29 replies to this topic

[jo73]

Thru-out the years car counts have seen a steady decrease in our area. Many have there many reasons as to why. Personally, racing in western pa has changed a great deal in the last 10yrs. You currently have the penn ohio series for the sportsman guys. Get rid of calling them cadet's or some form of stock. There far from it. I sometimes wonder what guys like wearing, scott, watt, would have done with these cars as they are today.

The modifies still have a local group. But, you better look at the age of some of these guys. There bringing in very few as I say. NEW BLOOD. You have the big blocks, 358's, I really do hate this word, RUSH 602 MODS, listening to these guys bouncing them off there Rev limiters. Not my cup of tea. If it works for you, whatever, you must like saying I finished top5. By the way 6 car field. Again, JMO. I almost forgot, E-mods. Enough said. These boys have to be budget less.

Crate LM. A great class. Personally, I say no new cars allowed. No light weight hubs, rotors and break assemblies. There are to many cars that the only difference between them is motors.

SLM and SPRINT CARS. It's what we all go to see. They money spent is ridiculous. Most of these car owners do it because they love the class, they love the activity.

Most of the above mentioned have good car numbers thru-out western pa. So my question is, WHY, has not one promotor wiped the slate clean and said let's give it a shot. Actually, I think tri-city is, I'm sure Walt can straighten me out on that one. Again, Jmo, but Sunday nights and travel hamper them. Agian, Walt, I will ask you. How was there car counts threw the year ?

Let's pick one track. Say, O'Billie speedpark. I do not and try very hard not to use anyone's name. UNLESS, it's been obvious that they screwed the racer. Few have gone against lernerville, are areas staple Friday night track. Would o Billie stand a chance on friday. I think so, it would depend on points and what's it pay. Remember your not competing, your specials only. The Saturday night tracks, Hell, I'd probably miss half of them. You'd be committing suicide. There's just to dam many tracks.

Humm, so let's try Thursday nights. Let's run are first Thursday with a SLM show Now, the big ??? PURSE. So we can go all over the place with this one. Since it's my track. I'm going to pay 3500.00 to win and pay 24 spots. B main, winners advance the rest go home. Tow money. Not here, but, your also NOT paying entry fee's. The rest of the classes are paying the same. Thursday. Your going to pull sprint cars from everywhere. Modifieds, maybe some new York guys. Sportsman, he'll for that kind of purse, many cars.

So back to why I started this. In today's economy why is nobody thinking outside the box ? Remember, all this was just my opinion. I say sit back and think of reasons it won't work. I think the positive out weights the negative by leaps and bounds. Sponsors, and a promotor that gets on board 100% is what is needed.

[Buick 6]

You must have been looking at McKeans 2016 schedule when you wrote that.

[spike]

And with that $500 to start. The sky is the limit.

[714d]

Central pa/cnb made it work great until they scraped the dirt off, but that horse has been beat to death and then beat some more.

I've always thought, if I ran a track (I hope I'm never dumb enough to try that) I would run 2 or 3 weekly divisions and try to constantly run different specials almost weekly. There are enough small series, that you could do it and bring a new show all the time. Example: ULMS, Rush, penn/ohio, big block mods, e mods, 410's, 305's. Could go on and on. That would be fun to have your loyal drivers/fans, plus draw new every week with a goal of making them want to come back again.

[Cool1]

Tri-City is pretty much doing this, and the shows last year were great. We'll see how it works out his year. I wish them all the best.

[Tommy]

Challenger worked great as a specials only track. It usually always had a solid car count.

And 714d, just race your local divisions, screw having small series come to your track as it would make your locals feel less valued as you bring in different classes/series every week

[spike]

Tri-City is pretty much doing this, and the shows last year were great. We'll see how it works out his year. I wish them all the best.

Features starting after midnight probably shouldn't be labeled as great.

Edited by spike, 27 December 2015 - 08:39 PM.

[Express Man]

If a a track can't put on a weekly show to support the racers and Fans.....No one should support the specials  This sport was built on Saturday night/ Sunday afternoon racing!  Not specials!  I can see a track having one or two specials a year!  Specials are generally not beneficial to weekly/local racers.Why do you want to support the traveling guys??/  They aren't there to support your track.  Just take the money and run!

[The Legend]

How do you figure that Thursday is going to pull cars from
Anywhere let alone everywhere ??? People have job dude and family's. Most people's lives don't revolve around racing ... The payout you explain would see you taking a 30k plus loss on a weekly basis. There's been many times track owners have put up 3-5k to win an got 10 cars ... So you have the fans who showed up and paid special event rate for 10 cars not to
Mention their time and gas driving to and from the track who most likely won't attend the next time.

[blaneyfan10]

my opinion there is too many specials along with too many series which is hurting the weekly car counts 

[jo73]

Anyone remember North Hills speedway ? Sorry Jon, Thursday is no different than Friday in terms of teams getting to the track on time. And, a specials only format would get people back out the gate early in the evening. Again, please remember, nobody is going to do this. It's me just putting my thoughts out there and making good conversation about it. Enjoy.

[Walt Wimer]

Back in the 1960s-70s Mid-week specials were quite popular.  Lernerville, Mercer Schmuckers (Latrobe),  Tri-City, Motordrome, they all had such back then.  Drew cars from many area tracks in the days before the full time travelers and the WoO, Lucas and All Stars.

 

Walt

[The Legend]

North hills speedway closed in what year ? What did it cost to build a winning car back then ? What did the race pay to win. How many cars did the area have back then that raced multiple times a week? How much time did people spend on the internet back then ?!!

[dirtstudent2]

The only thing weekday racing specials would mean for me is I'd go to more races.

 

If there were a lot of them, it would also make it easier to skip a Friday through the weekend race, to do something else.  

[ramsey31]

Fan wise, it takes more advertising to do specials only.    As a fan, you know which night a track runs on, and can plan accordingly.   Ill bet atleast 1/2 of a weekly grandstand cares about specials, or cares about big names coming in.    Most people attend the races in support of someone they know, or because its a local thing to do, like the movies, etc.

[Stock Stroker]

Back in the 1960s-70s Mid-week specials were quite popular.  Lernerville, Mercer Schmuckers (Latrobe),  Tri-City, Motordrome, they all had such back then.  Drew cars from many area tracks in the days before the full time travelers and the WoO, Lucas and All Stars.

 

Walt

Thats right Walt, I can remember leaving on Wednesday afternoon and returning home Monday night after 6 nights of racing.  When racing was FUN!!

[Walt Wimer]

With family and a wife that never liked racing, I was never able to do that!!!

 

Walt

[D1RT]

Back in the 1960s-70s Mid-week specials were quite popular.  Lernerville, Mercer Schmuckers (Latrobe),  Tri-City, Motordrome, they all had such back then.  Drew cars from many area tracks in the days before the full time travelers and the WoO, Lucas and All Stars.

 

Walt

The Summer Sizzlers at Motordrome 70 were hands down some of the best racing I ever seen!

You had better get there early too if you wanted a seat as it was standing room only come race time.

[FanJim24]

North hills speedway closed in what year ? What did it cost to build a winning car back then ? What did the race pay to win. How many cars did the area have back then that raced multiple times a week? How much time did people spend on the internet back then ?!!

Pretty much that ^.  

 

A lot of the old drivers still have great memories of North Hills, but it only worked for a few years.   I still miss the track, and the racing.  I really don't see a weeknight track working nowadays, The economy won't support it and it's way more expensive to run a track now.  The government has to have their hands in it, and get too much, plus it costs too much to race.  When North Hills ran late models were cars, alcohol fuel was illegal in them, (not that that stopped everyone), and the gas was $.30.  Even modifieds were real cars when North Hills ran them.  

 

I would love to be able to go to the races 4 nights a week, but I don't see it happening.

[jo73]

Tommy. Challenger was on the right path. There downfall was the shit they let go on after the race's where over.

Spike. Features after midnight on a sunday. They will and I'm sure that they understand it. Have to get that corrected.