Great commentary on local racing's biggest threat

Drivers are their own worst enemies. They don't plug the tracks on Facebook. They don't promote themselves. They think all they have to do is put a sponsor decal on the hood and show up. But if they aren't happy with something a track does, they sure as **** can get on Facebook and Twitter and whine about it.
 
Sometimes tracks deserve every bit of bashing that they get. I went to the K&N Pro Series race on Saturday at the track in Idaho. This track had the worst policies that I have ever seen. First thing wasn't a big deal, but kind of unexpected, they charged $5 for parking. I've never seen anything but free parking for a K&N Pro Series race. That doesn't bother me though. What was BS was they don't allow any outside food or beverage in the track. Worst of all, NO RE-ENTRY. So obviously their thought is, the fans can't bring food in, so lets trap them inside the track so that they can't just go out to their car and eat food and drink. Trap them in with overpriced concession stands that take an hour to go throgh(no joke, the guy sitting next to me was gone for an hour on a beer run). I just bought a water in the gift shop(no lines in there) and shoved a bunch of granola bars in my pockets. Never heard of a track with no re-entry at all. You wanna go out to your car, buy another race ticket. BS
 
toledo47 said:
Sometimes tracks deserve every bit of bashing that they get.................
Never heard of a track with no re-entry at all. You wanna go out to your car, buy another race ticket. BS
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Local speed shop used to drive his 'bread truck' into the pits loaded with spare parts. In addition to charging for pit access track owners wanted a cut of the sales. Speed shop is located directly across the street from the track so the guy sold out of his truck in his parking lot. But if you left the pits you had to pay again to re-enter.
If your grandfather,father, uncle drove the track you'll never have a problem with tech. If you're a new guy starting out be prepared.
Compared to just 10 years ago the car count is almost half as is fan attendance.
No one will be overjoyed when the track folds but I and many others won't miss the bull.
 
Thompson: New road course goes in, oval racing is on a limited schedule. Instead of "making the most of it" fan attendance was piss-poor for the couple of events they're had so far.
Stafford: Unless you drive a Modified or a Late Model, you go home with virtually nothing. The Dare Stocks (mini stocks, 4 cylinder) get $125 for winning, $35 for starting. Just starting the modified race gets you $130. Legends are $100 to win, 8th on back is $25. I've never understood why so many tracks under-pay the lesser divisions. They tow their car every week and fix it up just like anyone in the bigger divisions.
Waterford: Exactly what the article was talking about. Everyone bashes the track. A month ago 2 modifieds were missing tethers. The "fans" had a field day with that on on FB. Everyone accuses the owner to be taking money from the track. "Car counts are good and the stands are packed. Why is this track going under!? The owner must be taking money, that's definitely it."
 
Speedbowl14 said:
I've never understood why so many tracks under-pay the lesser divisions. They tow their car every week and fix it up just like anyone in the bigger divisions.
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Because those divisions don't draw any fans? Gotta pay the bigger divisions more money so those cars will actually show up and therefore the fans will show up.
 
"Because those divisions don't draw any fans? Gotta pay the bigger divisions more money so those cars will actually show up and therefore the fans will show up."
Not necessarily. At my two closest dirt tracks the most popular class and drivers aren't in the top division. The top division (Crate models) have train races so they aren't really attracting a lot of fans. Booking a Super Late Model or "Steel Head" Late Model race does attract fans, but they don't run those classes weekly around here.

Whenever they do book a top class they also raise the grandstand ticket and pit pass fees. The extra money goes to the top class. So the guys in the support classes get to pay more to race but don't get any more purse. Management justifies it by saying "they get to watch the top class race too" but at these tracks you can't see more than about a third of the track from any vantage point in the pits. Anyway, only about half the regular support class cars show up on these special show nights because of the track jacking up its prices.
 
Not once have I ever not went somewhere because of something I read/heard from someone else. Just sitting back and being quite, letting tracks continue to make the same mistakes is more harmful than speaking out.
 
Stewart Fan said:
Not once have I ever not went somewhere because of something I read/heard from someone else. Just sitting back and being quite, letting tracks continue to make the same mistakes is more harmful than speaking out.
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True to point. But the keyboard warriors doing it on Facebook ain't the way to do it. That **** causes more harm
than good.
 
VaDirt said:
True to point. But the keyboard warriors doing it on Facebook ain't the way to do it. That **** causes more harm
than good.
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Well a lot of those are people who don't even show up at the track anyway. Plus, some people are just full of hate and want everyone to be as miserable as they are.
 
just a couple quick issues that come to mind; a lot of promoters shoot themselves in the foot by having raincheck policies that do not refund $$$ to out of towners, screw them over, do you think they'll come back for more next year's big race? I think not. poor track conditions are another serious issue, I don't know too many fans who like dry slick tracks, with dust blowing in their faces and choking them all night either. treat your fans fairly and take time to prepare your track properly (get water in it, not just on it), or sooner or later you'll have no more fans
 
Have seen where track bashing on racing forums (similar to this one - but NOT this one) hurt attendance at local tracks. Internet postings can be seen anywhere, and people who aren't regular attendees can be negatively influenced since they don't know who to believe but can see there's a bunch of idiotic drama. Usually the tracks that got hurt were ones with poor management - management that tried to fight its bashers in public on the forums rather than try to win those bashers back with kindness.

One of the worst cases is the current promoter of 311. First he got mad and said several unprofessional things on another forum and get himself banned from there. Later he realized he was still getting bashed there so he "made up" with the owners of that site and got allowed back on, only to start his stuff again and get himself banned again soon after. So he created his own forum to get back at the forum that banished him, but few people looked at it - and he started getting bashed on his own forum. So he closed it and started a Facebook page. But there he openly argues and curses anybody who disagrees with him even slightly, and now I understand he doesn't allow comments. The result? His car count has dwindled, with most of his regular drivers going to a competing track, and his grandstands are almost empty. I don't know how much more of his own ego he can afford.
 
gone said:
Have seen where track bashing on racing forums (similar to this one - but NOT this one) hurt attendance at local tracks. Internet postings can be seen anywhere, and people who aren't regular attendees can be negatively influenced since they don't know who to believe but can see there's a bunch of idiotic drama. Usually the tracks that got hurt were ones with poor management - management that tried to fight its bashers in public on the forums rather than try to win those bashers back with kindness.

One of the worst cases is the current promoter of 311. First he got mad and said several unprofessional things on another forum and get himself banned from there. Later he realized he was still getting bashed there so he "made up" with the owners of that site and got allowed back on, only to start his stuff again and get himself banned again soon after. So he created his own forum to get back at the forum that banished him, but few people looked at it - and he started getting bashed on his own forum. So he closed it and started a Facebook page. But there he openly argues and curses anybody who disagrees with him even slightly, and now I understand he doesn't allow comments. The result? His car count has dwindled, with most of his regular drivers going to a competing track, and his grandstands are almost empty. I don't know how much more of his own ego he can afford.
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Mike Fulp is an idiot.
 
Can't argue with you.
Remember the character before him? "Bobby Johns". No, not the Bobby Johns former NASCAR driver, although he'd let you think that.
We thought anything would be better than Bobby... until we got Mike.
 
gone said:
Can't argue with you.
Remember the character before him? "Bobby Johns". No, not the Bobby Johns former NASCAR driver, although he'd let you think that.
We thought anything would be better than Bobby... until we got Mike.
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He had some "Daisy Dukes" contest with 12-year-old girls.... real "classy" stuff. When someone posted about it on Facebook, he went off and threatened the dude, even offered free tickets for anyone who brought the guy to the track so he could kick his ass, stuff like that. Dude's on drugs.
 
Once I tried to contact his tech man about some questions on some rules, via the track's Facebook account. I didn't start an argument - all I asked was how to contact the tech man directly because the rules weren't posted on the Facebook page and at the time 311 didn't have a web site. Fulp posted back that I was a F******ing idiot since I couldn't find the rules... after a couple others called him out on it (and cursing at them) he finally posted some rules on Facebook. But they didn't answer the questions that I had.

So I called the track phone number and asked if I could talk to the tech man. Whoever answered (refused to give a name) told me to come to the track at a certain time the next day. So I did. There I was confronted by Fulp and three of his buddies - but they didn't want to talk about rules, they wanted to fight. Maybe they had me confused with somebody else, but I don't understand why they acted like they did. I wasn't too worried about defending myself against that group of old men, but I simply told him to go ahead and throw a punch - then I would sue him and become the new owner of his track. They backed down and I left. Up until then I hadn't realized what kind of man he was (other than seeing him chase away his top Late Model class and then get banned twice from that other forum site).

He chased away one of the most popular PA men around here. He also chased away a lot of long time regular drivers by cursing at them and over-ruling flagman decisions and playing favorites during technical inspections. I saw him get into shouting / cursing matches with fans in the stands (him down on the track) apparently without caring about the kids and such in the stands. So I've quit going there.

Here I am bashing a track promoter myself... but is it bashing when it's the truth?
 
gone said:
Once I tried to contact his tech man about some questions on some rules, via the track's Facebook account. I didn't start an argument - all I asked was how to contact the tech man directly because the rules weren't posted on the Facebook page and at the time 311 didn't have a web site. Fulp posted back that I was a F******ing idiot since I couldn't find the rules... after a couple others called him out on it (and cursing at them) he finally posted some rules on Facebook. But they didn't answer the questions that I had.

So I called the track phone number and asked if I could talk to the tech man. Whoever answered (refused to give a name) told me to come to the track at a certain time the next day. So I did. There I was confronted by Fulp and three of his buddies - but they didn't want to talk about rules, they wanted to fight. Maybe they had me confused with somebody else, but I don't understand why they acted like they did. I wasn't too worried about defending myself against that group of old men, but I simply told him to go ahead and throw a punch - then I would sue him and become the new owner of his track. They backed down and I left. Up until then I hadn't realized what kind of man he was (other than seeing him chase away his top Late Model class and then get banned twice from that other forum site).

He chased away one of the most popular PA men around here. He also chased away a lot of long time regular drivers by cursing at them and over-ruling flagman decisions and playing favorites during technical inspections. I saw him get into shouting / cursing matches with fans in the stands (him down on the track) apparently without caring about the kids and such in the stands. So I've quit going there.

Here I am bashing a track promoter myself... but is it bashing when it's the truth?
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You almost got your face rearranged because of a question about the rules? Please tell me this place is going under.
 
I disagree with the thought that social media is a threat to short track racing. I'd say the threat lays with commitment by the owners and or promoters, who have to prove to both competitors and race fans that they are willing to give it their all to get the show in regardless of what. its also important to watch out for costs of admission, entry fees and concessions. its very important to give the people what they want and to treat them fairly and to present a good racing surface and track conditions. if this is prevailing then social media will be positive.
 
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