Upon a visit by Mr. Beam, My Philosopher side came out and got me to wondering what makes a fan pick the races they attend? Is it the BIGGEST EVENT? The most payout or like me, The biggest bang for the buck and let the race or event, Speak for itself?

I've done both, I've done a period where Outlaw's and All Stars where where I was Can't Miss this! Some were great! All had the best of the best! and some were stellar, out of this world races that you'll talk about for decades, shared only by a few thousand who shared it with you, That was totally worth any amount of $$ you spent. And some were totally dominated duds, that I said to myself, I spent a ton of $$ for this?

Over 50 years I've changed, and changed several times. From a kid watching the only thing I knew, Non wing sprints, Cheering Gaines, Wilkerson, Krebs, Solominoto, Deputy, Milburn and Bob Kinser, to a teen-20ish run all over a ten thousand square mile area chasing the Outlaw-All Star tours. To a thirtyish working on Late Models for Sat night while catching Sprint races on Fri and Sun, when possible. To now. I will travel to either tracks I haven't been too, Shows I want to see, etc. that don't interfear with Sat night local, And it takes something big that I haven't seen or know is a great show, Or a not much else going on like spring and fall, to get me out of Saturday Night Local.

When it all comes down too it, I've seen great racing at both. A traveled too track with tens of thousands cheering, To local with a few hundred cheering, And both having there fair share of blowouts, But there is nothing like being there, When something special happens. When a How'd they do that? Moment happens!

It took me 50 years and last fall I seen a race local race, with a mediocre car count, On a track that for all intents and purposes SUCKED early on, that saw four cars swapping the lead several times a lap and the fifth place car in that malay ended up winning on a few slick and calculated moves and creating a very specia moment in the process, To realize, That BEING THERE! is the most important reason in any of your plans.

That night, Dickie Gaines won in John-Jason Sudrette's 44 on a track they tried for years to win, And after Jason's passing, They finally did! One of the most memorial nights of racing for me. Bigger to me than Blaney winning his first Kings Royal and Kinser Winning his third. Bigger to me than Haudenschild winning the Mopar Million. In fact that night, I was more excited about Gaines third place finish, that still netted a cool 100k

In the end, My point is, Being there! Being somewhere that produces history and memories, is the key. It may not be history to most, But to you, It may be the specialist of memories.

So what eggs you to the races? What are your plans for the remainder of 16? Honestly, I got Local, THAT and LPS penned in for Sprint week. Every local and Three Crown and Sprintacular in the -fall, Possibly Wed's-Fri of Smackdown, Lernerville-PPMS, and Millstream-Montpilier as possibles.

Spending a year and a half both physically and financially unable to attend many races. I just wonder? Knowing there are friends who are currently in that position and friends no longer with us. Im glad to be back.

50 isn't old, But it is experienced, and sure as hell makes you thankful for the things you have, share and can still share. Last Sat night, I didn't feel particularly well, Some of the racing was almost painful to watch and while enjoyable. The headliner was dominated in the feature........... Yet I was there with my Father and Uncle. I wouldn't trade that memory for the world. Something I shared as a kid and still can thankfully. This will end someday, And hopefully this sport will remain to get more memories from Action, friendship and experiences until my final day and long afterward.......

This post doesn't mean anything, Just a few random thoughts by a semi buzzed fan scribbling at 3am who fell asleep at 8pm and woke up at 2am. But the question still remains.

What makes you choose the races you attend? For me its various reasons but takes a lot to override local, Epic memories can be created anywhere, The answer to me is just BEING THERE!

Enough of this incredibly long, tragically misspelled and grammarized post. Answer if you like. I'll enjoy all responses.

Buzz is working, back to my interrupted final four hours of sleep.

Some people get paid for columns like this, Me, Not so much, And that's OK! They're much better at it!

Chuck

Charles,aways enjoy your post.Thank You

For me? I like going to new tracks especially if they can be gotten to via a nice motorcycle ride. I enjoy going to a few tracks,where I ran and won at , allowing me to maybe relive a few of those moments. I'm looking forward to going to waynesfield tomorrow for speedweek, I'm not a particularly huge fan of that place but it was the last race I went to with my brother before his accident 9 yr ago, so it's good memories there. I now have his motorcycle he rode that nite, wish I had it ready to go there.

Charles I'm in the over 50 club too and have been going to races since I was 3 with Mom and Dad. Some similar lines in my past. I too chased the Outlaws for a few years even going as far as Texas to see them, but grew tired of seeing the same two guys win week in and week out. Tried my hand at driving in 97 and discovered I could get poor real fast doing this on my budget, but it was fun while it lasted. I crewed on a NASCAR LM for a couple years but gave that up once my son was born.

Today I plan out were I go and what I want to see on two phases. I look for places were I can get good access to photograph racing. Will a pit pass get me access to a place were I can shoot from and is the track friendly to non credentialed photographers. I also look for the quality of a race program. I know the tracks that have a good healthy weekly program and aim for those. I want to see the main class have full fields and more then one or two drivers who can win. I also look at what their support class looks like. My first love is open wheels, but I also like stock cars if the racing is good. I like to travel and get to new tracks too, I try to get to a new track every year. I pretty mush all over the place on the racing spectrum. One week I could be at Summit Point shooting an SCCA Road race in the morning and afternoon and then head off to a dirt track to end out the day. I also enjoy short track asphalt racing and have two of those on my schedule coming up. As I've gotten older I've moved more toward the grassroots side of racing. I don't do any of the big touring series anymore except for USAC. For my money no one is given me more bang for my buck then them.