Will the economy hurt car counts?

Sprint39 · 3/5/09, 12:01 PM

How my of the racers that visit this site are not planning on running as much or at all this year? I know the economy has laid an egg and I have been laid off for three months now. I have been given an offer to go back to work....thank goodness I was starting to have to dip into the racing fund to pay bills. I was very fortunate to have saved up money in fear of being laid off. I really feel sorry for people in these shoes and its hard to loose your job.

Eric Walker

RacinFool · 3/5/09, 12:29 PM

IMHO I believe that at least here in the northeast car counts are one thing but attendence outside of the back gate could suffer even more than they have the last few years. Besides the economy we have had a lot of other compitition in developing new race fans the last generation or so.
Don't get me wrong I hope that my prediction is wrong.-Tom Bliss

zeroracer · 3/5/09, 12:53 PM

I think you will see a lot of guys wait till almost mid season to get out, and finish up early, race when they can afford to and once that money is gone they will be done. And instead of fixing a crashed car in one week it may take 2-3 weeks to get it back together for a lot of low buck teams like myself

#1Brad Kuhn Fan · 3/5/09, 3:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zeroracer

I think you will see a lot of guys wait till almost mid season to get out, and finish up early, race when they can afford to and once that money is gone they will be done. And instead of fixing a crashed car in one week it may take 2-3 weeks to get it back together for a lot of low buck teams like myself

You said it. :thumb

DonMoore10 · 3/5/09, 4:21 PM

My cars are staying parked for right now. The purple tire saga is killing the midgets. We can buy American Racer tires for half the cost of what Hooiser gets. Fees, fees and more fees while the midget org trailers and number of personnel get bigger and bigger and bigger. Their greed is killing the sport.

TQ29m · 3/5/09, 5:03 PM

My HMO, I own a TQ, and we can just about break even, from what we win, and what it costs to get there and back, and repairs. Now, ain't no way I could do this on my own, I build my own cars, engines, etc, have my own machine shop, about the only thing I have to buy are tires, fuel, and oil, and material to make parts with. I don't spend anything more than necessary, I buy what I can't make, on ebay, and my used parts, become spares. Unless we get a tire cut, a RR will last 4-6 nights of racing, and they run right at a $100.00 ea, if, and we haven't missed a feature in 5 seasons now, it pays $100.00 to start, $50.00, might just call it toe money, to start a heat race, so it's almost affordable, with some sponsor money. I really think, as far as Nicecar goes, this weekend will be low on cars, Bristol may pick up a little, but my guess is, right now, we've seen the best of this season, it'll be down hill from here, then when the dirt racing starts, it's gonna be iffy, I think a lot of owners got an early start, but have backed off a lot since before Christmas, and car counts will suffer early. JMO! Bob

Jerry Spencer · 3/5/09, 7:48 PM

I know we are in trouble.

Jerry #66j
www.joshspencer.com

sprintcar64 · 3/5/09, 8:28 PM

We are parked for the year and probably for good.

1021gpa · 3/5/09, 9:11 PM

i think the economy will not only hurt car sounts but it will hurt fan attendance also i know my s buddy and me bought a hornet(which is the cheapest kind of car you can run) to race this year and within the last week we have found we will be working 4 days a week for most of the rest of the year and maybe go down even lower than that later in the year so we will make practice and then maybe first show at brownstown and then it will be parked for awhile..and who knows how long that will be

3/5/09, 10:53 PM

I fully expect the economy to stiffle car counts. I spoke with a friend last Friday and he said his equipment is parked for the year unless the economy does a quick 180 and things improve drasticly and after the market shedding another 281 points today and the possiblity that the worlds larget company could go bankrupt and cease to exist as we know it just proves the point that the sconomy is far far worse than anyone really wants to admit to. People are losing their jobs, houses, and retirement savings. The last thing on their minds is racing or anything else for that matter. They are simply going to try and hold onto what they can and downsize everything in their lives.

The economy will not get better till atleast September at the earliest. By that time will we have racing as we know it now? Lets look at it this way. GM goes broke. What does that do to the racing landscape? I can't see any court allowing GM product lines to be in racing so all those programs are gone. There go all those jobs not to menion teams with engines that are more or less obsolete. Chrysler is in dire straights. All their racing programs are potentially gone (which is more a reality than most think) That's half the manufatures in NASCAR alone.

How will this economy not effect the car counts is more the question we should be asking.

3/5/09, 8:28 PM	#8 Re: Will the economy hurt car counts?
sprintcar64 Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 159	We are parked for the year and probably for good. __________________ Derrek Williams

3/5/09, 12:01 PM	#1 Will the economy hurt car counts?
Sprint39 Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 40	How my of the racers that visit this site are not planning on running as much or at all this year? I know the economy has laid an egg and I have been laid off for three months now. I have been given an offer to go back to work....thank goodness I was starting to have to dip into the racing fund to pay bills. I was very fortunate to have saved up money in fear of being laid off. I really feel sorry for people in these shoes and its hard to loose your job. Eric Walker

3/5/09, 12:29 PM	#2 Re: Will the economy hurt car counts?
RacinFool Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 612	IMHO I believe that at least here in the northeast car counts are one thing but attendence outside of the back gate could suffer even more than they have the last few years. Besides the economy we have had a lot of other compitition in developing new race fans the last generation or so. Don't get me wrong I hope that my prediction is wrong.-Tom Bliss

3/5/09, 12:53 PM	#3 Re: Will the economy hurt car counts?
zeroracer Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 251	I think you will see a lot of guys wait till almost mid season to get out, and finish up early, race when they can afford to and once that money is gone they will be done. And instead of fixing a crashed car in one week it may take 2-3 weeks to get it back together for a lot of low buck teams like myself

3/5/09, 4:21 PM	#5 Re: Will the economy hurt car counts?
DonMoore10 Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 1,474	My cars are staying parked for right now. The purple tire saga is killing the midgets. We can buy American Racer tires for half the cost of what Hooiser gets. Fees, fees and more fees while the midget org trailers and number of personnel get bigger and bigger and bigger. Their greed is killing the sport.

3/5/09, 5:03 PM	#6 Re: Will the economy hurt car counts?
TQ29m Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 6,579	My HMO, I own a TQ, and we can just about break even, from what we win, and what it costs to get there and back, and repairs. Now, ain't no way I could do this on my own, I build my own cars, engines, etc, have my own machine shop, about the only thing I have to buy are tires, fuel, and oil, and material to make parts with. I don't spend anything more than necessary, I buy what I can't make, on ebay, and my used parts, become spares. Unless we get a tire cut, a RR will last 4-6 nights of racing, and they run right at a $100.00 ea, if, and we haven't missed a feature in 5 seasons now, it pays $100.00 to start, $50.00, might just call it toe money, to start a heat race, so it's almost affordable, with some sponsor money. I really think, as far as Nicecar goes, this weekend will be low on cars, Bristol may pick up a little, but my guess is, right now, we've seen the best of this season, it'll be down hill from here, then when the dirt racing starts, it's gonna be iffy, I think a lot of owners got an early start, but have backed off a lot since before Christmas, and car counts will suffer early. JMO! Bob

3/5/09, 7:48 PM	#7 Re: Will the economy hurt car counts?
Jerry Spencer Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 3,869	I know we are in trouble. Jerry #66j www.joshspencer.com

3/5/09, 9:11 PM	#9 Re: Will the economy hurt car counts?
1021gpa Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 482	i think the economy will not only hurt car sounts but it will hurt fan attendance also i know my s buddy and me bought a hornet(which is the cheapest kind of car you can run) to race this year and within the last week we have found we will be working 4 days a week for most of the rest of the year and maybe go down even lower than that later in the year so we will make practice and then maybe first show at brownstown and then it will be parked for awhile..and who knows how long that will be

3/5/09, 10:53 PM	#10 Re: Will the economy hurt car counts?
dirtywhiteboy Posts: n/a	I fully expect the economy to stiffle car counts. I spoke with a friend last Friday and he said his equipment is parked for the year unless the economy does a quick 180 and things improve drasticly and after the market shedding another 281 points today and the possiblity that the worlds larget company could go bankrupt and cease to exist as we know it just proves the point that the sconomy is far far worse than anyone really wants to admit to. People are losing their jobs, houses, and retirement savings. The last thing on their minds is racing or anything else for that matter. They are simply going to try and hold onto what they can and downsize everything in their lives. The economy will not get better till atleast September at the earliest. By that time will we have racing as we know it now? Lets look at it this way. GM goes broke. What does that do to the racing landscape? I can't see any court allowing GM product lines to be in racing so all those programs are gone. There go all those jobs not to menion teams with engines that are more or less obsolete. Chrysler is in dire straights. All their racing programs are potentially gone (which is more a reality than most think) That's half the manufatures in NASCAR alone. How will this economy not effect the car counts is more the question we should be asking.