[bigq11]

Originally Posted by treecitytornado It was at the Mopar Million for sure! Almost 150! Late Models are actually more expensive to run than Sprint Cars and many parts of the South and other areas are more into the big name Late Model drivers and don't even care about Sprint Cars. It's a shame, but true, unfortunately! Posted via Mobile Device

I've seen as many as 227 late models for the WORLD 100.

[RGraves]

You can basically find wingless sprints in Indiana and California. Late Models are scattered throughout the country and there are lots of them.

[Flatrightrear]

Having Forrest Lucas around to support you can't hurt.

[ossuks]

Originally Posted by Flatrightrear Having Forrest Lucas around to support you can't hurt.

Wasn't the 1st place he stopped, but I bet he is glad he decided not to give some other club something like $350,000 and then wonder where it was used.

[Hotshoe65s]

Growing up as a big late model fan in the middle of Indiana I have wondered the same thing. After a lot of thought it comes down to many of the reasons already listed. But some other things I noticed different is the atmosphere at a late model race. Late model fans are really into it, it seems like. They scream and holler for or against drivers, and they are willing to travel farther to see a big race. One big thing I have always wondered is why big named sprint car guys don't have souvenir trailers. Most your big LM guys have a trailer that tours with them and they bank a lot of money that way. I know I read somewhere that Bloomquist sells about a million a year in souvenirs.

Back to the subject of a big sprint race. I don't understand why it couldn't happen and be successful. But I only see it being successful under a few circumstances.

1. Needs to pay at least $20,000 or more to win.
2. Needs to have a pay structure to entice mid pack cars to attend. Such as at least $750 to start. And pay like $200 to start the Bmain with the first guy not to transfer getting $700 or so. Then pay the cmain a decent amount. Things like this will get guys that know they cant win or cant make the show to show up anyways.
3. It would have to be at the end of the year. Late October or early November. This would be late enough that sprints wouldn't have many racing alternatives.
4. Would have to be an Indiana track with large seating, pit, parking, and camping capacity.
5. Would have to be a two day show. Hot laps and qualifying on Friday. Races on Saturday. (example: World 100 or Dream). And do an invert wheel after qualifying like they do for the dream. It adds a little curveball to the drivers and makes racing more interesting. Plus it doesnt let drivers sandbag in qualifying cause they dont know what the invert will be for the heats.
6.Needs to be a 100 lap race. Have a caution at 50 for fuel and tires. Every major race or crown jewel in the late models is usually 100 laps.
7.The race needs a catchy, yet serious name. i.e. world 100, the Dream, North/South 100, Dirt Track World Championships, Kings Royal, Knoxville Nationals. This makes the race catch on with fans and in time will make it into a household name (at least within our own little world).
8.Unfortunately with big pay comes a big price tag. So tickets would have to be expensive. Prolly $45 or $50 for a two day ticket. And $50 or $60 for a two day pit pass.
9. This one will be loved by everyone on here lol, but it shouldn't have any support classes. For sprints I guess midgets would work in nicely, but sprints alone should be enough.
10. Lastly but most importantly, the promoter would have to advertise extremely well. They would have to reach out to the sprints across the country to draw all the cars and fans they can. There just arent enough non-wing cars in the midwest to make a big show work. So they would have to come from across the country.

That's my situation in which I think it would be plausible. But a promoter has to strongly believe that an event of this magnitude would work before it ever becomes reality.

[dsc1600]

The biggest reasons why there are more big paying late model races than sprint car races:

1) As it was mentioned before, in order to get all the top names in late model racing, you need to pay a bit more as there are multiple sanctions and frankly guys like Bloomquist have been really smart at not racing for less money.

2) I actually think the WoO sprint car series works against having shows that pay more than the normal 10k to win purse as your guaranteed of getting their drivers to your track whether you pay the minimum or pay more. Unless a promoter thinks a higher purse will draw more people, it doesn't make a ton of sense to pay more for the same drivers.

[thebus79h]

Originally Posted by bigq11 I've seen as many as 227 late models for the WORLD 100.

And this past year they didn't even have enough to run a hooligan Friday night. Everybody went to the heat races.

Fine by me, beer was just as cold either way.

Late models are late models all across the country except where they run crate models. The difference is all of them stopped running for anything less than 3 or 4 thousand to win. Notice there really isn't to many weekly tracks? It's all big money stuff, and special shows. There are sprint car tracks all over the country that run weekly for much less, but it's also a lot cheaper at the gate, and at the pit gate.

[767]

Why do late models get the bigger races, plain and simple, they get more cars and fans. Look how accesable the late model stuff is. You can find 1 or 2 races on TV each week. You go to a big race, several trailers selling murchandise. Easy to follow, .... no matter who these guys run for, there numbers stay the same. Scott Bloomquist #0, Don Oneil #71, Earl Person #44 exctra. Also when these guys venture out into something else, they run there number. When Scott Bloomquist runs a modified, it has the 0 on it. Thats not the case with open wheel guys. Just look at the 4 crown. A guy might run the #17 midget, the #58 sprint car, and the #34 silver crown car. Or he might run the #20 car when he is not running usac, but when he goes to a usac race he is in the 9 car. Open wheel is based on name loyalty. Unfortunatlly there are not many open wheel tracks or series that invest into creating that loyalty. When the casual fan shows up to the track, and has no clue who is driving any of the cars, how is the track or series going to ever build anything? Who wants to buy a t-shirt of there favorite driver when they do not see him race the car on the shirt? The WoO is the only open wheel organization who has built national fan loyalty. That is why they will always have the biggest open wheel races and will always bring in many more fans.

[Wayne Davis]

Originally Posted by ossuks Late Models market their product! Late Models run for huge money! WOO markets its product! WOO run for huge money!! When organizations are managed by intelligent individuals they prosper! There must be good leadership and good marketing people in these organizations? While some organizations are growing (MSR,POWER-I), others seem to be going backwards. It all comes down to leadership, the powers in LM,WOO, MSR, Power-I, ARCA, all seem to be growing their product, they have TV, they have growing or steady car counts. When these organizations make changes they do so with the car owners input, and the betterment of their product is the priority!

this is VERY TRUE....Does the name Robert Smalley ring a bell?...He was the Ted Johnson of LM's...Founder of the NDRA (National Dirt Racing Association)...He was the 1st to offer $10,000.00 at every show he did

DR. DICK BERGGREN comments on Smalley...“it was there in Robert Smalley’s time and its there now. I think the difference between then and now is Robert Smalley had perhaps better methods of exploiting all of that. He was as you know an incredible showman and brought a certain sense of carnival to the events that he promoted which are absent today and which I frankly miss.”

“I think of the whole thing like the interviews he used to do on the front straightaway wearing that checkered vest of his and the near naked trophy women he had around and all the hoopla and excitement and all the stuff he generated is missing today and it shouldn’t be missing. Because the activity itself, the driving, the cars, the events, are all more exciting now than it was in Robert’s era. And I’d like to see some of that color return.”

I remember him in his Elvis style jump suits and the 4-5 women with high heels bikini bottom half tees with nothing on under the tee's...At Smokey Mountain Speedway '82 the girls was on the parade lap hanging out the window of the black dually and the wind LITERALLY made them hangout. But better then that over 250 Latemodels from ALL OVER THE NATION!!!

[racerjim2]

Let's face the facts here....there's just more hillbilly late model people in the world than there are sophisicated open wheel people.