Forum: Northern California Sprint Car (go)
Moderators: StuDeedooo

Found this on Hoseheads.com...very interesting thoughts

April reached the halfway point the same day that
Chico held their 2nd point race of the season. A one week break following the opener on the 1st was due to the track being misused for a two day monster truck thing during the intervening weekend.

Reports indicate the monster truck crowds were packed into the
stands with many additional ticket buyers watching from the pit area. At $20 per adultplus $13 even for small children, it was no bargain for an evening with five monster trucks, a jet car turning something into ashes, some motorcycle jumping, and smaller truck events.

What is the drawing power of a monster truck show based on? I
figure two things play a big part, television exposure and the fact that it is entertainment, not competition. I go to Chico to hopefully see exciting competition that will lead to being entertained. Last weeks racing was an example of a lack of competition leading to a definite lack of entertainment. A too fast track for main events meant a runaway win.

Monster truck fans are practically guaranteed of seeing what they
probably want:.a loud and dramatic display of strangely built trucks running around and jumping over stuff. About the only thing that can lead to not meeting entertainment goals is if mechanical issues sideline a truck or two. It is a simple formula, trucks go out and do what they were designed to do and the fans are happy.

Oval track racing is different, nothing is as controlled as a
monster truck show. We hope for an exciting battle for a main event win, but it probably does not occur a lot more often than it does. If a front row car runs away with the main event, then looking for a duel between cars racing for another finishing spot can usually be found. It is almost like a monster truck show is scripted, which if followed, will produce entertainment. Our racing is quite the opposite, anything can happen and nothing is guaranteed.

Things will be different this season at Chico. The track presents
a weekly winged 410 program on Hoosier while the former Golden State Challenge series, now called the King of the West series with all new leadership, is tied to Goodyear. A person whose opinion I respect feels that several drivers have chosen to put their racing budget towards the King of the West series and Friday nights in Chico will happen without their attendance. Not stocking two brands of
tires to race both KWS and Chico saves quite a few dollars over a season.

The result is playing out at Silver Dollar Speedway. While the
opener on April 1st drew 20 winged sprints, that was deceiving as Petaluma canceling their special Friday opener due to wet grounds put around six additional cars in Chicos pit area. Race two on the 15th may have unfortunately showed the true situation when only 13 winged sprints appeared. To my memory, this is an all time low for a Friday point show.

This last Friday there was 15 cars...one groove track with basically no passing except there was a new friday night track record...that does little for entertaining the fans and again the show was over by 9:45 even though they dragged things out alot. Once again the scoreboard was blank and no mention from the announcer on when it would possibly be fixed...not good to pay all that money and now have a useless information board. This Friday with 410's, wingless and street stocks I would anticipate there would be about 36 cars total...add in the dwarfs and we might see 50 for 4 divisions. Crowds have been slim due to no offer of a family pack or anything as I refuse to pay $44 for 2 adults and 2 juniors (+food and drinks = $60) for 3 hours of follow the leader.

To many divisions of sprint cars now plus the tire brand issue and the economy has really had its impact on 410 sprints, the Bradway memorial coming up would draw extra cars in the past for the previous friday points race, but then would SDS let Goodyears run friday night ?

KOTW ___Are they going to let Hoosier's run Saturday night for the Bradway?

Trophy Cup......Best race of the year hands down!

i believe the outlaws require you to run both rear tires as goodyear.

to indy and beyond!!

intresting to see what this tire thing does to car count.

I do not know if it is Robbie or not...but how many KOTW teams will buy Hoosiers to race Friday night? I doubt many will do that since there is not much pay in it. How many friday night guys will buy Goodyears just to race Saturday night? I have seen the results for KOTW and am not too impressed as it seems they only have about 14 teams that have run all 3 races so far as Larson is 15th and didnt run last weekend. As all people said before it will be a 2 horse race between 83 and 0 with the 83 winning just as he has done so far this year...TK is basically unbeatable in California. I look for about 6-8 teams to run all the races by years end.

Could the lack of car count possibly reflect the $42 dollars per team member to get in on top of already increasing cost to race as it is with lack of sponsorship dollars in the area. Most friday night guys are weekly racers that work all week to be able to afford to race. Some even counting on the check from the previous weeks race to be able to go the following friday. And don't know if John's oh wait Dennis Cage's accountant will be quicker with checks but in the past it has taken at least a week and a half to 2 weeks to get that. And thank god for Troy Hennig going out and getting that extra $800 every week so that we aren't still racing for $1200 to win. Bad thing is that doesn't do anything for 2nd on back. Then lets take a race that has been $3000 to win since it started and drop the purse back to $2000. Maybe if SDS put up some money we would get a few more cars. Lets face it it is more lucrative to travel and run KOTW then stay in chico and run friday nights. As far as the support divisions go on friday nights they get f***ed. If a spec sprint crashes they have to buy the same parts as a winged car and they race for peanuts. I think its like $600 to win. Modifieds same thing a alot of money spent to race for nothing.

As far as from a fans point of view in chico you have baseball, racing, bowling, and the movies or the bars too if thats your thing. All of those other thing provide more entertainment value for your dollar than SDS. Not to mention the complete lack of promoting in the chico area. I have heard people at the fair looking at the cars in front of the grandstand that are on display asking where they race sprint cars at around here. I know they are probably really stupid but that also shows you how much our past and present promoters have worked on getting the communities interest. I was just talking to a friend today that came late friday night and caught the last ten laps of the sprint car main bought a beer for him and a friend and gave a tip and was out $50. Get real SDS and all its staff we are getting closer and closer to driving by a paint ball facility on friday nights just like fans in San Jose do.

Take care of your racers and do your jobs and get butts in the stands plus make it worth coming back for both new and old fans alike or you won't have to worry about making excuses anymore.

I talked a wingless driver last week...It is $500 to win, $50 to start unless they have 20 cars. How many people can race a $10-20,000 car for $50 to start a race?? He said last year they were paying $800 to win and 100 to start but when the car count was not 18-20 per week they dropped the pay. My question would be this...will they be dropping the pay of the 410s since they are only getting 12 cars a week???? It seems pretty crappy to penalize every other division and pay them junk and yet continue to babysit the 410s and pay them the same. Support divisions are tired of being crapped on just to support the sprint cars every week when they get nothing in return. Dont look for more than 10-12 wingless this year at chico. The problem is this....they have crapped on the support divisions for years (and lost cars every year) because they had 20 sprints cars...now that you have less cars in EVERY division when do they open there eyes and see what they are doing is not 100% right.

Bad judgement...unfortunately you are right on your last 2 statements...

SDS thinks that a little handing out a few fliers at farmers market is advertising...remember it is basically the same people that keep going to the market...so your opportunity for new customers after a few weeks is very minimal.

Need to get a promoter in there that is a race fan.

Igo and shogun:

Maybe you both dont know but Dennis is the promoter but the same people that worked for John are working there now...so its not like these issues are new and they just came up. The drivers have complained for 3 years about one groove racing...Unless every promoter is deaf and blind you would have to live under a rock to not know this (ask Paul from MRP and I am sure he has heard the same story).

The pricing goes up or stays the same and you have less people in the stands....go figure...change or see less fans .

All I am saying is the same problems have existed and nothing changes and they get less cars...so I guess they are happy with no cars racing there on Friday nights.

Heres a novel thought...AS A PROMOTER MAKE YOURSELF VISIBLE OR AVAILABLE TO THE DRIVERS AND OWNERS AND TAKE A WALK THROUGH THE PIT AREA AND ACTUALLY SAY HI AND THANK THEM FOR SUPPORTING YOUR TRACK ...maybe then you would hear a few complaints or suggestions

First off, I'm well aware of who the promoter is now. I find it hard to believe that anyone would think that the promoter is not a fan. To say nothing has changed really is incorrect. Allen isn't there anymore and Dennis (figurehead or not) is the promoter. So something has changed and it's only 90 days into that change. Some of this becomes chicken or egg. How do you fix the track? I believe they brought in new clay just a few years back. It might take a lot of money to solve the problem. I'm not really sure I'm not a racetrack technician.

I don't think I've ever read anywhere where there is a benefit to the promoter to have a one groove racetrack. Do you really think they get up on Friday morning and say "let's give them a good one groove racetrack tonight". Come on now let's not be naïve. I certainly agree that the promoter needs to be accessible and visible. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Dennis has been doing some promotion at a different speedway the last few years. Was he successful there?

Bad Judgment, I disagree with your point about promotion. This is a subject near and dear to my heart and one that I studied for my Masters degree just a few years ago. The promoter is only going to be able create a set amount of networks of communication. The number of networks will be determined by the amount of resources ($} available to the promoter.

Hopefully members of these networks are also members of branch networks of communication. Think of it as a big tree and the promoter is the root of the tree. Hard-core fans make up the trunk and smaller branches will develop from the trunk. It doesn't cost a thing but a moment in time to tell a friend, neighbor or acquaintance about something that interests you. It really just depends on how you look at life. Is your glass half empty or is your glass half-full. Do you want to take the time to help the situation or do you just want to complain about it.

?

Shogun00 has made the most sense of any post on here. Everything he said is spot-on............

SUPPORT WILDLIFE, go to a sprint car race! 

I'm hoping for nothing but good things for KWS and nothing but good things for Silver Dollar. Like em both.

I agree with CWM 100 percent.... want them both to prosper, will be better for all for sure.

Also agree with t-dub... very good to hear from you Kerry. You are spot on and it takes me back to that meeting we had at Calistoga. How many years ago???