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

Please don't take offense to this, as you're not the only person to do this.  But please stop comparing stick and ball sports to auto racing.  That's how we end up with things like chases, elimination races and other gimmicks that aren't needed in racing, it's an entirely different sport.

I do think 8 classes is way too many to sit through but there are things that can be done to speed up the fender car shows.  I like the idea of having 5 minutes of racing time, when I say racing time I mean from the time the green flag waves until  the caution flag waves, whether a lap is completed or not.  After that, it's a single caution flag rule.  Basically after the time clock, whoever causes a caution is out.

I do agree that there are too many classes that look alike though.  I do enjoy a good "stock car" race but what does that mean any more?  There's pure stock, bombers, hobby stock, street stock, pro stock, etc, same with modifieds and I guess if promotors have their way it will be the same with sprint cars.

You could have written this about me. My criteria for going to a track has become could I take a newb with me and would they enjoy the show. More & more I just don't go. Poor track condition, poor overpriced concessions land the worst is hot laps at 6 and the first heat doesn't start till 9. 

Did Big O take 7 hours?

Quite a few truths in this thread. I could go into endless discussion on this but I completely agree that backgate promoters are not only creating their own demise, but contributing heavily to a potential demise of dirt track racing in general. There are several other factors working against it, don't get me wrong, but the last thing the sport needs is being sabotaged by those suppposedly there to grow it.

I am glad that I attend a track that never has more than four classes and often only three and two of those are 410 sprints and Super Latemodels.

Yes it did.   My brother went to this show too.   Ennis is a 45 minute drive from where we live and it was after 3:30 AM when he got home.   He said the non wing sprints were pretty good though.   My thoughts are not good enough to sit there for 7+ hours.

He just told me that they left at 2:30 a.m. and there were two features still left to run.    He said just a very poorly run show.

One of my favorite all-time tracks, Eagle Raceway, races 5 divisions at weekly shows, and have had 130+ cars when I have been there.  But they run the show so efficiently, having 5 divisions is no problem.  Other tracks I go to take as long to run 3 divisions with far less cars.

It's not just how many divisions, it's how things are managed.  Those of you suffering through long multi-division shows should make a visit to Eagle and see how it should be done.

2:30 and 2 features left to run, what a disaster!

I agree Eagle knows how to run a show efficiently.

The worst president of my lifetime:
Ronald Reagan

DSW - make sure you look me up on the track on race night!

Short term schedule is as follows:

5/9 Monarch Motor Speedway $2,100/win and $300/start

5/16 LoneStar Speedway  $2,000/win and $300/start

5/30 82 Speedway $2,000/win and $300/start

6/27 Kennedale Speedway Park

i personally like shows with only 2 divisions maybe 3 at the most depending on the divisions and the setup for the nites racing program.

I hate these shows for the few fans that show up anymore at most places.

Looooong programs really have killed things off.

Racers hate them, also.   We are either trapped in the infield until the marathon is over, or they hold payout hostage until the last checkered flies.  Getting home at 3 or 4 am wasn't so bad when we were all 15 - lol!  They way the tracks do things now, it's just a slog to force the towrig home by the wee hours of the morning.

I've had friends come to some local races, pay 20$ at 6pm to get in the stands, and never see any features because they'd had enough by 10:30 and left for home.  They didn't return the next trip we made to that track.  Lots of stories like that. 

 They really don't understand why people would go, after hearing it will usually be after midnight before it's over..

Peril, not variety, is the true spice of life.  
J. Cooper

For whatever reason MSNBC had a reporter at the Plymouth IN Speedway yesterday checking in throughout the day.

Looking at the info for their races tonight, pit passes $45.

UMP mods 1000 to win 125 to start

Super streets 400 to win 58 to start

Thunder stocks 300 to win 46 to start

micro sprints 300 to win 46 to start

4 cylinders 300 to win 46 to start

Nobody in grandstands

Imagine being a "thunder stock" whatever that is driver, you and your 4 pit guys drop $225 to get in, 

You get in a bad wreck and cause about $600 in damage to your car and leave with $46.

Could you imagine in 1970 a race driver at Knoxville, Husets, Hawkeye Downs, Reading, Ascot, etc a pit crew paying essentially 5 times the feature start money to race for a night? There ya go IMCA racing's ultimate goal as rolled out in 1993 at Boone for racers to pay for everything AND the promoter's profit appears to have arrived helped considerably by the COVID issues.

The worst president of my lifetime:
Ronald Reagan

Does a general admission ticket get you breakfast tomorrow morning?

Member of this message board since 1997

Ya'll dont realize how great you have it.  Listening to all your horrible situations sounds like paradise to me.  Racing in the Carolinas, a lot of times we won't start practice until 9:30 with 9 classes of cars.  5 of which look identical.  You really have to love it to stand it.  

I gave up on inviting friends and family to come watch me race.  Last year, I had close to twenty co-workers come watch me race on a Friday night.  Only one of them stayed after practice.  I was embarrassed and offered to give them their money back out of my own pocket.  There went that corporate sponsorship I was dreaming of.  

Brandon McLain
United Sprint Car Series Driver
2014 Season
National Rookie of the Year!
National Points - 8th
Southern Points - 3rd
Asphalt Points - 3rd
18 Races, 3 Top 5's, 14 Top 10's

Are you sure it's possible to do $600 damage to a thunder stock? That means the car is worth more than $600 to start with!

Personally I would like to see 2 to 3 classes 410 Winged or Non Winged Sprints, Center Steer Northeast 358 or BB Modifieds USAC Midgets 360 Winged or Non Winged Sprints, Unlimited Lates too. Im not a huge fan of late models though.  Any of these Classes with 2 or 3 running a day would be a good Show. 2 being the best but the track needs fans to make money. 

I would not be unhappy at all to do away with Street Stocks, Front wheeled Bullshit cars and the likes of all those classes. they are a waste of time and money.  Those Class cars should be run on a Sunday Night/Monday Morning at 0001time.  Charge 5 bucks admission run them and at the end of the race pile them up and have a HUGE BON FIRE.  That would be worth the 5 bucks

Years ago a friend of mine said he would like to go race at a track where he could run in the top ten.  Around the same time we were at a family reunion in Tennessee.  Saw that on Saturday night forty or fifty miles away in Mississippi, there was a race.  Since I had never seen a race in Mississippi, it seemed like a golden opportunity.  Drove down.  $20 pits. $3 hamburgers. Five divisions.  Each car ran two heats and a feature.  And that meant each and every car in each division that night ran two heats and a feature.  Called my friend the next day.  Told him if he got a car for each division, he could run in the top ten in all the divisions probably every night.  He could race up to fifteen times each night.  Should be enough.

I just saw this facebook post pop up on my timeline while watching Dirtvision.

" 120+ cars here.  9 divisions. Practice began at 7PM.  Its almost 8:30PM and next is single car qualifying for all classes....because that makes sense."

9 Classes!!!! Single car qualifying for 120 cars starting at 8:45!!!

Brandon McLain
United Sprint Car Series Driver
2014 Season
National Rookie of the Year!
National Points - 8th
Southern Points - 3rd
Asphalt Points - 3rd
18 Races, 3 Top 5's, 14 Top 10's

Another time I went to a race in South Carolina.  To say there wasn't much of a crowd would be an understatement.  Counting  everyone in the grandstand yielded 38 spectators.  Top division that night were the street stocks.  The announcer then started to talk about the super late models coming the next week paying $2000 to win.  I looked at the CROWD again.  I wondered what HE was looking at.  You're telling 38 people about a $2000 to win race the next week.  How could this track possibly pull that off. Then I saw the flyer.  Super late models.  $2000 to win.  Based on  20 cars.  $100 entry fee per car.  There you go.  Just make sure you win.  Nothing on the flyer said anything about 2-24.  I didn't return for that race but maybe someone out there was in attendance.  Went to a race at that track a couple years ago under different ownership and there was a decent crowd.  Way more than  38.