If you have a racecar but don't race, what would it take for you to come back & race

No Ron, I am not having fun at all but I am getting alot of hard facts as to what is going on in our local short track world. Last night Alex made me watch a racing program (Madhouse) on tv that had mods racing and the stands were packed and the field was really good. Those mods were like the Northern Mods and they aren’t cheap to run yet they had full fields. I understand that some grandstands are only $8 to get in and $12 at the most so fans aren’t going broke going to the races. Heck, $8 is what you pay now for a movie. I see some tracks here in Florida doing really well and others are hardly making it. We have lost Bronson and Putnam basically, who is next??? How did things get so out-of-hand where we have more parked cars than running cars???

During the DIRTcar Nationals, I met some track promoters from New York and they didn’t seem to have the problems that we have. They had good car counts and full stands. So what are we doing wrong that so many can’t race anymore and people don’t come???

biggest two problems , grandstand admission is too much . $10 max . then theres the embarrassing payouts . when you have to spend more to race in a nite than it pays to win , guys cant justify coming back any more . not to mention the dolly parton style dropoff . not everyone has a rich daddy . and tracks charging double the actual costs of the tires adds to the problems .

The track owner that takes the bull by the horns and makes some big changes in their program to race what is actually out there in large quantities be it junkyards etc. will be the one to profit from it… The RWD car is dead, has been for years… Running a FWD six-cyl Street Stock class would be a step in the right direction… Run DOT tires, have all necessary safety modifications (roll cage, fuel cells, window nets etc.) and let 'em go at it!! Would be great because you can pit the American makes against the foreign makes and have some fun… These cars and chassis are readily available and parts would be easy to come by…
Another idea… you have tons of kids racing their 4cyl buzz-bombs on the street… Start a class for “stock” imports with necessary safety modifications… These cars will run like crazy on the street, so why not give these guys (and gals) a place to really show their stuff? Some might eventually get interested in the Modified or Late Model type cars once they’ve been introduced the sights and sounds of the race track.
I would also never promote “stock car races”… None of these cars are really stock and the run of the mill person has no idea what the moniker means… But if you promote “Auto Races”… Everyone knows what an auto is, whether it’s a LM, Modified, Sprint Car, Legend, Bandolero, or a hot import car…
Fill the stands with VOLUME rather than the few that can afford the price of a ticket… 1,000 persons at $5 apiece is $5,000… 200 people at $12 apiece is $2400… see what a difference 7 bucks can make and you’ll more than double the concession profit…
All this works only if you PROMOTE it… You have to PROMOTE 7 days a week to be successful at anything… There should be at least one employee at each track that does marketing and promotion and nothing else (not like Rusty Marcus who spent most of his time mowing grass and cleaning restrooms - that’s not promoting). That person should know racing backwards and forwards… I’ve seen tracks employ “marketing” people or agencies and all they are doing is throwing away their money because these folks know little or nothing about the sport. If you charge $5 for a ticket, PROMOTE the fact that your show is 4-6 dollars cheaper than a movie and lasts at least an hour longer!!
Drivers… you must remember that you are ENTERTAINERS… Just like a family going to see a movie, you are the Tom Cruise, Matt Damon and Shrek of the race track… These folks are looking to be ENTERTAINED… If you clearly have the fastest car in your class, what fun is it to win by a half lap… OK, it’s fun to blow everybody’s doors off, but you have to realize that you are probably putting the crowd to sleep… So use your judgement and make a show out of it… Interact with the fans whenever you can, not just at autograph sessions…
Don’t think starting something different is bad… In 1965, Orlando Raceway started a six cylinder “Early Model” class… Some folks, including my dad, said why start another class? (This was well before Bobby Diehl’s time LOL)… Within a month, the new class had more cars than the Late Models and Sportsman put together. Ask guys like LeRoy Porter, Marty Spengler and Wayne Heckle if it was a waste of time… This is the class these guys got their start in… It also brought back some guys to racing who had stopped because the cost of running a LM or Sportsman had gotten too high for some.

[QUOTE=Jane;44190]It can’t be easy to own a race track and I am sure track owners have alot of headaches too. Food prices go up so do concession stand prices. Fuel goes up, so does the race fuel at the track. Tires, who knows how much that price changes. The owner is just trying to keep his business open and yet without racers or fans, he won’t have a business for long. Sucks all the way around on both sides.

So, the big question is - how can the owner help the racer so he can race and in the process help the owner to stay open??? Where do they meet to solve both their problems???

Would lowering the pit entrance help bring back racers at all really since I am not sure how much control there really is over the cost of racing fuel and tires. How do both parties help each other??[/QUOTE]

The days of making your profit from the back gate need to end. There are tracks that are now up to $40.00 Pit pass THEN up to $150.00 Entry fee then you run for $800.00 to win and $30.00 for last.
The simple answer is If you charge $15.00 at the Pit and $5.00 in the stands then you run into how do you pay a GOOD PURSE unless you pack the stands
and also pack the pits.
The HIGHER priced classes (purse wise) will eat up 65% of the gate for just them how do you pay the support classes? If you base you purse on CAR COUNT then you lose cars because no one will tow and be the ONLY CAR in their class or worse than that NO CARS period.

The answer is , there is no answer, the cost of everything required to bring a car to the track has at least gone up by a factor of 10 in the past 5 years.

I run a vintage on a limited schedule since the closest track is 240 miles one way. But I try and run once a month for NO PURSE just to have fun.