8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Eight Indiana race tracks join alliance led by former NASCAR promoter

January 8, 2014






















H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler is at the wheel of an initiative to breathe new life—and money—into myriad auto racing tracks across the country.

Eight tracks in Indiana are set to be beneficiary of Wheeler’s new endeavor.

Wheeler made a name for himself as the president and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway, one of the premier auto racing venues owned by Bruton Smith’s Speedway Motorsports Inc. Charlotte has been the site of many memorable NASCAR races.

Wheeler has since departed that post, but remains close to auto racing and last month launched Speedway Benefits LLC.

Speedway Benefits, Wheeler explained, is an alliance of tracks to leverage more and bigger advertising and sponsorship deals across those tracks. Speedway Benefits has already signed 300 tracks to be members, and Wheeler thinks he will have close to 1,000 as the initiative matures in 2015.

Wheeler’s son, Trip, a 20-year motorsports sales veteran, is helping lead the initiative. Already, the Wheelers said they have brought on some of the top grass roots tracks in the U.S., including Marshalltown Speedway (Iowa), Maryland International Raceway (Maryland), Lernerville Speedway (Pennsylvania) and Caraway Speedway (North Carolina).

Indiana tracks involved include; Terre Haute Action Track, Thunder Valley Raceway, Daugherty Motor Speedway, Baer Field Speedway, Plymouth Speedway, Tri-State Speedway and Miami County Speedway.

“[The number of tracks that have already joined] proves the idea was sound and greatly needed,” Trip Wheeler said. “We are signing up tracks as fast as our seven-person staff can handle. While we will eventually get to 500 or even 1,000 tracks next year, the attendance our member tracks represent now makes us very appealing to global companies.”

The Wheelers said they’re already gotten positive feedback from a number of potential major sponsors.

“The proposition is simple,” Humpy Wheeler said. “We harness the buying power of member tracks to generate instant positive return for sponsors. Converting at even 1 percent rate can generate millions of dollars in new revenue for partner [tracks].”

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Pardon me for being worried about NASCAR and Humpy Wheeler making decisions about the Terre Haute Action Track.

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Would that be the famous "WONDER VALLEY" at Salem Indiana?? :14::16

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Just to be clear, Humpy Wheeler is not NASCAR.
That being said, he's always come across to me as somone who could have been a snake-oil salesman in earlier times; even the name conjures up images of florid-nosed hucksters in loud plaid suits...

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

humpy is gonna save Indiana short track racing....amen....praise the lord....

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Jim

Think of the guy that invented "Legend Cars" and 600 racing. A great little series although very "SPEC. ORIENTED" as if you have to buy all replacement part from 600 racing or you are illegal. He is in it for himself, I guess if that breathes life back into some dying tracks that is still a good thing. Just not my style.:7::7:

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

gowlee sgt carter, i've heard of a couple a them

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Yeah, he's done some good things but he definitely comes from more of the "showman" side than the France family.
I think my personal favorite idea of his was something that for all intents and purposes was a car-mounted SAFER barrier. It's my favorite because of the name: "Humpy Bumper" :D

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

I said this in an earlier thread, and I'll say it again...

Humpy Wheeler was the guy that said "Women won't like dirt tracks because the dirt will mess up their hair-do".

Please note: "Wheeler's son, Trip, a 20 year sales veteran"
Sales people don't always have their customer's best interests at heart. If they don't sell something, they don't make any money.

I hope for the best.

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

I wonder if Humpy has ever been to the Action Track. I've only missed a handful of USAC races there in the last 45 yrs. Haven't seen him there yet.

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Not a possitive said yet?

I don't know what it is for certain, But if each track that joins for one thousand, five thousand, whatever it is and gets back 20 thousand for hanging a half dozen Mobile One, ATT, TORNADOs etc billboards, Thats a good thing and keeps the gate down. I know for a fact many tracks are at the break even or lose stage for WEEKLY SHOWS and are only able to do so by selling track sponsorship space.

People only look at the purses and don't include Electric, Fuel, employees, insurance etc.

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Might be a gig in it for me and my "super jumping scooter" for the pre-race show.

I noticed the difference between NASCAR fans and open wheel fans when I went to the first Brick Yard Race. I loaded up my seat cushion in preparation for a long boring race. Those danged people did not sit down for the hole race and they were the only thing louder than the race cars. Wish I had thought to brought my ear plugs, but I was use to the noise of an Indy car going around there, boy was I wrong on that count too.:5:

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Yea if he has his way you'll probably have to have a starter on your car to run at the Action Track since he thinks push trucks take to long to push off the main event.

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Terry


Sounds like a great idea to use starters. USAC was way ahead of that curve on that one. They did that with Midgets 20 years ago and it was a big big success.

Maybe a transmission for them big half mile tracks?

This is starting to sound Sounds like Mini Sprints isn't it, and to be honest we sure can run a race faster than other open wheel cars do.

Back in the day, starters weighed 35 pounds each and batteries weighed 65 pounds, a hundred pound of dead weight. Now 5 pounds for a starter and 5 more pounds for a battery. Maybe the time has come for self starters??:) Thanks to USAC we already have the technology setting on the shelf.

BUT Starter's just fly in the face of old time racers, because "that is how we always done it". How could the push truck drivers get into the race anyhow?:10:

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Settle down with the conspiracy theories. This one is pretty simple. There's no Humpy taking over tracks or imposing his will or rules or anything else going on here. There's no checks tracks are sending Humpy's way to join this thing. The Wheeler's aren't making out like bandits on the backs of local race tracks.

We signed our Central Illinois tracks up awhile ago and Humpy or Trip aren't calling me telling me what classes to run, what purse to pay, what to charge at the gate or anything. In fact... I haven't heard a word from them regarding our racing operation... nor do they have any right to tell me how to run our operation on account of joining.

It works like this. (and I checked their website to make sure all of this was public)
1. You sign up at no cost.
2. You allow them to seek sponsorship from major corporations for the group of tracks - most of which I don't have a good contact at... or they have no interest in talking to some guy that runs a couple dirt tracks in Illinois.
3. They work out a deal for sponsorship - either cash, discounts or in-kind.
4. They tell the tracks what the deal is and each track can either take it or leave it for that sponsor.

Yes... I'm sure there's a nice cut built in for the Wheeler group, but who in America starts a business without seeing some potential for profit? It's not like I was going to walk into the corporate offices of Home Depot and walk out with a check on my own... and if I was able to do that on my own, I could simply say "Not interested Mr. Wheeler, I already have my own deal with them."

The more I think about it.. if Humpy Wheeler shows up at Jacksonville Speedway saying "I'm going to show you how to run this little joint"... I'm going say "Here are the keys, show me how a pro does it." I'm not counting on that happening anytime soon.

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I hope your being sarcastic about it being a big success 20 yrs ago,as i recall it about killed midget racing in California with very low car counts and everyone i knew that ran a midget back then bitched and moaned about having to rebuild the clutch paks every few races and added another expense to running their car.

I realize that the componets today are way more advanced than they were 20yrs. ago,but I don't think they could hold up to the abuse of a 850 to 900 horsepower engine for very long without having to constantly rebuild them and thus adding to the cost of running a car which is already insane for the purses that we race for.I feel that going to starters would just put more car owners out of business due to the added costs.(JMO)

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Thanks for Clarifying............Lots-a-idiots out there..........

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I guess my only mistake was that I suggested $$ to participate.
But i was close. Its about getting some corporate sponsorship money to tracks in return for exposure.

Have no idea where Dad and the others jumped the shark. Probably didn't even read the article. Just went Humpy Happy :)

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sorry, I wasn't trying to be positive or negative, just some thoughts on how "colorful" the man seems to be.
Mr. Dobson, have you seen any results from your association in the form of sponsorships? I'd be interested to know how things are working out.

Like everyone else here, my 2 cents worth. ABC...Always Be Careful. Reminds me of the deal that if we put skirts and ground effects on our Silver Crown cars Nascar will make them their warm up band. See how that all worked out. JMO, bob

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Yes, we've benefited... We were at the World Finals in Charlotte and drank free adult beverages and grub cooked up by Randy LaJoie on the grill while shooting the breeze with other promoters in a really nice tent in a prime location on the back stretch... all on Humpy's dime. :)

More seriously, the conference calls are pretty informative on getting different perspectives on how to better target your sponsorship efforts from people who do it at a much higher level than we do.

Other than the above benefits, we haven't seen any yet, nor was their proposed timetable for us to see any benefits yet. I think the first step is for them to assemble the group of tracks (which is probably about completed for this season)... then seek out the deals knowing what they have to offer. Meeting Trip, his wife who is also involved, and the rest of the team, I'm quite confident that they are highly motivated to make this work and have the contacts and experience to make it work.

Time will tell... but since it's free, suppose they did nothing more than bring our tracks in another $1,000 of sponsorship in a year... that's $1,000 we didn't have before at no expense or effort on our end. I know their goals are higher than that... but just saying that I don't see any downside for grass roots racing under any circumstances.

I can say it hasn't changed the approach or effort we have put into chasing sponsorships on our own and I don't have a line-item in our budget saying "Money Humpy is going to get us". Anything they bring in is gravy... and their rolodex is much bigger and well-heeled then ours.

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Charles,
All I was trying to do was make a little joke about the starter deal that was talked about in the article that was written a few years back about what Humpy thought should be done to make sprintcar racing better.I can't help it if people take it literally.:39:

And yes I read the article.

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Don't let my above comments make it sound like I was getting wound up over your comments. I was just trying to clarify some comments that made it sound like people thought the Wheeler group was going to have an active role in managing tracks as a part of this alliance. It's not that kind of arrangement at all.

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Hey, if all you get out of it is a really good time at Charlotte and some helpful advice from some experienced marketing people, I'd say it was a good deal.
I'm changing my mind the first time I see a Humpy Bumper on a Midget, though...:)

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

This was attempted probably 12 years ago by a group of tracks and sponsors. The problem arose when say they cut a deal with Coke and Pepsi has been one of your major sponsors and you are happy with them.
Or you have to buy a semi load of toilet paper to get the deal.
They may have these thins figured out.
Hope they do but as long as it doesn't cost anything to join it can't hurt.

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Beware of free Kool Aid...

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

The way I see things, many tracks are really in a need of someone to help them make business decisions on how to run their tracks at a profit. Turning them from a back gate race track run at a break even or loss operation into an old fashion front gate track where they actually make their money off of the front gate and actually show a profit. A race track that shows a profit is a much better place for the racers because these owners actually have some disposable income to spend on the racers purse, their points funds and even a banquet and trophies.

When your best customers are your performers you have a problem. We raced at Wonder Valley in the 90's. Times were better then, the people that ran the track put forth an effort to make it better and devised ideas to fill the grand stands any way they could. If it meant giving passes to Boy Scouts or youth groups, events for the kids in the stands they did it. Their reasoning was if they had people watching the races they could make money at the concession stands. Mini Sprints were the main attraction back then, we even did four abreast parade laps that was cool. We were followed by the lower 4 cylinder type racers like chevettes, vegas, and mini trucks. The purse back then was better than many purses today. They could look for at least 25 to 30 mini sprints and probably 60 to 70 cars for each of the lessor classes . Mini sprints was the main event and the loss leader, for the show. The support classes filled the stands. Their thinking was that the people in Salem would come and watch their friends and relatives race, figuring probably 4 or 5 people in the stands for each race car 0on the track and the mini sprints provided the main event.

Well as with many fairground tracks, those people fell out of favor following an ********, and the track was taken over by a gung- ho mini-sprint guy. The first thing he did was to chase off all of the support racers, he couldn't figure out why he was loosing money and not filling the grand stands any more. After loosing money for a couple of years he turned the track over to some folks that felt the same way he did about racing. They couldn't understand why mini-sprints weren't filling the stands and the purse dropped down and car count went down the tubes.

Then a new bunch came in. They were modified people and did not care much for mini sprints at all. They had profit on their minds but they were making money off of modifieds and selling parts. They felt the best way to maker money was to cut the pay out down even further. Wonder valley was and is just a bit small for V8 race cars but they wanted to race modifieds and V8 late models.

Well in their infinite wisdom the car count or crowd did not come back with the bigger cars on a little bitty track. So I guess with their eyes on a bigger track 40 miles up the road they decided to change from a Saturday night to a Friday night program, figuring that since they were running V8 cars they had a conflict of dates with the larger tracks further to their north. That did not help and was probably the death knell to a very neat little race track in Salem Indiana.

The above is a history of "Wonder Valley Raceway" as I saw it happen from my point of view, I might be prejudiced. This is how it got it's nickname "WONDER" as in wonder what they will do next. It is located 25 miles from my home, it is where we started racing over again 20+ years ago. I have been exiled for at least half of that time, but have watched with interest as things changed.

They had a class act to follow after the first group, times have gotten a lot worse. Somewhere lost in history is a lesson. Thunder Valley is a small 1/5th race track that was ideal for small 4 cylinder race cars. By racing only 4 cylinder cars the first owners had a niche market and enjoyed a very successful business for both racers and owners. By trying to be what they were not they came on to hard times.

No amount of Humpy Dollars for advertising is going to help Thunder Valley. They could use some of Humpys ideas about what sells and what does not and how get that front gate working for them again. The new managers have an up hill battle ahead of them. Salem Indiana could be a great market for a small dirt track catering to local racers. They are now looking at even more competition from the small asphalt track at the Big Salem track as well as from another small dirt track 20 miles to their south.

I take several phone call a week and get several pieces of junk mail from people that are going to help me grow my business. These type of things increase in hard times and slack off in good times, kinda of like a barometer of business conditions in the country. Right now the volume is up so I got a pretty good Idea what that means.

When push comes to shove the real answer for track owners or business owners is stop looking for a silver bullet for success and go out and work and make your own.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

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When he first announced this it was stated that there would be a bit of a "membership fee" to any track that wanted to participate....if that has been eliminated thats great.

My biggest fear would be that Humpys company signs a deal with John Deere, and suddenly any member track can only use john Deere equipment to do track prep as they are now the "Official Heavy Equipment Supplier of Short Track Racing"...and if you refuse to get rid of your yellow grader you don't get squat out of the John Deere sponsorship package.

If this deal actually helps the tracks who are struggling to run in the black then I am all for it, regardless of how much of the money ends up in Humpys pocket. My fear is that it will be so riddled with conditions that most tracks will never see any benefit or have to jump through so many hoops it's worthless to them.

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Given my name, I resemble that remark...:32:

To me this isn't about nascar money its more about promotors being just that promotors. Go and promote your product,dont rely on word of mouth or this d-m internet.This really the problem if theres a concert in your town do you advertise it online no. You buy radio and tv adds. It just alittle work at promoting our sport would make a difference but nowdays somebody want to hand it off to somebody else. jmo

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Jim

Best I can remember there was fellow by the name of Jim Jones that was giving Kool Aid away to all his followers a few years ago , thus staring the phrase "don't drink the Kool Aid". A very sad thing to remember. I wish his last name could have been Brown or something else besides Jones.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Agree with much of what's being said, but there's no "promotion" part of this thing. Purely a sponsorship thing. As I said, no fee and option to opt out of any deal so that we can continue to use our old Case tractors instead of a green Deere. So far we haven't been given a single condition of participation nor did we sign anything that mandated us to change anything. There's always the option to simply say "no"... we're not interested in that.

When we hire someone to help us sell sponsorship locally, she doesn't tell us how to run our race track. It's more or less the same deal. Just another person/group knocking on doors selling sponsorships. No downside I can see.

These comments about being lazy and just do it yourself I don't understand. We are doing it ourselves within our region as I'm sure every track and promoter is doing. But when I talk to my local Home Depot manager about advertising and he says "All that stuff is handled out of Atlanta." And when I ask for the contact number of the person in Atlanta to talk to he says "All you can really do is call the 800 number and use the menus to find the right department.", my chances with a company like that are far better if I have someone who already has a relationship with the right person in Atlanta handle it... while I knock on the door of my locally owned Ace Hardware.

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The smart promoters will use this group to help in securing sponsorship that isn't available to them directly. As Kevin said, they will be soliciting sponsorship locally which I'm sure they have done in the past. Much easier to knock on a local business door and talk to the decision maker directly. They quite possibly are customers at the local track and enjoy auto racing.

Regional and National companies are also looking for opportunities to provide some money to advertise and help their business as well. However, the amount of time and effort it takes to get there without having an "inside track" is extremely difficult. Name recognition is very important and drives the cart no matter what you are trying to get.

To me this seems like a win-win situation for the local tracks. Whatever you receive from this is money that 99% of the tracks couldn't get from their own efforts. I hope that the tracks that have signed up can see success in gaining additional funding.

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Does anyone besides me remember when TSS (Haubstadt) was a NASCAR sanctioned track many years ago?

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

Exactly my point; at least your first name doesn't match. At one point I considered changing my name to David Koresh but that wouldn't have worked out either. The positive side of it is nobody ever asks me to buy the next round.
Sorry for the diversion, folks; carry on...

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

These comments about being lazy and just do it yourself I don't understand. We are doing it ourselves within our region as I'm sure every track and promoter is doing. But when I talk to my local Home Depot manager about advertising and he says "All that stuff is handled out of Atlanta." And when I ask for the contact number of the person in Atlanta to talk to he says "All you can really do is call the 800 number and use the menus to find the right department.", my chances with a company like that are far better if I have someone who already has a relationship with the right person in Atlanta handle it... while I knock on the door of my locally owned Ace Hardware.[/quote]

One quick added note, we (promotors) even have their number to call them DIRECT if we have any questions or issues or suggestions. Yes its early, no we have not seen anything yet, but only 60 days into it, it has to be somewhat positive to try something new. Sounds good now lets make it happen for all sides of the sport we love.
One quick note added to the comment to above, "All that stuff is handled out of Atlanta." or we get answers like "well our budget is all spoken for this year" or "sorry would love to but business is slow".
Not whining at all, I totally understand the ups and downs of a business.......I love racing and will keep at it,
Maybe somewhere out there is a business that is interested a sponsorship deal or is doing so well they need of write off????
I am not afraid to ask, here at Clay County Speedway on my way to season 3, going to make it better than season 2, which was better than season 1, would love to hear from you, thanks for taking time to read. Oh and thanks to all those current race track supporters!
www.claycountyspeedway.net
thanks kevin
812-630-3989

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

I trust the Helfrich's at Tri-State that they went over this with a fine-tooth comb to see if they thought it would benefit their track and they concluded that it might just be a big help. I fully believe that nobody is going to tell Tom how he is going to run his track. He may be getting some help in promoting his MSCS series as well. He is promoting a series as well as a track.

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The mentality of "we don't want some nascar promoter" is the same reason that many tracks like the "holy ground" of Terre Haute are always getting a new promoter every year it seems. If it is so special and hallowed, why haven't some of the posters on here done it themselves?

This close minded us against the wings, us against fenders and support classes, us against starters mentality is the reason that outside of Indiana, only hardcore race fans even know what USAC or non wing racing is.

Whether you agree with me or not, what's been happening the past few years isn't working.

Re: 8 tracks in Indiana join alliance.
 

I sure do, but I wouldn't have thought about it if you had not mentioned it.:10:

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Ron, I do. I think it lasted a year or so.