Quote:
Originally Posted by Dwight Clock
The flat rate vs. 40% of the gate won't work today. It not only worked fifty years ago it was very common. The difference back then was tracks put a lot more fannies in the seats. The reasons for that are the subject of another discussion, one that we had quite extensively on IOW this past winter. As an example the late George Brunnhoelzl (father of the man who invented the high speed jack used in NASCAR today) won a 50 lap feature at Freeport, N.Y. in 1957 and won $900, a huge sum for the day. Don LaJoie (father of Randy) won a 50 lapper at Danbury, Ct. in the early 70's and won $2300. Today most short track promoters would give anything for a crowd of 2000 - 2500. The 40% formula will not work again until promoters work as hard to fill the grandstands as they do to fill the pits.
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Dwight,
I believe that is called the "add a class mentality". For a track owner/operator, notice I didn't say promoter, it is so much easier and less expensive to add another class of cars to the program than it is to "promote" the existing show and hope more butts end up in the seats. That is why you see 5 or 6 classes of cars running on any given night.
It will be interesting to see what time Twin Cities lets out this coming Saturday night? Six classes of cars isn't my idea of a well planned show.:thumbsdown: I enjoy almost any type of racing but that certainly isn't my idea of a thrilling evening.:sleep: