This past weekend I spent my morning and afternoon at Summit Point for shooting an SCCA Major's event. They had 175 cars enter for 6 race groups. Pretty good car turn out, but I bet there were no more the 300 hundred fans there to watch. That evening I went to Winchester Speedway (the one in Virginia) they had Super Late Models, Crate LM's, Street Stocks a some 4 bangers. They had 94 cars pit side. Pretty good draw of cars and fans.
After 12 hours on my feet shooting I retires to the pit side grandstands to take in the features races. What I found surprising was the amount of family's with kids present. Each race the stands would fill and empty with a different set of people, but each time the kids, upper grade school age up to high school and even college would pile in with their family's to watch either a family member or friends race. It felt good to see the amount of young people with this kind of close access to the racing. These kids are the ones who will be carrying the sport into the next generation and beyond.
It's also good to see the amount of cars on track. Even the rival dirt track an hour north had 95 cars on Saturday night and they were running several of the same classes.
Grassroots racing is doing pretty good and hopefully will only keep getting better.
I only pay close attention to the dirt side, but it does seem there has been an uptick in interest in the last few years. The crowds at the bigger races I attend seem to be at least as big if not getting bigger every year. I do think some of the disgruntled Nascar fan base has migrated to dirt over the last few years.
There are of course some issues including the rising costs of racing, but it seems the tracks that do a good job promoting & put on a good show are drawing crowds.
I believe the sport is doing better than ever overall. You have to take into account that it's harder than ever to fill the stands today because so many more people race. There are more classes and types of racing for "beginners" than ever before. Rewind to 1985 and half the people racing 4 cylinders and limited this and limited that - they were sitting in the stands!!!
I can remember a time when most tracks had 40 or maybe 50 total cars in the pits (usually 2 divisions) and the stands were full. The stands are not full today because there's 95 cars in the pits with their families.
Originally Posted by davidm:
This past weekend I spent my morning and afternoon at Summit Point for shooting an SCCA Major's event. They had 175 cars enter for 6 race groups. Pretty good car turn out, but I bet there were no more the 300 hundred fans there to watch. That evening I went to Winchester Speedway (the one in Virginia) they had Super Late Models, Crate LM's, Street Stocks a some 4 bangers. They had 94 cars pit side. Pretty good draw of cars and fans.
After 12 hours on my feet shooting I retires to the pit side grandstands to take in the features races. What I found surprising was the amount of family's with kids present. Each race the stands would fill and empty with a different set of people, but each time the kids, upper grade school age up to high school and even college would pile in with their family's to watch either a family member or friends race. It felt good to see the amount of young people with this kind of close access to the racing. These kids are the ones who will be carrying the sport into the next generation and beyond.
It's also good to see the amount of cars on track. Even the rival dirt track an hour north had 95 cars on Saturday night and they were running several of the same classes.
Grassroots racing is doing pretty good and hopefully will only keep getting better.
Ah, Winchester, Va. Speedway..... they were our big rivals, got introduced to dirt track racing at Eastside Speedway, Waynesboro, Va., back in the early 1960s. Eastside is still running.
I've read that Patsy Cline used to go to Winchester sometimes (her home town)
There's a great self published book about early Shenandoah Valley racing, can't recall the name at the moment & book is home 1100 miles away... Steve Strosmiller maybe? Google it or I can tell you in a week...
I think that overall, racing is doing okay, and dirt racing is seeing an improvement. There are however areas that are still seeing significant troubles. In my neck of the world, Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway closed in 2015, Paducah International Raceway (a Track Enterprises/Earnhardt/Stewart owned facility) will not open in 2017, Mt. Vernon (IL) Speedway closed in 2012 and has since been torn down, and Western Kentucky Speedway and Clarksville (TN) Speedway are hanging on by a thread. Now, I'll be the first to admit that 5 tracks within a 125 mile radius is oversaturation, but losing 3 tracks in 5 years is not good. The two remaining Speedways in the area are only drawing on average about 10-12 cars/class and running as many as 6 classes/night to keep the lights on.
