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Topic: Dear Mr. Murphy...
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June 28, 2007 at
10:48:33 PM
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Taking the advice of Mr. Katich on a previous string, I sent the following letter to Keith Murphy, Sports Director for WHO TV 13 in Des Moines.
Mr. Murphy,
As a fan of all types of racing, I have to say that the Iowa Sports Media struck out recently downplaying the significance of one of the very few events that puts Iowa on the map, The Knoxville Nationals.
To me and millions of others, racing is the most exciting sport their is. NASCAR of course is huge and very mainstream, but the other two most popular forms of motorsports in America are Indy Cars and Sprint Cars. And any knowledgable race fan will tell you that of the three, sprint car racing is by far the most exciting.
Iowa should be extremely proud to host the largest and most popular Sprint Car event in the world, The Knoxville Nationals, at the most famous dirt track in the world, Knoxville Raceway. Nascar has the Daytona 500, IRL has the Indianpolis 500, and Sprint Car Racing has The Knoxville Nationals.
To even compare an inaugural event for the floundering IRL to a historic event nearing its 50th birthday is ridiculous. And it is just plain ignorant to call it "the biggest and most important motorsports event in Iowa history". Wake up!
Attendance numbers from the Iowa Corn 250 were announced at 35,800. Knoxville triples that number. Knoxville is also where legendary names like Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Dave Blaney and more made polished their skills before landing big breaks. Not historic enough for you? How about A.J. Foyt in the 1960's and Al Unser Jr. in the 1980's. Or pure sprint car names like Steve Kinser, Danny Lasoski, Doug Wolfgang or Sammy Swindell.
Race fans don't care if Ashley Judd or Gene Simmons will be there. As a matter of fact, we laugh at you for even mentioning them on your broadcast. But we do care that Tony and Kasey go every year to Knoxville to watch their teams compete.
The Knoxville Nationals are famous in all corners of the U.S. and the world. People come from Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, Austrailia, New Zealand, Europe, South America, and Asia. Last year drivers from 13 countries competed in the Knoxville Nationals. I travel every single year from South Florida to attend The Nationals, but you couldn't pay me to drive 30 miles to attend an IRL event in Newton, IA.
As a journalist and as an Iowan, one would expect more of you. You unknowingly smacked your own state and one of its proudest events and venues square in the face and may have damaged the very sport (dirt track racing) that dumps in excess of $50 million dollars into Iowa's tiny economy every year.
Iowa has a diamond, hidden down in the small town of Knoxville. Unfortunately, those who could help promote it and further support their own state choose to pretend it's not there, or even worse, discredit it. And in doing so Mr. Murphy, you discredited yourself to true race fans in Iowa and around the world who know what a truly special motorsports event really is.
If you want to do a true service to your network and state, send a camara crew to Knoxville for one short week in August. Better yet, come yourself, bring your family, and have the time of your life.
Sincerely,
Jamie Klootwyk
West Palm Beach, FL
To his credit he did respond to my message, declaring he has a very postive feeling toward Knoxville Raceway and the Nationals. Not sure what that meant...so I challenged him in a response to come to Knoxville for the Nationals and feature the event much like they did the IRL. I also challenged him to promote the weekly events in order to support the sport in Iowa.
Feel free to send Keith your comments at [email protected]
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June 28, 2007 at
10:52:00 PM
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Keith did a piece earlier this week on Knoxville Raceway and now owns Raceopoly...
If this post isn't results, stories or something c
constructive, it isn't me!
@BillWMedia
www.OpenWheel101.com
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June 28, 2007 at
11:18:23 PM
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Keith sent me a very professional and sincere response. He mentioned that they are in fact running a story about Knoxville being undercovered and underappreciated. Bill, he did mention he is the proud new owner of Raceopoly.
Our email exchange was actually a pretty good joust and Keith makes some very good points. Let me know if you'ld like me to post his response.
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June 28, 2007 at
11:47:27 PM
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I saw a blurb today in the D.M. Register about Ashley Judd stopping by a closed resturaunt in D.M. over the weekend. At the end of it said 'Ashley is the wife of Iowa Corn 250 winner, Dario Franchitti.' That was pretty newsworthy.....
Savage
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June 29, 2007 at
08:23:39 AM
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Reply to:
Posted By: Savage, Bad Monkey on June 28 2007 at 11:47:27 PM
I saw a blurb today in the D.M. Register about Ashley Judd stopping by a closed resturaunt in D.M. over the weekend. At the end of it said 'Ashley is the wife of Iowa Corn 250 winner, Dario Franchitti.' That was pretty newsworthy.....
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Big Earls ain't a resturant!
Save your butt, get a colon screening TODAY
For complete line of Sponsor Awards check out
MarshallTownLaser.com
Duane Davis
Laser Engraving
641-751-7777
101 N Center
Marshalltown, Iowa
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June 29, 2007 at
12:52:17 PM
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01/20/2005
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Reply to:
Posted By: Jamie Klootwyk on June 28 2007 at 10:48:33 PM
Taking the advice of Mr. Katich on a previous string, I sent the following letter to Keith Murphy, Sports Director for WHO TV 13 in Des Moines.
Mr. Murphy,
As a fan of all types of racing, I have to say that the Iowa Sports Media struck out recently downplaying the significance of one of the very few events that puts Iowa on the map, The Knoxville Nationals.
To me and millions of others, racing is the most exciting sport their is. NASCAR of course is huge and very mainstream, but the other two most popular forms of motorsports in America are Indy Cars and Sprint Cars. And any knowledgable race fan will tell you that of the three, sprint car racing is by far the most exciting.
Iowa should be extremely proud to host the largest and most popular Sprint Car event in the world, The Knoxville Nationals, at the most famous dirt track in the world, Knoxville Raceway. Nascar has the Daytona 500, IRL has the Indianpolis 500, and Sprint Car Racing has The Knoxville Nationals.
To even compare an inaugural event for the floundering IRL to a historic event nearing its 50th birthday is ridiculous. And it is just plain ignorant to call it "the biggest and most important motorsports event in Iowa history". Wake up!
Attendance numbers from the Iowa Corn 250 were announced at 35,800. Knoxville triples that number. Knoxville is also where legendary names like Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Dave Blaney and more made polished their skills before landing big breaks. Not historic enough for you? How about A.J. Foyt in the 1960's and Al Unser Jr. in the 1980's. Or pure sprint car names like Steve Kinser, Danny Lasoski, Doug Wolfgang or Sammy Swindell.
Race fans don't care if Ashley Judd or Gene Simmons will be there. As a matter of fact, we laugh at you for even mentioning them on your broadcast. But we do care that Tony and Kasey go every year to Knoxville to watch their teams compete.
The Knoxville Nationals are famous in all corners of the U.S. and the world. People come from Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, Austrailia, New Zealand, Europe, South America, and Asia. Last year drivers from 13 countries competed in the Knoxville Nationals. I travel every single year from South Florida to attend The Nationals, but you couldn't pay me to drive 30 miles to attend an IRL event in Newton, IA.
As a journalist and as an Iowan, one would expect more of you. You unknowingly smacked your own state and one of its proudest events and venues square in the face and may have damaged the very sport (dirt track racing) that dumps in excess of $50 million dollars into Iowa's tiny economy every year.
Iowa has a diamond, hidden down in the small town of Knoxville. Unfortunately, those who could help promote it and further support their own state choose to pretend it's not there, or even worse, discredit it. And in doing so Mr. Murphy, you discredited yourself to true race fans in Iowa and around the world who know what a truly special motorsports event really is.
If you want to do a true service to your network and state, send a camara crew to Knoxville for one short week in August. Better yet, come yourself, bring your family, and have the time of your life.
Sincerely,
Jamie Klootwyk
West Palm Beach, FL
To his credit he did respond to my message, declaring he has a very postive feeling toward Knoxville Raceway and the Nationals. Not sure what that meant...so I challenged him in a response to come to Knoxville for the Nationals and feature the event much like they did the IRL. I also challenged him to promote the weekly events in order to support the sport in Iowa.
Feel free to send Keith your comments at [email protected]
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Excellent post Jamie.
I hope you copied Brian Stickel @ the raceway on your e-mail. The Raceway needs to be included in teh conversation, because unless they provide FREE tickets to the Newstations, they still won't show highlights or anything on TV. I wouldn't PAY to COVER an event for work and neither should they.
I heard a rumor that you and your brothers "own" a team traveling with the IRA in WI. Any truth to this rumor?
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June 29, 2007 at
08:15:01 PM
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487
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This message was edited on
June 29, 2007 at
08:21:58 PM by Jamie Klootwyk
It's not a rumor. We are in our first year of team ownership and having moderate success on the IRA Sprint Tour. We have teamed with driver Scott Uttech to pilot our ride. We are currently 8th in points (not bad for a first year 410 team) and would likely be in the top 5 if not for major engine woes leading to a DNS and DNF our first two nights out.
It's absolutely an amazing experience. I've made a few weekend trips from Florida to attend some races. It's an adreneline rush every time the car pushes off. Jason is very active from IL. Scott shops the car out of WI. The IRA has been a perfect fit for us so far and is really an awesome group of guys.
As for Knoxville, quite frankly I don't know anyone personnally at the track, which I think may be just as much to blame for the Racetrack and Nationals not being covered enough in Iowa. As you can tell I'm very passionate about sprint car racing and Knoxville in general. I would love to be more involved with the track as it is a place we hope to field our car in the future.
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July 03, 2007 at
05:09:35 PM
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01/20/2005
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2079
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This message was edited on
July 03, 2007 at
05:10:34 PM by vande77
Reply to:
Posted By: Jamie Klootwyk on June 29 2007 at 08:15:01 PM
It's not a rumor. We are in our first year of team ownership and having moderate success on the IRA Sprint Tour. We have teamed with driver Scott Uttech to pilot our ride. We are currently 8th in points (not bad for a first year 410 team) and would likely be in the top 5 if not for major engine woes leading to a DNS and DNF our first two nights out.
It's absolutely an amazing experience. I've made a few weekend trips from Florida to attend some races. It's an adreneline rush every time the car pushes off. Jason is very active from IL. Scott shops the car out of WI. The IRA has been a perfect fit for us so far and is really an awesome group of guys.
As for Knoxville, quite frankly I don't know anyone personnally at the track, which I think may be just as much to blame for the Racetrack and Nationals not being covered enough in Iowa. As you can tell I'm very passionate about sprint car racing and Knoxville in general. I would love to be more involved with the track as it is a place we hope to field our car in the future.
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Didn't realize that Jason was in IL. I see Joe every once in a while and put back a few with him last year under the grandstands Thursday night.
Hope Scott does a good job for you @ Nat's. I'll make sure to purchase one of his shirts knowing that he has a great group are the car owners.
BTW--I got a e-mail from Shawn Terrel (self professed race fan that went to the IRL and has attended LM shows @ Knoxville as a spectator) today--one of the WHO sports guys. Said he was looking forward to covering the Nationals this year (so I would assume that our e-mails are getting the point across about how great of an event and race this is).
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July 03, 2007 at
06:30:52 PM
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487
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Not sure we are running Nationals yet...
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July 03, 2007 at
11:03:38 PM
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02/08/2005
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This message was edited on
July 03, 2007 at
11:06:04 PM by Knoxville
Take it easy on the media lets just be happy we have the mediacom weekly show and any local racing coverage. It's a tough call for a media outlet to send somebody down for an entire saturday night of racing in knoxville, trust me they and I wish it could be done weekly.
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