37 replies to this topic

[jo73]

Both of those gentlemen have made strong points in the case of elected officials. Those same elected officials have changed the course of what Pittsburgh once was. The coal miners, the truck drivers, the coal fired power plants and steel mills are gone. There never coming back. Every racer out there is a business owner according to the I.R.S. you make over 600.00 and mark the box other income. Your either going to pay the IRS there share or your going to start taking deductions for many reasons. Every racer coming in that back gate is getting a 1099. But yet if as a driver your injured during a racing event the track has to have insurance coverage. 30 yrs in business and working on site at construction sites. If are insurance was not up to date are pay was held and a replacement could be found. Thru the course of government involvement are insurance went from a 1 million dollar min. policy to the last few yrs, thanks washington, 7 million dollar policies. Be thankful that track owners don't say hey you want more money fine we can do that but you as a racer entering my facilities must carry a insurance policy. It would kill racing as we no it today.

[BUTTBEAK]

https://www.hookedonphonics.com/

Edited by BUTTBEAK, 25 August 2016 - 01:34 PM.

[dirtstudent2]

That's funny

Edited by dirtstudent2, 25 August 2016 - 03:08 PM.

[dirtstudent2]

It is my opinion the problem with the decline of racing is not in any way the fault of those who race.

 

Racers have not, do not and will not except for safety concerns, increase their expense to race beyond what will help performance and what they can afford.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The problem was and still is caused by track owners who keep reducing the quality of the general show fans pay for coming through the front gate.   

 

Track owners degraded the show over years by reducing what racers are paid in payout, tow money and reducing the number of cars in features.  The decline is also because track owners have accepted weather their bottom line needs it or not, mandatory equipment expense pushed by promoters and vendors, and track owners have added on to racers new expense demands, beyond safety issues.  

 

Those things done by track owners have  increased what it cost racers to not only be competitive, but to race.

 

It is only the fault of track owners, not racers, for the show they now present and the reduced numbers of fans in their stands.  

 

[dirtstudent2]

Walt, do you have any information about what sprint pay out was 20, 30, 40 years ago?

 

If the information was available it would be easy to adjust payout for inflation per easily found charts or calculators.  We would then be able to correctly compare what racers got for racing back then to now.  It would be interesting to do the same for how much it cost fans to go through the gate back then and now.  I'd bet the cost to watch went up or stayed the same and payout has gone proportionally way down. 

[D1RT]

I'm guessing in your feeble mind the costs to run a race track has gotten cheaper in the last 20, 30, 40 years and these promoters are just rolling to the banks with Brinks truck loads of cash on Monday mornings..... 

[dirtstudent2]

I'm guessing in your feeble mind the costs to run a race track has gotten cheaper in the last 20, 30, 40 years and these promoters are just rolling to the banks with Brinks truck loads of cash on Monday mornings..... 

 

I understand and considered it, including my feeble mind.  My post was not about your problems.

 

My post was about how and why any decline is NOT the fault of racers.

 

I'm not a racer because I do not sit in a seat and race, like most everyone on here I'm just a fan of racing and I'm tired of blame being laid on racers for track owners problems.  Racers are not the cause of any race tracks problems.  Racers do not hurt racing, they ARE racing.

 

edit:  You wrote:  "promoters are just rolling to the banks with Brinks truck loads of cash on Monday mornings"

 

answer:  Yes they are or they would walk away from it or go out of business being forced out.  What's the difference between a promoter going out business and hundreds of racers not being able to race because the cost to them has been driven up to the point they cannot afford to race?

 

answer:  There is no difference except that more racers go broke racing then promoters.  If you go broke being a promoter, then your a poor business man and we should feel sorry for you because it's everyone's fault but your own.  If a racer goes broke racing it's a whole different story we here on here.  It's about how the racers no darn good, can't afford it anyway and tough shit.  What ever the problem is the racers are NOT the problem, never have been and never will be.

 

______________________________

 

I started this thread after looking on the net and seeing how closely racers are aligned with those who put on a stage show or work in movies for promoters called producers.  I posted it because it might bring up discussion which would align fans with the side of the racer and maybe benefit racers.

 

I was wrong.   

Edited by dirtstudent2, 25 August 2016 - 10:32 PM.

[Walt Wimer]

I don't have much on purses of years back.  However, I do remember Brad Doty telling me a few years back that the tracks around here were still paying about the same as when he was racing weekly at Lernerville & Tri-City.  And I can remember another Sprint Car driver telling me back in the early 70s that $1,000 to win was a good payoff.  And also $100 for tenth!!

 

GOOD RACING!!!

 

Walt

[jo73]

As for sprint car purses, I believe tri-city was paying the most back in the 70's. If memory serves me correctly the sprint car guys at lernerville had some rumblings and Don Martin did raise there pay out. Late Models back then we're getting 800 to win and the big block mods were 750. Tri-city may have been the first sprint track in are area that pd 1000.00

As Walt said 1000, 1200, 1500, we're payouts that brought everyone out.

The Black Bandit, Steve Smith sr. #119, Rick Ferkel, and many others towed into mercer on a Saturday night and I believe the winner's share was 1200.00 to long ago but I think Lou Blaney took the win in the crash bro's car.

Local racers back then followed a pattern. You had lernerville, latrobe, and motordrome. Yes there was many other great tracks and followers that went to those speed plants

The guy that could probably answer the payout question and the different speedways would be Don gamble

[dirtstudent2]

I remember probably wrong many many years ago going to Sharon following a stock car, which I think I remember back then had to be 5 years old or more, and people saying the sprints paid $200 to start.  Or it may have been another time when I went to Sharon every week in the mid to late 80's that I remember it being said the sprints got $200 to start.  Back then and now unless you expect to win any race you enter and have a zillion dollars in backing, it's what defrays your cost of getting to and into a race which keeps you racing.  

 

A racer can spend years putting a car together to go racing, have a good car being built over the years and still not be able to race because the can't afford to go race.  Those are the racers we've lost in the hundreds reducing car counts and those are the racers who have been pushed out by the cost "JUST TO GO RACING".

 

Track owners now a days can't comprehend someone who loves racing, spends years to be able to go racing AND then after having a car, having spares, having a trailer, CAN'T AFFORD TO GO RACE BECAUSE IT COST TOO DAMMM MUCH TO GET IN AND ANTI UP ALL THE BULL SHITTT COSTS!

[Walt Wimer]

Seems to me that when I came back to western PA in 1966 it was $3.00 to get in the pits and maybe $1.25 in the stands.  But then I went to work for about $2.00 an hour!!  Who would do that today???  Even the burger flippers want $15.00 an hour!!!

 

GOOD RACING!!!

 

Walt

[racer67x]

I remember probably wrong many many years ago going to Sharon following a stock car, which I think I remember back then had to be 5 years old or more, and people saying the sprints paid $200 to start.  Or it may have been another time when I went to Sharon every week in the mid to late 80's that I remember it being said the sprints got $200 to start.  Back then and now unless you expect to win any race you enter and have a zillion dollars in backing, it's what defrays your cost of getting to and into a race which keeps you racing.  
 
A racer can spend years putting a car together to go racing, have a good car being built over the years and still not be able to race because the can't afford to go race.  Those are the racers we've lost in the hundreds reducing car counts and those are the racers who have been pushed out by the cost "JUST TO GO RACING".
 
Track owners now a days can't comprehend someone who loves racing, spends years to be able to go racing AND then after having a car, having spares, having a trailer, CAN'T AFFORD TO GO RACE BECAUSE IT COST TOO DAMMM MUCH TO GET IN AND ANTI UP ALL THE BULL SHITTT COSTS!

first time I raced at Sharon back in the early 90's,Phil Lukon had built the cage in my '73 Monte Pure stock so we tagged along with them to an All Star late model show with Tim Hitt driving the 84.
cost around $30 to get in the pits,got top 3 in my heat which transferred me into the feature..finished 8th out of close to 60 cars,thought I had done pretty good.
couple days later I got a check for $15.00...lol
thought about sending it back with a list of how much it cost to run that night between paying mine and the lady's pit pass,fuel for the car and tow vehicle..etc.
it was quite a few years before I ever went back.

[jo73]

WOW Walt. It hurts to think back that far. haha. I think when I started to go to Lernerville the stands where 3.00 and that was 1968. 10 bucks got me gas, general admission, 2 dam good hot sausage and a drink. That same 10 won't get me there and back in gas today. 15.00 min wage and they'll bitch there working to hard

[DavyLee2]

This thread is a political thread!

so my politics are quite appropriate .

the author has thrown the American dream away long ago and traded it for the snow job of the Sodomites!

yes the term is appropriate too ! In every political issue from the environment to the minimum wage .. the Sodomy Party .... ( The one that tells Religious people or 95% of the whole world you are a Homophobe because you don't believe in what we are pushing up your rear end! )

We may disagree about the way I express myself but the party is much bolder than my language!  just look at the #1 sodomite in America looking to become queen .. Has there ever been a better example of the most diqusting twisted corrupt piece of crap ever .. Every bark from that communist snout is a lie to steel working peoples money ( the party of the working man LOL ) and purchase ignorant peoples freedom!

Ignorance is the bedrock of the Sodomy / Abortion Party .!

And even my shocking way of putting things in context is Not even good enough to have  a reader of that party click the mouse on google and explor who the sodomy party really is !!

So even if I told that hillarys personal assistant of more than 20 years is a champion of the Muslim brotherhood .. No pulse

so even if I told you Hillary collected 25 million in campaign donations from Saudi Arabia .. and Cutter and other places that stone woman for fun .. No pulse....

If Hillary sells every bit of Access to America that the state department holds ... no pulse

It is so perplexing and makes no sense that it must be biblical ... And everybody knows who the Sodomites were! and they are here! and the get votes every time from the 47 % ( what mitt Romney called them ) or stupid American voters ( Johnathen gruber called them)

The incomprehensible way I express myself is just a notch or two above the next president of America who has done quite well Blowing up political correctness!

political correctness is GAY!

[DavyLee2]

The burgher flippers are championed by a Sodomy party hack that tells them .. Surrender your freedom to me ! and you will be rewarded with $15 dollars per hour and you can just be as dumb as you are now forever !!! and still make a good living !!

The truthful statement above with all political correctness deleted!!

[ramsey31]

What those floppers don't know is that now, the $15/hr jobs will want $30/hour, the price of everything will increase, and $ 15/hr will spend just like $7.50 did.

 

I do remember hearing in 69/70 the points champion at Stateline got a new car....Squirt Johns got a Roadrunner in 1969 and a Mustang in 1970.

[dirtstudent2]

A $15 dollar an hour job is $8000 over the poverty line for an individual.  It's $3.84 an hour above what it takes for an individual to pay their own way.  

 

If someone makes less then the poverty line there's no way they can live unless they get some of your hard earned tax money or to steal from you to survive.

 

$15 - $3.84 is $11.16 per hour.

 

The minimum wage in PA is $7.25.

The minimum wage in Ohio is $8.10

The minimum wage in the USA is $7.25

 

That's why Ohio is a better place to live then PA and why taxes and thieving is higher in PA then Ohio.  

 

In Ohio the minimum wage is higher so we don't need to pay high PA taxes and we have less crime because fewer people have to steal to survive low wages and high PA taxes.    

[dirtstudent2]

What those floppers don't know is that now, the $15/hr jobs will want $30/hour, the price of everything will increase, and $ 15/hr will spend just like $7.50 did.

 

I do remember hearing in 69/70 the points champion at Stateline got a new car....Squirt Johns got a Roadrunner in 1969 and a Mustang in 1970.

 

Thanks for the pointer.

 

I went to the web to read about Squirt Johns and totally enjoyed the read.

 

http://www.speedwayp...quirt_Johns.pdf