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While I’m not going to say that all is well with weekly racing in IN, NW sprint cars WERE spread pretty thin Saturday evening. Waynesfield had 25, Lincoln Park had 32, Tri-State had 35 and Lawrenceburg had 8. That is 100 NW sprint cars. That is ABOUT what was normal for a Saturday night last year when LPS, Paragon and Lawrenceburg would all run a weekly show.
Now….with that said, I am and have been concerned about the racing costs vs. payouts for several years. Motor costs, tire costs, fuel costs (both racing and tow vehicle) all have increased significantly over the last five years, but payouts have not kept pace. AND from the track promoter/owners standpoint, I get it!! Their fuel costs for the equipment for weekly track prep has gone up, concession costs are up, insurance costs are up, but crowds haven’t increased….in most cases their weekly crowd is smaller than 5 yrs ago on average.
IMO, there are no easy answers here. Racers and promoters are being squeezed by costs and fans have less money to spend attending races thanks to THEIR costs increasing as well. I wish I had answers, but I don’t.
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