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

      I have to believe that someone will buy or lease Husets Speedway for the 2017 season. What would it take to make that successful? 

     For starters, I'd say:
410's 
Sunday nights
Husets Speedway

What do you think?

I've been going there since 1984. Have you been there?


Please note: This isn't the place to go off on payday loans or your feelings about Chuck Brennan. There are several threads already lit up that you can ad your fury to, or you can go to Facebook and have a real hissing match with people.  Please allow us to talk about the future of the speedway without going down those tangent paths. -Thanks

Go back to the original Sunday night program. 410s, 360s, and street stocks

(1) Rename this landmark of a race track, Huset's Speedway. Period.

(2) Sunday nights - Start time 8:00PM, and I mean 8:00pm, not 8:20.

(3) 410's / 360's or 305's/ Late Model Street Stocks - Take it back to the premier event that it used to be.

(4) Treat the fans and sponsors like they're your customers. Because that's exactly what they are.

(5) Treat the race teams like they're your dedicated employees. Because that's exactly what they are.

(6) Let the racing and the fan experience make the headlines. No Jerry Jones needed here.

(7) Watch the fan base, sponsors and car counts begin to increase and Huset's Speedway could possibly have another successful (50+) years or operation.

I'm just sayin'...z

I'm curious why you'd want to run 410's and 360's together. Obviously a lot of that happened in years past, but who want to run for 7th place?  You'd gor for 4 classes?

8:00 PM Sharp!!!  and not 7:00 PM Sharp!!! ?

Jerry Jones- isn't he a creamed corn salesman. (Sorry man- local joke.  I don't even think I could explain why it makes people snicker.)

Would I get kicked in the shins if I suggested races starting at 7:00 PM sharp!!!  with the body cars running their full program first, followed by the sprints?

....and skipping the time trials?  (ouch- quit kicking me)

Why not earlier yet like 5-6 pm? Allow teams that travel farther to consider going to husets, and get the fans home before 11 pm on a Sunday night 

All the above are great ideas.  However, keep in mind that the other tracks Friday and Saturday events have already cost the fans $30 + dollars each, not including concessions and travel cost.  For a regular weekly show, $15 is too much to charge, $12 is more reasonable.  And charging an 11 year old the same as an adult is just unreasonable.  Any student up to 18 years of age should get a break, perhaps half of regular general admission.

Not from the Huset's part o the country and cannot remember (nor is it top of mind) when they started when it was Huset's Sunday Nights.  Did they start at 8:00pm then?  To me that's really late for a work night. By 8:00 Sunday I'm getting my 2 year old in bed and starting to get ready to wake up early for work the next day  But if that's what they did when they ran Sunday's maybe most are used to it. Just seems late to me, especially with multiple classes.  

  I'd guess that they started racing Sundays maybe 50 years ago?  They used to advertize Sunday-8:00 PM SHARP!!!!  Sometime, maybe 10 or so years ago, they moved it up to a 7:00 PM target start time.

       As I get older and crankier, I don't care for the late nights. 5:30 AM alarm comes plenty early and I'm only a 20 minute  drive home from the track. But if the racing's good, I can fake my way through Monday morning. I just always assumed my co-workers were used to me being ugly in the morning.

    Truth is, there's not that much overlap in the fans from Friday to Saturday to Sunday. Especially since the other local track that ran Saturdays (Hartford) didn't race last year. If Hartford comes back to life there might be some overlap. The big draw for Husets is that they have 410 sprints.

     As far as the kids pricng goes, tracks in general could benefit from a little more investigation into the habits of teenagers. A teenager will spend $7-$8 to get into the races, if there are other teenagers there to meet up with. Offer some selection of concessions at something lower than European Royalty prices and you'll get all of that kid's $20 bill before the evening is over. Would you rather know your kid was safe at the races, or traveling the town looking for a kegger at a stanger's house? The Sioux Falls area has a pretty good sized population to draw from.

Thanks Murph, I knew they raced Sundays for decades just not sure if it was at 8pm.  7pm (as you note they did move to a decade or so ago) makes much more sense for a worknight.  Thanks...that Monday alarm seems earlier then any other day, eh?

+ Work with other tracks in the area  GM

     How important do you think it is for a track like Husets to bring in traveling groups like WoO, ASCoC, USAC, NSL, IRA, Nascar(Just kidding)? I know I'd pay to see 4 of the sanctions I've just listed.

     You're from the area. Do you think the Rubens worked well with the other local tracks?

Some times they did & some times they didn't  GM

Big weekend! 

For many years the Rubins owned/operated most of the other local tracks.

Heres my list of what imediately comes to mind.

1.) Its Huset's Speedway and they race there on Sunday night and select Holiday's from Mothers Day til Labor Day.

2.) Start at 7 pm SHARP.

3.) 410's, 360's and late model street stocks     No back gate promoting!     22-24 quality cars in the 360's and 410's is perfect, 15-18 street stocks is perfect      I want to see good racing and 1 feature in each class.     It used to be the "Home of the Professionals", act like it is.

4.) No working on cars during heat races period.   Cause a yellow, go to the pits.    See the last sentence of #3.

5.) No extra laps for working on cars during features.   If you get it fixed before the lineup is ready to take the green great. If not get it ready for next week.   Again, see the last sentence of #3.

6.) Keep the show moving.  Do the track prep before the races start.   Get big ATV's/UTV's and use them to push cars off.  Get a big skidloader and use it to clear the track.  Get it done by 10:00 PM sharp.  Make it happen!!      You can't build future generations of sprint car fans if they leave or fall asleep before the 410 A feature takes the track.

7.) $15 adult tickets, under 14 Free (they're bringing an adult with them and will spend at the concession stand) high school and college students $5 with school I.D. (they'll bring friends and spend money at the concession stand

I can't remember- are you from the area? I agree 100% about keeping the show moving along. 

      40 years ago, Black Hills Speedway near Rapid City, S.D. used to do something interesting with their sprint car/ modified heats. Fans called them slow heats and fast heats. What they did was run two heat races. The first was made up of the low point average cars and the second was made up of the high point average cars. It made for a little more competition in the heat races.

     What would you think of something like that at Husets, especially if a gaggle of 360's showed up on Sunday nights? The little guys would have a little more even competition and fun in their heats and the faster ones would start a little further ahead in the feature.