I have lived my entire life up north & I have no idea where everyone is thinking the car counts are so much larger then down here. Every single track we have in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio are all alot shorter on count then they used to be. They are also short on the fan count as well. In all the years I have been around there is 2 things that are and have hurt or flat killed racing and that is (A) the expenses are through the roof anymore & that might not be an issue except for the second reason which is (B) the economy that everyone keeps saying has or is improving which is complete BS. It is nothing like it was 8-10 years ago & has a long way to go before it is. Jobs are still being lost, people are forced to cut alot of, if not all, of the fat (recreational activities) out of thier finances. The ones with cars sitting cant afford to get them out, give them much needed make-overs & go racing when it costs them 4x what it used to & the ones who love to go watch the races simply cannot afford it for whatever the reason be it job loss or cost of living exspenses going higher and higher.
I can tell you this, up north there have been a few places who have taken the risk of cutting the costs on the pit and grandstand sides to attempt to help everyone afford to go racing. When someone says that thier track is right on track with the average compared to other tracks do not get it. What it will take or does take is being the one to step out and away from the normal or the average & get the costs down. Drop the gate & food prices on both sides, have several different packages or specials throughout the year where a family can go to the track for less that a $50 bill total. Cut the slab rental fees, entry fees, tire & fuel expenses as I realize there has to be some money made on then 2 things but the gouging is rediculous. Cost of tires and fuel are out of this world compared to up north. Racing fuel is in the $7.00 range versus $9.00 down here. Tires are $100.00 each versus $115-$120.00 each down here. I guess my point is, be the one to step up and be the different track who leaves the average & do things different. Drop the pit passes $5.00, drop the gate prices $3-5, no slab rental fee, fuel at $7.50, tires at $100.00 with no mount, dismount fees & the biggest one of them all would be to come up with rules that allow any car to be legal. One thing that has been done up north to get more cars, and has worked very well, is they have adapted to what they call an ABC class. that class consists of limited lates, sportsmans, street stocks, pro stocks all combined. the rules are very simple with weight penalties for some things & they divide the class up by times and run 2-3 features depending on count. The more high tech sportsmans, limited lates type cars are the A group, street stocks, pro stocks are the B group, etc, etc. This opens the door for endless possibility’s and leaves no excuse or reason a guy cant run or that could keep a car from coming to race in fear of being illegal. Then they still had the super lates, modifieds, 4 cylinders & front wheel drive classes. I do agree with the super long season & would almost think if it was the desire to run that long then to divide the season into 2 parts with a 4-6 week break between the 2 so guys could get stuff redone.
As far as watching the races & making them more exciting goes, the biggest issue down here is that the way race line ups are determined is rediculous. There is no need for 4 hours of hot lapping. Instead cut it down, then qualify the cars & line them all up with the fastest cars at the back to the slowest ones being up front. As for the sandbagging issues, thats an easy resolution because you allow either a tenth or maybe even a zero tolerance on going over your time. This will stop that real quick when guys realize its not worth toying with and taking the chance when they lead the race, win the race only to find out they went over their time and got DQ’d or went over and got the black flag or was put to the tail on the first caution. The full inverst will make for ALOT better racing for the fans.
I have alot of info to give if anyone ever wants to sit down and talk as far as track owners/operators goes. I would be more than willing to offer up alot of things that are done up north as well as several things that could definately point things in a new and different direction compared to how it is now, which does not seem to be working any longer.