Like I told you Roger and everybody else I talked too. I am not an every week racer. I haven’t raced 3 weeks in a row like that in 12 years. I marked on my calender the Citrus race on the 21st, then Showtime popped up last minute, and I supported that deal on the 28th. Then Auburndale announced there 50 lapper at the end of August, so I looked at there schedule and the 4th of August was the only race night before the 50 lapper, so I used it as a test. It costs money to race, and you can hope to win them all, but you can’t. The $250 for 2nd paid out on the 28th at showtime wouldn’t have even let me break even, if that purse had been posted I would have been there.
Patrick Thomas 25
I agree, Roger, to give credit where credit is due. The payout posted above by Mark Nelson is truly impressive in that the drop off is a very level slope. Good job on Yoho’s part, as this will definitely help car counts. I agree Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it would only take a few minutes here or there to communicate to everyone on a few points that are very important to racers. If he had posted the purse in a reasonable time frame before the race, he would have definitely got more cars (Patrick included). The prospect of non-guaranteed promises a.k.a “I’ll take care of you” rings hollow with the racers that have burned before. Remember the promises earlier this year at Desoto of if “X” amount of Sportsman cars show up well pay all this extra money in the purse? Nobody bought it and and very few cars went. FASCAR pulls that crap with 10 cars or less $200 to win, 11 cars or more $300 to win. Guess what? They never get 11 cars or more. Even Robert was guilty of this mindset at the Grand Opening saying x amount of cars gets x amount of laps with x amount of money. Like it or not racers want a guaranteed “show me the money” purse without car count stipulations. If you total up what Showtime lost without just Patrick it’s kinda staggering. Let’s estimate 6 pit passes $150, 2 tires $250, 10 gal fuel $90 minus the $75 to pay another car at the end of the field and Showtime lost about $415 on Patrick not being there (even more if Patrick bought 4 tires and some food in the pits). So his lack of communication by not simply posting the Sportsman purse on Monday (like he did the previous week with Mods and Trucks) was a poor business decision. If you want to equate that there we 2 new cars there then the loss is even steeper with the other cars that raced there last time that didn’t show. That means the four cars that didn’t come Saturday that came last time lost Showtime a whopping estimated $1260 dollars plus. You’d need to have another 84 Adults pay through the front gate to make up that loss. All for not taking the 5 minutes to post the purse. Another thing that would help draw more cars is a concrete set of rules. Like I said before, how long would it take to “copy” and “paste” from citruscountyspeedway.com Sportsman Rules? Another thing that would help car counts is posting a schedule in a timely fashion. Right now his schedule is posted for this week and next week and that’s it. It’s all TBA after that. I don’t know about most people but I work on Saturdays and can’t get time off at the drop of a hat. Letting people know when they are racing far in advance helps teams to budget and plan. Posting a purse, posting rules and posting a schedule are hardly “building Rome in a day”.
Maybe I just don’t get it. You want someone to post a good payout so you can afford to go to a race. But you get there and you get a flat or get put in the wall. Well that changes everything for the night and believe me we’ve had those nights. Remember this is just a hobby that we have picked for better or for worse. Sure we would like for it to pay for it’s self or have some one pay it for us, but that is not always the case. There are fishermen and hunters out there with a lot of money in there equipment with no purse at the end of their day. So don’t be so negative. Remember for every action there is a reaction. You may be trying to help yourself and the racers, but you may be hurting the feeling of some one else mainly Robert, Danielle, and there staff. When all they want is to bring back racing to Pinellas County, and to the fans and racers. Sure I could pick apart all the tracks in the state of Florida lord knows I have raced almost all of them, but why,and who would I be hurting?
#98 Roger Welch
Proud To Be A Sportsman
Roger I am not trying to hurt anyones feelings. I applaud what they have done. I was in the grandstand Saturday night and the feeling with the crowd that size was ELECTRIC. I really wish I had my car back together to be a part of it. As soon as it is I will be there, guaranteed. Everything I say is 100% constructive in praise or criticism. I have said for myself that purses don’t dictate where I go, the racing experience does. And the experience looks fantastic at Showtime. You are right in that you never really get enough back to cover what we spend (maybe Patrick does cuz he wins so much, that bastard! LOL). Knowing that I’m going to lose money I choose to race where I have the most fun since it is my money I’m losing, after all. But for a lot of racers it IS important and if the purse is going to be good (which it really is) he just needs to let people know to maximize his car count. I know what Robert is doing must be overwhelming, it is amazing what he has created in such a short time. All I have been asking for from day one is just for Sportsman to be included (which frankly didn’t happen until his other division car counts were struggling and you stepped in) and to get the same respect/due that the other divisions are getting. It slowly is happening but he could help himself to grow the division to Citrus size (or greater) by simply posting Rules (which the other divisions have had since like April), posting purses (which he does for other classes) and taking the time to put together a schedule for the rest of the year. These things will not take much time to do (maybe the schedule) if he just takes the time to do it. I’ve tried to help him from day one but he just was to busy for me. That has frustrated me but in no way turned me off to what he’s doing. I just try to understand and now that you are involved the Sportsman at Showtime is now a reality. I just want to thank you for that, you had the patience to see through what I had given up on. I wouldn’t worry about hurting Robert and Danielle’s feelings with my comments. They have the best thing going on in Asphalt racing that Florida has seen in a long, long time. 
Thanks Scott for those words they can be appreciated. I expect 2013 to be alot more promising and the concerns should be taking care of by then. And i will do whatever it takes to help out the sportsman class you can bank on it. Oh ya that’s some funny stuff there about Patrick the bastard lol. Shame on him for taking all the win money 3 or 4 times in a row and then not show up. We know Aaron and Brandon wanted some of that rear bumper. Calm down Patrick i was just kidding. #98 Roger Welch
Good Job Guys
I do know that Yoho is overwhelmed. And for the record we asked him to have a meeting for the mods before he opened. We kinda pressured him on facebook lol. But he simply copied the Citrus rules for us. The only thing is that the mod rules are fairly standardized from track to track unlike the sportsman. The sportsman rules have been all over the place but with the number of cars out there I think the tracks like Desoto and P.G. are conforming to the standard. I remember P.G. had no three link and auberndale was 56% left side where citrus was 58%. With engine rules all over the place. The class is awesome and its growing just hope for everyone that his rules will not be detramental to the class.
I agree that Sportsman rules are all over the place. But Citrus rules makes sense for few reasons. First (except for PGS allowing a 7 1/4" multi disc clutch and the Desoto Outlaw no rules experiment) CCS rules make every car in the state legal running any other tracks rules. Second CCS draws the most Sportsman cars by far than any other track in FL on a race to race basis and CCS is not that far from Showtime. And thirdly, the closest track to Showtime is Auburndale. Auburndale and Citrus rules are IDENTICAL with the only exception being that Auburndale rules require an extra 100lbs minimum weight. So Robert, if you’re looking at this, here’s the link to Citrus rules. Just click it, no sweat. 
citruscountyspeedway.com
Scott
I agree with what you are saying…citrus rules are the way to go. Last year we took our sportsman from citrus to A dale and had to move lead. Maybe it has changed and doesnt really matter to me but just saying that Ted Head had us remove left side and there was a difference in engine rules but I cant remember. Also not sure about lockers. I think its awesome that Yoho has the class…Thnks to all that helped get it going D. Miller
Wow how bout that old Southern Sportsman Series???