It's a damn good problem to have, Duke!

Jerry

I would estimate Haubstadt had 5,000 plus people Saturday night. Very few empty seats.

LETS ASK A TRACK IF THEY WOULD LIKE TO HAVE 10000 OR 5000? OR THE NORMAL 800 T0 1200:thumb

I'm going to agree with Duke, that more now than ever, with the economy the way it is, too many tracks within 200 miles of each other are running sprinters on saturday night.

thank you!

I totally agree Duke, We had it awesome here in the late 80s with 35-40 car counts at Bloom-Burg and even LPS then the bottom dropped out. ONe the cars got to expensive for most teams to race very often. Two, More tracks jumped in on the bandwagon, ATTICA, Limaland, Gas City ect. It wasn't long before even Bloom, Burg and some other tracks had 8-9 cars show up. The fans started to leave. The promotors started running specials only 5000 to win May 2nd! 10000 to win June 15th! Ok the cars came to those. The fans got tired of 20-22 dollar entry fees and I know people who haven't returned to THIS DAY! almost 20 years later.

For the local racer, It makes sense to race closest. I understand that but if a owner has 3 choices within 75 miles for that night $$$ comes into play. I doubt there is too many cars paying their own way but recouping some of the cost Travel, Fuel, Tires has to play into it.

I did a rough tally on just Bloom and Burg (NON WING ONLY) shows and payout to win total.
Burg
15 Non wing shows including MSCS, KIss and USAC
Total WIN PAYOUT
49.500 Rough estimate. Lowest 200 to make show

Bloom
18 Non WIng Shows including MSCS, Kiss and USAC
39.100 rough estimate
Lowest 200 to make show

Kokomo
17 Non WIng SHows including USAC, KIss
32.200
Lowest 155 to make show

Paragon
12.200 Noting you could only win one feature a night four or five of them pay 1000 but I think thats a single feature night ???????
100 Guaranteed.

Thanks Chuck, Thats some interesting numbers. makes me go hmmmm. Thanks,Dave

Damn Chuck, I can't remember Bloomington or a few others only having 8 or 9 show up, must have been before my time:eek: Do you happen to remember who was promoting at Bloomington then???:confused:

Mike Miles is the only promotor I've ever known there. I believe they went to a every other week schedule. The burg had a few other issues like Sewer floods and such but honestly, Some track wing shows durring the early 90s were down to 8-10 cars a few times (Normal shows)

Don't get me wrong, I want all tracks and racers to thrive but choke tracks with low car counts and the fans will leave in droves, Raise the prices too much to raise their purses. Same problem.

Id be interested to see what many of these tracks are paying for championships 1-5 in sprints
I know it wasn't always cash prizes. Chassis makers used to donate chassis' ect for a tracks champion. Perhaps a 50 dollar guarantee over their winnings per show they make the next season. Leather jackets. ECT. The most important thing used to be PRIDE on being a track champion. I hope that never changes.

Chuck

I think this is one of the reasons Haubstadt does not run weekly programs. They get big crowds on their "big" shows, and they get decent car counts and good attendance on their "normal" shows. Just not a weekly program. Maybe time for other tracks to consider this format. It seems to work well here.