This is why local racing is dying

Tennessee Racing

Tennessee Racing

Formerly Stewart Fan
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Well, around my parts anyway. Here is a brief summary of what one local track has done. They have a class called the Modified Street division. One week the winner was caught with an illegal carburetor. The tech man was gonna DQ said driver until the track owner himself came into the pits and overruled him. They changed the rules to allow that car to be legal from then on out. This weekend it was announced that the points were over(despite having several points races left on the schedule for that division) and who "won" the title? The same car they changed the rules for. Now, here is the real kicker. They said the drivers "all agreed" to this but the meeting was held and over before the second place points driver(who was only about 16 points behind) got there.

It's blatant favoritism like this that ruins weekly racing.
 
Stewart Fan said:
Well, around my parts anyway. Here is a brief summary of what one local track has done. They have a class called the Modified Street division. One week the winner was caught with an illegal carburetor. The tech man was gonna DQ said driver until the track owner himself came into the pits and overruled him. They changed the rules to allow that car to be legal from then on out. This weekend it was announced that the points were over(despite having several points races left on the schedule for that division) and who "won" the title? The same car they changed the rules for. Now, here is the real kicker. They said the drivers "all agreed" to this but the meeting was held and over before the second place points driver(who was only about 16 points behind) got there.

It's blatant favoritism like this that ruins weekly racing.
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Sounds like NASCAR.
 
I thought local racing was dying because it's becoming more and more expensive to field a race car, even at the local tracks.
 
One thing that gets me is Nascar promotes local short tracks then televises races Fri and Sat night in direct competition to them. I've seen attendance drop every time there's a Fri or Sat race televised.
Racing in even the lowest tier is expensive.
 
BobbyFord said:
Many local motocross tracks around SoCal were forced to close because of increasing insurance costs.
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yeah there are all kinds of pressures out there, insurance, noise complaints, ordinances, on and on. this thing here looks like the owner is shooting it in the foot.
 
I will say this though. At least around here, there has been a marked improvement in car count, at least that I've noticed.
 
I used to live down the street from a small oval track that had races like dirt modified, short track motorcycle, etc. and I don't think it exists anymore. There is one north of me that CASCAR races on once in a while.

Also noise is why we can't ride our dirt bikes on forest service roads anymore. :(

I'm only hoping NASCAR starts coming up here, Bowmanville is a nice start.
 
BSDShoes said:
I'm only hoping NASCAR starts coming up here, Bowmanville is a nice start.
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The NASCAR (CASCAR) Canadian Tire Series has I think 6 races in Southern Ontario and they put on an awesome show every time with a very impressive professional looking field of cars. The season finale at Kawartha (Great short track in Peterborough) was one of the most intense races i've been to. With Scott Steckly coming from 5 points behind in the Championship standings to win the race and take the Championship by 2 points. One of the best races and championship battles i've ever seen.
 
Come on down to 5 Flags to see some great weekly racing plus the famous Snowball Derby.
 
Blatant favoritism will definitely kill a track. But other tracks in the area may benefit because teams and fans that quit the favoritism track may go try them.
We lost our top late model class because of the same thing. A guy who usually ran mid-pack suddenly almost lapped the field. Tech man found his engine to be way too big (over 400 c.i. when the rule is 358). Owner over-ruled and changed the rules on the spot to make the car (owned by his buddies) legal. The rest of the drivers protested so he threw them all out. Now attendance is way down because the top class has crate motors and they're boring.

But what's really killing local racing (around me, anyway): constantly changing rules, inconsistent rules track-to-track, poor promotion, poorly run shows, and poorly prepared surfaces / seedy facilities. They're forcing us to watch boring single car qualifying, then they have train races (no passing) with few cars. Shows advertised to start at 7:00 actually start at 11:00. Even the diehard fans are giving up. It's not fun to watch and it's too expensive to compete.
 
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