Quote:
Originally Posted by bigmojo5
I lived in Iowa when they had the first of the two Silver Crown disasters at Knoxville in 2000 and 2001. They were held as part of the Hall of Fame Weekend, and both drew weak grandstand crowds -- not enough to pay the bills. I don't remember the figure, but Cappy estimated he needed a certain amount of people in the grandstands -- in addition to those in the pits -- just to break even and did not reach that point.
That was one part of the disaster. THe other was that the track was rolled so hard because of the Masters Classic the night before that the Silver Crown drivers could not even use three-quarter throttle. Track started taking rubber before the end of the first hot lap session.
Point is, what looks good on paper is not always good in real life. Many of the people in the Knoxville area had no clue what a Silver Crown car was; just a big sprint car without a wing as far as those folks were concerned. Silver Crown cars had last ran at the half-mile in 1982.
What the track really needed was a great event in 2000 that thrilled fans and got them excited for the next year. It didn't happen. That killed any hope for the immediate future.
Jim Morrison
|
I WAS THERE AND THERE WAS NO PROMOTION FOR THIS EVENT NOTHING IN THE DES MOINES PAPER NO TV NO RADIO! I WAS IN THE AREA THREE DAYS BEFORE THE RACE! THE TRACK WAS BAD BOTH YEARS! I WAS THERE THIS YEAR FOR THE HALL OF FAME RACE! FRIDAY NIGHT BOUT 400 IN THE GRANDSTAND ! SAT NIGHT MAYBE 800 TO 900 ! THEY HAVE MADE MONEY MAYBE 3 OR 4 TIMES THIS YEAR ON THERE WEEKLY SHOWS! :redflag: