A very interesting read about short tracks.

I read it, but I only have experience with Emmett Hahn's dirt track out in Sapulpa and the Chili Bowl in Tulsa. He knows his stuff and has been doing it for years. It is just as interesting seeing how they run things as it is the racing. They run the races quick, and clean up the wrecks super fast.
 
TexasRaceLady

Thank you for posting a great article.

me being an old timer, I can point a finger a lot of different directions concerning the downfall of short track racing.

and "millennials" and "social media" isn't even on the list.

once upon a time racers made a car from the junk yard and built it to go fast. evolution created car builders/parts suppliers that will sell a tenth of a second. and since no driver ever lacks talent, fast is just a cash transaction away. so racers build cars that no short track, due to overhead, can ever provide a purse that approaches break even for a racer. car counts dwindle, reducing back gate/fan money. and the only racers left are sponsor funded racers chasing a dream, who no longer race locally, but instead chase touring dollars.

oops. sorry. kinda went on a rant about the costs to race teams and how they are often their own worst enemy.

thanks again, TRL, for the article.
 
Cost is why we quit racing back in the late 70s. The owner/driver funded his own car and the small local tracks just couldn't
offer enough to keep him breaking even. He didn't want to make money, he just wanted to race without taking the money from
his business.
 
TexasRaceLady said:
Cost is why we quit racing back in the late 70s. The owner/driver funded his own car and the small local tracks just couldn't
offer enough to keep him breaking even. He didn't want to make money, he just wanted to race without taking the money from
his business.
Click to expand...

The costs certainly seem out of whack these days. In everything beyond the entry level classes, guys and gals are spending many tens of thousands of dollars to race for a chance at several hundred. I don't honestly know how they make it work.

I'm a dirt track racing fan above all else (and I mean ALL ELSE). I have no feel for the health of pavement short track racing. I do know that even in the northwestern US, where short track racing is hardly as prevalent as it is elsewhere, there are at four quality weekly dirt tracks within a couple hours of me that I can attend. The pits and stands are reasonably full, sometimes better than that. While it is a forbiddingly expensive hobby for some who might like to compete, others are somehow making it work. I get no sense that short track racing will disappear during my lifetime.
 
I live in the Northeast, there is abundance of short tracks here, I'm blessed in that respect. I think what makes a short track successful is a good program run efficiently, make it affordable to a family of 4, don't charge too much at the concessions and get good car counts. The best racing in the country is at your local short track. For me it's Thompson, Stafford, Waterford, Claremont, Seekonk, Manadnock, and many others. My dad took me to Stafford for my first race when I was 4, I've been hooked ever since!
 
TexasRaceLady said:
Cost is why we quit racing back in the late 70s.
.
Click to expand...
BAZINGA!
Every time I think about what we had in the truck I throw up a little in my mouth.:)
My son and his buddy had a idea they wanted to go racing. Hobby / street stock. When I hit 10k off the top of my head they changed their minds.
At one time there were 7 race tracks here in RI, today not a single one remains. When the family matriarch croaks the kids will have Seekonk on the block before she's cold.
6 Flags NE in Ma.sits on the land that was home to Riverside raceway. Waterford was facing bankruptcy/foreclosure at one time, then it went up for sale. No clue what the status is now.
Many race tracks in NE are no more,:(
 
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