits]

That article was written by Dave Wickham (sp?), for those that didn't know.

By the way, the track was still fast with a cushion most of the evening back then. It could and did get slick at times, but mostly only during the period when this article was written, in the early 80's when Don was running six divisions, and/or during extended dry periods. Anyway, they knew how to make a track both fast and smooth consistently. Talk to some of the veteran drivers if you don't believe me. A good friend has thousands of laps around there and he'll tell you about using 12 or more tear-offs during the feature.

I don't want to hear any more bullshit about slowing the cars down and making it safer, either. It's the cheapest way (lack of track prep) to do it, so that's the way it'll be done. It has nothing to do with safety. Refer to the discussion about the rotting bleachers and then get bake to me with how much WRG is concerned about the safety of it's competitors and spectators. The LM race was ok, and the Stock race was good, but it always is. Other than that, pretty uneventful mostly because the track prep sucked, period.

The mod race wasn't half bad either. Williamson and Rudolph were coming. If a late caution had happened, it would have got very interesting.

I'm not saying that I agree with everything WRG does at Lernerville. They definitely need to go through the bleachers and replace a bunch of boards. They were extremely springy down towards turn one in between section G and H. My dad is a very portly gentleman, and when we had to stand up for the national anthem, the board underneath him was bending like crazy. I was worried about it breaking. They better get on that before the huge crowds show up at the Firecracker and Silver Cup.

And the track prep could have been better. It slicked off way earlier than it normally does. I haven't seen it that slick that early since the daytime portion of the 24 hours of Lernerville during the Firecracker last year. It's slick more often than not these days, as most dirt tracks are, but Friday was especially bad.

[GEARHEAD]

Sayingthe track had to many grooves and is to easy to pass on might be the dumbest thing I ever read on here what do you wnt a 1 groove track you cant pass on ?

That's what everybody complains about! They complain because the racing gets strung out and there aren't any side-by-side battles but there is more passing there than at most racetracks. I said you can't fault the track for being too racey, if you could read you would have seen that.

Edited by GEARHEAD, 20 April 2014 - 12:07 PM.

[MileyTHEmonsterFAN]

Man the car counts are not looking good so far this year. 12 late models and 12 crates, last year they had almost 20 crates weekly what in the world is going on?

[flash49]

[/right][right]

Man the car counts are not looking good so far this year. 12 late models and 12 crates, last year they had almost 20 crates weekly what in the world is going on?

Tommy Schirnhofer and Daryl Charlier are not out yet, don't know if the Lukons are running PPMS this year, Beau Glemba hasn't been out, Mike Reft was missing last night, Jabo Jablonski had his garage and race cars destroyed, plus it was the night before Easter, maybe some racers had some family goings-on. Also, Scott Schemp hasn't been out yet. And to show that car count isn't the most important thing, the Crate Race last night was one of the best I have seen, if it hadn't been for the Curry caution, the three wide race for the lead may have continued until the end.

Edited by flash49, 20 April 2014 - 01:58 PM.

[racer67x]

Tommy Schirnhofer and Daryl Charlier are not out yet, don't know if the Lukons are running this year, Beau Glemba hasn't been out, Mike Reft was missing last night, Jabo Jablonski had his garage and race cars destroyed, plus it was the night before Easter, maybe some racers had some family goings-on.

Kyle was at Sharon.

[flash49]

Kyle was at Sharon.

What I meant was, I don't know if the Lukons will be running at PPMS on a regular basis, since the last month of last season, I don't believe they were at Pittsburgh at all, except for the Pittsburgher.

[MileyTHEmonsterFAN]

Yeah not sure why Phil would pass up a track right next to his house where he has a good chance of winning to race elsewhere. Seems like a dumb decision to me. Flash49.....I thought Daryl was a late model driver?? Hopefully in the coming weeks the fields pick up. Watching 12 cars on the huge track is not as fun as watching say 20 cars.

[dirtguy200948]

[/right][right]

Tommy Schirnhofer and Daryl Charlier are not out yet, don't know if the Lukons are running PPMS this year, Beau Glemba hasn't been out, Mike Reft was missing last night, Jabo Jablonski had his garage and race cars destroyed, plus it was the night before Easter, maybe some racers had some family goings-on. Also, Scott Schemp hasn't been out yet. And to show that car count isn't the most important thing, the Crate Race last night was one of the best I have seen, if it hadn't been for the Curry caution, the three wide race for the lead may have continued until the end.

Lukons are running the rush series, wont be at ppms this yr much.
Beau only comes here in there.
Mike Reft, has even been out at all this yr yet?
Scott Schemp, is like Beau.

Thats like saying where is lunger, kowatic, wylie, martin, ect.. Sure all those ppms guys race there, but not often.