Why can't sprint cars get this kind of exposu
 

OK, so I am going around with the remote and this is what I see. 1 hour of Whelen Southern Mods, an hour of some non-descript regional pavement late model show, an hour drifiting from Japan with english dubbing. Yet, we can't seem to get even a half-hour of highlights of USAC, Sprint Week or any other non-wing dirt track show. For years I have heard USAC, its fans, its promoters lamenting the fact of what a great product we have, but no one seems to know about it. It would seem, at least from the outside, there is no real USAC business plan or proactive approach to solving this issue. I am aware of things like production costs, etc, but others seem to find answers to these issues. I await answers from those much more knowledgeable than I about this.

Re: Why can't sprint cars get this kind of ex
 

they sometimes have streaming media, what more do you want :2:

Re: Why can't sprint cars get this kind of ex
 

:15:Once again, the answer is MONEY. Nascar and IndyCar are about the only series that don't have to pay to be on TV. Kevin Miller's plan for the future (as I heard him say once) involves the internet.

Re: Why can't sprint cars get this kind of ex
 

I don't know if you were watching Madhouse or not. I just read in a paper where Bowman Grey Stadium has 10,000 fans in the stands on a weekly basis. To me that is amazing. I hope USAC keeps going with the internet. I believe TV is a dying thing, and would like to see internet streaming and grassroots take a big step forward.

Re: Why can't sprint cars get this kind of ex
 

What I want is media exposure that will put more new fans in the stands. Streaming media is almost exclusively directed towards people that are already fans. The real long term danger to our form of motorsports (besides money) is the aging and regional fan base.

Re: Why can't sprint cars get this kind of ex
 

The younger tv viewer could care less about USAC or sprint cars for that matter. The new age fans like drifting, monster truck, carnage acts, and what not. To see more sprint car racing on tv in the future we are going to have to convince the younger viewer that a sprint car race is far better tv entertainment than smashing cars and trailer figure 8 races. Good luck on that. Kids wont even go to a short track race anymore. This younger fan is dictating where the sponsorship dollars are going when it comes to putting motorsport related programming on tv and the younger fan doesnt wanna see sprint cars.

Re: Why can't sprint cars get this kind of ex
 

I agree that money is the key component, however it would appear that these regional or second tier series which are getting much greater exposure than USAC; have either found series sponsors who help with production costs or have been able to sell their concept to cable networks.

The internet is great, but I personally feel it is at best very volatile and is still in its infancy as a proven sports marketing tool.

Re: Why can't sprint cars get this kind of ex
 

USAC has TV coverage of their Torc series on HD Theater every week right now. Great coverage of the series, great if your an off road truck fan.

Re: Why can't sprint cars get this kind of ex
 

So bring a monster truck to a sprint car race. GEE, what happened to PROMOTION?

Re: Why can't sprint cars get this kind of ex
 

As others have noted, it's the $$$. NASCAR Images, a NASCAR subsidiary, produces the modified shows; the late models are likely produced by Lucas Oil, and the sponsor of the drifting show probably gets the show for free(no producyion costs except the dubbing. SO if somone will spring for the bucks, I'm sure that USAC will put together a show using Sean Buckley or Dean Mills' tape efforts.....

Re: Why can't sprint cars get this kind of ex
 

I think real advertising and PR is seen and understood at different and various levels.
I actually think some organization is sitting on a gold mine with the sprint cars in the Indiana area, it is all in how you promote and get sponsorships and advertising. Its about getting the right advertising with the right people.

I was visiting with a track promoter a while back and he was complaining about dwindling gates and he was trying all kinds of things to fill the seats. I ask him what he did to advertise.
His response was he lets about 20 photographers and media people in for free, each week.
I ask him if he gets a lot of stories or pics in papers and magazines, or if he advertised himself.
He looked at me kind of funny and said, " i guess not".

I remember going to one of the first sprint car races that was held in a while in North Carolina, at least in modern times(late 80's early 90's). Most had never witnessed a sprint car race.The people loved it and went crazy. Those people love racing, period. They stood up almost all night long. That shows the impact Sprint Car racing can have. I had never seen a group of people so excited about seeing something. There are all kinds of big half miles around in NC, Tennessee and other states. It just takes some imagination and marketing/sales ideas and focus to make it happen. The more you make the sport visible the more crowds grow and the more purses grow. I think the sport could grow exponentially if you could expand the racing base and look for advertisers that could benefit across the board by the direct advertising identlfied in the states you raced.

Think about this, who are the major advertisers at the tracks you go to? Are there products you see advertised at the races, the kind you say to your self, I have to have that or one of those?
How many times do you see something advertised at the races and you imediately go out and buy it?

I think if we answered " a lot" to the previous questions we would be seeing sprint cars more on TV and other mediums, larger purses and more fans.

Re: Why can't sprint cars get this kind of ex
 

Dust is usually a problem w/ Sprints on TV, crashes take while to clear up but dust I believe is the bigest problem. When you show a sprint car race you need to do it from ground level, like the old Slick 50 Series. Jackslash does a good job of this it shows the speed of the cars better. Saw a few NW Sprint races on the VS Channel that were enjoyable. If TV does to Sprint Car racing what TV's done to NASCAR skip it.

Re: Why can't sprint cars get this kind of ex
 

I always thought the ESPN Thursday Night Thunder shows were excellent.
They had a ton of good races, dirt and pavement. I think one of the first was at Eldora. Tons of midget shows from the Speedrome.

I have seen a lot of bad winged races on TV, lots of dust, spins every other lap and some tracks that just were not good tracks for TV racing.

ABC used to always broadcast the Tony Hulman Classic. They did a good job. It was a major network sports event.

I don't think the racing has changed that much, infact I think it's even more exciting now.

Re: Why can't sprint cars get this kind of ex
 

I think if someone would step up and show all of Indiana Sprint Week then the world would be able to see why we travel all over to watch a great sprint car race. The crowds will still go to the races as we do now,and who knows maybe more will show up for race 5, 6 & 7. What a great Sprint week it was this year and more (new fans) might just show up to join us.

Re: Why can't sprint cars get this kind of ex
 

I've been in the video business industry now for over 25 years and many of us have tried very hard to get our sport exposure. D.O. and I, together and on our own, over the years, have done so many different things with video, but with everything it comes down to sponsor dollars. Many years ago, I worked for the cable company and was incharge of video production and the Local Access channel, so if I wanted to produce a show and sell the ads, I could broadcast it on my own channel. But I also reached out to all of my peers in the country, who also had local access. We traded shows to broadcast.

We ended up on 18 Local Access channels on cable... So I created Hoosier Motor Racing Update with Larry Nuber as the host. We had a remote truck so we made our set at a sponsor's store or location. It lasted about 6 weeks before the money ran out. To be honest, I was exhausted from trying to manage a department and then going to all the races on the weekends, write the show and pull and organize the footage, edit the highlight packages together, laydown the voice track to explain the highlights, have Howdy Bell come in to voice "Up Coming Races and Race Results" then shoot the anchor, Larry Nuber with the remote truck on Wednesday, edit everything on Thursday and air it that same night. I had Dave Argabright as one of the reporters and I played one as well. That way we could cover two different tracks.

Well I was pretty much used up and the sponsorship dollars were gone after the six weeks, so I proposed the idea to DO and that is how "Racin' with DO and the King" got started. I just can't explain the time and effort it takes to do a racing show and do it right.

When you produce a show or produce a live to tape racing event, you not only have to pay for the production, but you have to pay for the air time. What you see on Speed is mostly programs that pay for the air time and that money of course comes from sponsors. The Torc series has a great show, but it's on an HD channel that not everyone can get. I'm on Brighthouse out in Brownsburg and I just have the basic service, so I can't get Discovery HD theatre, which is a real bummer, because I've heard it's produced in an entirely different way compared to the standard two guys in the booth, pit reporters, etc. From what I understand they have like 100 in-car and out-of-car cameras mounted everywhere and all of them are HD. But, again, it's all paid for by the sponsors.

I'm sorry I couldn't paint a pretty picture. Sprints and midgets provide thrilling entertainment, but we are all still in this bubble called a nitch market. We all love it and understand it, but the only way we can get more people interested right now is through the internet, which Kevin Miller I'm sure is trying to use it as a launching pad to something bigger on down the road. Sometimes you have to start small and work your way up and just a reminder... remember the movie Blair Witch? It was promoted on the internet and it became a huge it. So the internet is a great place to get the word out, if marketed and promoted.

Sorry for the long thread, but I wanted to be clear on what it takes to get our Market Nitch on TV.

George Wilkins