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

I don't remember ever meeting anyone named passmoreracer but I can barely remember yesterday much less three years ago. None of the racing papers pay for photos or columns so I think you're confused about how this works. It's all done free of charge on our own time. There is no pay for any of the writing or photography and I shoot mostly for the papers and magazines and sell very little so there's no financial gain from the photography. It's two separate businesses, the tracks are in the business of racing, the papers cover races at many tracks and are advertiser/subscription supported. People like me are freelance writers and photographers that work for the papers and our only compensation is usually a pit pass. Arrangements for passes are handled between the tracks and the publications, my only requirement is that the papers make those arrangements for me in advance. If the papers take care of their side of the agreement by setting me up at the gate then I fill my obligations and do all that work for them. If the arrangements fall through I either turn around and go home or if it's a race I don't want to miss I'd leave the gear in the car, sit in the stands and drink beer. My work involves getting there a couple hours early, spending the whole night working, rushing home to write captions, send pics and make notes and 6-8 hours the next day researching and writing the column. All that is done for the equivalent of a media pass, typically $25-$40 depending on how big of a show it is. Look at it this way, my total time including driving and writing the article the next day could be as much as 15 hours per race or around $2.66 per hour.

Maybe that's where the confusion comes in, it's not about getting paid but I won't work unless I'm on the media list. That's my line in the sand, if some people don't like it they're welcome to invest $10,000 in camera equipment, make the commitment to the papers and spend the time working. I'll take their place in the stands, I can be pretty good at being a half sh*t faced loud mouth critic. It would be fun to turn the tables and get on their case when they miss spell a word or get a name wrong after staying up half the night trying to write a story.

Stan Meissner

Without reading the five pages of posts, I'll just agree with the first post, sort of: the series is a joke----almost. I'm glad they are around for sure, but to have 2 or 3 cars make every event, well, silly to call it a major series. On the other hand, they put on some great great shows.

 Lawlessness and liberalism equals Hell.  NY City, 
Detroit, Seattle, Chicago, Minnepolis, etc. We saw it. 
Burning hundreds of buildings, a thousand assaults and 
dozens of murders. Getting worser and worser.

Just finished watching Gunner's video (great job by the way and thanks for posting) and a couple more questions pop up. Why would they interview Balog if it was a clear rules violation and he was being DQ'd? Why not bring out the 4th place finisher and let him have his interview?

a couple regulars is a series. Gives us another bigtime sprint car race to go to anyway.

XXX?  I thought Triple X was a wrestler

I don't recall ever meeting anyone named Brad Schnieder. I can't imagine stopping to talk for two hours in the middle of one of the busiest nights of the season. That weekend starts off with the Firecracker on Saturday night and when we camp out that's the fun night I would have sat around the fire. If I camp out on Sunday the campground clears out so it's a more subdued night and I would have turned in early because Monday is a big day of racing work on the computer. I've got a hunch that Brad has me confused with someone else but if he insists that he talked to me for two hours I'd like to know where because I don't remember meeting him. I hardly think a hard core Sprint fan would have joined the post race party on Saturday night after the Late Model and Mod race. My conversations in the pits generally don't last more than five minutes before I move on and Sunday nights are very subdued in the campground.

Stan Meissner