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

Camping at the track, at least in this part of the country, is what makes multi day events worth attending.  I spent many nights drinking beers around the fire bench racing.  Without on site camping a track can't really have an epic event.  It's not the same driving to a quiet motel after a night of racing with another on the horizon.  Cedar Lake has breakfast on the front stretch, live music after the races and shuttle buses to Apple River tubing.  The lack of camping, no multi day epic events and the permit fiasco would all be deal breakers in my opinion.

   I dunno man. You're starting to sound like some old fart getting ready for retirement. Repeat after me- "Hey you kids!!  Get off my lawn!!!" 

     For the record, according to Google Maps, there is a state campground 1 mile away, and another 10 miles away. There is a KOA 6 miles away and another 9 miles away. The nearest motels are 2 miles away.

     I really don't know that any of this is a deal killer if someone wanted to make a go of it, and if the current owners are willing to work with that someone.

To the contrary, I'm advocating a setup conducive to post race parties and camping and saying that a place without would be a deal breaker for me.  Now that I'm retiring I'll have the whole next week to recover after a night of howling at the moon.  My point is moot as I won't be buying any race tracks but if I did I'd be looking for a turn key deal with camping on site and established multi day events.  Also not crazy about anyplace locked into one type of racing.  Big Late Model and Modified shows are essential.  Why buy a place that is off the radar of 2/3 of upper Midwest dirt track fans?  Sunday nights would be a non starter for me as well.  This is just a "what if" so others won't agree but those are the things I would look for.  Case in point, Eldora fits all those requirements and came with a much cheaper price tag. 

     Holiday Inn had a series of commercials that featured someone talking with authority about something but alway throwing in a qualifying phrase like "I'm not a doctor, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night".

     I was at that press conference. The crowd around me was in agreement that a lot of what he said sounded good, but a lot of what he said sounded very amateurish. He seemed to have surrounded himself with some good people and some solid money, so folks hoped he would learns the ropes and that things would turn out fine.

     At the time there was also an emphasis put on having Badlands be a major concert venue as well as a race track. I think he even mentioned wanting to get some sort of concerts lined up to attract people headed to Sturgis for the motorcycle rally. At the press conference someone asked about whether he would develop a campground at the race track. He said that he couldn't at that time because he had zoning rules that were grandfathered in and that he had some specific guidelines that needed to be followed.

That was me that asked about the camp ground/camping, as we were driving over from Okoboji every Sunday and liked to  stay overnight at times.  

I always prefer to camp at the track.  Camping in the Big Sioux state campground is nearly impossible, and with the 10pm curfew, it doesnt work to come back all amp'd up from racing rightn into quiet time.

Anyone that says that  getting a conditional use permit is a no brainer. has never applied for one with resistance in the room.  Theyre  voice is as important as the applicant.  I dont think its going to be a slam dunk, unless Chuck has a buyer lined up and the conditional use permit is transferable, (which I dont think is the case)  Just because Chuck is Chuck, I think it would be hard for him to  get the permit as the owner/operator.  But thats just my thoughts.  I cannot imagine anyone buying the joint  without the permit issued..  

     Oh great.  New trend- race tracks having to mow around fans laying face down in the grass for a week after a major race. To be honest, I'd say Husets is too narrow to have a very good late model or modified race.

I'm just pointing out what I have observed works best from a business standpoint.  Tracks with camping spots that accommodate motor homes, campers and tenters and offer big multi day events for all th popular classes have a better chance of paying off their loan.

Don't believe me?  Check out this weekend's three day Modified Masters, the two day WoO Sprint show in July, the USA Late Model 100, the two day Traditional Sprint show or their season ending Legendary 100.  So as not to sound like a Cedar Lake commercial consider the Boone Super Nationals or the WISSOTA 100.

Events like that would be absolutely necessary to pay off the loan for that place.  No 20 410s weekly show with a few support classes comes close to any of the events I mentioned.  Or to put it another way, Eldora came with a ton of great events and sold for a fraction of what they we're asking.

If those observations are deserving of being ridiculed without any reasoning to support whatever point you're trying to make at my expense I might as well be talking to the wall.

     I need to back up a bit. I'm not ridiculing you. I'm just poking fun at you. Sorry if it's coming through the wrong way. 

     I didn't sleep at a Holiday Inn last night but I have woken up face down in the grass a time or two.

     The Husets situation will be difficult for a number of reasons. You can go an hour or two in any direction and be in heavy duty late model and modified territory. Sioux Falls has never been very supportive of race cars with fenders. To rebuild the track at this point will be a start at the bottom affair. 

      The Rubins did try to develop a "big race", going back to their Gold Cup, but they couldn't get it going. Had things worked out better, we could have been talking about the 30th annual Husets Nationals this weekend or something similar.

     What someone has to do get the engine re-started again at Husets iremains to be seen. Again, my apologies that it wasn't clear that I was funnin' you.

     Holiday Inn had a series of commercials that featured someone talking with authority about something but alway throwing in a qualifying phrase like "I'm not a doctor, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night".

     I was at that press conference. The crowd around me was in agreement that a lot of what he said sounded good, but a lot of what he said sounded very amateurish. He seemed to have surrounded himself with some good people and some solid money, so folks hoped he would learns the ropes and that things would turn out fine.

     At the time there was also an emphasis put on having Badlands be a major concert venue as well as a race track. I think he even mentioned wanting to get some sort of concerts lined up to attract people headed to Sturgis for the motorcycle rally. At the press conference someone asked about whether he would develop a campground at the race track. He said that he couldn't at that time because he had zoning rules that were grandfathered in and that he had some specific guidelines that needed to be followed.

Who knows how this deal is gonna play out, I don't have the confidence on racing happening again that Schreurs12 has but I REALLY hope he is right and I am wrong.

Crowds at Badlands 2 years ago? Not always great but there were PLENTY of times the previous 5 years at Husets they were much worse when they were running 410s. 

1990's Gold Cups? I wasn't there but like at the first? one Lasoski beat Mark Kinser by a whisker and by all accounts the place was packed. Tom Savage Sr said it was the best crowd in the history of the track at that point. Should have become a huge event but as always the Rubins screwed up what would have been a gigantic money maker for them (See Cheaters Day). Had nothing to do with camping or a lack thereof.

Hartford and Husets still open if Chuck Brennan would have never entered the scene? Not so sure about that the last year of Husets 2015 was a disaster, 7 to 8 410s racing against a like number of 360s, 7-8 305s. Hideous car counts. Empty grandstands. Hartford much worse 4 305 sprints for a typical weekly race. Even Huron didn't open for weekly shows this year and that place was on MUCH more solid footing then Hartford and probably Husets in 2015.

Again, Madison done, Sioux Empire Fair track done, Huron done, Sioux Center IA soon to be done, No Brennan Hartford about 95% chance in 2018 it would be done, Husets at least 50% chance of being done.

Not saying Brennan was a shining example of doing everything right in race track operation but he tried to breathe some life into a dying industry in this area. I'll say it again had a vote in November of 2016 gone differently Badlands would be picking up steam putting on races with record car counts racing for record payoffs. 

To me Brennan's BIGGEST screwup was not creating a TV and radio ad campaign in the summer/fall of 2016 educating SD voters in 60 seconds on how his payday loan business functioned so the voters didn't go to the voting booth in November hating the man.

I believe the commercial was for a Holiday Inn Express wasn't it? lol

Who knows how this deal is gonna play out, I don't have the confidence on racing happening again that Schreurs12 has but I REALLY hope he is right and I am wrong.

Crowds at Badlands 2 years ago? Not always great but there were PLENTY of times the previous 5 years at Husets they were much worse when they were running 410s. 

1990's Gold Cups? I wasn't there but like at the first? one Lasoski beat Mark Kinser by a whisker and by all accounts the place was packed. Tom Savage Sr said it was the best crowd in the history of the track at that point. Should have become a huge event but as always the Rubins screwed up what would have been a gigantic money maker for them (See Cheaters Day). Had nothing to do with camping or a lack thereof.

Hartford and Husets still open if Chuck Brennan would have never entered the scene? Not so sure about that the last year of Husets 2015 was a disaster, 7 to 8 410s racing against a like number of 360s, 7-8 305s. Hideous car counts. Empty grandstands. Hartford much worse 4 305 sprints for a typical weekly race. Even Huron didn't open for weekly shows this year and that place was on MUCH more solid footing then Hartford and probably Husets in 2015.

Again, Madison done, Sioux Empire Fair track done, Huron done, Sioux Center IA soon to be done, No Brennan Hartford about 95% chance in 2018 it would be done, Husets at least 50% chance of being done.

Not saying Brennan was a shining example of doing everything right in race track operation but he tried to breathe some life into a dying industry in this area. I'll say it again had a vote in November of 2016 gone differently Badlands would be picking up steam putting on races with record car counts racing for record payoffs. 

To me Brennan's BIGGEST screwup was not creating a TV and radio ad campaign in the summer/fall of 2016 educating SD voters in 60 seconds on how his payday loan business functioned so the voters didn't go to the voting booth in November hating the man.

     I think the 1st Husets Gold Cup was WoO sanctioned. Starting the following year it wasn't and the winner's share was cut in half. Someone failed when Chaeter's Day was allowed to slip into oblivion.

     To me the race track and loan business were two seperate issues. The track closed because it wasn't covering it's cost of operation. I thought at the beginning that maybe the master plan was to market the races on PPV. Without that revenue stream to help the bottom line, I couldn't visualize how they could make a go of it. And here we are...

I'm 100% positive that the 1st Huset's Gold Cup was NOT WoO sanctioned.

It was a non-sanctioned event that paid $20,000 to win, had an excellent field of cars and fans.   The race was a good one.  If my memory is correct Lasoski led either the entire race or nearly all of the race with Mark Kinser hot on his tail for the last few laps after a restart bunched them up.

Latter versions of the race if my memory is correct were WoO "Gumout" sanctioned and paid $5k to win.

As for Huset's going down the toilet the last years of the Rubins, those guys had been coasting into retirement for 10 years already.    The place needed a new owner that cared about the track, racing and the race teams, it got a new owner with a lot of money that didn't give a rats rear end about the track, racing or the race teams.

He wanted a place to party.

Maybe there was a "master plan" but from this point in history it doesn't appear Chuck ever had a plan other than to throw money everywhere until the Dollar Loan cash cow got put down.      There is no way that Wastelands was ever going to show a return on investment with the $'s that Chuck supposedly dumped into that place.

Like they say, "easy come, easy go".     He wasn't/isn't the financial guru that many thought him to be.

     You may be right about the WoO part. I tried to find that info on the ye olde internets. I ended up going down several rabbit holes but couldn't find any info. The reason I'm thinking it was a WoO show was because there were several WoO drivers there, like Mark Kinser and Ted Johnson was pretty strict about where he would let his guys race without consequences. I think Lasoski was a Husets regular back then and probably a track champion.

    As far as the Gumout races, I went to several but don't remember the Gold Cup being a Gumout race.

I don't remember there being any other WoO regulars there other than Mark Kinser.   Not sure what year that race was but I'm positive it was prior to Mark driving for Karl and I'm thinking Mark may not have been running the full WoO schedule that year.

Lasoski was driving the Forbrook 5 at the time.   I'm not 100% positive but I think 1996 was the year.

As for rabbit holes, I've went down a few looking for the results also.    I think that if I did enough digging through old magazines and newspapers in the basement there is a possibility that there is an old Sprint car yearbook down there that would have the results in it.    Not sure I have time to go down that rabbit hole though.   That could be a time consuming one, kind of like going to Youtube to watch a video and 4 hrs later you haven't done anything but watch videos as they come up next.

Now I'm at a blank for what that old yearbook was called.    It was put together by Tom Savage (Sr) and had results from all of the area (IA, MN, SD) tracks in it from the prior year.

Wasn't 1996.    Mark Kinser won the WoO points that year.

Based off of WoO points I'd say the inaugural Huset's Gold Cup was in 1993.

Mark finished 12th in WoO points that year so not likely that he was at every WoO race and I'm pretty sure Lasoski was driving Forbrooks car that year.

94 and 95 Mark wasn't a whole lot higher in WoO points but I think those were the years Lasoski was driving Gil Sonners Casey's sponsored 47.

Found this in a rabbit hole.

The caption says 1998 which is incorrect but in the comments it gives the correct year as 1993.

https://iphone.facebook.com/HusetsSpeedwayTimeline/photos/a.322611414789488.1073741856.198557077194923/514696248914336/?type=3

   Ha ha. That's the same rabbit hole I went down. I didn't get as far as did because I ended up starting at the beginning and taking the 4 hour tour.

     I think the publication you're thinking of is the Dakota Area Racing News (D.A.R.N.). I have a few D.A.R.N. yearbooks from the late 70's but I don't know if they still did those in the early 90's.

     Butch Knouse- If you're reading this, do you have records on the 1st Husets Gold Cup race?