Clay co speedway flora il
 

Hopefully Kevin, will keep Sprint Cars there on a weekly basis!

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Hopefully people can come out and support the sprints so we can start rejuvinate Sprint car racing in Illinois and Missouri. What kind of payout are we looking at for the sprints?

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Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

Talked with Steve Thomas on the phone tonight and it looks like things are progressing for Sprint Cars weekly at Clay County Speedway, Flora for the 2012. Kevin Bayer is working out the specifics for the track for the coming season. This looks like it could be the answer for you low dollar racers to have a good place to race. This is a very nice speedway, so let Kevin or Steve know if you are interested in competing at Flora. Your input could mean alot toward the final decisions. Thanks, Sam Stockon Sr

I heard the choice is between a 600 to Win, 200 to start show or 1000 to Win, but only 100 start. Definitely would go with the first breakdown, less to Win, but give everyone a piece of the pie! I hope the 1SAC Team can make it over for a couple of Clay Co./Farmer City weekends!

J.T. Stapp

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Why would any of us go and support such a pathetic purse, I mean that's a modified purse, we race sprintcars. I dnt understand it, every year there is a few guys willing to go and do it but never enough to fill a field. If a promoter will pay the money, he will get the cars. Period. We race sprintcars, they are the baddest cars on dirt, our drivers risk there lives, and they deserve to paid like it. Dnt get me wrong, none of us are racing to make money, but 600 to win or even a 1000, give me a break, we might as well go back to stock small blocks and bias ply road tires. I hope more people will find a way to pay what a 410 sprintcar purse should be.

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Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

Geez, lighten up. Where do you run now?
Have you ever been to Paragon? Over 40 cars a week support that track and look at their purse. Florida ran a couple of non wing dirt shows at the end of the year that only paid $350 to win....but it was better than what they had, which was nothing.
Nothing has been set in stone except it will be every week starting at the end of March, open engines and no tire rule. Over 20 drivers/owners have responded that they want to race there, with the purse being thicker in the middle and to start, 3 were more in favor of it being heavy on top.
Kevin is just starting out, taking over a track that was closed. He has said as it grows, so will everything else. He will have a point fund and he will have a banquet. More will be announced in the coming weeks.
Flora was on a list that included Danville, Mt Vernon, Jacksonville, Boswell, Joliet/Rt 66 and Sumner (Red Hill). For now, there is a little sunlight at Clay County.

Steve

Just an FYI but 90% of your top modified guys have just as much money, if not more in there cars as a sprint car cost. And in over half the country a modified race would draw more fans than a sprint car race. There are more modified tracks, drivers, race series, and prolly fans than sprint car racing has. Don't even get me started on the successes of dirt late models.

You can have your own opinion, but that doesn't mean you know what your talking about. In my opinion $600 with $200 to start would be a better purse than $1400 to win and $150 to start. With $600 they won't attract any top teams, and your average joe can compete. If they do pay $600 they should have every sprint in a feature like paragon. Paragon should be their template. It amazes me the amount of sprints that show up to paragon every week.

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Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

hotshoe, i like the mods and lm's to but you have been spending to much time at paragon and 4m. :D

Haha i haven't been to paragon in a couple years. You might have a point about the 4m thing lol

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Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

Frankly, I think as a sprint car driver who lives within an hour and a half of the track in question, JRacer2m does know what he is talking about. I would assume that for Flora to draw cars, a decent percentage of them would need to come from the Springfield, Il area. I would say that this is a good representation of the location of most sprint car drivers from Illinois.... either wing or non-wing. http://midwestopenwheel.com/our-drivers/

They have options. For some of them the non-MOWA Saturday option is Farmington. For others it's probably an IRA show in Wisconsin. For JRacer2m it's often Knoxville. Some of them will choose midgets if a race is nearby. Regardless, each of them has to evaluate the travel vs. payout... and I think he is saying that the proposed purse wouldn't be among the better options for most of them on a Saturday.

Draw a circle around Flora about 60 miles out and see how many sprints there are within that radius because those are the ones who would tow and race for the convenience of it. Much beyond that radius and it's going to have to pay more to get them there because other options come into play. The best option is to pick up the phone and call them and get commitments at certain purse structures so no one is surprised by low car counts. Racers as a group are pretty good at keeping their word.

As an owner of both sprint cars and a nice Modified, I beg to differ with your belief that the costs are the same. The sprint is more expensive no matter how you cut it. Sure, a piece of crap sprint can be cheaper than a top of the line Modified, but if we are comparing good sprints to good Mods, and junk sprints to junk Mods, the cost to operate the sprint over the course of a season is a fair amount more.

JRacer2m also brings up the safety factor in the payout. A risk vs. reward decision. Guys can get hurt a lot easier in an open wheel car. A week past a pretty serious concussion that set his work back several days, I'd be thinking about that side of things as well in making decisions if I was him.

At the end of the day, a lot of factors have to be evaluated in to making it 'worth it'. As much as I'd like to see it succeed in Flora and having personally offered my help to make it work... at the purse being mentioned, there's not a lot to make it worth it to a large number of drivers given geography and other options. But I think with a few phone calls a happy medium could be reached that could ensure an adequate car count and a sufficient purse to get them there. And JRacer2m as a guy who runs wing or non-wing, sprint or midget and one of the founders of a drivers' sprint car organization in the area would be among the first people I'd call.

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

This has to been one of the smartest post I have seen on a racing board. This guy is exactly right. Make some calls and find out what these guys are thinking before you make any final decisions. Just makes smart business sense to me. Good post bloard.

Phone calls have been made. 29 drivers/owners have called me and were polled. Ky, In, and IL checking in. There are only 3 that prefer to run for something like $1000 to win where as 26 say they prefer to run for the more to start and thicker theu the middle. Its Kevin Bayers track to run. He only asked me to gather data. His number and email has been posted in many places. Call him direct if you choose. He doesn't know any of us who race sprint cars.

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Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

I talked to Kevin and sincerely wish he and you the best. My point was that the purse makes it too easy for guys to pass it up and choose another option. It's good to know that you have 29 commitments. That will be an amazing field of cars for the money.

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

Our sport is in a hard time. People that love the sport need to be positive. You people that claim to like Sprint Car Racing, but get on here with strong negitive comments should leave well enough alone. Running a race track successfully or a Sprint Car operation is a tough deal. Tracks and cars keep falling off the map, so guys support what you like and leave the rest alone! Thanks, Sam Stockon Sr.

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

For the 10th time Sam. Nothing I said was negative, or meant to be negative. I fully support what they are doing in trying to establish a place for sprints to race. I will gladly encourage the drivers I know to race there, although I doubt my cars go because it's a long tow for the money.

All I was suggesting was that they talk to drivers so they know who will show up for what purse so that they avoid what happened last year and there are no surprises for the fans or drivers. It sounds like that has been done with 29 drivers, so it should be successful. End of story.

Perhaps when a kid that drives a race car for me gets attacked for stating his opinion as if he has no clue - when in fact he is one of the good guys in the sport, I should bite my tongue. But unfortunately that's not going to happen.

Anything we can do from up north to help this deal along we will gladly do. You are reading between lines where there is nothing to read.

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

Hey all thanks for all the good and bad comments, I only can gain from, the info that people call and send to me. With saying that I want to say thanks to all that have chimed in and supported, and those who may have different thoughts, thats ok, but my goal was to give this area a chance to see sprint cars in action and not have to pay the big tickets prices every week. I would love to get 20 sprinters a week and maybe once a month or once every 6-8 weeks make a bigger show of $1000 to $1500 or even hgher to win.
I have gotten several phone calls and I always ask their opinion about the payout, and several of them says that, the purse is not a concern, it is nice to just have a track allowing us to run our sprint car. I love sprint car racing and I vow to have them here and vow to have bigger shows but I must first make this track come alive once again. We need to forget the past and move on with the future........So with that lets race and have fun at track that can handle these cars.
Thanks again for all comments,
Kevin Bayer
always available at 812-630-3989

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

hey kevin did you use to race a 17b bomber at redhill...if so i raced against you ...seen the screen name and your name also remember car #:6:

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

and Haubstaut

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

i had the purple 87 from terre haute....everybody hated..lol

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

---------- Post added at 4:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 4:10 PM ----------

[/COLOR]just living my dream!

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

3 more chimed in today, lookin forward to a great season!
Kevin

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

Are we talking wing or non-wing?

Non wing for the weekly shows.

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Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

Just a thought here, but what about linking up with Farmer City to do the Saturday - Sunday weekend series? This would benefit both tracks, and I think I know of at least 2 cars that would do the double. ;)

Let me know when the purse gets up around 1400 to win. My grandpa ran for 600 to win back in 1975. Otherwise I will have to look at other options around this area, Good luck on getting another illinois sprint track weekly.

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Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

That is definitely not out of the question, but for the time being I need to get a core group of guys to support the racing community weekly and make that my next step.
Thanks for your input and in hope someday we meet at the track.
Good Luck,
Kevin Bayer
812-630-3989

Jracer2m, why are u so worried about just the Win money? Maybe you expect to Win all of them. If not, why not be more worried about what it pays through the field? That's what helps you get to the next race!

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Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

Same weekend as the no way out 40....dang it

We'll definately meet. I work for MSCS20 and his dad!

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Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

maybe one free pit pass per team to help offset the purse, maybe a sponsored dash for an extra couple hundred each week, maybe a bonus paid to previous weeks winner who starts on tail? I agree with jracer2m, he has been around long enough that hes lost trust in promoters. Everyone knows that a large purse cant be paid if the money isnt there in the first place All anyone can ask is that as cash flow increases, so does purse and that requires trust

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

If you pay the guys in the back enought to help out on thier expenses you will get cars. While lots of folks have laughed and made comments paragon has proven year in and year out this will work. Yes more money is nice however you can only put out what your track can afford.

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

Very well said Old Timer. If the purse isnt what you want to race for, there is other options. Thats whats great about choice.

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

So the mowa teams will race without wings?

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

congrats kevin, you just take over a track and people already start bitchin wonder why anyone would want to be a promotor, just do what you wany and continue on and listen to steve he will point you in right direction on sprintcars , good luck:6:

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

Thank you,
its not tooooooooo bad, can't wait for nice sunny weather.............
see ya at the track!
Kevin 812-630-3989

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

http://www.claycountyspeedway.net/

stay tuned for up coming announcement!
K

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

nice turn out at Indy!!!

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

Any plans for a couple micro sprint specials?

Re: Clay co speedway flora il
 

got a contact to the organization? anything is possiable......
Kevin 812-630-3989