just wondering
I had some friends that went and they said it was PACKED out. Fans and cars, women in daisy dukes…the whole 9 yards!
Yes it was a sellout crowd and pits full with only 3 classes running. My fingers are sore this morning after tearing tickets for over 6 hours. As far as I know the track did not run out of food,drink, or beer. Quite a few were taking up the slack of those who don’t drink. Some even came through my gate already drunk…at 5pm.:ernaehrung004:
Several forum board posters stopped to say HI as well. Jerry, Roger, oneup,Joker139,…can’t remember them all… No sign of OSF though. :sprachlos020:
-JIM-
Seems it really IS possible for a track to have a good turn out???
It was a clusterf@#%K. Don’t know if I’ve ever seen worse track prep than that. From what I was told, they added several loads of new “clay”, but it looked like the top layer of a landfill. Trash in the dirt, rocks, holes, dust, ridges… it looked more like a Moto-X track than a dirt oval. On top of that, they had NO way of improving it. There was no grader, and the water truck never made an appearance after the initial watering down.
True, the place was packed, the pits were full (almost 40 Late Models), there was electricity in the air… but, as a racing program, it needs a ton of improvement. They started something like 1-1/2 hours late, ended the show late (saw a ton of people leaving before the features even started), and heard many people commenting that they would never be back.
As a spectacle, it was pretty good. Saw a bunch of friends, and had a very good time. As a RACE though, Bubba & crew have a lot to learn about putting on a show for the fans.
I’ll be back, but not until I hear that the track condition issues have been resolved…
Start was exactly an hour late. Track was indeed horrible, and Bubba was really upset – they watered, but expected rain, which didn’t come, and it was dusty as hell from heat race one on. Then potholes – walked onto the track, and the layer of clay looked to be about a half-inch think, with red sand underneath. Lots of broken suspensions and flat tires. If that track has seen any fresh clay in a year, it must have all washed down into the infield, because it sure wasn’t on the racing surface. By the end, there was no groove – they were just dodging ruts. Last feature ended at 12:50 a.m. Intermission was way, way too long.
It was packed – biggest crowd I’ve seen in 10 years of going there, parking way out onto the highway – with a lot of people obviously making their first trip to a track. Dunno if they will be back.
I’m giving Bubba the benefit of the doubt. He apologized to everyone repeatedly about the track. He has upgraded some of the the equipment, all new Whelen strobes for warning lights – he just needs a few weeks to get it worked out.
One thing you all have to admit: He’s putting his money where his mouth is. I don’t like the move to Saturday, but it’s hard to criticize anything else he has said he’ll do. He’s just lucky it wasn’t a sprint car night – there would have been a flip a lap.
It was impressive how many peolpe there were…The stands were more than full, there weren’t any seats left, and I don’t mean for one or two peolple, I mean probably 20% could not even get in a seat. The racing was a mess because of the long intermission and time trying to fix the track, and excsssive caution and parade laps…But, I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Lots of energy, music other than “country”, energetic announcer. I bet in a month they will have all the problems worked out. And I do think people will be back. I heard that at some point in the season they are paying $10K for a hobby stock (or whatever they call them) Race. I bet there will be at least 40 of them there and the stands will probably be full more than once dueing the season.
he’ll get it right, if mr. bob at putnam can improve that surface then i’am sure ocala will improve.
Time will tell how many of those people came out that was just bubba fans for his radio show and how many were race fans? if it was as bad as you say dust and all they wont come back. they will think its like that all the time .
just state the damm facts has bubba ever failed in the past at what he puts his heart into
:ernaehrung004:
well, sirius.
ROFLMFAO!!! Sounds about right for anything Bubba the Retard touches. Fill it full of power drinkers, backwoods rednecks, hookers, ect. and the real race fans will go elsewhere.
No one can get it right the first time,only time will tell if he can make changes that work.Sirius wanted him to take a 80% pay cut and he told them to go fly a kite,good for him to stand up to the man.Yes I’m a fan and it’s easy to tell who the haters are,but if you are a true racing fan or racer then you would want him to make it work.Hell there are tracks that have been running for years and can’t get it right or seem to care to.Even if he looses half the fans that went out the first night he’ll still have more fans in one night than some tracks have in a whole month.We all should be rooting for anyone that will come in and try to bring new life to any track.Now I’ll hand this thread back to the haters cause I know they are just waiting to pounce.Later 
The place was electric last night. Largest field of late models so far this year. The improvements around the track were impressive (Backstretch fence, caution lights, the restroom in pits was actually clean). The great thing is that all the cons of the night can be easily corrected.
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The new boards on the stands are nice. But they need to put some paint on them and make an isle section (almost had a fight bc you cant walk down without running into somebody)
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I never saw a security presence all night long. I heard they almost had several fights over in turn 4.
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The show has to move along alot faster. the mic in the pits breaks in and out and hard to hear ( maybe a track official on 4 wheeler would help get guys to staging)
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the track surface will get worked out over time. Im not concerned with that and even bubba acknowledged that.