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Not to mention the fact that it is hurting the teams weather it be sprint cars or street stocks or any other cars. Gas City is having a hard time grasping the fact that the stickers on all of the cars is not a way to make them look good, they are companies and people that are supporting local racing. Not once this year have I heard the announcers say anything about the sponsors that are on the cars, but boy do they plug those billboard sponsors and make cheesy annoying jokes about the flagman (when this time could have been used to talk about the car sponsors). This has become a dissapointing practice that needs to be fixed. They may say that fans dont care about hearing the sponsors on the cars, but there may be that one person in the stands that is in the market for a particular service or product that sponsors a car. They go out on monday purchase the product or service, and tell them they heard about them at their local dirt track. you have now justified the sponsors dollars, and make it easier for the team to approach the sponsor next year for help, because the sponsorship did what it was intended to do.
Now the TV argument can be had for days on wheather it hurts the grandstands or not, the way i look at it everyone is capable of filming the race with today's technology. So why not let the professional do it. Sean Buckley is an artest with what he does, and from what i can see the only guy making any kind of effort to spread the news about this cool little thing in Indiana called non-wing sprint cars. with that being said, if you allow the video taping and broadcasting of races, you have now made it easier for teams to approach potential sponsors, you have given these teams an ace in the hole by allowing them to say "oh and by the way we will be on national TV twentysomthing times this year". Take the cost of advertising a 30 sec. commercial spot on national TV for a year vs the price to sponsor a car for a year, and i would say that it would be pretty close $$$ wise.
Gas City is beginning to put off the feeling that it is a one sided business relationship between themselves and the race teams. if we dont have a place to put on a show we lose, and if they dont have a show to put on for fans loose. for example there is absolutly no reason to run a b main for 23 cars, when the track does this they are wasting the teams money, i understand that b main time will get a few more hot dogs and beers sold. if you dont have enough cars to justify running a b main, then get a clown or somthing to entertain the fans in the time that the b's would normally be ran JK. but to run a b to send two or three guys home is obsurd. i feel like if they would just tweek on the program and open their minds a little bit to new ideas and technology, gas city could become the premeir friday night track. I feel a lot of the decisions made there are not totally up to them, car owners and teams should be consulted on certin things, such as annoucers, when to run a b main or not, weather filming should be allowed. i understand it is their track, but there wont be a need for a track if they do not keep the racers happy, and feeling like their opinion's matter. Besides, it is no secret most car owners own a business themselves and are successful at it, they have a mountain of busniess savy people in their pits every friday night why not tap into that and get some help. when the grandstands and car counts are shrinking like they are, it is time to make some adjustments to the way things are done. I look at the for sale sign that is haning up at the enternce every friday night and have fear that i will have to find a new HOMETRACK one day.
$0.02
Matt Goodnight
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