Thread: Too Much??
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staggerman (Offline)
  #13 5/13/22 10:10 AM
Originally Posted by Sandy Lowe:
I've been debating on whether or not to post on this topic even before cmiracingvids started this thread. A little disclaimer before I do - I work at Lawrenceburg Speedway. These are solely my opinions on the state of nonwing sprint racing and are not necessarily the views or opinions of said track.

My fear today is that the fans have a minimum car count that is acceptable to them and once we hover around that car count for too long, they won't come to the track anymore. Sure, they'll still show up in droves for Sprint Week and other marquee events because they know what to expect - that they will see a quality product with a full field. But other race nights? They can sit at home in their recliner, drink their own beer and watch a race on Flo, Dirtvision, etc. They won't have to worry about people marking seats the day before, if they can bring in a cooler, or alcohol, if it's going to get rained out, if the track will be too dusty, people will smoke near them or complain when they smoke, if they can bring in their stadium chair, etc.

There are not enough sprint cars to make all tracks and sanctioning bodies successful right now. Where are the cars going to come from to support 9-10 races over a 3-day weekend in Indiana?

I used to work at Bloomington Speedway. I remember having to run a B Main almost every night. And that was with Gas City running the same night, and they had a full field as well. To make sure I wasn't just being nostalgic, and thinking things were so much better back then, I randomly picked 15 years ago, 2007, and started looking at race results and car counts.

Indiana sprint car racing was so much healthier in 2007.

Bloomington had 56 cars for their season-opening Elliottbrand Clash, 52 for the Sheldon Kinser Memorial! They averaged 29.17 for their other 12 non sanctioned races. Paragon used the format where they split the field into multiple features and their average car count was 46.42 with a high count of 74! Lincoln Park averaged right at 30 cars. Lawrenceburg had 30 or more cars almost every race - six races the car count topped 40.

We are just a handful of races into the 2022 race season and car counts are nowhere near 2007 totals. There are so many conflicts, races scheduled on top of each other, that it would take forever to list them all.

I fear that not only will we find out how much is too much, but also how few is too few.
Perhaps the post of the year! Stated with facts and I believe dead on. Thanks for all you do Sandy!
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