Good Article on why Short Tracks should NOT copy BGS

SpeedPagan

SpeedPagan

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My favorite part of the article:

Bowman Gray Stadium isn’t packed because people like racing, it’s packed for the same reason that if you had gladiators fighting to the death with lions today, you’d sell that out too. People love to sit back and watch other people do really dumb things. But is that really racing? No. Short track operators could stage fights between competitors every week across the country, but would that really make short track racing better?
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so what's the deal? do they have spikes coming out of the wheels and shoots that dump boiling oil out onto the track for those behind to spin out and crash in at this dastardly place called bcs?
 
johnnythunderhead said:
so what's the deal? do they have spikes coming out of the wheels and shoots that dump boiling oil out onto the track for those behind to spin out and crash in at this dastardly place called bcs?
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No, they just wreck each other at the end of every single race and the wreckee wrecks the wrecker after the flag and the wrecker pretends to be shocked and a fake *****-ass fight ensues. Deputy's stand there.. The whole thing is DUMB.
 
The problem with racing at B-G is that the track is too narrow and too flat. It is almost impossible to pass without bumping somebody else, and you will get bumped too. So some people are usually going to go home mad.

B-G wasn't always packed. When I first started going there in the late 1980s through mid-1990s the stands were mostly empty. Too many train races and too much competition from other area tracks where you could see passing. But at some point those other tracks started to have management problems, while B-G started to look the other way about bad behavior. B-G started to promote rivalries, then progressed to staged "boxing matches" between drivers, and evolved its "Madhouse" reputation. It sells tickets... up to a point...

I've noticed a core of regular fans that expect drama more than racing. A lot of them sit in the front stretch grandstands - it's not a family-friendly area. There are fights and language you don't want your kids exposed to. Sometimes the fighting spills out to the winner's circle. It's not just the Modifieds, it's every class.

Then there are a lot of fans who come to see what the talk is all about. Some of them like the drama and don't mind the dirty driving, but a lot more don't come back very often. Fortunately for B-G promoters there are still enough fans who want to come see what the talk is all about to keep the stands pretty full. Plus the promoters add gimmick races and other promotions, and keep the show going, to keep interest up.

Although it is selling tickets, I'm not sure that I'd advise other tracks to follow suit. B-G is small so speeds are relatively low and racers aren't getting hurt too badly. There is no inside guardrail to hit (except a couple of small ones well into the infield). They have a lot of EMS and police, and are just minutes away from a trauma center. They are also in the center of a population of over 230,000; over 1.6 million if you count the whole Piedmont Triad area.

Things that B-G does that I would advise other tracks to do: promote heavily, frequent gimmicks (such as traveling series races, Ladies’ Night, chain races, monster trucks, etc.), track available for practice, and weekly feeds to area news channels. Those are safer and more reputable practices to raise your crowds.
 
The thing everyone keeps forgetting when talking about BGS attendance is what @gone said. There are over a half million people within a 20-30 minute drive of that place. The track's in the middle of the city. There are very few short tracks in the country that have such prime real estate. Almost every track is located in the middle of Bum**** Nowhere.
 
gone said:
Things that B-G does that I would advise other tracks to do: promote heavily, frequent gimmicks (such as traveling series races, Ladies’ Night, chain races, monster trucks, etc.), track available for practice, and weekly feeds to area news channels. Those are safer and more reputable practices to raise your crowds.
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Hard to argue with this. There's a fine line though. Everyone wants Bowman Gray's attendance but nobody wants to be a circus ringmaster. And more importantly, nobody wants the type of fan that goes to BGS either.

But what I do like about BGS - there are heroes and villains. There are personalities. The drivers there aren't like your typical driver at Southern National, South Boston or Hickory who are looking to go in to NASCAR. There aren't many tracks like that anymore. Franklin County Speedway and a few of the drivers in NWAAS Division I - that's about it. The rest are from the Jeff Gordon/Jimmie Johnson era.

Derek Stoltz at Bowman Gray, for instance, that guy is becoming my favorite driver because he's a total badass.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Hard to argue with this. There's a fine line though. Everyone wants Bowman Gray's attendance but nobody wants to be a circus ringmaster. And more importantly, nobody wants the type of fan that goes to BGS either.

But what I do like about BGS - there are heroes and villains. There are personalities. The drivers there aren't like your typical driver at Southern National, South Boston or Hickory who are looking to go in to NASCAR. There aren't many tracks like that anymore. Franklin County Speedway and a few of the drivers in NWAAS Division I - that's about it. The rest are from the Jeff Gordon/Jimmie Johnson era.

Derek Stoltz at Bowman Gray, for instance, that guy is becoming my favorite driver because he's a total badass.
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I see Andy is quoting his own article almost Word for word. :p

I think some short tracks suffer from bad management, the two most prime example I can think of is Caraway Speedway and Concord Speedway here in North Carolina. Caraway needs a face-life really ****** badly. The track needs to be re-paved, the stands need to be upgraded, etc. However, no one wants to spend the money. Concord closed down it's 1/2 mile and the 1/4 mile track only runs in the Spring and Fall.
 
SpeedPagan said:
I see Andy is quoting his own article almost Word for word. :p

I think some short tracks suffer from bad management, the two most prime example I can think of is Caraway Speedway and Concord Speedway here in North Carolina. Caraway needs a face-life really ******* badly. The track needs to be re-paved, the stands need to be upgraded, etc. However, no one wants to spend the money. Concord closed down it's 1/2 mile and the 1/4 mile track only runs in the Spring and Fall.
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Short tracks also suffer because the drivers are too cookie cutter.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Short tracks also suffer because the drivers are too cookie cutter.
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Well, it's like you said, most drivers at these short tracks are there because they're using it as a stepping stone to the big leagues. This problem isn't solely a stock car racing problem, I mean every sport has this problem, Football, Basketball, Baseball. Everyone in Middle School, High School, College think they're going to be the next big thing in the NFL, NBA, MLB, etc. So every driver out there is trying to sell himself to sponsors and to potential teams like Gibbs, Hendricks, etc. Can't sell yourself if you're too "country" or too "redneck".

I wonder if the drivers of dirt track think that they're going to move up to ARCA or NASCAR, or if they're more like the Bowman Gray drivers.
 
SpeedPagan said:
Well, it's like you said, most drivers at these short tracks are there because they're using it as a stepping stone to the big leagues. This problem isn't solely a stock car racing problem, I mean every sport has this problem, Football, Basketball, Baseball. Everyone in Middle School, High School, College think they're going to be the next big thing in the NFL, NBA, MLB, etc. So every driver out there is trying to sell himself to sponsors and to potential teams like Gibbs, Hendricks, etc. Can't sell yourself if you're too "country" or too "redneck".

I wonder if the drivers of dirt track think that they're going to move up to ARCA or NASCAR, or if they're more like the Bowman Gray drivers.
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The problem with that though is that these drivers have no personality, no story, nothing. It would be hard for me to get someone to write a story about a driver at my local track if it's a story that's been told a thousand times before. Some of these tracks are just no damn fun to go to or cover. Drivers like Derek Stoltz, Lee Pulliam and Kyle Dudley are fun because you either love them or hate them. Haley Moody and Wesley Thomason have good stories. Then there are guys like Bobby Gillespie and Dan Moore who are fun because they've done this a long time and have good stories to tell. Most of these drivers, there's no story to tell. And when they get out of their car for their interview, they're boring. Personality is a good thing.
 
SpeedPagan said:
I see Andy is quoting his own article almost Word for word. :p

I think some short tracks suffer from bad management, the two most prime example I can think of is Caraway Speedway and Concord Speedway here in North Carolina. Caraway needs a face-life really ******* badly. The track needs to be re-paved, the stands need to be upgraded, etc. However, no one wants to spend the money. Concord closed down it's 1/2 mile and the 1/4 mile track only runs in the Spring and Fall.
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I've not been to Concord, but what is wrong with the facility at Caraway? I went once, thought the racing was not great, but i thought the facility was very nice. I've been to a ton of tracks, somewhere around 100 and Caraway is definitely above average compared to other short tracks IMO.
 
Every track has it's hero's, drivers both the fans and media like. They also have their zero's, drivers that aren't so popular with the fans, the ones fans love to hate, and the media covers them only because it's their job.
At one time tracks were located out in the middle of nowhere. But people have moved out to the middle of nowhere and now complain over the traffic, the noise, the air pollution.
Seekonk, Waterford and Stafford all sit on prime real estate just begging for a mall, apartment complex or residential housing.
With reduced car counts and dwindling fan attendance it's sad but I feel it's only a matter of time before they're gone. I think Thompson is safe but who knows.
 
I haven't been to Caraway for a few years, but when I was I thought the facility was pretty nice. The original wooden grandstands along the front stretch were starting to need some replacement boards, but I've seen much worse.

Ironically, back when Caraway had big crowds the facility wasn't as nice. In particular the restroom building behind the main grandstands smelled foul and was strong enough to be smelled throughout the main seating area. But when Caraway became NASCAR sanctioned they fixed it, plus they added new aluminum grandstands in turn 1. They put concrete over the grass strip that was between the grandstands and the front fence, built a new ticket booth / entry point for fans, built new kitchens and restrooms, and paved most of the pit area.

Yet Caraway became a ghost town. Several racers told me that they couldn't afford NASCAR licenses along with changing their cars or scrapping cars / building new cars to meet NASCAR class rules. We were going to field a car there, but the rules changes made our car too wrong to fix so we ended up racing somewhere else. I think that pit pass fees also went up; fan admission did go up somewhat. Fewer cars = fewer fans.

Caraway has lots of untapped potential, and I wonder if its promoters expect their NASCAR link to attract fans without doing much themselves. I rarely see Caraway advertise or featured in the local media. Back when they had a big crowd they used to do both of those - that's how I found the place.
 
gone said:
But when Caraway became NASCAR sanctioned they fixed it, plus they added new aluminum grandstands in turn 1.

Yet Caraway became a ghost town. Several racers told me that they couldn't afford NASCAR licenses along with changing their cars or scrapping cars / building new cars to meet NASCAR class rules. We were going to field a car there, but the rules changes made our car too wrong to fix so we ended up racing somewhere else. I think that pit pass fees also went up; fan admission did go up somewhat. Fewer cars = fewer fans.
.
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The exact same thing happened when Seekonk went Nascar in 1999 IIRC. Car registration fees increased, the license fees for a nascar license was a lot more than the track license previous. Pit pass fees increased. Ticket prices went up. I don't recall a lot of changes that needed to be made of the cars. The only thing that didn't go up was the purse and payouts. I wonder where the money went????
 
Bobw said:
The exact same thing happened when Seekonk went Nascar in 1999 IIRC. Car registration fees increased, the license fees for a nascar license was a lot more than the track license previous. Pit pass fees increased. Ticket prices went up. I don't recall a lot of changes that needed to be made of the cars. The only thing that didn't go up was the purse and payouts. I wonder where the money went????
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Sounds like it's a bad business decision to become a NASCAR Sanctioned Track.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Not necessarily. Being NASCAR gives you the potential to bring in a Lee Pulliam or someone of that caliber. The National Championship still carries a lot of prestige.
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Yea, but it seems like every track that went the "NASCAR Sanctioned" route have seen a decreased in car count in their regular division.
 
SpeedPagan said:
Yea, but it seems like every track that went the "NASCAR Sanctioned" route have seen a decreased in car count in their regular division.
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Every track, everywhere, is seeing decreasing car counts. The economy ****** sucks and people can't afford to race. There are a lot of drivers in short track racing with a lot of financial backing. But there are also a lot of drivers that roll coins to get to the track and one accident ends their year.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
These drivers at Bowman Gray must have unlimited budgets.
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Yea, I never understood that. I mean these guys aren't professional racers, they're weekend warriors. So how the Hel are they able to tear up their equipment like this and keep running weekend after weekend?
 
I've wondered how these teams can afford to race at B-G too. Seems like you'd need a full time body man. That's what's kept me from racing there, except for an occasional Legends car race.

It is easier to find sponsorship if you race at B-G, compared to other tracks in the area. Big crowds bring big sponsors. But you'll spend a lot of it repairing damage if you want to run up front and keep those sponsors. That and every minute and dollar repairing damage is a minute and dollar not available to make your car faster. I've looked at several veteran cars and found some pretty rough stuff, at least on the low budget teams.
 
I have watched races at B-G on TV and clips on the internet. Each and every time it's a crash fest. Even hobby stock 4 bangers aren't cheap to build, maintain and repair. The costs in the higher classes like super late models and modifieds gets way up there bordering on outrageous.
I wonder what the payouts are per position and what they got for the brief TV show.
 
Shoutout to the driver of the 75 in the second clip exchanging pleasantries with the black car. "WHY DONT YOUR BRAKES WORK WHEN YOUR CAR IS IN THE AIR, YA BIG DUMMY! YOU RAN ME OVER!"
 
Bethel Motor Speedway's fighting policy:

Slightly too strict, imo, but could you get any more opposite than Bowman Gray?

bms.jpg
 
Gotta love the nicknames. "Fried Rice." "Donkey Strong." It's like the redneck version of those terrible Key and Peele football videos.
 
If there's a altercation on track at Seekonk several cops will go to each pit, if you leave your pit area you will leave in cuffs.
This came about from a incident maybe 20+ years ago when one driver waited until the other got out of his car and had his helmet off. Smoked him in the forehead with a ball peen hammer, cracked his skull like a egg. One guy spent weeks in the hospital then months in rehab and was never the same. The other went to jail convicted of attempted murder IIRC.
 
Bobw said:
If there's a altercation on track at Seekonk several cops will go to each pit, if you leave your pit area you will leave in cuffs.
This came about from a incident maybe 20+ years ago when one driver waited until the other got out of his car and had his helmet off. Smoked him in the forehead with a ball peen hammer, cracked his skull like a egg. One guy spent weeks in the hospital then months in rehab and was never the same. The other went to jail convicted of attempted murder IIRC.
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What a piece of sh!t. He truly was trying to murder that guy.
 
Bowman Gray aint for everyone. I am one of those "goons" sitting in on the front stretch tall boy in my hand. If you dont like what goes on there dont go. Go to caraway where you pay 20 dollars for a few passes and a lot of train. Bgs is 10 bucks with all the action and drama of a cup series season packed into each race. If nascar was smart (they arent) all 3 national series would be there.
 
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