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

Since there's no Nationals tonight and I have nothing better to do.......there's something I've been wanting to bring up on this forum for quite some time, and tonight just seems like the right night.

I read a lot of the crap on this forum and sometimes shake my head in disgust at how outright nasty some people can be towards Schatz. But, I can't help but wonder why he is so hated by so many people. I will admit that he is not my favorite and I will be happy if he doesn't win this year's Nationals, more because it's time for someone else to win, but something inside me just doesn't like his personna. So I was wondering....is Donny the most hated Sprint Car champion of all time? I'm too young to have witnessed the fans treatment of Opperman, Weld, Kinser in his prime, Rahmer in posse land, etc.

So I pose the question - Is Donny the most disliked; or most booed, (whatever you want to call it) champion of all time?

And then it leads to the 2nd portion of my topic - Why? I've heard so many different things on here about Donny, that I don't really know why he is so disliked by so many, other than he likes donuts. Ok there's the obvious - he's a winner, 4 years in a row kind of winner, which deserves respect - I just don't know why so many people, including myself, don't respect this guy and just outright want to see him finish in the back. I've been a racer myself for over 30 years (I started in quarter midgets at 4) so I'm not the average fair weather fan that changes their favorite driver like underwear. I truly don't like Schatz...and the funny thing is, I don't really know why. I guess it's probably because he just hasn't been what I consider an ambassador to the sport. I'm a die hard sprint car fan, have been my whole life. There's just something about this Champion that is different than other's. Maybe some other respected forum users (is there such a thing a respected forum user? ) can weigh in and shed light as to why Donny is booed louder than any other driver I've ever witnessed. And maybe some of the older fans can tell me if any of the older drivers were held to such rigorous beatings as what Schatzy has been getting the last couple of years.

Thanks for listening to me ramble. Let's keep it clean please, or as clean as possible with this particular topic.

If everybody hates a winner then could someone explain the John Force phenomanon. I don't believe I've ever heard this guy get BOO d and he sure has won alot.

I remember the "Anybody but Kinser" years.I think it's the same person winning time and time again that causes it.I don't remember people booing Donny before he won his first Nats.As a matter of fact,when he won that first one it was a pretty joyous crowd.