[captrat]

I have seen much discussion about the closing of various race tracks. Sadly this seems to be the reality of the time. Why? I would posit the following: aging fan base, property values, too many classes and sanctioning bodies, entertainment dollar choices, fan base who are not into cars, concentration of track ownership, super teams and the general expense of all racing, cost of the young fan or family to attend on a regular basis, fewer promoters as opposed to owners who have a stake in the game and more.

So the time of attending your local track on a weekly basis is most likely a thing of the past. When I was a young sprite along with my grandfather we could attend Mt. Lawn, Sun Valley, Richmond, Armscamp and others all within reasonable distance of one another.

We now have mostly special events and I am happy we still have them but we now face a very different racing environment.

Welcome other positive comments free of political innuendo.

[Charles Nungester]

Too many classes and dwindling car counts I believe are the main reasons, I think you can still draw a crowd, You just have to have the product.

When I was young, there wasn't twenty five classes of dirt racing. There were Sprints/modifieds. Late models which were a caged souped up street car and some sort of hobby stock like a VW Beetle class. Now theres 305-358-360-305 602s-604s racesaver 410 and steel block sprints just in one class. KNOCK IT OFF.

Also everything is more expensive. If you want a competitive car. A hundred k plus spares. The top tier of dirt racing used to be a bunch of mechanic and farmers who needed some mid summer activity and could afford to do it. And for fans, It cost a hundo to leave the house for about anything anymore. Believe it or not, Tracks are reasonable in the sporting world when it comes to concessions. Go to a movie or baseball or football game. 20+ to park, 10 beer, 8 mcdonalds size hamburger

[openwheelfan1]

Growing up where I did, the closest track was TSS and it was an hour plus away. With it running on Sunday night, we rarely attended as Mom and Dad had to work Monday morning. We would see one or two shows/yr. there and one or two USAC sprint shows at Salem Speedway. As an adult, once my family and I moved to the Indy area, we would go to the midgets at the Speedrome, LPS, Paragon, and IRP, along with trips to THAT, Salem and Winchester, but we certainly did not go to a racetrack weekly, maybe slightly over once/month.

With all that said, it’s a different world today. My son would sit and watch race cars for hours, but IMO, he was an exception. Most of his buddies (who we occasionally took with us to the racetrack) could care less. To them, there was too much “boring time”, it was too loud, it was too dirty, etc. Those kids are today’s adults.

To a degree, those kids are right. A typical night at the racetrack lasts 3.5-4 hrs. from qualifying to the conclusion of the feature. Yes…it is getting better, but there is a reason a typical movie is 90-100 minutes. That is the attention span of today’s audience. A kids movie last 68-75 minutes for the same reason.

I recently saw a report that said the percentage of teens getting their driving license when eligible has dropped for the last 5 yrs and is now below 66%. Our generation (yes, I’m a “boomer”) regarded getting a license as a rite of passage. We worked on our cars, and a good part of our income went toward fuel, car payments and car insurance. We didn’t have public transit, Lyft and Uber. It was have a car or walk.

I don’t have a lot of confidence that weekly racing will survive long term. Racing costs are continuing to escalate. Inflation is making families choose what extracurricular activities they enjoy. Urban expansion is making land increasingly valuable. Track owners and operators are getting squeezed from every direction. I hope I’m wrong.

[The55]

I will never complain about tracks that don’t allow coolers or refreshments to be brought in. Track owners have to make money to stay open so I will gladly do my part and spend a few bucks while there. Food and drink at dirt tracks is a value compared to concessions at any other professional sport. Frankly, so is admission but I don’t want to say that too loudly.

[DaleDuBois]

The biggest thing going against racing is the expense for those watching or those racing. My son tells me about a bunch of people getting go-carts and doing weekly racing the cheap way. The way it is working is several people who have land out in the boonies, and some are racers and some just want to race. No purse for the winners and no cost to watch. The races are never in the same place week after week. Some just scrape off the grass and weeds for a track and they race. They don't advertise where they are racing next but the word gets out. So if someone bitches about the noise or dust and here comes the law, it's already done for the day and everyone has left.

[BrentTFunk]

I don't think this is a new trend. It has been trending this way for a long time. How many years has it been since Tri State quit racing weekly? I believe it was the first. Kokomo gave up on it a few years ago. I think there are several factors.
1The cost of insurance for a night is extremely high. Don't know for sure what the exact cost is now, but was told by a promoter over 10 years ago that the first 100 tickets sold covered his insurance. To cover that, admissions were raised, and you have even less people that can afford it. To cover that you add more classes. This makes for a long program and is tough for families to attend.
2 Racing has become a more participant more than spectator sport. Look how many people who used to go the track, that are involved in micros now. If you look, those are getting ridiculously expensive anymore. Racers can be their own worst enemy when it comes to spending.
3 It is hard for a racer to justify risking his investment, for $1400 to win. I knew a guy who had a thunder car who had $35,000 in his motor. There was a hornet team at Gas City that I heard spent a fortune. How many people did those discourage from racing, because they knew they couldn't compete? So, you have a bunch of classes with very few cars, and only a couple have a chance to win. Not exactly must-see entertainment.
4 Growing up in Kokomo, there were 6 or 8 sprint cars parked outside gas stations when I was a kid. Now those gas stations are convenience stores instead of repair shops. Those cars raced mainly at Kokomo, and now tracks seem to be competing for the same cars. You run a couple of tracks, and the season has gotten much longer, and that makes it more expensive for the racer. When the local guy doesn't race anymore, you lose his neighbors and work buddies who came to watch him.
I am sure I can come up with several more reasons, but it doesn't matter. It has been coming for a long time, and I feel like the time to save it has probably passed a long time ago.
With all that said weekly racing does seem to be doing good at Putnamville, and Paragon seems to be building it back up.

[DaleDuBois]

Lincoln Park has a good location with Indy not too far away. Then you have Greencastle, Brazil and Terre Haute, all racing towns. Lincoln Park is easy to get to with the big highways nearby like US40, I-70, US41 and US231. Lincoln Park has always got plenty of racecars. What I like about Lincoln Park that there is not a bad seat for watching a race. The food is reasonable priced also. Plenty of room to sit in your own lawn chair. I think the only problem is parking on the big show events, if you get there late. If Lincoln Park ever has a problem of getting people or racecars, racing is over with in this area, maybe forever.

[Charles Nungester]

Well some numbers I heard were 30k a month for lease and electric alone. 3-5k in fuel in all the track vehicles a week and a half a million in equiptment in track concessions and track prep Nevermind 50 plus employees and insurance that kicks in if you open the gate that must be paid, rainout or not. Nevermind ordering tens of thousands in food and drink that some like buns will mold if you can't sell em in good time.

Im sure this varies probably a lot from track to track.

[Rich Mersereau]

interesting topic. the decline of weekly racing started a while ago (20-ish years) and will likely continue. not a horrible thing. the increase of specials is great for fans. look at the amount of fantastic events that have emerged the last 20 years. kids that want to be race car drivers have no time to race locally they have to advance more quickly today. operating a race track every week is too difficult for any human. racing will survive its got too many people hooked

“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games,”
Ernest Hemingway

[TQ29m]

Earnest was a wise man, I remember that from a long time ago.