[Chief Wahoo]

Rainchecks from June 30 may be used toward any remaining scheduled races this year.

[SoIllSprinter]

Great news!

[Crankin]

Originally Posted by kdobson My point isn't about your opinions... many of which I wholeheartedly agree with. And yes, I reviewed your posts before posting: https://www.indianaopenwheel.com/sea...archid=2221669

That link is as about as good as your review/research of my posts.... Just sayin'.

Originally Posted by kdobson But find me your 5-star Yelp-ish reviews on here where you tell the world about a time when someone "Nailed it"... got it right... when you enjoyed it with the same passion and intensity you were burning down the Tri-State house with last night.

First off, "burning down Tri-State"?? Hardly, there was too much rain to start a fire. Just piling on something that made no sense to the post (by another concerned citizen) above mine... Which starts with: " I'm the biggest Tri State fan, but this is BS. We should be racing right now instead of seeing tractors with all this rain and storms coming"...
To which still doesn't make sense, unless your selling extra concessions. Oh wait, let me call Tommy today for his explanation, riiiiiggghhhht.

Now as far as Nailing it/5-star/yelp-ish: In a 365 day period, I have made 27 posts/responses on this board (which is the only racing forum I post on). FOUR!... Count that 4 Mr. Research, that can be considered negative/complaining/whining/criticism, whatever you want to call it. Less than 15% of my posts in a whole year. That is a loooong way from the picture you want to paint of me. What was it you said, "the last 20 or so posts of mine hurt the sport"? Get real. And since one of those almighty, righteous promoters has said it publicly, it must be true.... Hence the reason I will bore most defending myself with fact like this....

The 23 other posts from the pat 365 days consist of: 2 questions, 1 Answering a question, 5 links to articles of interest, 1 classified, 1 wondering how people can misspell Tony Stewart's name, 3 attempts at humor, 5 opinions (2 of which are about a guy throwing live cats in a cage, in a lake), 1 defending my honor responding to you, and, wait, what is this? 4 "Yelp-ish posts"!!! Amazing huh? Here's links, since I know you didn't bother to look:

https://www.indianaopenwheel.com/sho...993#post508993

https://www.indianaopenwheel.com/sho...434#post505434

https://www.indianaopenwheel.com/sho...699#post501699

https://www.indianaopenwheel.com/sho...585#post504585

If I go back another month in my post log, we run into this:

https://www.indianaopenwheel.com/sho...d.php?t=104604
Which in turn runs into this:

Originally Posted by kdobson Criticism is a great tool. Private criticism that is going to get to the decision-maker even better. The criticism you directed at me above is totally valid, but I can't publicly tell you the whole story about that. There are times where its better to just fall on the sword instead of telling the world of the behind-the-scenes factors that would do nothing besides destroy relationships or confidences. I don't owe you every fact and detail in public. But if you approach me privately in an off-the-record conversation where I know it's not going to affect relationships or be blasted for the whole world to be privy to - I can give you more details as to "why" on any decision you might be critical of. You might not agree with it, but at least you'll have the facts on why it was made.

In this case, you owed an explanation to more than just me, "off the record". Many people scheduled time off of work, paid for hotels, and were invested in making this a successful deal for our organization. To cancel less than 2 days out was a bit extreme from a good promoter, who has been at this a long time. A little more than what a press release might cover. You posted it publicly (which I know you had too), but you know that opens it up to questions. Pretty much nobody from up this way knows how to contact you directly and "privately" to get the inside scoop. In all fairness, you did eventually post your # so that people could contact you.
It also has to be said, that while I did question how that could come down to such a last minute thought/decision, I NEVER said anything negative about you or your tack. Even wished you luck, and complimented you on the Hotel thing (Count that as another yelp-ish moment).

Originally Posted by kdobson There's almost always more to the story far more times in this racing game where it looks like something dumb happened. I really don't know too many totally dumb track or series promoters. Regarding Joliet. I have no idea if this is true or not, but I heard from someone earlier on Saturday way before this show that for some technical reasons a show can't start at the dirt track until everything is completed at the big track. He was telling me this because he was expecting a later than usual night. That could totally not be accurate. I could make a call and get the facts, but I don't care to - You might try. But if that's true... the dirt track wasn't "waiting" on Kyle and your facts are wrong. Something that if true, you probably won't hear outside of a private conversation. Maybe they did wait on Kyle... maybe they didn't. And I agree - before you say it - that communication would go a long way... assuming it's something that can be communicated.

Makes complete sense.Yes, would totally expect better communication to fans.... Whether it's "private" or not. Those folks paid good $ to sit there, and I bet many for the first, and now last time, by the way things went. If they're given no explanation what so ever, even if it's a lil white lie, do think they will come back after that mess? There's diehards on here syaing they will never go back! Can you imagine the family that came out for the first time to see Kyle Larso apply his trade on dirt, only to leave because the kids fell asleep.... And give no explanation as to why they're still waiting for an A Main to start at midnight??!!
There is absolutely something to be communicated in this instance. That family will NEVER be back. If I brought my slightly curious neighbor, he would never be back.
The new guy and his family watching tractors, when rain is on the way, will never be back. This seems to run rampant lately. Shows running to all hours on the night ( not you obviously , and promoters just treating it as the norm.
Then you get on here and say something, and get smoked for it by people who claim to understand and deal with it. That were lucky to have tracks, etc. Yet those same people say how we all need to bring a new fan to the races????
Except in a few cases, I don't want to take a new fan. WHY? Because by 9:30, you see the boredom in their eyes after watching 19 heat races of 7 different versions of stock cars, and know we are barely half way through. Honestly, it's embarassing, and not worth putting a friend thru it.
So all you know it all keyboard jockeys can jump on that all you want, but it is the reality of today's short track racing.

Before I even finished typing this novel, someone posted: "Fayette County isn't the only track that does this,you gotta pay the purses somehow.....I don't like it either,but I understand why......"

Am I the only one that sees how many things are wrong with this statement?
I grew up with, for example, going to a USAC Midget race, say at Lil Springfield. Midgets were the ONLY thing on the card. So now, in order for that one Midget race survive, it needs 5 other classes to pay for it??? Better yet, the mentioned Fayette County show. POWRi's purse is significantly less that USAC's, but we still need 5 classes to pay the bills??!! Sycamore's Hell Tour with PACKED grandstands, what in the world does that need 5 other classes for? If this is the case, which I seriously doubt, than there is a bigger problem than tractor races.

Sorry about the tirade, and off topic rant there Kenny, maybe you could shed some light on this, and why some tracks insist on doing this???
Bottom line, quit treating fans, and I don't mean the fans that subscribe to IOW, like their just going to deal with whatever you give them. They will not, as there are waaay to many other options to go spend their $ on. Today's society looks for things to complain about, quit giving them excuses not to show up at the races.

Said a better way by someone I greatly respect, and has done more and seen more than 98% of the people on this board, all while doing a thankless job (in reference to a short field at Terre Haute, but can be taken many other ways when it comes to folks spending their $ on racing):
https://www.indianaopenwheel.com/sho...597#post513597

Tootles


__________________

[kdobson]

Not going to turn this into a Kenny vs Crankin post because the topic is Tri State and I would imagine people are tired of us both trying to get the last word - so this will be my last one on the topic...

I'm not kidding when I say you can call me any time and I'll spend hours visiting with you about it if you want to. My number is everywhere, our track voicemail, our facebook page, probably 30% of our FB posts, here on IOW, most of the time when I post something. Getting in touch with me should not be difficult. Here it is again - 217-371-3653. I don't post it as a challenge to you - I post it because you don't understand that I would enjoy visiting with you and anyone else with an opinion about my place or racing in general. We learn a lot from those conversations.

Two primary reasons why we don't just run a midget show alone at my track. I can't speak for others.

1. Our race track serves our local racing community. That's what it's here for. Guys around here own race cars - not too many midgets and actually not that many sprint cars. They own Modifieds and Street Stocks and Micros and a few local Pro Late Models and 4 cylinders etc. My first year we did a "specials only" type of schedule. It's the best financial year we had as a race track. But I noticed that here in town people were selling race cars.. getting out of it because they can't race at their home track in front of friends and family.

That's my core customer. That's what pays the bills for the place and more importantly, those are the people we need to keep interested in coming. More than any other group, my race track is here to serve our local racing community and to keep the sport alive locally. If you drive 10 miles to my South or West... you won't find a race car for another 30-50 miles. They have demo derby cars, or mud bog trucks or whatever. They don't have race cars. When I don't have race cars locally, my town doesn't have a race track. And most spouses can only look at a race car sitting in a shop for so long without racing before they start questioning why so much of the family's money is tied up in that thing that never moves.

The second reason, might be unique to our track. Those of us who run it are open wheel fans. We have midgets - used to have sprint cars. But... lets say that next week I decided to have a midget-only show in Jacksonville, Illinois. I can 100% without any question guarantee you that I wouldn't have 350 fans in the grandstands. In fact I think the number would be closer to 250. What price do I put on that midget-only $2,000 to win show? $15? If I add in a few other classes - usually not too many, the fans are going to be able to watch people they know and follow every week. Even at our biggest events - World of Outlaws etc - 75% of my fans drove less than 15 minutes to get here. They either know/have heard of the drivers racing and care... or they don't and won't show up.

Like every other race track, we will get calls from race series and they'll tell me how they can bring 25 cars. That's great, but my question is whether my fans know those 25 drivers? Are they going to entertain my local fans - the core of my audience - more than watching their cousin race? Because to race that 25 car class - one of my local classes is going to have to sit at home to make room. Don't call me telling me how many cars you can bring - call me to convince me you are a better product for my local fans than the alternative.

I could maybe make a show work with 300 people in the stands.... but that's not why I run a race track. I do it for the pure thrill you get when you have butts in the seats and an atmosphere and great racing in front of them and the challenge of juggling it all to a successful conclusion. My enjoyment comes early in the morning when I'm able to drive 3 blocks home feeling we got it right. There's a lot of nights I'm making that drive as my biggest critic... much more critical than anything I'm going to have to read about on the internet as if I was too dumb to know what went wrong.

Now... let's let people get back to discussing Tri-State. Give me a call sometime and we'll chat... it's much better that way.

[Crankin]

Just so we’re clear, i never questioned why you don’t have a midget only show.
I know that’s a tough nut today, anywhere.
I also, have stated that i love your track, and most of your promoting skills 😁

I also wanted to get the last word in!!!!

Thanks, and hope to see you in the future!

[Nate]

Originally Posted by miledirt Haubstadt is flat out one of the best, regularly runs shows in a prompt fashion and gives a great racing surface. Thanks to Tommy and crew for going above and beyond

Agreed, I typically make it to all the Haubstadt shows. I lose an hour going home because of the time change and I'm still never home that late and 95% of the time, leave satisfied with the show I had just witnessed.