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

I'm really enjoying the mass amounts of complaining about the million to win race at Eldora.  It's all over the sprint car pages on Facebook.    Fans have been asking for a race like this for years-----and, here it is!  Yet, all we can do is whine and moan.  "Tickets are too expensive"     "It doesn't pay deep enough in the field"     "Tony should be paying for this out of pocket because he's got plenty of money----why charge so much?"    

Give me a break.   As Americans, it shouldn't be too hard to see why the rest of the world hates us and our first world problems.  

For those of you with a positive outlook on this event, good for you.  It should be fun and will be a game-changer for anyone that wins it!

The ones complaining probably have no intentions of going. They just love to bitch about something.

Can't wait. Secured my 4 day tix and camping yesterday

I'll be there. I really hope it's a sellout or close to it. The Lm race was well attended but not a sellout. Same with the HBO last year. Thursday races are tough but I'm hoping this one does really well. 

Thank You Tod Quiring

Another good race to watch on Floracing this coming season.  Ohio is an expensive trip just to get there traveling alone and paying for everything and doing all the driving.  Sounds like a good night of tv viewing but I'm sure that will piss someone off somewhere.  

Stan Meissner

The negative comments definitely reflect the times we are currently in as a society.....me, me, me and never satisfied.  Take a look at the cheating, stealing, crookedness that goes on in the world.  You can watch the news each night and it is loaded with these types of reports.  Some will do anything to achieve wealth to get what they want....legal or not!  We are a me society and we want it now!!!  Kids coming out of college want a 500,000.00 dollar house with a BMW in the driveway to start.  It was not always that way....yes, we had our share of wealthy people in this country, but I believe most of them attained this wealth in any of several ways:  they were born into wealth, they worked hard making good financial decisions, they developed something that revolutionized the way we do things, or they just outright took a chance on a business and it paid off.  Decades ago, it was not common for a newly married couple to have everything and do everything they wanted to do.  They worked and sacrificed to get ahead.

We need to go back to counting the blessings that we have, and that also counts with what the sprint car promoters, track owners, car owners, and drivers provide for us year to year.  Next time you go to the track, thank a few of these people with providing you with a night of excitement that cannot be matched in any other sport or form of entertainement.

I am hoping to get to Eldora for this monumental event and you can bet I will be stoked for this race like no other.  Come to think of it, I don't know if I have ever had a bad day at a dirt track......there have been some not so good days at work though!!

To put it in perspective, the original $50k to win Kings Royal is the equivalent of about $150k now. The Million is nearly 7 times that amount. Stewart is taking what Earl built and blowing it out of the water. 

My Nationals tickets are within a few dollars of the Eldora tickets for all 4 nights.  Eldora is paying the higher total purse.  

Let's go Sprint Car Racing!

Knoxville - Best Track In the USA!
Eldora - 2nd Best Track in the USA!

I haven't complained about it yet and I complain about everything. Gimmie a few days, I'll think of something. 

It'll be a great event and should do well but I doubt I go and I'm only 90 miles away...I much prefer the race in May & the 4 crown

It is what it is, people like to complain, especially on social media sites. I think TS doing this is really great for the sport. I'd like to see a pts deal like knoxville does for this race. If your not fast, and finish well in all your track time at knoxville, you never know what alphabet soup main you could end up in. It happens to the elite cars at knoxville to. 

Eldora will not disapoint you.

Earl was a cool guy, and he did have a vision. Maybe not what everyone thinks though. I think it was in an issue of Open Wheel magazine years ago. They had an article on Earl and the track.  He bought the place for the ballroom as he liked ballroom music at the time and wanted somewhere to play.

He was also a race fan, and decided to build the track since it had the natural landscape of a bowl. The rest is history you might say. My first time there was in the early 70s.  Always heard about the place but never been there, so off we went. When you finally found the place out in the middle of nowhere, the first thing you noticed was a large parking lot and an old ugly metal fence that looked like the outside of a junk yard. Humm....

My first thought was, this doesn't look to special to me.  Looks like a damn junk yard fence and nothing else. So we walk up to the gate, pay our money and walk in. About that time the place absolutly explodes on you. Here is this huge bowl down below ground level and the stands, surrounded by hills to sit on in turns. You see light towers from the pits that rise above track that couldn't be seen from outside. Thousands of people around the bowl, and the pits full of cars.  You stopped, looked, and said "wow, what a cool track."  Then the cars came out and you were hooked for life. It seems like they almost disapeard on this large high banked track compared to what we were used to (1/3 mile flat oval). Then they threw the green for hotlaps and you experienced the speed like nowhere else. It was heartpounding fast like nothing you had ever witnessed before.  Incredible. We all looked at each other and could only say "wow" or maybe "WTF."

Earl built and owned Eldora, but also owned Mansfield, Findlay's Millstream, and maybe another one, I don't remember.  He only owned the other two for a while, but he always had Eldora.  Very approcable guy.  He would walk around and talk to the people like they were family.  We talked to him many times over the year at all his places. Always would stop for a chat and wish us the best. But there was nothing like watching him with is iconic hat drivng that old water truck on the highbanks of Eldora during the shows.

Thanks Earl & Bernice - may you Rest in Peace.

Tony has carried on the tradition. He made what I call modern day Eldora, and has done a fantastic job IMO. I know there are some Tony haters out there - I understand - but I think he deserves credit for what he has done for Eldora and sprint car racing in general.  For that I am greatful - thanks Tony.

I'm lucky to only live a couple hours away. Eldora is a bucket list track for anyone who has never been there. You will not be disapointed.

Enjoy!

You could give some people a bag of gold and they'd still complain that it was too heavy...

He also owned New Bremen. And I think a stake in Dayton but I'm probably off.

When you have to run sixth to get as much a starter got TWENTY years ago, the purse is lacking,  excluding the starter of course.  If you like bragging about the winner's share, this one's for you.

the problem is these whiners and complainers aint got a pot to piss in there fore they are keyboard warriors. how about if all these complainers and whiners  build there own track and pay the purse out of there own pocket and charge 20.00 per seat like they want... that will shut them up. tony is doing a great thing for sprint car racing and its going to be a great race to watch. thanks tony 

  Purses at Eldora usually tended towards the Dolly Parton  top heavy way.  What's not as well known is that if you had a really tough night racing there Earl would often slip you a few bucks.  As a rookie at his track in the late '60s I was the beneficiary of a fiver or so a few times.  Sounds like nothing now but was enough gas money to get me round tripped home and back the next weekend and was greatly appreciated by a broke young guy trying to race. I thought the world of Earl and Bernice.