gateway in trouble
now sikesten mo closing
to go 1/4 mile racing guy has to
travel to chicago??
indy going 1/8 mile
whats up

The rent.

insurance

Thats an easy one.

Weekly racing doesn't bring in spectators. So no real income from seats, parking, or concessions.

Racers won't pay huge entry fees weekly, but don't want to race for small purses.

Insurance is high due to possible liability. And the insurance requires on property emergency services which are not free.

Dragstrips require lots of space, which in turn converts to lots of property taxes.

So unless we can find away to draw in spectators to support the track costs, they come out of the racers pockets.

Heck even po-dunk little roundy-round dirt tracks pay the racers their entry fee and more for just going a few heats because of the money generated by the spectators.

More and more track owners have found its more profitable to have a fun nite, which requires no pay-outs, draws more spectators, and requires minimal track prep, than to run an actual race.

Now the REAL QUESTION is how do we fix the problem without using our own pocket books???

mickey Ds sells meals for 5 bucks. They sell them all day long every day and operate out of 1/8 acre.
A dragstrip sells a full day pass for 10-20 bucks. A LOT fewer customers. It only has 2 or three days of operation a week, and need 30-40 acres at least.

How's that for a start?

i run at irwindale in california, and they run a test & tune every thursday. we the racers build own bracket race called king of the hill. we take 16 cars maximun and each driver kicks in $20.00 dollars. with a purse of $320.00 to the winner. usually the same group of drivers each week and we like to split the winnings in the final. good affordable racing.

"indy going 1/8 mile"

Where did you hear that?

Back in the old days a track could schedule Garlits, Prudhoome, Sox and Martin, Grumpy Jenkins, etc for grudge races between the few national events. Dunn used to come around with his buds and have funny car nights. Most of these racers amde their living doing this. Now there are so many national events the big names never come around to the smaller tracks. Its really a shame because I met many of the old timers at tracks in texas and oklahoma. Without these special races most of the small tracks are limited to one or two division events each year to make any bucks. There needs to be a new formula thought up to bring the spectators out. SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! 200 mile per hour dragsters at double eagle dragstrip. Can Garlits beat Muldowney in two out of three? SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! Those were the days.

The "pros" can't do that anymore for two reasons...one, it costs way more to run a fuel car for a few laps, than most tracks can afford and two, that is considered a "test session" by NHRA and no team will waste that for a booked in show. Sure, you could book lesser known drivers, or non-touring, but the fans likely won't come for that, plus it is really a roll of the dice, whether some of these cars will get down the track, or even be able to pull in the water more than once.....These days, you are much more likely to draw fans with a couple Pro-Mods, or some type Outlaw Street car stuff......As far as Pro-Stockers, it still costs a lot to get them and frankly, todays cars just don't have the pizazz of Sox, Da Grump, Dyno Don and others. Doubt a Pro-Stock show would draw you much, except a few die hard fans.

Monte

Another thing.......most racers, both bracket and heads-up racers, have gotten spoiled to the big money races, that seemed to be everywhere a few years ago. Now, they say they "can't afford to go for that money" and won't show up for ordinary purses. Lets face it, not many make ANY money racing and the chances of most winning are slim, but still, everyone bases the option of going, on what it pays to win. Even if they never cashed a winners check in their life, they still won't race for a small purse. Makes no sense to me. Spend thousands building a car, only to let it sit, because the race does not pay enough. Pretty soon, when all the tracks are closed, we will see what they do with those cars.

About the only way small tracks get by these days, is have one or two killer events, that pay for the entire year of operation, like the "Fat Tuesday" race at Hub City Dragway, or some type "grudge" or "midnight madness" event. They pay a small fee to get in, another fee to get on the track and there are no purses. The track gets the gate and the concessions. Around here, every track does it and it is packed with kids, T&T heroes and the occassional "hitter" trying a few things.

Monte

bracket racing can be very boring. Try to explain bracket racing to your neighbor. Try to explain the delay box. Why does that car sound so bad when the tree comes down. Look at the pits, there isnt alot of kids going to the races.

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, todays cars just don't have the pizazz of Sox, Da Grump, Dyno Don and others. Doubt a Pro-Stock show would draw you much, except a few die hard fans

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It's hard to believe but back in the day those big names mentioned above would get as much as 2500.00 per match race. Even the lesser teams got 1000 or more. They would race as many as 4 or 5 nights per week. Man that's like 20 grand a race in today's money.

they didnt have 22 national events and big sponsors. they had to match race to eat lol

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bracket racing can be very boring. Try to explain bracket racing to your neighbor.

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Head up racing cat be equally hard to explain to a noob.

"Hey, how come your mopar is 3 seconds slower then that Chevy over there?"

Well, I dont have twin turbos, 4 stages of NOS and a 815 cid sonnys engine in the car.....

"Oh" lol.

I don't know what it takes to run a drag strip or a roundy-round dirt track. I do know, that the local dirt tracks have LOTS of spectators due to the fact they are friends, relatives, associates, etc. of the people racing. Maybe we need to develope a bigger 'fan base' with our cars. Also, another thing that keeps the racers alive in dirt track series racing, is the pay to 'make the show'. If you qualify, run well enough in your 'heat' race to get into the 'final' event, you recieve a pay-out just to start, no matter where you finish. Maybe something in this line could be established for drag racing. We used to run a 'Super 32' class around here. The fastest 32 cars in time trials ran in an elimination bracket by themselves. That way, you knew how many runs/rounds you had to go to get money. Maybe a small pay-out for all 32 that made it in, and another bracket for those that didn't. I realize we still need spectators in the stands. We all should start encouraging people to come watch us race. Talk to tracks to do more advertising and give 'family' discounts to the new fans. Just some thoughts for trying to save our sport and our tracks.

I have a lot of ideas that tracks could use to put money in there pockets and save the racers money.

First one: I would put safety rules in place that make sense. They would be more in line with what the circle guys use. Not the SFI BS that NHRA uses. I would go thru the rule book and places that could save the racers money and not compromise safety would get changed.

Seat belts Changed

If the part isn't modified, no expiration date. This would apply to such items as tranny shields and cases. Changed

Let the racer know that we are trying to reduce the cost of racing.

I recently sat out for five years. It took almost a thousand dollars to get the van ready to make another pass. Some of the things were almost perfect that had to be thrown away like my helmet and belts. It will not happen again.

We have been lucky in South Dakota. Our car count has remained steady or increased in some classes. We only run on Saturday nights and Sundays here, but not every weekend. Our junior dragster program has exploded in the last couple years. About 3-4 years ago there were maybe 1/2 dozen juniors at our track, now we have about 2 dozen! Say what you want about hating those things, but these kids are the ones that will be kicking our butts in the years to come.