This message was edited on
August 06, 2012 at
03:56:14 PM by TU 32
While I respect the right that everyone has to post whatever they feel, I would like to take a closer look at some things going on in the world of racing.
First, I would like to look at the state of online forums in general; whether it is a sprint car, late model, modified or forums for lesser classes, the trend continues to be that people seem to want to complain about occurrences at races more than anything else. Now, as a fan of racing, which I assume everyone on this forum is due to the fact that they take time out of their day to look at different things from the world of racing, I would think that we would all want to promote the sport instead of tearing down an event. If you have a real problem with a track or the way that they handled something, the best way to address it is to actually talk to someone that is associated with the track. In the grand scheme of things, racing is a customer-service environment; the promoter of the track needs to make the fans happy so that they come and pay money to watch, which enables the promoter to pay the drivers, therefore making the drivers happy and providing a good show for the fans, which brings the fans back. If there is something going on at a track that is making you upset, tell the promoter or an official, but do it like an adult as a conversation, not by yelling at them or by posting negative comments anonymously on a forum. Any smart promoter, especially in this day and age, will take your comments and try to work with them because, let's face it, he doesn't want to see them end up on a forum.
Now the argument to what I just stated always seems to be that people are just expressing their right to free speech. I agree 100% that should have the right to voice their thoughts, but here is where I don't understand the negativity; as I stated before, we're all race fans. By jumping onto a forum and making negative statements, how are we promoting the sport of racing? Most of the country, save for a lucky few areas, are experiencing drops in both car counts and attendance; while there are numerous reasons for this fact, one that can easily be avoided is if race fans as a group would stop tearing down the sport that we love and instead worked together to make it better for everyone and bring new fans to the sport. While forums began as a wonderful way to share information and results they have now turned into a medium for people to share negativity that causes problems for racetracks and promoters. I realize that it is often a select few that do so, but sadly they seem to the loudest.
Here are a couple of recent examples that can be looked at as evidence of this:
The Capitani Classic, an event that was in it's first year, drew a field of 67 cars last night and you had to pay less to it than you would ever have to pay to see the World of Outlaws anywhere! Except fo this week's Knoxville Nationals, what other 410 sprint car event draws even close to that many cars? Yet, people want to jump on a forum and complain because one... ONE driver didn't take his starting spot in the A-main. Now the report from the pits was that Donny Schatz had lost his brakes after taking the checkered flag in his heat, which was also given as the reason for him not making the call for the States Dash that he had qualified for. It strikes me as hard to believe that Schatz, who is one of the most consistent drivers that tends to tear up very little equipment would skip out on an event, but if so, that's his and his team's call. However, judging by the fact that he races for a car owner that never takes a break because he loves to race that much... I think there was probably a real reason why Schatz didn't take the track the rest of the night. Plus, Schatz doesn't like to take breaks either; a little over a week ago he jumped into his family owned car to run an All Star event instead of taking a break from what is easily the most demanding dirt series in the world. However, because Schatz didn't make the start, there are people on forums posting that there were rumors that other drivers would not start the A-main either and bad-mouthing the event. These rumors ultimately proved to be unfounded as Schatz was the only one to scratch from the main event, allowing Jason Johnson to make the field and I bet he was glad to be out there.
Also, we have people that are listening to a radio broadcast of the event making posts about things such as how drivers must be "not using top motors" because Brooke Tatnell set quick time. Now for someone that was actually at the track, it was pretty easy to see that Tatnell was helped by the fact that he was the first car out to take time on a track that fell off pretty far; the same way that it had the nights of the 360 Nationals. Even without that excuse however, you could look at the fact that Tatnell had held the track record at Knoxville as a sign that he knows how to get around the track or the fact that he won a preliminary night feature for the 360 Nationals just two nights previous in a car that obviously doesn't have the same amount of money invested in it as many of the others that were on the track around him.
These are just current examples of people wishing to bad mouth certain drivers or events, but it has become a normal thing to jump onto a forum the day after a race and to see more negative than good.
In non-open wheel racing, it seems to be just as bad when one looks at some of the online controversy surrounding the USMTS show that recently took place at Tipton, Iowa. Fans chose to get on a forum before the race and stated how it was ridiculous that the track was running four support classes and how late of a night it would be, before continuing on to say that for those reasons they weren't going to attend. As sad as it is, that kind of negativity has an effect on people and after a long discussion on the thread I'm sure some people that the decision not to attend.
The part that makes this even sadder is that the show was run in an efficient manner and done before 10 PM. The promoter of the track proceeded to get on and make this point while mentioning that the negativity on the board likely caused some fans to stay home on what was purely speculation; speculation that was proven to be dead wrong.
I guess that this is what I'm saying; I love racing and it frustrates me to see people that claim to be fans of the sport doing nothing that can be deemed positive in regards to it. I get on Hoseheads every day and love to see results, stories about upcoming events, news about what's going on in areas of the country I can't make it to and photos from different tracks, but what I don't like to see are things that are detrimental to the sport I love.
I wish that the people that go on these forums to bash and slander would think about what they are doing to racing before they type it up.
As I don't want to be just another person hiding behind a login, my name is Morgan Broeg and feel free to check out my column Open Wheel News and Notes.
One last thing, to all of you who disagree with me, I understand if you disagree with what I'm saying, but I love racing and no matter what you think about me I'm going to enjoy watching the Front Row Challenge tonight at the Southern Iowa Speedway.
Have a great day and go support your local dirt tracks!
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