I met Tony at Bronson a couple of years ago at a 75 lap modified race. He is one of the nice guys in racing and truely loves racing. He is one of the few drivers that I know of that as stepped up and started to help out instead of complaining. Tony don’t worry about what others say your doing one heck of a job and keep up the good work.
Skip Honaker
Hello how are ya’ll doing. Today i would like to thank another sponsor, Unlimited Designs, Street Rod Interiors- Z-Hills, FL. Thanks dale it means alot. In my prior post i stated that we didnt need another sprint car club in FL. I think i was wrong. With that being stated me and my associates, Id rather call them MY PARTNERZZ, have decided we will run this saturdays race at citrus county speedway feb. 5th under the name “INDEPENDANT PAVEMENT SPRINT CAR ALLIANCE”, it will be run with no president, no secretary, and the board of directors will consist of THE DRIVERS. A group of independants that are willing to race for a fair purse, i have made the commitement to do this for ONE year, and we’ll see how it goes. It will be a non wing series, we have the FINANCIAL BACKING and the WILL POWER to SUCCEED, FAILURE is not an OPTION. We may not get the car count that we hope for at the first race but eventually i think that we can come together as one and persuay more to follow. Thank You! The purse has now broke $8,000.00 not including our tire sponsor STEELE PERFORMANCE… Thanks DAVE for helping the cause. I really appreciate all the kind words from my racing family, it means alot.
T.Carreno
Tony, If you want to make everyone happy all you have to say is that the track is going to guarantee the purse of blank amout of money {6.500-$8,000} not to keep telling what sponcers you are getting to make the purse…The hang up is in this track alliance that will only pay $4,500 to the asphalt sprints no matter witch group it is…Lord knows YOU have been trying to get this to work…For those of you who do not really understand what is happening…{If all the big oil company’s set a price of $5.00 per gallon together this would make a monopoly and be illegal as price fixing…} If this would happen who could ever tell when or who it would affect Chip
To use this analogy a little further. If the oil cost the oil companies $3.00 a gallon to produce but the independent gas stations refused to pay more than $2.50 per gallon for it, the oil companies would not sell it at a loss. The independent gas stations wouldn’t have a product to sell and consumers wouldn’t be able to get the product. That’s what’s happening to the tracks now. The sprint groups have set a minimum fee from the tracks. The tracks don’t want to pay it because they lose money if they pay more than that. The purse for this race is now over $8,000 and there are a bunch of sprint drivers who refuse to race because the track did not give them that money. Can you say Duuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmbbbbbbbb?
as i said wing ding it is more of a principle then any thing else ,or how the wording states… All the track has to say is they are paying the purse Questionis will they say that…and break this TRACK ALLIANCE
I know what you’re saying Chip. But I don’t think they will say that. They are not paying the purse. They are paying $4,500 (or whatever they agreed to) and Tony has gone out and picked up sponsors for the rest. I doubt the track will even have that money pass through their hands. It’s not to their advantage to break the so called “track alliance.” BTW, I thought it would be great for tracks to finally work together and have uniform rules, etc. to benefit racing as a whole. It seems this alliance has been formed only to benefit the track owners. I don’t agree with that. I think each track should be able to negotiate their own deal, unless they’re splitting the profits and losses among themselves and I’m pretty sure that isn’t happening. An alliance could be a positive thing but this doesn’t look like it’s headed in that direction. However, with that said, I still understand why the tracks don’t want to pay more for the sprints at this time.
I AGREE 100% WITH YOU… I just think tony is caught up im the middle of something he has no control over …As the saying goes {no good deed goes unpunished}
T Man has done it again! This is the best purse the sprints will run for for a while. Everyone should show there support and race or come and enjoy the show. I gaurantee it will be the best one you will see for a while. Batman will be in the house with a car to support Carreno like we always do. I would also like to say thanks for all the people who support Tony and to all the sponsers and to Citrus for there efforts in making it happen.
[QUOTE=owm61;63793]Hello how are ya’ll doing. Today i would like to thank another sponsor, Unlimited Designs, Street Rod Interiors- Z-Hills, FL. Thanks dale it means alot. In my prior post i stated that we didnt need another sprint car club in FL. I think i was wrong. With that being stated me and my associates, Id rather call them MY PARTNERZZ, have decided we will run this saturdays race at citrus county speedway feb. 5th under the name “INDEPENDANT PAVEMENT SPRINT CAR ALLIANCE”, it will be run with no president, no secretary, and the board of directors will consist of THE DRIVERS. A group of independants that are willing to race for a fair purse, i have made the commitement to do this for ONE year, and we’ll see how it goes. It will be a non wing series, we have the FINANCIAL BACKING and the WILL POWER to SUCCEED, FAILURE is not an OPTION. We may not get the car count that we hope for at the first race but eventually i think that we can come together as one and persuay more to follow. Thank You! The purse has now broke $8,000.00 not including our tire sponsor STEELE PERFORMANCE… Thanks DAVE for helping the cause. I really appreciate all the kind words from my racing family, it means alot.
T.Carreno[/QUOTE]
You are the man Tony. If anyone can do it, you can. Very busy time of year for me starting now, but I’m going to try to spread the word. I’ll put out some feelers and maybe shoot you some thoughts as time goes on. Best of luck to you.
Just to clear something up…this has nothing to do with any track alliance, this is simply economics. Citrus had 7 sprint car races last year, we lost money on every race. We had one race at $4500, that was the last CFWSS race of the year, we still lost money. We paid as much as $8400 last year for one of the series to come in, as you can imagine, that was a huge loss. Each track can negotiate the price if they choose to, this is the price that Citrus has come up with to make it at best a break even proposition for the track. If each series can’t come up with a way to supplement the rest of the purse, then it appears Citrus will not have Sprint car racing, it’s that simple. While I do enjoy watching the sprint cars, this track has survived a long time with out sprint car racing, and will continue to be one of the top tracks in the state with out them.
There were converstations had at the owners meetings about the Sprint car situation, because each track owner expressed concern about the profitablilty of having the sprints. At that time, the owners found out that the series were also not giving each track the same price across the board. So I enjoy the “monopoly” analogy, because that’s exactly what the sprint series had at one time. They were the only game in town, and to keep up with the Jones’s, each track paid. Until there were too many fish in the Sprint series pond, and then they started eating each other and bringing their prices down.
I really have a hard time understanding all of this personally. No one is holding a gun to any of the sprint series heads to come race at their tracks. If you go to a car dealership, and can’t get the deal you want, you move on to the next dealership. So if you don’t like the deal, then by all means, move to the next dealership. If you get to the next few and are offered the same deal, then it’s time to temper your expectations. Maybe your 1985 Chevy Monte Carlo SS isn’t worth the $25,000 of trade value like you think it is.
It’s supply and demand, and right now, there’s no demand for asphalt sprint car racing. I put out fans surveys in the grandstand at Citrus last year a few months into the season. All the touring series had visited at least once. A few of the questions were " what is your favorite class?" “what class do you want to see more of?”. Of the 700 to 1000 that were turned back in, less than 5% mentioned sprint cars.
So here’s the bottom line, Citrus will have and Asphalt sprint car race this Saturday night. Thank you to all that have supported this attempt and I truly hope it’s sucessful. For all of those that have tried to cause problems, you’re only hurting yourselves. You will end up with no place to race your cars, no place to watch if you are a fan, and have no one to blame but you for not supporting your own class of cars. If I were a fan, I’d make sure I was at Citrus this Saturday and at NSS during speedweeks to show my support for any form of sprint car racing. Sooner or later, your 1985 Chevy Monte Carlo SS could go the way of the dinosaur…
To be honest after all of this, I couldnt care less if I ever see an asphalt sprint show again. And I will bet I am not the only one who thinks that.
You guys give em hell this weekend… Don’t worry about what anyone says or what politics are being played out in this here stupid scenario… Thank you again for working so hard to get the cars and the race to go…
What is the logic of running a local sprint car race against a national traveling All-Star sprint car race on the same night 50 miles away??? 
Splain it to me Lucy.
I understand your point, but try to schedule any race during the month of February and not schedule on top of another race. Tbara has been our season opener for the last few years on the first Saturday in Feb. 7 sprints at practice last night, which is acutally more than we usually have the night before the race. The weather has just moved through and it should be a great night of racing with the temps in the 50’s tonight. I hope all the asphalt sprint car fans come out and support the race tonight!
First off, the Independent Pavement Sprint Car alliance would like to thank Mr. Reed, Critter, John Chance and the entire staff of Citrus County Speedway for having us. Mother nature wasn’t kind to us last night, but we found something out, there is at this time ELEVEN sprint car drivers “that just want to race”. There were a couple more cars that had committed to come but i believe were persuaded to sit out at the last minute. That’s all right! We understand your emotions. The good news is Citrus Count wants us back,and it looks to be in April at this time. It will NOT conflict with any other Pavement Sprint Car Clubs at this time. Many of you are asking why so far away? Its simple we feel at this time the month of February in Florida already has plenty of great racing going on, dirt and asphalt. That’s why it is called Speed Weeks! So go buy a ticket, and support a track of your choice. In the month of March the track will be closed for the fair. So its a challenge with the schedules already made, but we will get it figured out and let you know. Just to let any other driver know that would like to attend our next race, the ALLIANCE voted and agreed YA- or NA on a couple of issues.
The first being, if you run in the top five at the end of the race your right rear tire must be stamped from Steele Performance to collect your purse. It is only fair that if we have a tire sponsor we should support them as they have chosen to support us.
Secondly, we will have a standard width rule that all the clubs run with now.
Third, we will run 25 lap features just like they did a long time ago, we decided to bring it back old school. We hope that it will help with the wear and tear on your motors and tires, not much but its a start.
P.S HOLD ON TO YOUR WRIST BANDS AND TICKET STUBS!! THEY WILL BE HONORED AT THE NEXT SPRINT CAR RACE AT CITRUS.
Thank you!Hopefully there was a small crowd. The top advertised class showing 11 cars is poor. A poor car count will not make fans want to come again…
The word of mouth about the show will have less of a negative effect.
If this new club can’t be sure there is a minimum of 17 or 18 cars to show, you shouldn’t book any dates. You will do more harm than good.
How many “independant, my way is better” clubs are there in Florida now??? 
I really think they would get more cars if it was not rainy… Alot or cars will not travel 100 miles or more when there is a good chance of getting rained out
The threat of rain pretty much kept away fans and probably some teams alike, except for morons like me that drove all the way out there anyway. :ernaehrung004:
I can’t see why they won’t be able to pull 18 cars next time out really.