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

Ohio counts on Saturday: Sharon- 38, Wayne County- 22, Atomic- 22, Fremont- 18 for an even 100 cars

A Metro area of over three million people an hour from Granite City is the middle of nowhere.  St. Cloud just a few miles south of the track is a good sized town as well.  Most racing fans up here are into Modifieds and Late Models so that is the reason it's hard to draw cars.  Also had Knoxville 300 miles south with close to 30 (including Heskin who lives close to where the WoO raced but he is running for points at knoxville).  There were also cars from nearby over in our neighboring state Wisconsin and a NOSA race west of us in the Dakotas.  We could have had a lot more cars up at the WoO show without all those conflicts.

Knowing how many cars are available up here and how hot it was I stayed home and watched the All Stars.  I usually go see the Woo at Cedar Lake as they get 25-30 most years and it's only a half hour drive.

Stan Meissner

remember it is the GREATEST SHOW ON DIRT.  tHE aLLSTARS HAVE A MUCH BETTER CAR COUNT UP THIS WAY IN UPPER MIDWEST.  If groups like WOO would pay more for B main cars maybe more would show.  

I didn't mean it necessarily from a population standpoint but more from a sprint car point of view, not exactly a hotbed. Sorry to hurt your Minnesota pride. 

Of course the WoO pays more than the all-stars for non transfer B-main cars so this stated so confidently is not accurate. The WoO also pays 1,000 just to make the feature whereas the All stars you need to finish top 10 to get 1000. 

11a was a Jacob Allen backup car.  Clyde Knipp was a Macedo backup.

That was a tough race to watch from anywhere in the stands last night at Grabite City!! With the wind from the south and 100 degree temperatures, wasn’t pleasurable from a fans perspective. First trip for us to this track! Surface seems a little sandy?? Glad my favorite driver won or it would’ve been a big disappointment for first impression of the place! For you fans that know this track? Is  the track like this often? still better than sitting home!

I have only been up there one time for a 360 race years ago when it was still called Golden Spike.  They didn't have walls all the way around it at that time.  Roger Rager was still driving the JB 80 at that time so it had to be close to twenty years ago.  There are closer tracks and like you said it has been hotter up here than us tundra dwellers are used to.  My man cave with central air, dirtvision and floracing surfing between the All Stars and Knoxville were pretty awesome in this heat.  Cedar Lake draws at least 25-30, maybe more, and it's the closest track at 32 miles from the end of the driveway.  I will probably go out and see them there.  I'm kind of an outlier as I usually end up taking photos to pad the private collection.   Not really crazy about sitting in the stands.

Stan Meissner

Attica's payout is top heavy and people are getting tired of it

I don't see how some get as many cars as they do for several reasons.  One is "sprint car" racing is more divided than it used to be. Now we have 410, 358, 360, 305, crate classes and so on. Double those choices with the non wing guys and add steel block to the choices.  Second would be the amount of tracks running, here in Ohio it's not uncommon to have 4 tracks running winged 410 on a Saturday night. Third would be cost to compete.  I know some will say that's the reason for the lower classes. I'd say to them that those classes are too costly for the average guy. it seems to me that many in those lesser classes aren't new guys  but instead it's guys that can't afford 410's 

100 Cars across 1 state, especially with 78 of those basically in a decent driving distance of each other is still pretty good. Having 4 tracks running on the same day is what gives the perception that the counts are down. To me the issue at least in Ohio is it seems the cooperation has somewhat gone away and we are a little over saturated with the many series that are running. I know for years there were many people who were all about local racing would cry when all tracks wouldn't schedule a sprint car race when the Outlaws or even the All Stars were in town stating that no locals really went to the races and screw the Outlaws. Then you go on social media and see the same people complaining that Attica only had 32 and Sharon had 27 or 28 when the Outlaws were in town a few weeks ago when the All Stars were racing in Indiana taking about 10-15cars that would have probably gone to both, along with Fremont & WVMS running taking another 5-8. Could have had 40-50cars at 1 event. Now the people who pull for the little guy might enjoy it and I have no problem with this, its just when they expect to have 40-50cars at each track that makes me shake my head. I went to both Outlaw shows and didnt have an issue with the count but some people did.

Also in our state we have Attica and Fremont with a racing mini series, FAST series which goes across the state, OVSCA which is mainly Southern Ohio, and the All Stars race still somewhat often in the state. On 1 day especially in summer months you can see a race at Fremont, Wayne County, Atomic, Sharon, and may another track with all of them having some sanctioning body AFSC, FAST, OVSCA, All Star, Weekly show. I think some may want to start thinking about cooperating and growing the pie versus wanting to get a bigger cut of the current one.

Nick, fellow Ohioan here...I don't necessarily disagree with your take about tracks and series working together but when I read that argument I always wonder, at what point does that cooperation go too far?  Taking the series out of the equation (because that's a separate ball of wax), Atomic, Fremont, Wayne Co., and Sharon are all traditionally Saturday night tracks.  If they want to run sprint cars regularly, how many nights can they each take off to help the others out and still call it a "regular" class?  Each place is also their own business, and too many nights off for one of the featured classes is bad for the bottom line.  So there's only so much cooperation to go around and still keep each track moving forward, which makes it inevitable that these dates of heavy conflict will occur.

I wonder what car counts might look like if everyone got serious about cost cutting instead of letting the WoO drive rules for 410s across the country?  It's been decades that the alarm has been sounding and not much has been done.

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I agree there is a balance to the cooperation so it doesn't go too far in order to keep the gates open. I can see some fans not attending if a track only gets 20cars and at that point the track has no backgate or front gate money so the problem fixes itself for other tracks. That's something for the promoters to focus on. 

For me, and we have seen it on a few occasions, is if the Outlaws or All Stars are having races in the area. It would be nice for the other tracks to not race sprints to get the count up but I am probably going to go to the outlaw/all star event regardless, it wouy just be nice to see some more of the "local"/regional drivers. A lot of the all star drivers would probably race in any outlaw race in Ohio so it would be nice if there was cooperation there all the time to but business is business, I understand that it's just a wish.

As far as the WoO rules & costs I can tell you as a fan, I really don't care. I don't. I know it sounds selfish or whatever and there are plenty of fans around that view WoO as the black plague or the worst evil there is in the sport. As a fan of the sport who doesn't get caught up in rules or politics of the sport, if the have a race 3hrs from my house I am going. If someone else schedules a race closer to my house for $10-$20k to win on the same day, I'm still going to the Outlaw show. Judging from the crowd at Sharon with just 27 cars a few weeks ago, the probably made money. WVMS & Fremont, I'd say doubtful and probably not as much as they would have if they would have waited or maybe ran something else instead

Love that when they pull the spare cars ot of the trailers.

No worries, my Minnesota pride only goes as far as my property tax estimate for the coming year and how well the Vikings play. 

Stan Meissner

TJ Stutts has been named the new driver of the Barshinger 24 car earlier this week.

"I was so loose out there that  could hardly get back
in line for the restart", Bobby Allen circa 1996 (?)
*****************************************************
"I'm not a driver, I am a racer." Steve Smith 19, 1992 

I should clarify that I don't think of the WoO as an "evil empire."  However if we're talking about car counts for weekly tracks then following WoO technical rules isn't going to help increase the number of teams.

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Looking at the rundown for Sharon, the vast majority of the cars were from Pa. Just sayin.

Considering Sharon is named after a PA town, is less than a mile from the border, and it was "Western PA speedweek" it shouldn't be all that surprising. That said, it's still a race track in Ohio.

I'm the opposite of that. I'll support a local show anytime they are running against the outlaws. In fact it wouldn't change my life or race schedule much at all, if the WOO didn't exist.  

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