So i'm probably going to have people completely against my take, which is fine. We all have our opinions.
#1. During race times Start of hot laps until end of A's. In my opinion no fans should be in the pits. At least for bigger series/races. Mind you I was a nobody low budget racer. Been a racer as a support class with bigger classes. I also even got to race against the all stars a few times, including a sprint week show driving for somebody. I used to love going and racing them shows and used to wish we got to go as a support class, especially Ohio Sprint Speedweek. After one or 2 shows, I didn't even go if we was the support class. Even turned down a 410 ride for a couple different speedweek shows. Strictly, because of the fans. I can't tell you how many times I've had to lock it down, just to not run over people, that don't look at all. That's not even mentioning crowds blocking part of the pits, due to surrounding a more well known driver.
I was helping crew for a friend of mine, several years ago. Due to his rig size, We was told where to park during a Ohio Speedweek show. I can't remember who we was parked next to. It was either Rico, Larson or Kahne. All 3 of them were there, Stewart and Jac Haudenchild was also there. Stewart was parked decent bit away so it wasn't him. Can't tell you how much of a pain it was to work on our own car, due to the crowd pushing into our pit. That night we almost missed our heat, because people wouldn't move out of the way, then when our driver came back into the pits, we pretty much had to almost push people out of the way, just to get our car directly in our pit, behind the trailer. That's not even mentioning one of our guys was under the car changing gears and one of the fans from the bigger team stumbled or got pushed into our car.
#2. 2020 was an interesting time, I got to talk to a lot of more well known guys. A majority of the ones I talked to said they were kind of happy there was little to no fans there. They said it hurts t-shirt sales, but they don't have to deal with people. They get to go race, enjoy it, then go home.
#3. In 2020, I also talked to one track owner and 1 promoter. Both tracks were in different parts of the country. (Don't want to name names, so they don't get bad publicity.) 1 was allowed a smaller crowd, other was allowed no crowd, only racers/crew and track staff. Both of them said overall, it was cheaper to run that year. Both tracks hired food truck for the night. So they didn't have to buy food and pay people to run the concessions. (I used to be a delivery driver and delivered to a track or two. Even for local nights, I seen the bill, expensive is an understatement.) They didn't need a lot of food, due to not as many people. Plus numerous other things. Back gate paid a lot of the bills. Now granted they both said they couldn't do that over multiple years without losing a lot of money, but could do it for a while, easily a year.
Like others mentioned before, no one is signing a paper that says they have to deal with the fans. More power to the ones that do though. I'd bet easily 95% of the racers are racing, because they love racing and that's it. When I got into racing, I didn't get into it to entertain people or anything, I got into it, because I loved racing. Was around it at a young age. Almost killed me a couple years ago, I'm medically retired from it and have quite a few life long health problems caused by it. If I could still get in a car I 100% would and wouldn't bother me if no one is in the stands and there's no streaming service. Also just because they're a bigger name and have big crews doesn't mean they don't work or help on the car either. Some of them are up just as long as the teams are. Sure there are some drivers that go to their motorhome or hotel until the next day. Although I was surprised to see how many "bigger known" guys help at the car wash or help do maintenance the next day.
I 100% don't agree when "fans" say without us you racers couldn't race or anything. Due to stuff mentioned above. Drivers are paid on either Salary or % of each race. Team owner usually has some other investments or business making money to fund the team and you have sponsors.
Push comes to shove, worst thing to happen. Say High limit or WoO maybe even USAC said no more fans allowed period at the track. In my opinion I think the series and teams could still go almost normally. As long as you had streaming service. Sponsors would still get mentioned and people would still be watching. Although some vans may go away, due to it's not the same watching in real life as streaming. Drivers may lose a little bit of money on apparel, but as long as they marketed themselves properly and had a decent online store I don't think they'd lose to much. Reason I say that is look at Indy or Nascar. Although their numbers are a lot higher on viewers and everything, so is the money. I'd say it's a safe bet a majority of the people that watch it, rarely go to a race in person. They still have a favorite driver and buy a ton of apparel, but don't go to the race. I used to watch nascar every weekend for years. Minus truck races at Eldora, I only went to the '07 All-Star race. Although that wouldn't work on more local nights.
Personally last several years, it's rare that I went to a race that I wasn't racing at. Unless I was helping crew for friends or it was local. I just watched it on Flo or DirtVision.
Although now, I've been pushing my self farther and farther away from racing. Nothing against racing, but after following it all my life and being a driver for a big part of my life and no longer can do that. It kills me inside to watch races and I can't go in person anymore.
Corky
