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

The Allstar Fremont feature was awesome!

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

Yes. Ohio speed week never disappoints.  Always great racing and biggest car counts and many teams follow the entire week.  Can't wait for the rest of the week especially waynesfield and Limaland 

If you didn't like that race you don't like racing. Very entertaining 

My racing purist friends up here in Minnesota chastise me for "not supporting my local tracks".  Exhibit A in my defense, last night I sat in my air conditioned man cave and watched the All Stars, Eldora Dream and Knoxville 410 Features in their entirety and flipped channels during Heats, track prep and ceremonies.  Contrast that with going to one of our local back gate promoting shows and watching a hodge podge of Stock Car and Modified classes along with Hornets, Pure Stocks, and Street Stocks or some combination of entry classes.  I went to my first race around 1960 and spent most of the last 60 years having to chase racing and read about it in papers and magazines to keep up with the sport.  Today I can settle back in the recliner and watch the best shows in the country without driving anywhere using two streaming services that average out to about $55 per month for a few months during the summer and about $13 per month the rest of the year when I'm not paying for both. 

Sprint Car and all of dirt track racing was held back by a lack of coverage and now we can watch all this great racing all month for the cost of one night at the closest track.  Yeah, sometimes it's fun to be outdoors but this sport was harder than hell to follow for years when every other sport it seems was on TV.  I'm loving it and that All Star Feature was a dandy.

Stan Meissner

I agree Stan.  I watch the same you mentioned plus the Midget/Non wing cars from Gas City and the Friday night California show all yesterday/last night from my temporary (for two weeks) work location of Utah.  Had I been home though, I would have been at Fremont and caught the Knoxville Outlaw A when I got home and the others today on replay.  I am curious (though none of my business I know), how much the tracks get from the streaming services.  Looking at the attendance, (fremont packed well, good crowd at Gas City before the rain delay, Knoxville normal crowd for non-nationals WoO event, Eldora huge crowd for the Dream) the tracks are not losing out attendance wise due to the streaming options much, if at all. 

so was Knoxville

The way I look at it dirt tracks are businesses and I have to assume they are benefitting from these streaming agreements.  If the tracks were to determine they are not favorable agreements and go back to pay per race prices that is the point where I could not justify the cost and aside from events like the Nationals finale, Saturday of the Chili Bowl and that sort of thing I would not be able to jusify the cost to watch this much racing.  At that point I would go back to following text results and YouTube hilites like I was doing a few years ago.

I chased races for seventeen years when I used to take photos and write.  When I got to 65 it started feeling more like a life sentence than fun and it was obvious the fun was coming to an end.  Today I am fighting night vision problems and found out I have cataracts so waiting to schedule the surgery when summer is over.  Mostly I am a loner and travel alone and that is becoming more of a challenge.  My only agenda is that I want to continue to follow the sport and TV has coverage has finally caught up with the 21st century.  A few years ago it I dealt with poor resolution and dropped feeds and now they have Roku apps and stream as good as services like Netflix.

That is all I care about as each coming year it will be harder to chase live races at my age.  Basically I just want dirt racing to be like every other sport I follow.  Watch it on TV and go out to the track every so often.  

Stan Meissner

Stan your last line hit the nail squarely on the head. I've been a track rat since the early 60's. I've driven and I've wrenched, as age creeps up on me the body doesn't work like it used to. I still enjoy going to the track, mostly for the smell but that happens less and less every year. Most of the guys are either not going any longer or have moved out. I to enjoy watching it from my recliner, especially when it's  cold. Problem is I have my night cap of choice and I end up falling asleep.  For years I thought about helping out some young fellow coming up. I actually meet with the G man when he was still in a micro about putting  something together. Fun fact. Kevin was so unbeatable because his good friend and crew chief way back when was non other than Ricky Warner. I sure do miss that guy wheeling that zemco ride around. Anyhow, just babbling now. Great last line again stan, got those wheels turning.