East Bay Raceway

Talk about sour grapes.
Hey i think everyone got the fact that u are not happy with Al V.
Eastbay was on the edge of death when Al and Tod took a big swing at it. i know they invested there life in it. If they hadnt it might not be there today.
Dont know what happend with u but i know the boys and if u talk to them like a man they will work with u. Al is one of the fairest men i ever delt with and tod cares.
Beat them up on here they will egnore u.
.

Don62

Look guy I don’t know where you have been the last 2 years. But the economy has been in the tank! The job rate is up .2% from being 20% DOWN! Let me ask you to do this. Ask around any number of drivers about how they are doing this year and then how was it in 2006 compared to this year. I’m sure you will find this year is far worse. Like I pointed out to you on my first post, people are losing jobs, their houses and more THIS YEAR. I’m sorry no one is agreeing with you. But that doesn’t make my statement wrong.:sprachlos020:

[QUOTE=Don Nerone;56260]Talk about sour grapes.
Hey I think everyone got the fact that you are not happy with Al V.
Eastbay was on the edge of death when Al and Todd took a big swing at it. I know they invested there life in it. If they hadnt it might not be there today.
Dont know what happend with you but I know the boys and if you talk to them like a man they will work with you. Al is one of the fairest men I ever dealt with and Todd cares.
Beat them up on here they will ignore you.
Don62[/QUOTE]

Well said Don, you are right on the money.

Al & Todd…

I surely can’t speak as a racer and have no idea about problems with the track and the racers. BUT… as for Al Varnadore and Todd Hutto… they are two very nice men who have always been polite and wonderful to me as a fan and in all of our dealings thru the radio shows and presentations at Eastbay.
I find them to be very hard workers and their staff are so friendly. Even the fans are warm and welcoming.
I havent been able to visit Eastbay for a few yrs. but I can say ive seen some awesome exciting racing at that place…
Times are tough for everyone right now.
I hope Eastbay makes a huge come back soon
Al and Todd… i wish you the very best!
Carol Wicks aka OZ

i can’t believe some one would get on here

and bad mouth a speedway you ought to be thankful that they got the ball$ as bad as the economy is in 2010 to even keep the speedway open so people will have a place to go to and to race

team zero i’m not bad mouthing you but i bet you won’t put your real name on here , because if you think it was better four years ago you must work for some one else or you are on welfare ,

we have had to sell 30 trucks and lay off 50 drivers in past few months i can only guess how hard it would be to try to own and operate a speedway

i have known al/and dean varnaore and tod hutto ever since they were not even old enough to drive a race car at golden gate trust me those are some good people . i have watched them race and seen them grow up and turn in to fine young men

what gets me ever body can run a speedway better than the guy that owns it . i have been going to easy bay when it was a fish farm and a man was riding around it with a blade on an old tractor .

me and my brother drove up beside him and asked him what he was doing and he said he was making a race track . and i said to him what you going to do aboutgolden gate speedway .

i looked over at my brother and said now there is a man that is going to waste a lot of money …i hope it never closes …

My dad had a latemodel for two years back when EB first opened and we did very well, winning over 10 features in 1978 along.

My dad and dad?s driver, John Gamble complained back then that the payout wasn?t good for the guys that didn?t finished up front every week.

And I believe Jimmy Mingo was the owner or part owner when it first opened.

Saying all of this, payouts have always been questionable at EB and I bet every track in Florida has been that way since I was a kid in the 70s anyway.

PS I love EB and I try and go once a month and to just about every race during the East Bay?s Winternationals.

O’yea on Dec. 4th is the David Reutimann’s modifed race, hope to see ya’ll there!!!

Bone man dont humor me. my spelling was so bad u couldnt read it.
ron i rember the fish farm and jimmy mingo.
john gamble boy rember him to. we raced a dirt lm when he did.
i miss racing but am glad that im not trying to deal with it in todays market.
I think we are seeing some turn up in ashfalt racing in the last month. Fans and car counts. hope it last.Dirt took a big tun up over the last 5 years but is slowing down a bit . still better than pavement.

may the games begin
Don62

This will be my last post on this so I can defend myself.

  1. I never have questioned Dean Varnadore. He has nothing to do with the track anymore just races there

  2. I am not questioning or bad mouthing Al or Todd as human beings nor have any of my previous post done so. Rather I am questioning their business techniques. 1. Highest priced tires, 2. Lowest Pay-out, 3. No special races for support classes ( the only track in state to not do so), 4. every other track has uniform rules except for east bay.

  3. My whole post was for fear of that place closing its doors because they will not last long running if the car count declines like it has this year

  4. If you look at who was running in the LM class in 2006, the same guys are racing now but some are specifically not racing at East Bay. Same for OWM, same For LLM. The main reason being they dont like the way Al or Todd do things. This coming from there own mouths not my opinion.

  5. I dont know every individuals specific business details. I know some are struggling. But just because your business is struggling does not mean other businesses should be as well (ie East Bay). I’m going off of stating from unemployment website that says Jobs are up . 2% in 2010 from 2006 not down 20% like someone said earlier.

  6. I’m a huge Scott Bloomquist fan and talk to him at every nationals. He told me that the only reason they come down here is because the last 3 nights are lucas points races. if not for that they wouldnt even come down here. That seems to be the thought of most of the guys. So if you want to keep the big late models to come down here we better hope that lucas stays on board.

  7. Im not losing sleep over this but it sounds like people are getting way to worked up over this which is why I want to end this post. Hope to see everyone at the races.

Calvin Bailey

Calvin, you make so lucid and well thought out arguments. Problem is, you will never get it through the thick skulls that post on here even if you are 100% accurate . It is an exercise in futility.

To rebuttle some of your statements

  1. You said if you talked to Al he would freak out and become Dr Evil and that Todd was not a man to stand up to him. I have had several discussions with Al before and Todd and although we did not always agree it was always a polite discussion and my voice was heard.

  2. East Bay is not closing anytime soon.

4)Other than Jeff Matthews and the 40 and 48 modifieds most guys racing then that are not racing now have just quit racing. But they have still raced there a few times this year. I know because I’m always looking at results from other tracks every week and I see very few East Bay cars at other places.

  1. The economy has barely leveled off from a low in 2008 not 2006. It has not gotten better just isn’t getting any worse. Lots of people do not have money to race. You job growth of .2 percent is comparing 2010 to 2009 not 2006. Yes, East Bay will suffer because racing either watching or doing it is a disposable income. If it is harder to pay bills then you do not have as much disposable income so yes when the economy is in bad shape East Bay’s business will suffer also.

  2. There are alot of places them guys go to only because of points. If the place is so bad then why do guys who don’t run the Lucas series full time ( Billy Moyer, Steve Francis, Josh Richards, Tim McCreadie) race there every Winter Nationals.

I’m very open minded its just when people say the track is getting run into the ground and the facts show it is holding its own and is still in better shape than most I like facts stating your case. If those facts can be rebuttled then you need to go find more facts. And if your thinking it yes we can do this forever.

My ONE point has been in my posts that you are wrong about the economy 2006 us 2010. The stoke market fell 60% from it’s highs AND STILL isn’t anywhere near where it was before this thing started. Unenployment was 4% in 2006. It’s been 9.6% ALL this year! What I was saying with the 20% down turn or what every it was. Your figure of 0.2% is ONLY up from that figure. Like I said I’m sorry you don’t understand economics 1.0. Or havn’t read a newspaper or seen a tv report since about the first of Oct. 2008 when this all begain to fall apart.

when different series run the winternationals they the series run the show. If the racer has a problem with a call its not East Bay personal that made it.

Heven’t been to East Bay in a while but went tonight. If that’s a failing track, then I wish more were failing – good car count, big crowd, good food, one of the best announcers in the south, clean bathrooms, decent racing surface all night with no dust, just a little grit; anyone who thinks that track is in bad shape doesn’t get out to very many tracks.

Same for me Oldyeller. I’ll also add the staff is very friendly and the track has one of the best safety crews in the business. I wish I could get there more often.

I should post about East Bay more often. I think Al must have read these post. Its amazing when you dont flood the track with water at 5 in the evening then you can actually race on it. Thought track was 500% better then its been the last 4 weeks. Last week i was sitting going into turm 1 and left because sprints were throwing so much mud you couldnt even watch the race. last night just dust but thats always the case with winged sprints. if 4c didnt spin out might have had something for martin.

now you will be known as the person that saved short track racing in Tampa Bay.

So from what you are saying now is everyone of your gripes, every one of your complaints was actually about one night you went you thought the track was to wet and Sprint Cars were throwing to much mud into the stands.
I guess that makes sense.

Im looking at my post and I never said once Im here to save short track racing. I believe I was talking about 1 racetrack out of thousands? Dont believe short track racing revovles around east bay or else we’d all be in trouble. Very nice thought though. To MW apparently your “openmindedness” has left you because you have repeatedly rubbulted my points that the business techniques are what I view that place as faulty. I never said the racin surface was bad. It is awesome when then track is worked in right, not when there standing water on the track to start the heat races. Im sorry that I have offended you and your lunch buddies at the track. My facts cannot be rebbuttled because they are FACTS. I wasnt the only one to get up and leave. The track has been that way for over a month now. Enough is enough. Thats the whole point but you try to have the last word on everything. If I go Sat I will get on here before I leave the house and tell you what I’m wearing and you can meet me at the beer shed and we can talk in person. Ive stated my first amendment right, If you dont like it then dont read it. and if youre going to comment then comment on what ive actually said not making your own assumptions because Ive stated clear facts that I FEEL , that I FEEL, that I FEEL is the reason for the decline in cars and fans.

What you call facts aren’t facts. And that’s what I have tried to explain to you. This year’s economy just isn’t better then 06.

first off that post wansnt for you. but since you brought it up. the unemployment website clearly states that in central florida (hillsborough, pasco, hernando, polk, sumter counties) in 2006 unemployment was 7.9% for those counties per capita. Im not counting florida as a whole because miami gardens has the highest unemplyment rate in the nation, and they dont race in tampa. In Oct 2010 unemployment is now 7.7%. I’m not sure were you got your facts from but they arent correct for the counties that deal with east bay the most. However I do see that you are from Polk county and back in 2008 they passed amend 4 on the primary election that added a 1.3% increase in property tax and leaned a 4% tax on social security basically meaning cutting 4% of all social security for residents of polk county, trying to take initiative in paying off the national debt. The cunning legislators worded it clevorly on the ballot and uninformed voters actually passed it. So maybe thats where youre seeing the jobless rate go up. Obviously the unemployment office only reports the figures that are reported to them but that was the case back in 2006 as well. So theres your Econ 101 lesson for the day. Hope to see you at the races. and hope rick scott can come through on his promise of creating 700.000 more jobs.

Calvin