I recall there was a flat purse rate vs. 40% of the gate, whichever was greater. I could be off on that time line though. It could have been like that before 1970.

I definatly like Rob's tire rule. I really don't think it will add much more than 1 or 2 cars per event BUT it WILL allow teams to stay around longer.

Which brings up a question that USAC should answer.

Why not have a flat purse rate vs. a % of the gate?

It gives everyone involved an incentaive to put more butt's in the seat's.

because true usac teams are paid before they enter the gate, toyota, mopar, chevy, ford, pace, red bull,and on and on. It dosen't matter if the race pays $100 or $10,000 to win, these teams will be there.

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.

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:

THERE ARE NO PROMOTERS LEFT!:redflag:

as a promoter i will say, it is very expensive to advertise to the masses any more. most local newspapers are anywhere from75 to 300 for a add, and you have to put it in so many. Radio is crazy. TV is almost impossible. Hanging flyers used to be a decent way, but now places do not allow you to do it or they have a little board that everyone just walks by. Promoters need to figure out how to use this thing called an internet. my last show was done in an area that had never ever had a show before. Used the internet to get the word out. Had 25 cars for the main class show up, and about 400 fans. place only holds 500 fans, so it was a sucess.

Sprintcar62, the picture of greg leffler must have been taken in 1979 because he drove for us in 1977-78. I think he went to indy that year or 1980 and ran well.

Speaking of "back-gate" promoting, I would like to thank Dave Rudisell for keeping Lawrenceburg down to three classes of cars. He could probably bring in a lot more money by loading the pits up with additional classes but, so far, he hasn't. I just hope enough fans and racers support the place so that he doesn't feel compelled to do that. I do believe too many classes will eventually work against the track and run fans, especially casual fans, off. JMO