Indiana Open Wheel - Butler Speedway

Originally Posted by Rich Mersereau:
Butler is a promoters dream and a fans night-mere, no matter what we think needs to change it really has no impact on the amount of people they have. After 50 years of tradition a race track has built up a following that cannot be run away.

I have to agree with you, Rich. Butler has the advantage of being the only track in Michigan to run dirt sprints weekly. Hartford was pretty much the last. I-96 tried it for a tad, too, but threw in the towel years back. With that, the monopoly is in place. If Butler ever stopped running sprints weekly you could put a padlock on the front gate, for that is what carries this place year in and year out.

I was once told many moons ago, and have to agree after being around for a few full moons, that a WoO crowd is much different than a weekly crowd.

Butler falls into a category of the same. The crowd, albeit local fans mostly, are quite tolerable of the place. That is mainly due to no hassles. You can bring in beer. You can bring in food. You can bring in a cooler of any size. You can bring in a refrigerator. And even though I do not agree with this, underage kids can smoke and party without any fear of being busted. You have the tree house in Turn 2 and the grassy knoll across the road, where I am still convinced there is possibly a second shooter out there that is mafioso or CIA backed. Heck, if you have dead bodies to dispose of, no one will watch, question, or look out back after the fact. And the weekly price is always cheap.

But for a place that offers so much "convenience" for the average fan, where I wonder where most of them got the $$$ to get into the joint, as www.peopleofwalmart.com has nothing on some of these fans, despite the lack of quality bathrooms, or running water in the sink in the west men's room, or the lack of spit and polish, I just wish they would check off that one big box in the + column, and that would be timeliness.