Originally Posted by Rogue-9:
A little constructive criticism. I drove from Indianapolis for the Hewitt. I came for sprint cars. Out here in Indiana, they always run the sprints first, as that is most popular, then modifieds, then street stock classes. That way, people with kids, or people that don't want to stay too late can leave after the sprints and/or modifieds if they choose to. Personally I like modifieds. However, I had a three hour drive, it was already midnight, so I left after the sprints. Here's what irked me. The fact that I had to sit through a bunch of 4-cylinder stocks before the sprints, and had I stayed to watch the modifieds, I would have had to watch the street stocks as well. Had I been a half-hour from home, I would have had no problem staying to watch the little guys run. However, this being a special 3,000 to win race in honor of Jack Hewitt, a legend, I decided to make the 160 mile trip out to your facility, and had to sit through compacts, and then had to miss the modifieds in order to just be home by 3 in the morning. Not trying to be a jerk, just a little constructive criticism for the next time you have a big show that will draw fans from larger distances.
I am posting under my personal account, as this may or may not reflect the views of management at WRP.
I personally hate when a track puts the Sprint Cars ahead of everyone else. The weekly racers deserve to get exposure in front of a big crowd just as much as any of the sprint car drivers.
With that said, I do want to give my take on why the Sprints were placed 3rd for their feature. Cub Burden, who does all of the track prep at Waynesfield, owns a sprint car that Devon Dobie competes in. Cub raced for several years and is highly knowledgeable when it comes to track conditions. Cub had us rearrange the order of events and I believe it had to do with 2 things. The first is to give the Sprint car teams who transferred from the B Main time to prepare their cars for the A. The second is to get cars on the track that could help widen it out before the Sprint Car A Main to help provide some more room for passing, in turn making for a better race. I will tell you for a fact that Cub does not like putting modifieds on the track before the Sprint Cars, as he believes they tear up a track.
I want to ask you a question. How would you feel if you were a fan, family member, or crew member of one of the guys in the "support classes, and you had to be ran behind the sprint cars every week? Wouldn't that make you feel like a second class citizen? Personally, if it were my decision, the Sprint Cars would be 3rd every week, and the rest of the classes would rotate around them, but again, that's just my opinion.
Almost everyone who knows me, knows I'm not a fan of running 6 classes. It is a ton of work and makes things difficult to run a quick program sometimes. I do however support the reason that track owner/promoter Greg Shobe is doing it. Everyone thinks its about back gate promoting, but its about loyalty. Greg told the teams last year that he would not cut anyone this year. He brought back the stock cars as a favor to a sponsor who continued to sponsor the track even after the class that he supported was cut.
Finally, I do understand about having to drive a long distance to get to the racetrack and have to get home late. I live an hour away from Waynesfield as it is. My Dad was a street stock racer and we did some traveling when I was a kid to go racing. I remember nights of not getting home until 3 or 4 in the morning because of rain delays. In a perfect world it would be sunny on race day and there would never be any dust, but that wouldn't have left time to make lifelong friends, and memories that I will always cherish.
