Don -

I said it 15 years ago, and it bears repeating now....

There are a ton of track operators, but very few promoters....

Your latest post says a ton about what is wrong with most short track race tracks/operators. They have a "monkey-see, monkey-do" mentality. There is almost no innovation and they've got a thought process that says that the back gate will pay the purse.....after NOT promoting...

Because we like our car counts..lol

Honestly, I have no idea. Ive never thought about why theres a major difference in pay between the two types of cars. Youd think the equipment is about the same cost to maintain. For example the Show Me 100 is coming up at the end of May. It pays $46,000 to win and $4,600 to start, and it goes up the same every year, next year will be 47K and 4,700 to start, and so on

Don, you brought up many good points. None better than stating that the promoters/sanctioning bodies need to try differnet things to find out what works. The time for that is now.:idea:

Dwight, I seldom disagree with you. But when you said the time is now - that's wrong. It was time for that 20 years ago. They should have been doing this already for many years. As much as so many around here dislike Nascar, they've been getting it right for some time now - which is promote, promote, promote.

The promoters/sanctioning bodies need to attend an NBA game such as the glitzy production that takes place at THE Q here in Cleveland to find out how far back in times they are with putting on a production. People want to be entertained with a first class product these days when they spend their money. The major problem at tracks is that there is no one running the show with a firm hand (called a producer in the entertaiment industry). Bob Sargent may be the closest person we have in racing to fit that mold.

I think this is exactly what they are trying to do at L-burg but then they get blasted for an increase at the front gate and people saying they do not want the "production" they only want the races.

But I agree when competing for the tough entertainment dollar you need to entertain the people in the stands completly for 3 hours then send them home with a smile on their face

Most sports fans are conditioned to expect their events to last for approximately 3 hours. (i.e. NFL or MLB games.) Most movies in theaters only run for about two hours, including previews. Yet many short track programs run 4 hours or longer. The next time you're at the track watching support-class B-mains at 10:30, look around the stands and count how many kids under the age of about 10 you still see. So often we bemoan about the graying of the fans, yet when the pre-teens are gone or asleep before the features hit the track, we shouldn't expect them to still be going to the track every weekend when they're old enough to have kids of their own.

Bottom line, while we all understand that occasionally circumstances force programs to run long, there should be no reason why the vast majority of race programs should run longer than three hours. (And that three hour clock starts not with the start of the first heat race or qualifying, but with hot laps. If the first session of hot laps pushes off at 6:45, the checkers for the last feature should fly no later than 9:45.)

And while I agree that intermissions should not run longer than 10-15 minutes, tracks should not be content to simply fill the dead air by playing some local radio station over the P.A. Come up with some trivia questions, play some pre-recorded interviews with drivers from earlier in the evening, but by all means, do something to keep the fans engaged and entertained for those 15 minutes.

i agree with getting the races over as early as possible. i remember as a kid after the races running around the pits getting drivers autograph. drivers and owners slowly loading up. after the feature everyone tell the kids dont touch the cars they're hot. you'll get burned. today by the time the support classes are done, not only are the cars cooled down their half way home. kids cant stay up all night. the sport will not grow without kids.

i dont think you need to pay big bucks to win, you need to pay down the feature so low buck polecar can at least break even. i dont like going home with empty pockets just so the promoter to put people in the stand. i know i'm wrong, thats just me.

But you mention different things. The Bandit format, Multi car qualifications etc and half the people are totally against it.

I find people racing to win, No matter a heat, consi or feature to be the DRAW of racing.

I'm also for the skinny tires. Who needs a thousand horsepower if you can never put it to the ground?

They said the outlaw motors don't work in Wingless. We'll I'll be if it wasn't Stewart/Kahne/Ballou almost dominating. There were a couple non outlaw motor teams able to compete and that was IT!

Let them keep developing, You think the cost is high now? Five years from now it will be 100g motors, not 40.

Im not against the adjustable, Just Adjustables IN REACH. It's obvious those that don't have them suffer. Especially if there is a yellow during a race. a car leading strongly or running a good up front performance before the yellow, Suddenly falls back four or five places after the yellow.

As pointed out, The adjust ables can actually save money by not having to have several types of shocks.