Car counts

S

SST55

Guest
Local track, Seekonk Speedway. 19 pro stocks aka super late models, 17 late models, 28 street stocks and 16 trucks are on the roster. 27 cars from all the divisions showed up Saturday for a test/tune.

A full field is 24 and only the streets have more than a full field of 24 and that's if they all show up on race night.

Pros, late models and trucks used to run a A heat, a B heat and a consi to fill the field with 24 race cars.

Many are fed up with the manglement and are going to CT tracks. Yes I said manglement as they dammm sure don't manage. Francis will cry all the way to the bank with Wal-Marts money while blaming racers for the closure after 66 years,,

The economy does have a lot to do with it but it can't be blamed for everything.

Whats the car count ar your track(s)?
 
I don't have exact numbers but the state of late model short track racing in Michigan is horrible. We are lucky to get 9-10 cars at Spartan Speedway with only 5 being able to stay on the lead lap. They have to run legend cars, pony stocks and Bus Figure 8's to fill the evening.
 
That car count doesn't seem that bad. The track I raced Saturday had 26 Modifieds (Series race), 21 Limited late models, 14 hobby stocks, and the other classes were less than 10. Bad management has hurt Inverness (the track) for years but the new management team seems to have a better grip on things, pay off's are still low though. We have Sunshine Speedway about to open soon and that'll hurt them again, that's where we will race weekly when open. I agree with the tracks I've been to management has as much to do with these tracks failing as the economy at this point.
 
GroundPounder,
When you consider there was close to 40 Pros and 40 LMs along with well over 4o trucks 5-6 maybe 7 years ago the car count now is dismal at best. Back then there was talk of running 2 mains, now there's not enough cars to fill the field.
In Na$cars defense I will say this, the games played by the officials ended real quick when we went nascar but the "favorites" of the track didn't like being treated fairly and byitched. Track gave up the nascar sanction and the games continue to this day. Truck was legal at the nascar tracks in CT, NOT legal at our home track. Go figure.
 
Don't feel to bad about your car count we had a "Special 100 Lapper" on the 7th.....12 latemodels showed up :(
 
The short track in Irwindale was recently closed so the car count was ZERO...
 
SST55 said:
GroundPounder,
When you consider there was close to 40 Pros and 40 LMs along with well over 4o trucks 5-6 maybe 7 years ago the car count now is dismal at best. Back then there was talk of running 2 mains, now there's not enough cars to fill the field.
In Na$cars defense I will say this, the games played by the officials ended real quick when we went nascar but the "favorites" of the track didn't like being treated fairly and byitched. Track gave up the nascar sanction and the games continue to this day. Truck was legal at the nascar tracks in CT, NOT legal at our home track. Go figure.
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Yes, compared to years ago the car counts everywhere are down big time. We used to have a full field of Super Late Models anywhere we went, that's between 26-34 cars showing up. Honestly, 25 could show up and win. Now the fields are usually 18 or so and 10 of them are good cars. We used to have late model pro 8's, used to have 35 show up and now there's not enough cars to race because they kept lowering the pay offs and they changed the rules to meet local tracks and the cars became obsolete. Street stocks use to be the class, they'd have to race 2 features for those and it was hard racing. First race this year there was 11 cars. I go to a lot of tracks all around the state of Florida and I see this everywhere. New Symrna had a good count but that was Speedweeks for the World Series of Stock Car Racing event. People all want to blame the economy here and that's an easy target. There's way more to it. The pay offs are awful. Seen where someone posted that in TN they race for $2,000-$5,000 weekly late models. We don't see close to that anymore down here. Figure 8 was huge for a long time, now it's trash. They won't let you run a true pro 8 car anymore. Fans don't show up for an 8 car race anymore and you can't blame them. Then you have the rulebook. They can't decide what they want. One year you can do this and that and the next year you can't. Problem with that is you have a lot of money tied up in stuff you can't use anymore. I don't want to build a new car every year just to keep up, and a lot of guys quit because of that. There's just so much more than the economy effecting local tracks. I'm my humble opinion, it's more to the track management. Fans want to see good racing. They want to see Late Models, Sprints, Modifieds, good race cars. I don't want to see 4 or 5 classes of junk run and go home. I don't want to see demolition derby's or school bus figure 8's. So, I agree with you 100%, compared to years ago those car counts are awful. But from what I've seen down here the last couple years it's not bad. And those late model #'s are series races. Local late model racing is dead. Last time for just the local track event, 11 cars. Awful.
 
Thegroundpounder99 said:
That car count doesn't seem that bad. The track I raced Saturday had 26 Modifieds (Series race), 21 Limited late models, 14 hobby stocks, and the other classes were less than 10. Bad management has hurt Inverness (the track) for years but the new management team seems to have a better grip on things, pay off's are still low though. We have Sunshine Speedway about to open soon and that'll hurt them again, that's where we will race weekly when open. I agree with the tracks I've been to management has as much to do with these tracks failing as the economy at this point.
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Hey GP, where are you running at? I see you mentioned Citrus Co. Speedway, is the Sunshine Speedway deal still on I'd heard it fell through?
 
FlFlash said:
Hey GP, where are you running at? I see you mentioned Citrus Co. Speedway, is the Sunshine Speedway deal still on I'd heard it fell through?
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As far as I know Sunshine was to open in May. I don't know if it's a go or not, I am hoping so. Bronson re-opened this year but I heard some bad stuff and don't know if they're operating at this point. Bronson is a beautiful race track. Its a banked 3/8 mile. Unfortunately, it's location and other problems has plagued that track too long. Former racer Mike Cope had it and did a lot to improve it but couldn't get the support. He did it all the right way too which made it more disappointing. Citrus I frequent as a fan,(I was helping my buddy on dwarf car, he bought it for his son on Saturday) the track is getting better. Seems they're getting some fan base back, I heard it was under new management again. Don't know for sure on that but it seemed a lot better this week when I went then it has in the passed. (They had fans there, lol) I don't run anywhere on a weekly basis, haven't in years.(Almost ten) If Sunshine does reopen, I will run it. Don't know what class, but it'll give us something to do as a family and the boy loves NASCAR now he loves going to the races. He'll go out to the shop and sit in the car, put the wheel on and pretends to race....for hours too.
 
We just lost a local track and car counts were very good last year. The owner wanted to get rich at the expense of the promoter and that wasn't going to happen.
 
Car counts have been decent at Waterford[Ct.] Speedbowl for the last 2 years. Very excited about June 25 this year, the Whelen Modified's run here for the first of 2 races this year.The All American Series is good, but The North and South guys really get after it.Maybe Ted Christopher will call out sick and make it a fair fight this time.
 
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