A PACKED house, 100+ cars, and a track full of entertainment, yeah it was that kind of night at Showtime! Remember those race nights many years ago when the house was rockin’, the fans were loud, the car counts were high? Those days are alive and well in St. Petersburg once again.
My sons and I went to the figure 8 spectacular on Sunday night; the second night of a Labor Day racing double header at Showtime. We were fortunate to find a patch of grass to sit on! I don’t know if they had to close the ticket booth, but I honestly can’t imagine how they could have handled any more fans.
This place does so many things right. The concessions for example: they are fast, have mobile vendors delivering drinks and food to the stands, and are staffed with some darn good looking women (sorry ladies, but yes we are all pigs). The pace of the events is rapid-fire too. Some tracks have to waste 20 minutes between races, but Showtime had a ton of stuff to get in, so the heats were no more than a minute or two apart.
Mr. Yoho has an interesting approach to management: he is part announcer and part ring-master, who is often heard giving directions to the track staff over the same microphone that he uses to talk to fans and carry on with the main announcer. He makes me laugh too. His antics with the drivers and his commentary on the PA show a quick witted guy who loves the sport, and who demands that the track put on a show.
A perfect night? No, I think there were a few mistakes. Those people know about showmanship, so I bet it won’t happen again. They did a backpack give away on the track, but were over-whelmed with kids. Although they were pretty well prepared, it still ended up taking a half hour from the racing. I also had to wonder why they ran heats and features for 5 oval classes before the figure 8’s (4 classes of them!) ever appeared. My kids kept asking when the figure 8’s were coming out, and I bet they were not the only ones waiting.
Good news about their mini stock class: it is the inexpensive and fun 4 cylinder class that should work everywhere, but actually is working great at Showtime. They had 29 of them on hand, and 20 ran the figure 8 race too. The track has to watch for the perception of favoritism: it was very apparent to me in this class, and if left unchecked, will drain the competitors away in short order.
Overall, we loved it! Thanks for the Sunday night show, thanks for 4 classes of figue 8’s and 5 classes on the oval, and mostly thanks for recreating the electric atmosphere that we are all looking for!