Starting the Show Off with a Bang

FLORIDA STOCK CAR RACING KARNAC's FLORIDA STOCK CAR RACING
1

Referring here to what I view as a chronic mistake that is made at Speedworld, my home track. For several years now, we have opened the race night with the weakest element in our show: Bandeleros. It doesn?t matter if there is only one of them, the Bandos run first anyway. Even if we have a ?huge? field of 4, is this the best we can do to welcome the paying guests? Instead of starting off the show with a bang, we can barely muster a little poof. Not to mention the fact that we often follow up with another low car-count class like Sportsman or mini stocks.

After watching a few 3 car races, I bet that any new fans are wondering what on earth they are doing at this track, and thinking instead that they should have gone to the library for a little more action. 2010 had to be the worst year ever at OSW, so some changes to the product are clearly in order.

Here are two suggestions to try something different.

Start the show with a healthy class like Strictly Stocks. Put them out there for a ?B? main or whatever you want to call it, then run their feature later. This class has had a solid car-count for several months and has put on some entertaining races. But because they ALWAYS run last, many fans NEVER stay to see them. The class runs for free, so it would not increase the tracks expense at all.

Strictlys are often accused of ?making a mess of the track?. I just don?t buy this excuse. They make no more of a mess than any other racecar does. What is worse: a junker that might drip some transmission fluid, or a SLM that grenades a motor and covers the track with oil? If any class makes a mess, then drop some oil dry and get on with the show.

Many of these cars show up late. Why not? Practice ends early and they always run last, so why bother coming early? If they have a chance to run an earlier race, I bet more will show up at race time. Run the B main for the cars that are in attendance, then everyone runs the feature later on.

Option #2: use a little more creativity and leeway in changing the nightly schedule. OSW prints up a sheet that shows the practice and racing order. They do this as a courtesy to the teams and it works. However, if the first or second race only has 2 cars, they should move that class to the end of the show and put something more compelling in its place. The racers will deal with minor changes like this

2

Agreed. ^^^^ they should bring heats back or have qualifying for a different class every week:cool008:

3

Boneman Starting the Show Off with a Bang

[B][I]Mega Harley burn out, & I mean a real burn out. There is a gazillion Harley shop in Fla, called them, some of them will be more than please to go show off their products in action. Same with hot rod shops and so on. That light up the show pretty good when well done.

A good ‘‘drifter’’ with a real drift car will give you your money worth too.

A well planed cop//bad guy chase around the track will crack some laugh for sure.

Anything different with smoke, fire, noise, flair & fireworks will work.

Then you line up your most ‘‘entertaining’’ division of the night for the 1st heat race.[/I][/B]

4

I think they should bring figure 8 racing back as a regular
class at least once a month.That would possibly bring
some cars from other tracks especially from the
Tampa Bay area
Just a thought… :wink:

5

Or to make it even more interesting, how about take a blind draw in the drivers meeting and see what class qualifies… Then when they go out do something really crazy like reverse the starting order… I know it may sound silly, but things like that get the fans involved and also makes the “racer” work harder to win…

6

Great post, Rex.

Other advantages to your suggestions:
-fans may actually arrive before or at the advertised start time, thus skipping dinner at home or a restaurant and buying at the track.
-same with the drivers and teams

7

Im just saying if they bring figure 8 racing I have 6 cars and drivers! that would love to do it

8

The Figure eights is a good Idea. Theres a bunch of the old pro figure eight drivers at Citrus. OSW runs Friday so they would possibly run both tracks. Citrus is the only place I know of where the real figure eights run anymore. Bob…

9

Agreed, figure 8’s are so cool. How about combine the “B main” idea with figure 8 and run a Strictly Stock F8 race to open the show? Do it on the existing “X” but use the Bando track for the corners. This will keep the speed and danger way down, but would still put on a good show.

Clearly, there needs to be good cages in the F8 cars. Strictlys are not currently required to have anything, but it would be a firm requirement to run the F8. It would be nice to fix up the “X” too, it is narrow and falling apart at the edges.

I bet F8 would effect the insurance rates. Oh well, its just an academic discussion anyway, nothing will change. Why try something new when you can stay with a 2 car Bando race?

10

If OSW starts Figure 8’s they should make it a Strictly Stock type of car with, of course, the obvious safety features and get a “local” class going. Don’t expect the Citrus guys to support Fig 8 racing at OSW on a Friday… Same thing as the Legend Cars… the drivers all live too far away, get off work too late and don’t want to have to fight the traffic… All of them come from the west side of the State… To be at OSW by 7 on a Friday, they would have to leave home most days by 3PM…

11

Did someone suggest qualifying as a way to IMPROVE the show? That is one of the most boring wastes of time for a fan to sit through. In my opinion, there should NEVER be qualifying on a short track. Inverted heats are the only way to go for entertainment.

But Boneman is right… the Bandeleros add basically ZERO to a show, and actually detracts from the nights fun-factor. Pull the plug on that class.

12

Its good to see all thes racers trying to figure out what to do

One thing Rex. Dont sart with the best you have at first then your show will get worse as u go and people rember the last thing they see.
Thats like driving a car with a bad fule filter its the best ride in the world and in a few miles u will want to giv it away. Olso dont hold the thing they came to see for last to get them to stay that will piss them of also.
The good thing it that you are trying.
118 ur right qulifing is like drag raceing with one car.Fig 8s is the sure thing if u can find enough cars

Don62

13

Hey, Hired Hand! What kind of cars do you have to run F8? Full sized or 4 cylinder? I’d love to try my 4 cylinder Mustang in a race like that. Wouldn’t it be cool if they would hold at least a demonstration race with F8? Your six cars, my one and who ever else shows up.

I only drove F8 3 times, twice in a bus and once in a car, but I really liked it.

14

Rex last year at PGS, or as it was known then, CCMP they ran figure eights, run what you brung. It was a good race for the fans and the drivers loved it too. They ran 4 cyl’s with V8’s and I didn’t like that much. I’d hate to see a compact get t-boned in the intersection. Interesting enough a 4 cyl won most of the time. It was a good time. The fans were really getting into it and there were a lot of times 16 or 17 cars in it. Bob…

15

I know nobody wants to here about the 80’s and 90’s, but when we ran inverted fields off of points ,those where the best years I can remember as far as car counts and fans showing up. The stands had standing room only and there was always a full field of cars for all class’. Those were the good ol days :ernaehrung004: