[ThePurple73]

I think real advertising and PR is seen and understood at different and various levels.
I actually think some organization is sitting on a gold mine with the sprint cars in the Indiana area, it is all in how you promote and get sponsorships and advertising. Its about getting the right advertising with the right people.

I was visiting with a track promoter a while back and he was complaining about dwindling gates and he was trying all kinds of things to fill the seats. I ask him what he did to advertise.
His response was he lets about 20 photographers and media people in for free, each week.
I ask him if he gets a lot of stories or pics in papers and magazines, or if he advertised himself.
He looked at me kind of funny and said, " i guess not".

I remember going to one of the first sprint car races that was held in a while in North Carolina, at least in modern times(late 80's early 90's). Most had never witnessed a sprint car race.The people loved it and went crazy. Those people love racing, period. They stood up almost all night long. That shows the impact Sprint Car racing can have. I had never seen a group of people so excited about seeing something. There are all kinds of big half miles around in NC, Tennessee and other states. It just takes some imagination and marketing/sales ideas and focus to make it happen. The more you make the sport visible the more crowds grow and the more purses grow. I think the sport could grow exponentially if you could expand the racing base and look for advertisers that could benefit across the board by the direct advertising identlfied in the states you raced.

Think about this, who are the major advertisers at the tracks you go to? Are there products you see advertised at the races, the kind you say to your self, I have to have that or one of those?
How many times do you see something advertised at the races and you imediately go out and buy it?

I think if we answered " a lot" to the previous questions we would be seeing sprint cars more on TV and other mediums, larger purses and more fans.

[Bad Dad 54]

Dust is usually a problem w/ Sprints on TV, crashes take while to clear up but dust I believe is the bigest problem. When you show a sprint car race you need to do it from ground level, like the old Slick 50 Series. Jackslash does a good job of this it shows the speed of the cars better. Saw a few NW Sprint races on the VS Channel that were enjoyable. If TV does to Sprint Car racing what TV's done to NASCAR skip it.

[ThePurple73]

I always thought the ESPN Thursday Night Thunder shows were excellent.
They had a ton of good races, dirt and pavement. I think one of the first was at Eldora. Tons of midget shows from the Speedrome.

I have seen a lot of bad winged races on TV, lots of dust, spins every other lap and some tracks that just were not good tracks for TV racing.

ABC used to always broadcast the Tony Hulman Classic. They did a good job. It was a major network sports event.

I don't think the racing has changed that much, infact I think it's even more exciting now.

[Sawdust101]

I think if someone would step up and show all of Indiana Sprint Week then the world would be able to see why we travel all over to watch a great sprint car race. The crowds will still go to the races as we do now,and who knows maybe more will show up for race 5, 6 & 7. What a great Sprint week it was this year and more (new fans) might just show up to join us.

[nonwing]

I've been in the video business industry now for over 25 years and many of us have tried very hard to get our sport exposure. D.O. and I, together and on our own, over the years, have done so many different things with video, but with everything it comes down to sponsor dollars. Many years ago, I worked for the cable company and was incharge of video production and the Local Access channel, so if I wanted to produce a show and sell the ads, I could broadcast it on my own channel. But I also reached out to all of my peers in the country, who also had local access. We traded shows to broadcast.

We ended up on 18 Local Access channels on cable... So I created Hoosier Motor Racing Update with Larry Nuber as the host. We had a remote truck so we made our set at a sponsor's store or location. It lasted about 6 weeks before the money ran out. To be honest, I was exhausted from trying to manage a department and then going to all the races on the weekends, write the show and pull and organize the footage, edit the highlight packages together, laydown the voice track to explain the highlights, have Howdy Bell come in to voice "Up Coming Races and Race Results" then shoot the anchor, Larry Nuber with the remote truck on Wednesday, edit everything on Thursday and air it that same night. I had Dave Argabright as one of the reporters and I played one as well. That way we could cover two different tracks.

Well I was pretty much used up and the sponsorship dollars were gone after the six weeks, so I proposed the idea to DO and that is how "Racin' with DO and the King" got started. I just can't explain the time and effort it takes to do a racing show and do it right.

When you produce a show or produce a live to tape racing event, you not only have to pay for the production, but you have to pay for the air time. What you see on Speed is mostly programs that pay for the air time and that money of course comes from sponsors. The Torc series has a great show, but it's on an HD channel that not everyone can get. I'm on Brighthouse out in Brownsburg and I just have the basic service, so I can't get Discovery HD theatre, which is a real bummer, because I've heard it's produced in an entirely different way compared to the standard two guys in the booth, pit reporters, etc. From what I understand they have like 100 in-car and out-of-car cameras mounted everywhere and all of them are HD. But, again, it's all paid for by the sponsors.

I'm sorry I couldn't paint a pretty picture. Sprints and midgets provide thrilling entertainment, but we are all still in this bubble called a nitch market. We all love it and understand it, but the only way we can get more people interested right now is through the internet, which Kevin Miller I'm sure is trying to use it as a launching pad to something bigger on down the road. Sometimes you have to start small and work your way up and just a reminder... remember the movie Blair Witch? It was promoted on the internet and it became a huge it. So the internet is a great place to get the word out, if marketed and promoted.

Sorry for the long thread, but I wanted to be clear on what it takes to get our Market Nitch on TV.

George Wilkins