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

Practice still on for tonight.

Attica and Williams Grove canceled tonight 

Why Knoxville trys to run in April blows my mind.
Why the Outlaws tried to run there again this year in April is beyond comprehension. It works maybe one in four or five years weather wise to race after dark, in Iowa, in April. 

Not sure what it hurts to put it on the schedule and see if it sticks.........

If it works it can be great.Last weekend 80temps would have worked. 30/40 temps dont work. Simple business decision

Knoxville has the most beautiful weather of the year in September and no sprint car racing. 

Because exactly 1 week ago, Temps were in the 80's and it was beautifull out..

What does it hurt to schedule it and cancell if it don't work out.

But, the fairboard will not approve racing, at that time, because of college football.

They think the crowd would be small.I don't think it would be smaller than April,

with the cold weather. But, that's just me. I lived there for 15 years, I doubt it will change.

And not looking good for this weekends 2 day show.  I've been looking forward to riding the 562 miles out all winter so I'll be watching closely 

Same.  (I only have about 265 though)  

Scheduling and canceling April races is a normal rite of spring up here in Minnesota.  Tracks used to all open in May years ago.  Someone tried opening early, lucked out and made a buck and now a bunch try to open as early a possible.  It was a trend that happened over time.  

Stan Meissner

Bingo.  And fall high schools are all back in session as well and sports/activities for high school students take away parents and grandparents as well.  

That's what I always hear but I say whats the hurt in trying!!!! I've been going to Knoxville religiously for 34 years now and as far as I can remember,  The 4th week of August it's all over for the year and theres plenty of nice weekends left in the year. Things change in the course of 30+ years... I mean in 1990 could you pull up some lawn chairs and watch the Football games in or outside of your Camper before going to the races? Televise the Game on the many monitors around the Midway, Hell put up a couple of 100" Monitors for fans to watch the game... Sorry to rant so much but it just seems like it ends too early!!! Especially when you have 9 Rainouts like last year!!! :(

Times have changed.  In 1990, our racetrack held makeup races on Sunday nights if rained out on Saturdays.  Within 5 years, this was not possible.  The cost of operating the track, and paying the purses resulted in a loss for the track because the attendance on a Sunday night was much less than a Saturday night.  I remember everyone being mad when they made this decision but the track owner said what do you want me to do, lose money every single make up Sunday?  Most didn't get it and thought he was being greedy. (sounds familiar)   The track was already barely paying the bills, so running 4 or 5 times per year at a loss didn't seem like a smart financial idea.  

I'm amost certain the numbers on this have been run and it makes no financial sense to try to run past the time they do----or they'd do it.  

I say run at least to September, End the season on a 2 day Labor Day Season Championship Finale. What's 1 week gonna hurt and a 2- day  Race Season Championship show to end the Season.....  Try it, if it flops I'm sure the Racetrack can recover and they can say hey we tried! No Bueno!!  A 2-day Labor day show sounds a lot more exciting to me than another Old Threashers Reunion! LOL.

Nothing against Old Threashers because I go most every year enjoy the hell out of it but only because there is no Racing! :) 

I think race car fans are race car fans.  They might go watch football and there might be a few less people in the grandstands but race fans will still be watching even if it is on dirtvision.  I know it gets harder because kids are in school and college kids go back but I think your right what happened in the 90's is not the case anymore.  I think Knoxville could easily race until end of September and have better weather than taking the chances in April.  

When I was in school, we never started before labor day. There were no high school games and rarely college games before labor day. Now school calendars are creeping up to almost July and college games are in full swing before September. I just looked and there are almost 70 D1 college games in August. Labor Day used to signify the end of summer and the start of fall, I wish it still did.

I don't doubt the fair board has been burned by late in the year races and therefore doesn't schedule them. I also know they have the LM nationals that seems to serve as the last event of the year. But I wonder if they could couple the hall of fame induction with a mid September WoO event after the Cali swing. Seems like the HoF induction is a big event but overshadowed by all the other events happening all over the country at the time. If it could be done at the end of the year with all the big names in attendance it could be bigger. 

A number of factors. Tradition, seasonal workers availability, including students and parents of students. Without going into October and looking into the existing schedule, there's only one week available. Sept 14th, and I have no clue without looking who else has racing going on, at that time. 

Keep It Real

You not only lose some of your crowd, you lose a lot of your workers who are either tied into high school football or gone back to college.