I follow a page on FB called Sprintcarstats which posts interesting results from races from many speedways from years ago. In addition to the final feature results they also occasionally post the winning payout. They recently posted the results from Lawrenceburg Speedway from May 9, 1990. Bill Rose won and for winning received $800.

I looked at several different “then vs. now” dollar calculators and while they vary slightly, all indicated that $800 in 1990 would equal $1760-1775 today. The point of all this? Racers complaining that purses have not kept pace over the years would seem to be valid as per Lawrenceburg’s website, they pay $1500 to win in 2022.

I can't speak that this is true or not. I remember 1000 in that time period and even more earlier with wings was 1200. Staab would say if he won and the shop was about twelve miles away he broke even.

It is possible though and times got good with a big car count. We were down to about eight for wings when it was drying off.

In order to raise purses, we would need to raise ticket prices. Have you done the same comparison on front gate admission? Would fans be willing to pay more? There is so much more competition for the entertainment dollar today. Unfortunately, competition for that dollar has created downward pressure on ticket prices. You have to make up the difference in volume of tickets.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find what admission for a weekly show was in 1990 @ Lawrenceburg or any other IN weekly track for that matter. Using the same multiplier, today’s $15 admission would equate to about $7 in 1990.

I remember winning a feature at the Green County Speedway (now defunct) in 1993, this was a special race and I won $1000, The next night I won a special race at Brownstown and won $800. Most of the time the mods got around $300 and never more than $500. Now the going amount is around $600 to win at most tracks. So, the mods are really racing for less and most have big dollar engines that cost from $20,000 to $50,000 and I won lots of races with a $2000 engine back in the 90's. So now no one would make any money if they won every race in a mod. Back then gasoline was about $1 per gallon and now it is over $4 and raising. When I first started racing years ago gasoline was about 25 cents per gallon and I used 100 avgas at 50 cents per gallon. In 1962 I remember working as an equipment operator out of the union for around $3 per hour and now they are paying over $34 per hour. In about 1968 the price to get into a race track was $2 and the pits was $3. Most everything has raised to 10 times as much except the purses at the tracks.

Brownstown paid $1000 to win for late models in the mid to late 80's I seem to remember. I don't remember the admission price.

I have some old paperwork from my old man's car owners. In the late 60's, he ran super modifieds in Michigan. One of those items was a pay sheet of what the car won every night. The one that stuck out the most, was a show on July 5 in 1968, it paid $1000 to win. My father took 3rd in the heat race, and 6th in the feature, and he won a total of $17. $2.00 for the heat, and $15.00 for the feature. That is what I remember, usually big money to win, but peanuts for everyone else. May not have been that way for the national touring stuff, but it was that way for the local "big shows".

Seems like gate admission to weekly sprint races in Indiana in 1990 was more than $7. I’m thinking 8 or 10 dollars. I think gate admission today could be raised slightly without losing fans.

I think so also, but at most tracks, it includes the entertainers to, so it raises their rent also, which I don't agree with. Just sayin!

Tri State this week is $2000 to win with a $20 gate price. Usac Sprints 2011 ISW $5000 to win $20 gate price. Not sure exactly what year went from 4k to 5k but do recall all the promoters agreeing on $20 and ONE support series.