KOKOMO Monday Mayhem with High Limit

chathamracefan (Offline)
#11 5/15/25 1:53 PM

Originally Posted by ISF:
It's great that the O'Connor's had what appeared to be a profitable night of racing.

That said, bring that same show over here to the land of the dirt late models and see how it goes. It's a safe assumption that the Kokomo regular crowd was heavily represented. It might be that the High Limit wingers were similar enough to what races regularly at KS to impart interest.

Fairbury hosted the WoO Sprint Cars two years in a row a few years ago. They promptly dropped them from the schedule after the second show sighting losing money as the reason. This was before High Limit existed so the WoO's was the king of the mountain of wingers at that time. It was also Kyle Larson's first two appearances at Fairbury and a lot was made of that in the days leading up to those events hoping to increase interest. As many of you already know Larson returned and won the vaunted Prairie Dirt Classic.

The WoO's Sprint Car show was a totally different crowd from the usual late model/modified/street stock people and you could get a seat 'bout anywhere you wanted. As was the case at Fairbury, tribalism to a specific genre' plays a significant role regarding the success or failure of the event's in question.

I attended both of those WoO shows & remember being very surprised at the lack of crowd. Of course Fairbury normal crowd is a stock car crowd but I thought the draw of outlaws there would really bring in the fans. It didn't help that both of them were Tuesday nights as I recall.

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dsc1600 (Offline)
#12 5/15/25 5:08 PM

Illinois and eastern Iowa are not great sprint car areas. Several attempts have been made and I think only Tri-City has ever been able to draw.

As for Kokomo, the WoO races they’ve had there have had huge crowds so not surprised HL with Larson was a big draw.

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revjimk (Offline)
#13 5/16/25 1:54 AM

Originally Posted by Grocery Guy:
Amen on the HUGE crowd! SRO! Even Jim O'Connor was looking for a seat at feature time. He had to stand off turn 4. I think attendance would have even been larger had rain not scared off some fans. Parking was scarce on the north side of the track, with many cars and trucks parked along the highway past the former waste plant. Is Kokomo adding in new stands to the end of the new grandstands? They need more seats for these special shows.

Clearly High Limit race nights are a complete entertaining show. Qualifying, driver songs, spin the wheel for dash positions, interviews, and an emotional Driven to Save Lives letter to the audience. Fireworks before and after the feature! Tony LaPorta does a great job interviewing. Speaking of fireworks, watching the feature was like watching a video game! Drivers dicing in and out of lapped traffic for positions. Yeah, not much passing in the heat races, but the feature made up for everything. I think Peck dropped to the bottom to prevent a slide job, and Rico was hammer down on the top side! WOW.....what a photo finish. I was in my car heading home at 9:10pm. Kudos to the many fans that were heading to the pit area to meet the drivers and teams.

Here is the High Limit You Tube video of the feature. Watch the finish!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=valjqcNIKNM

Wow is right! Thanks for posting, I missed it live

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miledirt (Offline)
#14 5/16/25 7:40 AM

Originally Posted by dsc1600:
Illinois and eastern Iowa are not great sprint car areas. Several attempts have been made and I think only Tri-City has ever been able to draw.

As for Kokomo, the WoO races they’ve had there have had huge crowds so not surprised HL with Larson was a big draw.

Jacksonville Il gets very good crowds. When the outlaws come, its SRO
Besides Jacksonville and Granite City, I can't think of other tracks that have had HL or WoO shows?
Of course Pevely is just across the river and they get great crowds

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767 (Offline)
#15 5/16/25 8:14 AM

Originally Posted by ISF:
It's great that the O'Connor's had what appeared to be a profitable night of racing.

That said, bring that same show over here to the land of the dirt late models and see how it goes. It's a safe assumption that the Kokomo regular crowd was heavily represented. It might be that the High Limit wingers were similar enough to what races regularly at KS to impart interest.

Fairbury hosted the WoO Sprint Cars two years in a row a few years ago. They promptly dropped them from the schedule after the second show sighting losing money as the reason. This was before High Limit existed so the WoO's was the king of the mountain of wingers at that time. It was also Kyle Larson's first two appearances at Fairbury and a lot was made of that in the days leading up to those events hoping to increase interest. As many of you already know Larson returned and won the vaunted Prairie Dirt Classic.

The WoO's Sprint Car show was a totally different crowd from the usual late model/modified/street stock people and you could get a seat 'bout anywhere you wanted. As was the case at Fairbury, tribalism to a specific genre' plays a significant role regarding the success or failure of the event's in question.

You are not wrong. For something like this to work, you would have to set it up similar to Indiana Sprint week. 4 or 5 races in 6 days to get people to travel in and be part of it. Bring in the camper brigade. You throw in 50 to 75 campers the locals think something big has come in. You are right though, without that it would flop.

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