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

Is it just me or did this race lose its hype?     I really havent seen much about it this year.  Its a huge purse High Limit race and some Outlaw lnvaders. . Scratching my head on this one.

Looks like a good crowd. What were you expecting?

I think the rain dampened it a little (no pun intended) and has been some of the focus, but great looking crowd and 53 cars seems pretty good to me.

Maybe fans are distracted by Larson running Indy?

I'm about to start watching the Weikert.....

I thought that was a damn good race ! I liked seeing the Weikert 29 in Victory lane even thought I was rooting for Sunshine.   

The older I get the faster I was

Looked like good crowd and good race and good purse .Rooting for Sunshinebut Dan drove a good race.

The durst dice roll was won once again with a fan and DD taking home 1,500 each.  Great promotion!

Let's go Sprint Car Racing!

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

I have been attending races in Central Pa since the 80's. I have heard the crowd errupt many times over the years when a Posse driver beat the Outlaws, but the way the crowd reacted last night when DD beat Sunshine ranked right up there when Fred Rahmer won the National Open at Williams Grove in 2013, which essentially was his last race of his long storied career and the loudest I had ever heard at a local race until last night. It was unreal, especially for two drivers who only half the crowd would cheer for on a regular basis.......

What a great race!!!!

Lotsa people don't like DD's comments, but I loved this one: "There's not enough beer in Port Royal for me & my crew tonite" (or something like that)

& I gave up drinking years ago....

I don't think it lost any and it didn't gain any either. It's been a great event over the years and last night was another chapter in the story. 

What are you talking about Fixxxer  ?    Last night had the most cars yet and Dietrich got $76,500 for winning.

“Sunday's Bob Weikert Memorial was one of the record books in many ways.

A stout 53-car field set a new record for most cars in event history, a cool $75,000 payday marked the richest reward in event history, and a remarkable group of PA Posse diehard fans turned Port Royal Speedway into an electric factory with the energy they brought to the crowd.”

Link to Full HL Article

https://www.highlimitracing.com/press/2024/article/153157

The discussion was about hype surrounding the event, not results or attendance or purse so that's what I commented on.

Amazing race again.  Track was great as usual, crowd was electric.  Can't miss them huge port shows, glad I made the drive I'm at Fremont now track and field is stacked here as well, great weekend for racing for sure. Not sure if the hype was there or not that don't bring me to a track. 

i agree there doesn't tend to be as much hype around the weikert compared to other big events like the tuscarora 50 for example.  that might change after sunday.  it was the kind of night that can really elevate an event.  great crowd, great field of cars, large purse, and it was a race fitting of a big event.  it's hard to find a niche on memorial day weekend since so much is going on.  we were at indianapolis sunday and i got a little bit of fomo after seeing the feature despite a terrific weekend out there.  port royal might be on their way yet again to scoring a big win with one of their races.  

we also went to the little 500 while we were in indiana.  they had a red flag on the first lap and had a really hard time getting the first 100 laps in because of all the cautions.  it made me appreciate what we have here in central pa.  i think they had less than 5 cautions the whole night in the weikert.  they got back to racing quickly.  the skill level is top notch and the race tracks keep things moving.  we only made it to lap 380 of the 500 before it was time to get everyone to bed.

With races paying larger purses I do think some of the races that what we'd consider a "big race", years ago, gets lost in the mix and becomes more of an average race. It doesn't necesarily mean crowds won't shop up, but may be just gets less attention pre and post race hype. 
 

Keep It Real

When did you get out of the little 500? We considered going but wanted to be on the road by 4am for the massive line to get in, which doesn't move until 6. 

Keep It Real