Weekly Short Track Racing

[andre]

What’s wrong with
Weekly Short Track Racing?

As we all know, WSTR (Weekly Short Track Racing) is not what it use to be. Beside a lucky few, the large majority of paved short tracks in America are dwelling. They’re closing left and right. The 1/3 mile and larger tracks taking the worst beating. This sad reality is being blamed on everything: economy, 400 channels on the home tube, computer, Internet, Drift cars, Saturday night Cup races on national TV, boats, bikes, campers, all of those supposedly hurt our beloved sport, Weekly Short Track Racing.

But are these the only, or should we say, the really things which are hurting us????

We all catch ourselves talking about how it used to be, how it was fun, how it was exciting!!!! So what did change so much that it’s not like it used to be.

Among all those changes, here’s one that might have played a major role and impact the sport more than we think in the last few years. Have you heard these words lately: ‘’Spec’’, ‘’Crate’’, mandatory this, mandatory that. Well, I’m sure you did, and, as a promoter, I even implemented it at our track. I started my first sealed engine program in the winter of 1997 for the 98 season, way before it became so advertised and adopted almost everywhere.

In an attempt to bring more cars & participants, promoters across the country and beyond looked at the whole picture and told themselves, ‘’let’s cut the cost of the biggest expenses and level the playing field’’. Make it easier and cheaper for the racers to come aboard and be competitive quickly. Build driver friendly race cars. And from there it went, Spec Motor, Spec this, Spec that, mandatory this, mandatory those.

We all thought that by having them build more identical cars and cutting HP, WSTR would become more attractive to people. And we were right, car count went up, for a while, until racers found out that it costs almost as much to play with the toy than before and parked them. And to our saddest disbelief, FAN base started to go down. I guess we did not hit the right button. Or did we?

So what went wrong FANS wise with that whole picture? I think we forgot the point one of our industry, FANS ENTERTAINMENT.

We have put Street Stock level motors in state of the art short track rocket ship. Low power motors in high tech racing missiles do not equal to very exciting racing. Don’t believe me: look at the grandstands at the majority of paved short track in America.…empty, some lucky one are half full and very few are still full. Want to go higher: IROC, ‘’All Spec Cars’’, where is that series today and they had the best drivers of all the highest racing leagues in the world driving these babies.

So what do we do to fix it? Some promoters just quit the project and now rely on all night entertainment shows, like Crash-o-whatever, Rock concert, different expensive Tour races, EXTRAVANGANZA X,000$ to win enduro that packs the house, and all other kinds of FANS friendly and cheap family fun night. So what about WSTR that packs the pit and stands??? What do we do for that?

I still think and strongly believe that the ‘’Spec Motor’’ idea is good, but some more thinking will have to follow up. From what we have seen, some issues should be address. For one, what race teams don’t spend on motors, they spend it on something else, i.e. : latest chassis technology, shocks, titanium bolts kit, fancy quick change, low friction latest discovery, tricky trick carburetors, and, at the end of the day, whoever use to win still wins. The next natural step to bring them back and keep them racing would be to look at’ how much does it cost to play?’’ Second would be to bring back the excitement for the FANS.

Let’s look at some examples. First, we’ll look from the FANS side of the fence. Let’s keep the Spec motors system in place but with more powerful ones. Let’s not use anything under 425 HP. Do not forget, FANS are here to see a Late Model or Super Late Model race where drivers are suppose to pass each other. Not a follow the leader, FANS displeasure, type of racing. It’s supposed to be exciting racing after all. You can get a 425 HP Spec motor in a price range that any average Late Model or Super Late Model team can afford and they are as reliable as the lower HP one. Now we are back in business power wise and FANS are happy because the car speed is back.

Then, we’ll take a look where we can save some money to racers. If we save them enough, maybe the purse structure will be more affordable to promoters and they’ll be able to pass the saving to the FANS by dropping the ticket price. This…is one of the very best FANS draw.

Now, let’s say you go racing for a 100 laps show, being a Super Late Model 550HP Series or a 425 HP Spec Motor Series, or even a 350HP Spec Motor series, if you are there to win, you will buy as many tires as rules allows you to. Almost anywhere, they will allow you to buy at least 4 tires, some series 6. What did you gain in expenses using a Spec motor here? Nada, same tire bill. What about rock hard tires that would last 2 or 3 shows??? At least the left one would, and then you would need only right side for the next show or two. This cuts your season tire bill almost in half. Also, harder tires remove grip, put drivers back in the seat, and create excitement for the FANS.

Same with fuel, 100 laps is 100 laps, big motor or small, bill is close to the same. What about cutting some laps out of these races? Let’s say running 50 to 75 lap main event. On a 15 races schedule, by shaving 25 laps per race, at the end of the season, you have save the fuel for five75 laps features. Sprint car shows are 25 to 35 laps and nobody can argue that they are not exciting and THEY still pack the grandstands! An action packed 75 laps Super Late Model race will please any entertainment hungry race FAN.

What about fast cars starting in the back…. Ever been to the Milk Bowl at Thunder Road, Vermont? Well, if not, you definitely should. What is more exciting than watching your favourite hero starting last, drive his way through traffic, rub fenders here and there, and win the race……..Remember, now they can pass each other, we put the power back in them!!! That makes FANS happy, then talk about it… and come back with their friends. Also don’t forget that every restart, to the end of the race, should be double file. That is a real FANS pleaser.

And those famous practices, endless hours of fine tuning. What did you do to your car since the last event to make it so out of shape?!? Or do you do it just because you’ve seen it done on TV coverage of Cup racing? At some short track shows, they allow more practice time than a Cup race, how much does this cost? A maximum of two 15 minutes runs should be allowed, that’s it. That’s an average saving of anywhere from ½ hour to one hour of track time. How much fuel and tires do you use up in a one hour period of time? That’s the equivalent of a 100 laps feature.

Body work, that’s the best one. Is it really necessary to have those 3000$ template ABC bodies that no week end warrior can afford to scratch for WSTR…..Let’s go back to those cheaper Sportsman bodies...even these Outlaw one if we have to, with tiny side rails and rub fenders a little, this might please and bring in some FANS.

I could go on a lot longer on the subject but this will be it for this feature event. We’ll save the rest for further articles. Hope you enjoyed.

And in conclusion, we all have seen and heard all kind of gimmicks to put butts on those seats, but an outstanding three hours, filled with excitement and action pack WSTR, is still the best proven road to achieve our common goal, which is to bring the FANS back.

Respectfully yours,

André

[Boneman]

What track did you promote?

[andre]

Autodrome Montmagny Speedway, that's in Québec province, waaaaaay up North.

If you wanna check on a map, track is located 40 miles East of Québec City, on South side of St Laurent River.

BTW, I'm still promoting that race track. It's a 3/8 asphalt track and last year we built a small 1/5 mile DIRT track inside, and a moto cross track inside the dirt track.
You can see pictures of this at:

www.autodromemontmagnyspeedway.com

Thanks

André

[fred23]

Andre,
There are numerous people on here that claim that the people up north run racing better than down here. You have proven that point, from WAY UP NORTH! I agree with every point you made and have expressed it on this site as well as to track promoters here. THe only thing being tried here are the spec and or crate motors. That part seems to be working fairly well. A lot of the Sunbelt cars and Goodyear cars have the FASCAR Spec motors that are $15K and $10K. THe crate lates or ASA cars have grown exponentially over the last 2 years also. Just look at Speedfest and Speedweeks.
I agree that shorter races need to be run. We have more 200 lap races than ever before. A 200 lap race triples the expense of a 100 lap race. 100 laps is a perfect length for a race. Especially if you have double file restarts which I think would be great. I like the rule that the leader starts by himself and the 2nd place car gets to choose inside or outside. I would also LOVE to see the outlaw bodies come back to the south. Dave Westerman had some photos of the SLM from the eighties at speedweeks. Those were race cars. Wedge bodies and home made shovel noses and body panels. My dad has a quazi outlaw body on his Sportsman. If it gets wrecked, you either flatten out the panel or make a new one in your own shop.

I like the ideas but until they are implemented they are just ideas.

[tedrichard]

I've addressed this issue on several occassions and most people seem to write me off as a crackpot. You are right on the money saying that the cars are hooked up too good and are so easy to drive that exciting racing is pretty much a thing of the past in most divisions. To me, it's really not rocket science. All you have to do is look at the few divisions that still do produce excitement and passion and ask yourself WHY are these cars exciting to watch? Pure horsepower or awesome speed? Hardly! Back in "the day" sprint cars, supers, midgets, modifieds and such had a much lower power to weight ratio than they do today and we all know how much more exciting the racing was then. What's the difference? They weren't anywhere NEAR as HOOKED UP as they are now! They required MUCH more skill and physical strength and endurance to run at 100%. So the difference between the truly talented and the "field fillers" of mere mortals (yours truly included) was much more dramatic.

Now, every time I mention this there is much hand wringing and general gnashing of teeth, the refrain usually goes, "what do you expect us to do, turn back the clock, run super-late's on 8" tires? We can't do THAT!! That would be crazy!!! Uhhh....... why? I rest my case. To me, it's really fairly simple. Design the rules package so that the cars have WAY more power than can be consistantly put to the ground. PERIOD. Pick a power level that is affordable to acheive, reliable and will give enough speed to produce the excitment factor and LIMIT the tires and chassis technology to the point where it takes a little more than a trained monkey to keep it between the fences!

[Benny The Mule]

Implement a HP and CI rule in each division and put them on hard tires. Not smaller but harder, like the commanches i had to run. A ( rolling brick ) is a good way to describe them. But you could get 4-6 races out of them before replacing them. I had lefts on for 10 races one time. Very economical.

[Winger]

Some real good ideas. This seems to get hashed over all the time but nothing happens. Seeing the lack of responses to this thread, I'm wondering how many other people are discouraged with the attitude of the Florida (asphalt) short track owners.

One point I would like to throw out for some thought. NASCAR has just implemented a "tapered spacer" rule to keep costs down. It seems to me that every time a rule is implemented to keep costs down, the teams with the most money spend unlimited amounts to get the horsepower back. Sure it saves the little guy money in the short run but it makes them less competitive because they can't afford the research. So is it really helping to keep costs down, bring in new owners and keep the established ones? Has anyone noticed how many established Nascar teams have closed their doors? Particularly at the Nationwide and truck level.

BAck to your post. I like the idea of hard tires but let the teams decide what brand they run. Put a little competition back in the tire wars. Just dictate a minimum tire code for each manufacturer. I know it will take some money away from the tracks in the short term. I also agree with going with "outlaw" style bodies. I think it makes a lot of sense. I'm not sure the crate or spec motor route is a good idea. I use to think so but it seems to be a hassle to enforce. It shouldn't be but it seems to be. Maybe the way to go is to let people spend what they want on the motor but use hard and/or narrow tires to keep the power from being utilized. Perhaps a carb rule to restrict power. How about doing away with racing fuel. Require cars to run commercial pump fuel. That will cut costs and restrict power. You will have to check for additives but that should be part of tech anyway. Again, I know the track loses money on gas sales. Seems like I see a pattern here. There does seem to be a conflict of interest with tracks selling tires and gas. I know these monies supposedly go into points funds quite often but just as often don't. Let the tire and gas business go back to the parts suppliers that sell at the track. Again, don't limit suppliers to just one. Allow a little competition. Now to get the fans back into the stands. You have to offer exciting racing with passing. I don't think actual speed is as important as a lot of people think. Most people can't tell the difference in a couple tenths as long as all the cars are going about the same pace. I've always said that time trials should be done away with. Run heats and use a handicap system so the faster cars start in the back. I also agree with double file restarts with cars being allowed to pass as soon as the green comes out. It doesn't make sense to me to have cars waiting until they pass the flag stand before they are allowed to pass. Also require all cars to carry "raceceiver" or a similar type of radio so penalties and realignments can be done during the race. If a driver jumps the start, tell him on the radio he must drop back one or two spots or he will be penalized at the end. Many tracks now will penalize a car after the finish of the race and fans don't understand why. Many fans get upset about this. As you also mentioned, practices can be cut substantially. I don't know how much a track makes on practice sessions but teams would save a lot if these were cut back. Maybe have one a month. One of the best ways to put excitement back into our racing is also one of the most expensive. I think many tracks need to be redesigned. When you look at successful track most of them have one thing in common. You are able to pass. Many of the tracks around the country were designed a long time ago and racing seems to be follow the leader or wreck the car in front of you. Tracks need to be widened and banking adjusted. Of course the facilities need to be fan friendly too with good unobstructed views of the track, good food, clean restrooms, loud PA systems, knowledgeable announcers, good lighting, short and/or no intermissions, and unbiased officiating. I've noticed tracks building club houses with a live video feed. I've never watched a race in one yet but I can think of times I would have liked too. Particularly those real hot or cold days. Or the times there are rain delays. I have used these facilities before and after the races and really enjoy them. At some tracks a drink or two after the races allows traffic to thin out. Much more relaxing to spend time having a soda or beer than sitting in a parking lot playing chicken with other fans.

Sorry I rambled on so much. I apologize if some of this doesn't make any sense. I have a headache and really can't concentrate to well.

[afr]

i didn't read all of the post
but i have a thought as to why racing in general is down across the board
it may make some of you mad to hear it

i would say its the 30 thousand plus people are willing to pay for a motor
and the machine shops charging out the wazoo to do a little better work than stock

think about it
i can buy a after market block and a head kit and have a better stronger longer lasting motor for like 8 grand and never even need to go to a machine shop
now to get the same thing out of a stock factory Chevy or ford block i have to spend 12, 15, 20 ,35 ,37 thousand and up and hope the machine shop does there job right AND OR likes you what ever you have to do to get a good job

that's what put my BLANK on the bleachers more than anything
I'm tired of having crap break cause i was not told something right or you cant do that cause its a stock block etc


IMO
also the race cars should be tech ed by weight and horse power at the rear wheel
not what cam i got or rods i got or heads i got or crate motor i got or block i got
or the money i got

to much monkey business and but kissing for me to be involved with