Icebreaker 100, Late Model Race,feb.20th

:ernaehrung004:Desoto Super Speedway will host their annual Icebreaker 100 late model race on Feb. 20th. It will pay $3000 to win, plus as of right now an additional $3000 in prize money. We are working hard to sell the rest of the laps, for a total of $5000 extra in prize money. We are working with our sponsors to see if we will put all of it to laps led, or part to laps led and the rest to be paid out throughout the field. We have had great response from the drivers, and looks like we will have a great field of cars. Come on out and let’s have a good time, Thanks.

The FAST Series Opener is scheduled that weekend at Citrus County Speedway.

http://floridaallstarstour.com/Schedule.html

Desoto Super Speedway appears headed for yet another season of empty seats, and no car counts under his leadership. The track has been in a steady decline under John’s watch. It is sad.

The FAST Series Opener is scheduled that weekend at Citrus County Speedway. Most of the big names have said they are going to support the new series. Why isn’t John changing his date, to make for a better show for the fans?

http://floridaallstarstour.com/Schedule.html

The track has been in a steady decline under John’s watch. Desoto Super Speedway appears headed for yet another season of empty seats, and falling car counts under his leadership. I keep thinking it can’t get worse, but then… :confused:

The FAST Series Opener is scheduled that weekend at Citrus County Speedway. Most of the big names have said they are going to support the new series. Why isn’t John changing his date, to make for a better show for the fans?

http://floridaallstarstour.com/Schedule.html

That is a great question

RACEFAN99 you pose a great question. Dick, Wayne and Alan are trying to save asphalt racing in Florida with the FAST tour. It is a very well planned tour and all race fans in Florida should support it, that goes for tracks as well. Can DeSoto survive on his island? Time will tell. Lets all support FAST!!!

ice breaker

thats about the time of year it has always been.

its because john always beats his own drum to himself it seems he must be related to bonnie hill do as i say or else its a real shame so few tracks so few promoters that work together it seems the racers dont have a chance :mad:

:)This is the same date Desoto has had since 1980. We had our date set last year. FAST wanted to run their series with us on that date, but things did not work out, so Wayne went to citrus and got this date. We don’t wish Wayne’s series no harm, but our date was set first.

Amen, villageracefan!

There’s no doubt in my mind that unless the tracks stop competing, stock car racing in Florida (at least north central Florida) will collapse. FAST is a great attempt at making things better for the fans.

I am not taking sides with anyone but if you go back in the archives for Desoto Super Speedway, you will see that the Icebreaker has always been that date. John did not change it at all.

Yes, it sucks that the first FAST race and the Icebreaker turn out to be the same weekend but they aren’t exactly close together tracks and all we can do is wish them both the best. But Gene Davis is right, the Icebreaker has always been on that date.

No need for a war or name calling or any of that. It was just one of those things that happen in racing and it does happen and it will continue to happen.

[B][I]Mid week shows would fix that. Or even Sunday, nobody seems to race on Sunday in Fla.

Don’t mess with anybody, be the first, get out of the one and only ‘‘Saturday’’ of the week.

The vast majority of those expensive ‘‘Super Late Model’’ teams are either financially all set, own their own business, do this sport for a living and so on. So, for the majority of them, it’s no problem to go race on a Wednesday or Thurday night, or late Sunday, if it’s schedule like this and in advance.

As long as series in general will try to compete on Saturday , they will always face competition, and if it’s not for the cars, it will be for the fans. Let’s say you have a series race at track X and the neighbour track as its Crash o Rama of the year or a bigger series, then all the fans are there, you still loose.[/I][/B]

Andre, I have been around this sport in south central Fl for over 50 years and I can only remember a few times when there was a decent fan count for a Sunday show and that’s been years ago. For some reason fans don’t like to come to race tracks on Sunday, The Icebreaker at Desoto used to draw a large crowd and the old Triple Crown used to draw large crowds for the Florida 200. But that’s been a long time. If you have few fans its hard for the promoter to put on a decent show. Bob…

Not completely true. Volusia has run quite a few Sunday shows over the years, and most of them had really good crowds and fields. I thinks the failure of Sunday races are blown WAY out of proportion. In fact, I’ll probably be at VSP this Sunday (in the sun, with a lawnchair and a cold beer… how can you beat that in January?)

As for mid-week shows, about the only one that had the balls to try was Ocala Speedway for the early runnings of the Powell Memorial (Tuesday nights). Both the pits and stands were full… many of them being drivers/officials etc… from other tracks that would NOT have been able to come if it were run on a weekend.

I still think it’s a mistake to not be running that show on a Tuesday or Wednesday night.

[B][I]FLVIDEO, That sounds like defeat to me.

I garan’‘dam’’ tee you, bring in 40+ Super late Model at any Fla paved track on a regular basis with your serie, take 24 to 28 for the feature, with the right fans entertaining race procedures, right promotion, right announcer, and the whole HOOPLA and you’ll pack the place, regardless of the the day.

And you can take that to the bank…

Like I wrote on another topic, get the last Speedway Illustrated and check the article on Autodrome Drummond, it’s where I go every saturday night in summer time, this place was dying few years ago, the new promoter rock the place and now it’s packed, every Saturday. I know you’ll say, it’s up north, well it was up north too couple years ago and it was empty.

It you start with the wrong(negative) idea, wrong procedure, wrong day, you lost already, you need to face this project chest out, be a good ‘‘preacher’’ for your product, make it as entertaining as humanly possible, sell!! sell!! sell!! That’s the promoter job.

An half a$$ boring, follow the leader, not entertaining kinda race even on saturday will not do the expected job[/I][/B].

Well Andre you and Jerry convinced me. I am all for it. Now we need to convince the tracks to try. I am retired and racing is all I do now so I’m up for a show every night of the week. I’ll tape them at night and edit during the day. I think East Bay runs a week day show the first of every year and I haven’t been there in years but I am told they have a packed house every night. I agree with Andre that if you have the cars and put on a show the people will come. There lies part of our problem. I really have no idea how many Super Lates we have in the state any more. But the tracks that run them are competeing for their business. I also agree that most Super teams are not worried about the day of the week. There a few that are on a tight budget but most own their own businesses so they can go when ever. You see teams show up 2 days early anyway to practice for a big race so why wouldn’t they come to compete on a week day. When I traveled with the UDLMCS there was sometimes as many as 60 cars show up for a show. You could build a whole program around that many cars with no support classes. 5 heats, three b-mains and a feature. I think it was Volusia where thats what we did although they had a couple back bone classes. Now all we have to do is convince some promotors. Bob… By the way Jerry I saw you all had a blast at the little 500 last night. I wish I could have gone but I just can’t afford the fuel to get there. Bob…

Icebreaker used to be a sunday race.

The Ice breaker has always been a Sunday race. Till Hernando said something I thought the 20th was sunday. So it isn’t the day it always has been. Bob…

[QUOTE=Jane;41564]I am not taking sides with anyone but if you go back in the archives for Desoto Super Speedway, you will see that the Icebreaker has always been that date. John did not change it at all.

Yes, it sucks that the first FAST race and the Icebreaker turn out to be the same weekend but they aren’t exactly close together tracks and all we can do is wish them both the best. But Gene Davis is right, the Icebreaker has always been on that date.

No need for a war or name calling or any of that. It was just one of those things that happen in racing and it does happen and it will continue to happen.[/QUOTE]

Moving the Desoto date would be a win-win for the fans, the racers, the Icebreaker race sponsors, and even John.

That’s 4 weeks away… plenty of time to reschedule.

And yep… I’ve attended several Icebreakers on Sundays. Not sure why John changed it.

Sorry Jane,
That is just plain wrong and unacceptable. It does happen but it shouldn’t. Why should we accept that it will continue? On occasion there might be a reason for a conflict but tracks should be working together. We shouldn’t allow it to continue. It’s too bad the fans couldn’t unite and support one or the other, but not both. As Andre’ and Frasson have said on this thread, and I’ve asked before: Why don’t Florida tracks run midweek or Sunday shows? Then we wouldn’t have these conflicts. Although, I have a feeling that some track owners would still schedule something against some other tracks midweek show.