[QUOTE=Matt Albee;128283]
By the way, the back gate costs aren’t what’s driving racers away. .[/QUOTE]
Sure,not if you are going by yourself…Add 3 crew/family members and that’s $400/month…Send the family off to the stands were it is cheaper and they may lose interest real quick…
When I tell people that it is $25-30 to get into the pits they all say “are you f-ing kidding me?”
It’s about car count !!!
It’s all about car count. I grew up at NSS during the 80’s. Spent every Sat night there and loved every second of it. Because there were “FIELDS” of race cars. Now we have a “FEW” cars in most classes. WHY YOU ASK. Because to be competitive, you have to have $10,000 Minimum in a mini stock or a $3500 “CRATE” motor in a super stock. Back in the day you cut the fender wells out and put on racing tires and ran whatever engine the junkyard would sell ya for $300. A crank for a winning mini-stock costs twice that. TELL ME I’M WRONG !!! I DARE YA. NOW A REAL STOCK CAR " STRICTLY STOCK " gives you the opportunity to spend $100 every night you race OH sorry forgot about the trophy. We used to have street stock thunder cars and late models and mini stock. Now we have 2 late model classes, 2 modified classes, 1 “STOCK” V8 class. 1 MINI STOCK (THAT COST $15000+) and the junk that runs for fun. Also Bando’s and Legends ($$$$$???/NOT CHEAP/MOTORCYCLES). However if you can win every night for 10 years @ $250 a night and buy only 1 tire per year you can almost break even. Watching 5 cars “RACE” when they are 2-3 seconds apart or more go around NSS is not “EXCITING” by any means (not even for the drivers). I would rather run 10th in a stock V8 class racing with somebody than beat 4 other cars by a straightaway every night and call myself a race car driver. I’ll stay home and watch the trucks. The new dirt track in Melbourne only races “JUNK” and they have had more fans in one night than OSW has had all year (NO S&#T)
[QUOTE=Matt Albee;128262]
Track owners need to sit in the stands and look around. Are the grandstands painted, splinter free, boards actually connected to the frame at both ends? Do the speakers all work and are there enough of them? Are the restrooms clean and odor free? Are there enough restrooms? Are the lines at the food stands too long? Is the wait for food too long? Are the track facilities including signs and billboards freshly painted and lettered? Are the front or back gate lines too long? Is the wait to get in the front or back gate too long?
Is grass mowed, weeds removed? Is the catch fencing, or any fencing faded, falling down? Are the pits really laid out correctly? Are they ready for additional cars during special events or are they just going to be crammed into every available piece of ground because it’s always been done that way?
Look around your track and then take a close look at photos of Martinsville.
Then take a look at EVERY other entertainment venue in your area. You’ll see what brings people to an event. And you’ll see why people don’t bother coming to your events.[/QUOTE]
I always thought it would be great for track owners/promoters to sit in the stands anonymously and listen to the other race fans. It wouldn’t take them too long to see what areas they’re lacking in. Of course they’d need to wear some sort of disguise.
A good disguise would be important for several reasons. All it takes is to look around. Ever seen a high school football field or basketball arena that had wavy wooden planks for seats that weren’t even connected to anything on one of the ends? I have… at a Florida track that shall remain nameless for now.
Ever seen a baseball field at any level that had more dirt than grass, weeds everywhere? I’ve seen several Florida tracks that match that description. Ever seen a baseball field that Didn’t have freshly painted fences and signs at every single game? Now to be fair, they don’t have cars bouncing off of the fences, but how damn hard is it to send somebody out the day before every race event and repaint the walls. Bowman Gray does.
You’ve got to give people a reason to come to the track, and one of those reasons is that it’s a nice, comfortable place to be.
[QUOTE=kendo;128288]Sure,not if you are going by yourself…Add 3 crew/family members and that’s $400/month…Send the family off to the stands were it is cheaper and they may lose interest real quick…
When I tell people that it is $25-30 to get into the pits they all say “are you f-ing kidding me?”[/QUOTE]
Well, Disney just went up to $93.00 per person I believe, and they pack people in. The pits are always going to be twice or even three times the ticket price of the grandstands. There are reasons for it. I think it would be nice for tracks to help with pit pass costs for children. Some do already. But then there’s the debate about allowing children into the pits at all.
Next time someone asks " are you f-ing kidding me " regarding race track ticket prices, say “no i’m not”. “But it’s the best money I could ever spend because it allows me to race”.
Well than short track racing in Florida will be gone within 15 years if owners/promoters try to survive off the backs of the racers…The pits should be flooded with entry level cars but instead they have 7 car features.How are you going to get the younger generation to replace those leaving the sport?How are you going to get them to put down the video game or I-phone and build a strictly stock at $25 to get in the pits and $0 to win? How are you going to attract big sponsors with 35 cars in the pits and 350 fans in the grandstands?
Times have changed big time in the last 10-15 years.Tires and fuel have almost tripled.Right or wrong,todays racers want to see some return on their racing investment.Tracks need to find a way to cut cost for racers and attract new racers or soon it will be to late…It wont happen by telling them it is just like Disney 
FYI 118. I thought you would know that a Asphalt SLM won’t work on dirt. I would run my car every nite that they run SLM’s if I could afford to. I have never had any kind of long term sponsor of any kind. The only sponsor I did have passed away 2-15-08. He didn’t give me actual money, but he saved me a lot of money for many years. Now I have to pay for the things he did for me which allowed me to use the money I saved to run the car. Now if you want to step up and sponsor the car, you need not criticize how often I run it. FYI also 118, the engine just got pulled out today to change some things on it to maybe help make it a little more competitive to the tune of $3000 I had to save up.
Come on… I don’t expect a racetrack to be a five star resort… Just want clean bathrooms and a safe place to sit. Auburndale is scary with the stands… I live in Brevard county. We travel around as race fans on the weekend to see racing. My husband said he has seen more of Florida since April than her has in the 15 yrs he lived here. I am having a great time. The one constant is Friday at osw. Nss is close but boring
Urez…if you run the back…I will run the front with Matt… 
I like his ideas…
Hey… Wanna see your favorite track do well… Volunteer once a month to fix a few things up… I am down…
The little voices in my head are telling me to respond to that but experience tells me to sign off the computer and let it go. 
Omg…you have voices too??? Cool… We should arrange a play date. Lol:huepfen024:
Dirt can work,Ive said this for a while ONLY because this track is dying out and as all,I want it to live.Been goin there since 81
Dirt is cheaper…IE Ill just say tires, Dirt tracks in Fl. Dont run 3 hr pratice sessions.
NASCRAP hasnt done anything for NSS, heck they have even less cars-scratchin my head–Drastic measures are needed
And VSP, Ocala and Putnam have a OFF season End of Nov. to March with Speedweeks being a 100 plus cars and 7000 or so People in the stands at Vsp for 9 nights in a row
rob
DD38… I’m not dumb enough to suggest you could run your asphalt LM on dirt. You missed the point.
You asked what should you guys do with your asphalt cars. My answer I thought was pretty clear… run the cars that so many racers do have. There are actually quite a few LM’s out there, but only 6 or 8 at a time show up. That’s not enough of a show.
The reason that most of them can’t run more often is COST. You even said yourself that you come out when you can afford it…
Then you follow it up by saying you just dumped another 3 grand into it.
You could’ve run a handful of shows for the same $3000.
By defending yourself, you’re proving my point.
The $3000 I saved up took time (like a year). I am “dumping” it into the engine to make it more competitive (which is about 8-10 years old). I don’t take my car to the track just to ride around. If my car is not competitive, it’s not racing. Yea I could have used that money to run the car, but it was still not good enough. It needed to be taken to the next level. And that’s what I am doing. If I used that same $3000 to run it then the car would still be at the same level, semi competitive. You were missing MY point. I cannot do both, run the car and save the money at the same time.
OSW problems
We all have suggestions at how to help or to improve Orlando Speedworld (just like other tracks), but why is it the owner/promoters fault for declining crowds or car counts?
Let’s look at the Central / North Central Florida area for short rack racing in general. With a real quick count including asphalt and dirt from NSS to Showtime from Auburndale to Ellisville there are at least 15 tracks (and I am sure I have missed one or two) within no more than 200 miles that one can race at or go watch racing on a Friday or Saturday evening. Is this area just over run with race tracks and just cannot handle the “Need for Speed”.
I know we always hear the statement “When I raced up North”, or “up North it is different”, but look at how it really is up north. If you lived in Northern Ohio and raced on asphalt, there were basically three asphalt tracks to race at and none of these three were within 70 miles of each other and two of these three ( Barberton and Midvale) were able to work together with each other in scheduling of special races, ( Mods, Late Models). The dirt tracks (Raceway 7, and Sharon Speedway) ran on different nights. One track ran on Friday nights and filled the pits and stands and the other on Saturday nights and was always packed. Is it that this area of Florida is just OVERPACKED with race tracks for the number of cars and fans available.
We can put thousands of dollars into any of these tracks, but if the car and fan base is not there, it just isn’t going to happen.
It is time for race tracks to start working together on how and when races are scheduled, (it was great to see that Citrus County, Auburndale and Showtime were able to get together for the rescheduling of the Powell Memorial). Run your Hornets, Bombers, Pure Stocks, Street Stocks and Figure Eights on a weekly basis. These are you least expensive division to race in and to pay and they put on a GREAT show for the fans. As far as the Sportsman, Modified, or Late Models go, these are your more expensive cars to operate and are also the highest paying divisions. Most tracks cannot afford to run Late Models ($700 - $800 to win on a weekly basis), Modified ($500 - $600 to win on a weekly basis) and Sportsman ( $400 - $600 to win on a weekly basis) on a weekly basis with all the other divisions. It just won’t financially make it no matter how hard you try or how hard you think it will work, (even if you have DEEP pockets).
These are just a few of my observations but nothing really to improve the racing program at Orlando.
Good suggestions, but here’s the bottom line. There will never be a time when Florida short tracks work together, never. Oh they might band together for a series or as a group, but it won’t last. As soon as one track sees the opportunity to make a buck or save a buck by jumping ship, that’s what they’ll do.
As for your suggestion of running lower classes, the fans aren’t interested in watching the lower classes. Race fans have already been introduced to the lower classes as a show filler while waiting for the real race cars to come out. If all you offer is classes you’ve previously run as show fillers, you’re not going to get much fan interest when you make them the main event. Pure Stocks, Street Stocks, etc. might be able to increase the car count, but they aren’t going to fill the stands. And the fan count is what keeps the tracks open.
And you are not going to have returning fans if you dont have cars.
Although I somewhat agree with you,these entry level racers often become the next modified or late model driver…They also bring ALOT of pit crew/family members resulting in revenue to the track…If you only have 7 of them,your track is doomed…
[QUOTE=Matt Albee;128353]----
As for your suggestion of running lower classes, the fans aren’t interested in watching the lower classes. Race fans have already been introduced to the lower classes as a show filler while waiting for the real race cars to come out. If all you offer is classes you’ve previously run as show fillers, you’re not going to get much fan interest when you make them the main event. Pure Stocks, Street Stocks, etc. might be able to increase the car count, but they aren’t going to fill the stands. And the fan count is what keeps the tracks open.[/QUOTE]
Die hard race fans will come out for the headline classes. I’ve noticed in Florida these classes don’t seem to bring a lot of dedicated fans with them. They bring some but not a lot. It’s primarily the driver and crew, along with a few family members. In your support classes, these guys bring driver and crew, along with a bunch of family and friends. With the car counts in these divisions quite a bit larger than the headline classes, this makes those support classes the backbone of the track. These are the guys who are supporting the tracks. These classes are the ones who put on the best show also. One of the best classes I’ve seen put on great races on a consistent basis is the 4 cyl. bombers at East Bay. Best races of the evening, yet usually the last class and the fans, who hung around to watch their family car race in it’s class, have left the track.
And that illustrates my point. There’s a wild rush for the exits right after the headline classes’ last race of the night. Very few people hang around to watch the lower classes, who I agree put on good shows. Put the lower classes on first, and the fans complain, or spend their time at the food stand or looking at their I-phones. Sad but true.
It may be true that the lower classes bring in more family members and crew, but in total you’re talking about a difference of an extra 50 people. Better than 50 LESS people, but that’s still not going to pay the bills.
[QUOTE=Don Nerone;128132]
There has to be a reason to go spend ur hard earned money and just another race wont do it in these hard times.
The race fan can get a lot more for their time and money on there couch at home!
As an old racer told me one time,
“If there isn’t anything hapning then make something happen!”
The fan that you need is a new young group of people that dont know that this board is here.
If the track has to make it with only these fans it over already.
Come on take a big swing and use a big bat.
Its time to Rockem Sockem Stock car race…try something new.
Good luck
don62[/QUOTE]
That is obvious to me as well
OSW problems
I think someone is still missing the boat.
If you took a survey at your local track (or any local track for that matter) and asked the fans that attend on a weekly basis what division of cars they are there to see or they have family members driving, 75% will tell you it is in one of these lesser expensive divisions (Pure Stocks, Street Stocks, or 4 cylinder). Let us not call them Lower Class of cars because these cars are what typically will fill the pits on a weekly basis. I frequently will walk through the pits of the race tracks that I have worked at or still work at and the majority of the people that are in the pits are with one of these less expensive divisions. I used to work at a track here in Florida that one race team would bring in 6 cars themselves and a boat load of fans. How many times has a track advertised a Late Model race or a Truck race and either have to cancel it because there is a lack of support or only 6 cars show up for the event which is not a show for the fans. Give me on any night at a 1/4, 3/8 or 1/2 mile track that has a Feature Race of 20 Pure Stocks or 20 Street Stocks any time over a Feature Race of 6 Late Models.
Cars put fans in the stands.