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State of Racing Addressed

Since we all have an interest of some kind in the state of racing whether it is race fans, the people who untimely pay the bills and are concerned about the price of a ticket and the quality of a race program. The racer, the person risking life and limb and trying to make ends meet for his or her race program and not take away from his family’s livelihood.  Or the track owner, promoter, striving to make a profit and keep the first two parties happy. Plus provide himself with a life style guarantee from year to year. This really is a triangle tangled with many more sides than what meets the eye.

In these last few years with the price of fuel and the ever increasing costs of racing, there has been more pressure put on all sides of the racing picture. As I have traveled around this summer to12 different tracks with more to come, I hear fans saying the car counts are down, their favorite driver has gone to another track that pays more than their favorite track pays. They say the owner needs to make some changes to draw more cars and drivers.

Fans are not driving as far as they might have before. They also are not going as often as they did before. Gas prices are having a direct affect on the state of racing. It does not take a good chassis set up man to see the set up is wrong for the running conditions. Having traveled to race tracks for the last four years I can see the difference in the size of race track crowds. Attendance is down. Money in turn is down for the promoter to operate on.

With gas prices tripling in the last five years the racers are staying closer to home to race. Unless a team has some really big sponsorship money, which most local race teams do not, they are not traveling to a track out of their back yard so to speak. Teams are trying to stay within their budget.

Have you ever thought about a racers expenses? First and foremost, gas to and from the race track in a tow truck that gets maybe seven or eight miles to the gallon if they are lucky. Pit passes that on average are twenty five bucks a person. Most drivers will have at least his wife, a couple of crew members helping out on the car, there’s a hundred dollars. They usually leave home early so they eat on the way or at the track. Fuel for the car for the evening, tires. This list could go on  and on. You say they are the ones out there enjoying themselves, not you. True, but it is their lives they risk and their money they are spending. Hobby or not they have to pay their way to race.

The money that pays a race purse is not all out of our pockets. Recently on a web page drivers from a local track were complaining that their class that had twenty cars in it was paying the way for a class that only had eight cars. There reasoning was their purse should be bigger because they have more cars. We all pay the same pit fees they argued but their purse is larger than ours. Most purses are paid out by a race car classes standing in the racing world. Normally it would go something like this. Winged sprint cars, Late models, Modifieds, Street stocks, Hobby stocks, and so on. The expenses are considered higher in the sprints, late models, and modifieds, than with the other lower classes so it’s a gimme that the class gets a bigger pay out regardless of the car count. Recently at a big late model race at Lakeside Speedway the winner got $10,000. Several of the top racers would not come to the race because the purse was too small for them. Is the price of racing technology and driver egos becoming too much for the sport.

Promoters can be a blessing or can come across as too controlling with no feelings for their racers and fans. This summer alone I have had two owners tell me, I said I’m going to do something and I will follow thru. We will take what comes our way and bite the bullet and go on. What more can you ask a guy to do. I feel like the Owners are the ones in the middle. Don’t get me wrong some times they bite off more than they can do and follow thru with and that always ends up causing trouble. One of the largest problems in this area involved a track owner not paying out the points fund money at the end of the year to drivers. Owners have got to follow thru on promises especially when it comes to money. Another area is changing rules thru the season. Although drivers have a tenancy to complain especially after loosing I hear a lot about being treated fairly, I have to admit some times I see no reasoning to their complaints. They are upset and have to vent somewhere so why not on officials.

Tracks in rural settings are the ones most likely to have trouble. Their purses are smaller due to cash flow caused by a fan base spread out over a larger area. They are really dependent on loyalty of the fans of drivers, the driver’s family, and local race car teams that have raced at their track for years. Sometimes generations of drivers will run at a certain track. Budget racing is a fact for so many of these racers. They got so much to spend and that is it. As one track owner told me the days of a race car driver mortgaging his house for a motor payment are gone.  

We are dealing with a different generation of people than we use to. Most race car drivers are more family oriented.

 Don’t forget the hidden expenses track owners have like equipment to work the track, buildings and track maintenance, and trying to make a living in six months that will last for the whole year.

The wife of a successful track operator posed the question to me, do you think there might be too many tracks operating and are some too close together? Now that is some food for thought. Are the track owners spreading the racing population to thin? Are there just so many racing dollars out there to be spent by fans and racers? If fans are being forced to be more selective in the choice of where they will go to a race what are those determining factors as to where a fan will go on a given night. Do they follow a certain driver, series, or they just have a favorite track. The more race tracks know about their customers, their likes and dislikes, their favorite music, color, food, the better they can taylor their program. The days of all of us just showing up at the track for a night of races are over. Racing is a small business and needs to run like it.

      Racers and Owners- promoters really are at point where they need to take a deep breath and step back a little and look at what is going on. They both need to realize they are really in the entertainment business together. Almost partners, one has the product, the other has the store to sell it in. Find out what the customers want and make a product as close to that vision as they can. There has to be a formula for success that they are missing. I am not sure it is in quantity. I think I hear fans saying they want quality. Again egos come into play as each track owner thinks he has the right combination for success. In all fairness most owners are more familiar with their area of operation. But if things are not working may be they should look for what does work. A smaller refined specialized product for a selected group always works. Like having a soccer team in a football town. An up-hill battle that will never work. Most American businesses are doing this same thing. Cut back on man power and specialize your product.

Should racers be thinking about ways to help the sport be more of a level a playing field for all? Try and equalize the cars as much as possible and have the winner win by driving and car set up. Not so much by money spent. No matter what you do experience will always come out on top. I am sure if racers and promoters put their heads and hearts into this problem they could come up with a solution. Forget who you are or think you are and realize you are together in a business entertaining people who are  paying money to see your product. Work together for the best of the sport and it will be better for both of you and the paying customer.   

As race fans we want as much bang for our buck as we can get. Having to pay as much as twelve dollars in gas to go to a track sixty miles away you have already spent more than the admission price for one person into the track. Racing fans are however a hardy bunch and have a drive for this sport that not many other sports can match. We are super loyal to our sponsors and drivers. Both are local and approachable, are not going to be traded, or leave at the end of the season. We are selective and know what we want to see at a race track. Cars running side by side in several positions on the track and the race being decided at the last moment as they cross the finish line. Speed is not a determining factor in the process. Racing is. We love to stand on our feet, on our toes to see over the person next to us to see the cars come out of turn number four and watch as the leaders come to the finish line and the checkered flag. Then we can turn to one another and tell our version of what just took place in our words and description. Wow did you see that finish, I didn’t think he could make it back to the front in time. What driving, that was fun to watch. We will all be smiling and shaking our heads or slapping your pants. During the following week the memory will flash back and you will have to tell someone about it again because it is so vivid in your mind.

It’s really a simple thing; (RACING) is the answer to all of the problems in the sport. The action on the track is what powers the sport. The more fans, racers, and track owners do to take the action off the track the more all of us suffer. So you say what is the state of racing? I say pretty good, some tracks are over excelling, some are hurting, this is however a time for communication, patience, and a time of looking at what is happening inside the sport of racing. All three sides of the racing triangle need to see what the other two sides are facing as the sport faces the problems ahead. We are all in the same boat floating or sinking.  

Reader Comments

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Nov 16, 2007 10:53:23 PM by Scott

Nice job Mike, welcome aboard. .....Scott T

Nov 17, 2007 09:38:40 PM by Kick 79

Great first blog & write up Dad. I'm still learning how to write that good. Glad you've joined us.