[TQ29m]

None of my business, but my 2 cents worth, people who complain, continue to complain, making it a special event deal once in a while, I don't think would make it any different, things have changed, and people have different reasons for what they like and don't like, the more they could run it, would over time, the folks would become to adjust to it, and it would be a part of their life, they've had the same problems at a lot of tracks, and the best answer is to just keep on keepin on, Brownstown, Bloomington, Twin Cities in my area have all faced the same thing, Columbus being the only one that has succumbed to the grief brought on by complainers, they stopped the racing at the 25th Street Fairgrounds track years ago, in favor of a Shopping Mall, guess what, the Mall is failing. Some times you just have to adjust! Bob

[dirtracer74]

Social media does not always mean "negative" comments about the track. When people can get results within seconds, why go to the track? They can see video high-lights usually within hours. Some cases, they can watch the racing live on their phone. Simply put, there just is not as much incentive to go to the track like there was 20 years ago.

Combine that with the negative feedback, it can be frustrating. Before facebook, and message boards, people grumbled about the track in the race shops. Now they grumble for the world to see. weather it is deserved criticism or not, most people can only handle so much. They put a ton of time, and money in to something they love, only to be torn down by a few ass hats. Awesome facility or not, you have to have some pretty thick skin to deal with some of that stuff. yes, it does affect attendance. A first time fan is going to look online for some information before they go. If all they see is negative crap, they most likely will change their mind.

It takes a pretty special place to survive in today's world.

[Backitin]

Originally Posted by The Old Coyote I don't know what can save it. It is the closest track to greater Chicago land since the Great Raceway Park went the way of the way of the buffalo, but nobody cares. I was just blown away by all the people at that stupid demolition derby bus race thing. If someone bought it and dug up the asphalt, I am sure they would get closed down by the homeowners around it. Nobody comes to see the pavement races. It is just a shame.

Pavement racing I'm sure is fun, but watching it is like watching paint dry.
If a dirt track gets paved over you know the end is near. (usually)
My beloved Flemington Fairgrounds Speedway got encroached upon by civilization and they paved it as a last resort. Nobody cared or came. If you never seen Flemington dust you aint seen dust. It was a combo of great black clay and calcium. At the end of the night everything was coated thick and everyone looked like raccoons because most had googles on.
Its a lowes or home depo now. I remember goin past and stopping one time where the track stood previously. As I was sitting there feeling like crying a carload of old dudes pulled up and all of them had tears in there eyes, pretty crazy all these years later. (I might be tearing up right now) lol.
Sucks losing a track, especially a pretty fairgrounds like Flemington was.
Looks like were losing our racetrack, I don't believe Champion Speedway is going to open.
No Speedwaybikes \ no fun

[flagboy55]

I've been to plenty of paved racetracks. There are 3 that stand out as a track I would travel to see a pavement race. Winchester, Salem, and possibly the most scary of them all the gone but not forgotten Dayton. I've seen other good asphalt shows but I have no idea why anyone would prefer it to dirt unless it's the dust factor, and the on track action more than makes up for it. Back to the topic, and I don't want to be labeled as the guy who is using social media to bad mouth the track but Illiana, while I want to give full marks to the current ownership, is not the most exciting track. I was absent for a few years and when I returned, I was really impressed with how great the place looked. Put some good clay on it and you might have something that could race in a similar fashion to the great "Action Track"

[chop]

I have not been to this track. But as far as social media doing in a track, I do not believe that is true. If you look at a few tracks in Michigan, Crystal and Butler. Both are some what of a dump. But they have race cars and fans that show up ever week. You should see some good racing each week. Both places run late into the night. Crystal is ran real well. Races start on time and move along. Just a ton of cars that race there. Butler is not ran as well with a lot of down time. But year in and year out they are always up and running.
I-96 speedway is between them and does not do as well. They really do not race the whole year. The same classes do not race week to week.
If you look at Winston and Thunderbird on the lake shore. Only about 30 minutes about. Winston is a nice track, doing well. Thunderbird has been sitting closed for years.
Compare Berlin, Kalamazoo and M-40.

So what makes one track do well and another in the area do bad? Is it the track owner, fan base, location, pavement or dirt, type of cars and classes ran?

I always find it funny about the Wolverine Nationals Midget at Hartford. We raced there that year. The fine for going over the curfew was like a $100 per night. So he holds a $10,000 to win midget race. Runs like 8 laps then stops it because of the curfew. I am sure the guy who was in 2nd place would have been glad to keep the race going and take the $100 out of his winnings. We would have passed the hat to pay the fine. That maybe a reason that place had hard times for a lot of years.

[767]

Several valid points on here about the utilization of social media. You have to stay on top of it or it can really do damage. Hate to say it, but you really need a young person to do this. It takes constant monitoring. I will tell you one area that really hurts no matter what you do, inclement weather. All of us have been to plenty of rain outs. Heck I seen a Tornado at 1 track from the parking lot. With everyone so "connected" and "experts" on everything, it is hard for a promoter to roll the dice on an event. I had an event last year. Rain all the way around us. For some reason it kept splitting around the area we were in. The track was prepped, so we did not cancel. I had drivers and crew members posting all kinds of rain pictures on there way to the track. Several people complaining about how hard it was raining at there place less than an hour away. I posted picture after picture of a dry track under gray sky's. We ended up with a with a good turnout in each class. The problem is, with all of the complaining, we had about 20 people in the stands. We ended up with .10 inches of rain between 5pm and 11pm. We had a couple of very light showers pass through during the show. It was a great event that no one saw. When asking people why they did not show up, several brought up all of the rain pictures. Many brought up all of the complainers. The other really stupid thing, the event was our championship night. Fans wanted to see the event. We took a lot of negative publicity for holding the event in the days after. 10 years ago it would have been a grand slam as fans would have traveled in from other rain outs. Today it was a loss. Next time it will probably be just another cancelation at noon.

[fish]

Originally Posted by dirtracer74 Social media does not always mean "negative" comments about the track. When people can get results within seconds, why go to the track? They can see video high-lights usually within hours. Some cases, they can watch the racing live on their phone. Simply put, there just is not as much incentive to go to the track like there was 20 years ago. Combine that with the negative feedback, it can be frustrating. Before facebook, and message boards, people grumbled about the track in the race shops. Now they grumble for the world to see. weather it is deserved criticism or not, most people can only handle so much. They put a ton of time, and money in to something they love, only to be torn down by a few ass hats. Awesome facility or not, you have to have some pretty thick skin to deal with some of that stuff. yes, it does affect attendance. A first time fan is going to look online for some information before they go. If all they see is negative crap, they most likely will change their mind. It takes a pretty special place to survive in today's world.

Very well said.

[ASPHALT24]

winchester will be the next indiana track to close