WWTR Review - a keeper or a sneaker?

Conover

Conover

Team Owner
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Excited to attend the race in person with my family…had it planned as soon as they announced it! We lived in Missouri and STL area for14 years, our son and his family still live there. First visit to the track in a long time. So I wanted to share perspectives since it’s the inaugural event.

Speedway gets major props for a slew of entertaining events, musical acts, throughout the race weekend. Significant artists both Saturday evening and today. Great Thursday event with the hauler parade by ballpark village in downtown (near Cardinals stadium).

Raceday Sunday: Strengths - good direction getting cars into and out of the event. Bathrooms were generally not horribly overcrowded. Lots of energy from all the presentations. Great parade pre-race by the famous Budweiser Clydesdales hauling the trophy. Excited fans and a packed house. Difficult and challenging track should make for a purist dream. NOBODY should yank this event from the schedule anytime soon. They delivered a top notch weekend.

Weaknesses - Midway had a variety of local vendors for food and goodies, but not enough personnel (like everywhere else these days). Made for very LONG lines. One..yes ONE trailer by RE for headset and scanner rental made it a pain (couldn’t locate them for a long time, then treked way down to the one end from where we were to return, then go all the way back to get to the car. Never again. Need a lot more eating tables under the stands, as well as seating. This is a common issue at many tracks. I found the sight lines for watching the race disappointing. We were in section 23 row 32. Very Limited ability to see cars coming down the straightaway until right in front, good view of turns 1, some of turn 2 until the large $ hospitality section roof cut off everything till into the backstretch. Even higher is highly recommended, but even that won’t solve the front stretch issues completely. Maybe the turn 1 stands up high are best.

Overall it was a fine weekend with a facility grade of C. I think WWTR will make more investments with any confidence that Cup races are here to stay a while. Curious on the thoughts of any others that attended.
 
Conover said:
Excited to attend the race in person with my family…had it planned as soon as they announced it! We lived in Missouri and STL area for14 years, our son and his family still live there. First visit to the track in a long time. So I wanted to share perspectives since it’s the inaugural event.

Speedway gets major props for a slew of entertaining events, musical acts, throughout the race weekend. Significant artists both Saturday evening and today. Great Thursday event with the hauler parade by ballpark village in downtown (near Cardinals stadium).

Raceday Sunday: Strengths - good direction getting cars into and out of the event. Bathrooms were generally not horribly overcrowded. Lots of energy from all the presentations. Great parade pre-race by the famous Budweiser Clydesdales hauling the trophy. Excited fans and a packed house. Difficult and challenging track should make for a purist dream. NOBODY should yank this event from the schedule anytime soon. They delivered a top notch weekend.

Weaknesses - Midway had a variety of local vendors for food and goodies, but not enough personnel (like everywhere else these days). Made for very LONG lines. One..yes ONE trailer by RE for headset and scanner rental made it a pain (couldn’t locate them for a long time, then treked way down to the one end from where we were to return, then go all the way back to get to the car. Never again. Need a lot more eating tables under the stands, as well as seating. This is a common issue at many tracks. I found the sight lines for watching the race disappointing. We were in section 23 row 32. Very Limited ability to see cars coming down the straightaway until right in front, good view of turns 1, some of turn 2 until the large $ hospitality section roof cut off everything till into the backstretch. Even higher is highly recommended, but even that won’t solve the front stretch issues completely. Maybe the turn 1 stands up high are best.

Overall it was a fine weekend with a facility grade of C. I think WWTR will make more investments with any confidence that Cup races are here to stay a while. Curious on the thoughts of any others that attended.
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On MRN they were saying RE scanner rentals have to be reserved online.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
On MRN they were saying RE scanner rentals have to be reserved online.
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Yes ours were in advance. When I’ve attended other tracks they had multiple locations. When I asked the folks there why they didn't have several rental trailers like other places they said “not anymore”. I presume they’ve cut back some. No way you could manage Daytona with one trailer kiosk.
 
Racing-Electronics has a lot of issues in my opinion, I’ll have to call their customer service, but maybe they don’t care anymore and want to be rude. I didn’t have a great experience with them lately and I know there’s an excuse for everything but it sucks.

NASCAR keeps touting these nice crowds but their midway needs improvement, I know it’s hard to hire people but they NEED to improve the fan experience there.

Also WWT Raceway / Gateway needs better entrances / exits besides 3 overhead bridges. It was awful. Concessions awful for 2 days. Parking is what it is. There is plenty of improvements to be made.

Overall Weekend Grade: B
 
AuzGrams said:
Racing-Electronics has a lot of issues in my opinion, I’ll have to call their customer service. I didn’t have a great experience with them lately and I know there’s an excuse for everything but it sucks.
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I've had nothing but great experiences with Racing Electronics. They're my go-to. 👍
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
I've had nothing but great experiences with Racing Electronics. They're my go-to. 👍
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Really well glad you have good luck then unlike some of us, their MRN radio frequency on Ch 69 hasn’t been working and I didn’t bother with it today, why bother when I can enjoy the race this weekend.

Then their staff was just yelling at a bunch of people including me (not kidding) today. Which was uncalled for I had an issue with my product upon exit. Pretty meh from R-E
 
This is probably a dumb question I should save for another thread, but can't you still just bring your own scanner? Do they still post the team communication frequencies online, as well as MRN? They still use analog bands, correct?
 
2 Sweet said:
This is probably a dumb question I should save for another thread, but can't you still just bring your own scanner? Do they still post the team communication frequencies online, as well as MRN? They still use analog bands, correct?
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Yes, still analog. Some of the radios can be programmed wirelessly too.
 
2 Sweet said:
This is probably a dumb question I should save for another thread, but can't you still just bring your own scanner? Do they still post the team communication frequencies online, as well as MRN? They still use analog bands, correct?
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That's a good idea if you attend multiple races. If you're only going to one a year, renting may be more affordable.
 
Speaking from the living room, the racing was decent. I don't think one race is enough evidence to make a 'Keeper' decision.

That pit road is too narrow.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
That's a good idea if you attend multiple races. If you're only going to one a year, renting may be more affordable.
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I bought a used one on ebay a couple years ago. Haven't had a chance to take it to a race yet. I don't remember what I paid, but I'm positive it was less than the cost for a weekend rental.

Some folks like the ease of renting, and some folks are hesitant to buy used stuff, but it's a good option I figured I would mention.
 
2 Sweet said:
This is probably a dumb question I should save for another thread, but can't you still just bring your own scanner? Do they still post the team communication frequencies online, as well as MRN? They still use analog bands, correct?
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Yes, for the life of me I dont know why people dont do this
 
Spotter22 said:
Yes, for the life of me I dont know why people dont do this
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Looked into this but couldn’t find anything that was confident in buying. We typically only average one race per year. Doing two in 22 (WWTR and fall Homestead).

FWIW, I accidentally left my Bose over ear active noise cancelling headphones in my backpack, so tried those under racing conditions. They actually did great but I couldn’t stay connected to SiriusXM broadcast via phone. Cell signals are a mess at tracks due to congestion. Might check into a Bluetooth FM radio and connect to that for future races.
 
Conover said:
Looked into this but couldn’t find anything that was confident in buying. We typically only average one race per year. Doing two in 22 (WWTR and fall Homestead).

FWIW, I accidentally left my Bose over ear active noise cancelling headphones in my backpack, so tried those under racing conditions. They actually did great but I couldn’t stay connected to SiriusXM broadcast via phone. Cell signals are a mess at tracks due to congestion. Might check into a Bluetooth FM radio and connect to that for future races.
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Get a Uniden bearcat. Before they programmed race control in to my team radio I used to use one with a seperate jack in my headset. Very good radio and its like $100 bucks
 
Took a couple of years to get the right setup.
Push to talk remote, a separate Radio Shack scanner for the Tower, RE amplifier, and a couple of secret Mods...
Screenshot_20220607-013713_Samsung Internet.jpg
Screenshot_20220607-013700_Samsung Internet.jpg
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MAGICMILER said:
My RE 3000 s have the "OTA" programming, get 100'feet near an RE trailer and turn on your scanner, and within a minute, scanner is updated.!!!
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I have the RE Legend and it'll do the same at NASCAR tracks. I have to pre-program it when I go to the CARS Tour races. Love the touchscreen display.
 
I have a Uniden 230. That’ll give you an idea of how long I’ve had it.
RE needs more than 1 trailer at a NASCAR event. Personnel at both LVMS and ACS were apologetic. They said a lot of people simply didn’t come back after the Covid layoff.
 
1 single RE trailer at Darlington as well. The backstretch grandstands we’re closed for this years spring race but back when they were opened it’s a long walk from the back to the front.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
MAGICMILER said:
My RE 3000 s have the "OTA" programming, get 100'feet near an RE trailer and turn on your scanner, and within a minute, scanner is updated.!!!
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Eh, I keep the manual for my Bearcat with my other race stuff. The freqs don't change that much from year to year, and reprogramming a half-dozen or so gives me something to do while waiting for the green.
 
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