[admin]

4/24/23 11:47 AM FLOODING FORCES TEXARKANA USAC SPRINT CANCELLATION; ROCKET & DEVIL’S BOWL STILL ON

https://www.usacracing.com/news/spri...-bowl-still-on



FLOODING FORCES TEXARKANA USAC SPRINT CANCELLATION; ROCKET & DEVIL’S BOWL STILL ON

Speedway, Indiana (April 24, 2023)………Flooded grounds and heavy rain forecasted for the next several days has forced cancellation of the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship / ASCS Elite Non-Wing Sprint Car Series event at Arkansas’ Texarkana 67 Speedway scheduled for Wednesday night, April 26.

The weeklong trip in the south central U.S. now becomes a three-race tour through Texas this week after a near four-decade absence from The Lone Star State.

First up is the USAC National Sprint Car debut at the 3/8-mile dirt track at Rocket Raceway Park in Petty, Texas on Thursday, April 27, paying $6,000-to-win.

From there, the series travels to Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas for the first time since 1985.* There, the series will compete for two-straight nights starting with Friday night’s $6,000-to-win opener on Friday, April 28.* On Saturday night, April 29, the weekend finale concludes with a $10,000-to-win main event at the 1/2-mile Devil’s Bowl dirt oval.

The 2023 USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship season has produced four winners throughout the first four points-paying events: Brady Bacon (Florida’s Bubba Raceway Park), Kyle Cummins (Florida’s Bubba Raceway Park), C.J. Leary (Indiana’s Bloomington Speedway) and reigning series champion Justin Grant (Indiana’s Tri-State Speedway) who currently leads the series standings entering the week.

In ASCS Elite Non-Wing action, Jason Howell (Fort Worth, Texas) leads the series standings after capturing victory in the season opener at Texas’ Kennedale Speedway Park.* Kyle Jones (Kennedale, Texas) scored the most recent series feature win at Texas’ Abilene Speedway.

*

RACE DETAILS:

On Thursday, April 27, at Rocket Raceway Park, the program features the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship (co-sanctioned by ASCS Elite Non-Wing) along with Limited/B-Mods & Factory Stocks.* Pits open at 3pm Central, front gates open at 5pm, drivers meeting at 6:30pm and cars on track at 7pm.* Adult general admission tickets are $35 for adults, $25 for senior & military, $10 for youth (age 6-12) and free for kids (age 5 & under).* Pit passes are $45 for adults and free for ages 3 and under.

On Friday and Saturday, April 28-29, at Devil’s Bowl Speedway, the night consists of USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship racing (co-sanctioned by ASCS Elite Non-Wing), plus Factory Stocks and Limited Modifieds.* Advanced tickets (Premium Reserved Seats with chair backs) are on sale for $30 by calling the ticket office at (972) 222-2421.* General admission tickets are $25 for adults, $10 for kids 12 & under.* Pit passes are $35 while a combo reserved seat & pit pass is $45.

*

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS:

1-Justin Grant-303, 2-C.J. Leary-278, 3-Emerson Axsom-270, 4-Brady Bacon-266, 5-Kyle Cummins-250, 6-Kevin Thomas Jr.-243, 7-Chase Stockon-234, 8-Logan Seavey-223, 9-Jake Swanson-216, 10-Matt Westfall-204.

*

[Fumanchu]

So how long will USAC wait before cancelling the whole week down there?
Looks like really bad weather for the whole week.
Traveling 14 hrs with hauler for nothing is going to be costly or keep some from even towing down.

[Jonr]

Devil's Bowl has a history of cancelling races early when the weather does not look favorable. If it is as bad as you say, I would imagine that Devil's Bowl will cancel before the drivers have to hit the road.

[Hubie48]

Really disappointing, however I am totally on board with early cancellations.

With the price of fuel I think this is a much better approach. I am holding hope that the events scheduled for the 27th, 28th and 29th are still in the cards. USAC has a great series and I have notified my friends in Texas that this is a must attend event!

[Charles Nungester]

I lean on the side of tryng. Last weekend was a perfect example of forecast canceling races. Sure by feature time it was chilly. But most tracks could have been race able. Montpelier the king of early cancel is the only one that ran.

That being said, I don't want tracks and teams to take a bath.

[Vookie]

From the Jacksonville Speedway Facebook page.

Jacksonville Speedway
14h ·
In one of those "why not" moods. Not sure this has ever been done before, and some in the biz might think I'm crazy for doing it - but thought I'd share the economics of opening night - which we were thrilled with. I've just heard a lot of "You were packed" etc. Here's the business-side of Friday Night. And this isn't for any purpose other than full transparency with our fans and teams just to show where your money goes how how a race night works. Mind you, this was Opening Night with an above average crowd... And for us it was a great crowd. We can't compare ourselves to most other tracks who have a lot more population within 20 miles.
There were 702 Adults that were in the grandstand. 50 of those were season passes. 105 Teenagers. Total grandstand deposit was $10,300. There were 378 Pit passes sold at $30 for a total pit deposit of $11,350. Total Deposit was $21,650 from the gates.
Expenses: Payout to racers was $16,850. (Yes, ours is way higher than most because $9k of that was for 410 Sprint Cars - but that's why most Jacksonville fans show up.) Help + Ambulance = $1,950. Insurance $1,000. Power/Lights roughly $250. Water roughly $250. Rent roughly $1,000. Total expenses = $21,300.
So from racing operations alone on a really good opening night, the night was about $300 right side-up. Oooopsss... I forgot the tractor tire repair bill I paid this morning of $395. So I guess we were $95 upside down. Oooops... forgot the diesel and gas for our equipment... etc. etc.
Of course that's not the whole picture. Fortunately we have some great sponsors, we sell food and beverage, get a little from Dirtvision, and host parties etc. out there to keep the ship afloat over the course of a year. Those things come in more than handy on sizzling hot August nights when the numbers above are way, way backwards. I'm totally not complaining, and we enjoy every minute we get to operate a race track. All we want is to make the place float and keep great events happening in Jacksonville. And we are succeeding at that.
But I point this out to illustrate why we charge what we charge for various events. Why we pay what we pay for various classes. Why every bit of signage/advertising we can find makes a world of difference to a race track for those unexpected bills and improvements. Why we just can't hand out season passes to every fundraiser or charity that asks - or let every "friend" we've ever met in for free.
No doubt those of you owning/driving race cars have a whole different set of economics that don't make great business sense either. But understand, that what we have in common is that this is a hobby for us as well. There's nobody walking away with piles of money at a race track - racers, promoters or anyone else.
I also point this out to hopefully show that we weren't "packed". There are 4,000 feet of boards in the grandstand. It should easily hold 2,000 people with everyone having 2ft per butt. But whenever we get past 800 people think there is no room. There is room. And we are going to need to pile about another 400 butts in there in three weeks to make the All Star race work. Yes.... there's room for 1,200 - even at 3ft per butt. Sit on a yardstick sometime. Plenty of room.
Moral of the story... this isn't an "us vs. them" game. This is an "all of us together can make it work" game. Thanks for your continued support of Jacksonville Speedway.