A local small block supermodified driver in Oswego went to the new owners with a new twist on the free ticket give away. Tim's profession when not driving a race car is a teacher so he hatched the idea of getting students from the local schools and members of various youth groups in the area now that school is out to resight the Pledge of Allegiance before the National Anthem is played. Each school or youth group was given 25 tickets I believe to pass out so each child could have one adult accompany them free to the race.

I talk alot about Oswego on here because that is where my love for the sport of auto racing was born, my Dad started taking me as a young child and we spent every Saturday night at the races together until the late 90's when his battles with cancer prevnted him from going any more. Over those years I have seen many of the great ideas this thread has brought out tried to increase attendance but I had never seen Tim's idea tried before nor havee I ever seen a speedway have as liberal of a youth policy as Oswego has this year. They are admitting children up to 16 years old in free with a paying adult. The new owners of the speedway are doing a number of things to address the tough eceonomy we are in. Never before have I seen a speedway offer compo meals but Oswego has adopted the policy that every fast food joint has and it is going over very well.

The other thing that has impressed me the most about the new owners at Oswego, their drive you might called it to advertise or market the speedway. They realize how important it is not only to advertise in the local Oswego area but also Syracuse, Watertown, Rochester and Buffalo, and they also realize the importance of getting the Canadian race fans back to Oswego. Can't tell you how warm and fuzzy my heart was yesterday when the Oswego Shopper a local weekly paper that is mailed out free to everyone in the county had a full page ad advertising next Saturday July 9th's King of Wings race. What a novel idea to advertise your race a week in advance and not the day before or day of. LOL! Yes, for those of you that don't know me I can be very critical of racing groups or tracks that I don't think do enough to advertise their events. Oswego isn't one of them! An the new owners realize they have a big task ahead of them restoring the Speedway to it's former gorly days.

Hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekend where ever they chose to go racing, I will be at Oswego watchhing one of my favorite Indy drivers return to his supermodified roots. Davey Hamilton will be driving the John Nicotra supermodified at Oswego tonight if that r word stays out of the forecast.

Oswego is also continuing the policy of admitting our active military members free, like many race tracks do. Let's all remember to support our troops while we are busy having fun.



Patti