Hmmmm maybe this is what OSW needs!!

[Rusty the 50/50 Guy]

After reading all of the different opinions etc..and if you want to see a good thread go to my face book account.. and I see that Terry is the evil now..here is what needs to be done!

Everytime the gates open make sure there are a LOT of cars there! If Terry is the great evil how can he shut her down then???? I was once told that there is POWER in numbers....GIVE ORLANDO NUMBERS!!! That will foil his plot to get all of the cars from OSW to NSS..or so I read on here anyway!
OSW ain't gone and she ain't gonna be!

[Benny The Mule]

Talk all you want..................those tracks will not change until the Hart's are out of it!

They are going to keep the land and tracks as investments and what you see today is what you get.

A new promoter or manager will not help.

Someone to come in and fill the Hart's pockets with money will work.

[Rusty the 50/50 Guy]

Well....If you knew for sure what you were saying...you are somewhat WRONG! I can tell you they keep NSS because Andrew...the sole heir to the whole thing will not EVER get rid of NSS and it is NOT because it is an "investment"! He LOVES that place and wants it to be around FOREVER! OSW..yep it was an investment...Lake City it was an investment also and investment that went the other way! I can assure you that if you step up to the plate on Lake City you CAN get it! NO QUESTION..and I think it would be at a loss....not including the money that was lost while keeping it running.

Sit back...HATE the Hart Family...it is all good you will prove a point...then we can read about Hialeah, Palm Beach, Fort Pierce, Eau Gallie, THunderCross, Golden Gate, Lake City and Orlando etc etc. The choice is absolutly yours...OH and as for me I am going to do what ever I can do to help out these tracks even though I am at a new place!

[UREZ2PASS]

You need some pom-poms to shake if you want to be a cheerleader. You can do back flips, yell and scream, and shake your money maker but your team is loosing bad. Pennies on the dollar, question is , when will the value hit rock bottom. I predict it will sell for land value only and become a business park unless somebody makes it a successful racing facility.

[Rusty the 50/50 Guy]

That is OK... I like the underdog! I will NEVER give up on her! I will shake those pom poms til the cows come home! And I will take the bet that she does not get sold for pennies on the dollar for development...IF she was sold for development she would bring a LOT more than as a race track!!!

[meangreen]

The title of this thread says something about "what the track needs"... What it needs is fewer classes and more cars in the ones left. Why? Simple math. Four or five Ministocks running around in a parade with the same winner every week is BORING! Same with Late Models or Trucks or Sportsman or ANYTHING. If the racing is boring people won't come to see it. Without the fans in the stands tracks soon go the way of the dinosaur. The track doesn't need seven or eight classes of race cars with 3, 4, or 5 cars in each class. It needs a couple of classes with a dozen or more cars each so the racing is worth watching again.

I raced at OSW in the '90s in Sportsman and later in Limited Late Model. If we didn't have at least a dozen Sportsman cars, it was a slack night. Bombers (Pros Stock) used to field 20+ cars almost every week. Late Models and Limiteds usually had 10 - 15 cars each. So what happened? In a few words: bad rules. Poorly thought-out and weakly enforced rules have allowed racing costs to escalate and forced a lot of folks out of the sport. Racing tires on Bomber cars? Ridiculous! Fiberglass and aluminum bodies on Ministocks? Ludicrous! Ministock is supposed to be an entry-level class. What ever happened to claim rules in Modified? Now they run whatever they want with no fear of losing their high-dollar parts. How many still compete regularly? I could go on and on, but all of these things have pushed costs up and competitors out of racing. Less competitors makes for boring racing which drives fans away, etc, etc...

I began racing at Indianapolis Raceway Park in 1969. We had two classes of cars; Late Models and Hobby Stock. Rules were strict and well enforced. There were always enough cars to have at least two Heats in both classes and sometime three Heats in Hobby. Then we had a Consi (or B-feature) in Hobby and the Features in both classes. It was a full evening and racers and spectators went home happy. Oh yeah, all our starts were inverted, too - fastest qualifiers started in the rear.

[chevyj31]

I think they should open a walmart there.....

[Jane]

Sorry but I am on Rusty's side here. I don't want to see Orlando gone and a WalMart there, I want to see cars racing and fans having fun like they use to. I was a die-hard drag racing girl for many years until one night for some unknown reason, my family and I went to the round track and from that night on, the only time I went to the dragstrip was Night of Fire and maybe the Winter Nationals but that was it.

Yes, I have seen Orlando go up and down over the 20 odd years that I have been going there. I have had alot of fun at that track and have alot of good memories from that track. I remember when TNT did a big show from there and I remember when I could not wait for Friday night and seeing if Rose rolled her car again. And yes, car counts were much better then and so was fan counts. But then back then space workers got in free with coupons they were given from the track and it cost them little for a fun night of racing but when that stopped, so did they.

Who can fix Orlando, can Orlando be fixed?? Anything can be fixed with enough hard work going towards the fixing. And I know there are alot of people who do honestly care about Orlando and don't want to see it gone and that helps and is one cornerstone towards fixing it. Guess we are all a bunch of "Rocky's" punching our way towards a better Orlando.

Like I said, I am on Rusty's side on this one and will do anything that is asked of me to help save Orlando. I have way too many good memories from there to want to see her a shopping mall or anything else other than a racetrack.

Can we do it?? Yes, we can as long as we try. Trying is half the game and I know quite a few people who are willing to try.

[UREZ2PASS]

LOL, everybody wants to save the track from behind their keyboards. The only way to save the track is to go watch, race, or participate in some way.

"I'll do anything to help the track"

THEN DO IT ! BRING A CARLOAD OF PAYING CUSTOMERS !

Stockcar racing Friday night, be there.

[AB195]

we can't---it's closed.

[MOE #15]

Put on a show and people will come.....

Last night GOOD crowd GOOD show. Racing is tough in Florida but promotion is one key thing and very little is done at Orlando and that's a shame. It takes a lot of effort.

[scottgarrity07]

BIG 50 Lap Sportsman race there next friday on 6/1. $1000 to win!!! Super Lates on the card also. Should be a great show. If you've got a Sportsman then drag it on over. If your a spectator then come on out! Only one thing will save this place. PARTICIPATION!

[meangreen]

I absolutely agree with all of you who want to save OSW. I, too, have many fond memories there. it is my favorite of all the tracks I have driven. We could all boost the attendance one night by bringing a carload of folks to the track, but if they aren't impressed by what they see they won't come back.

What are the biggest classes that run at OSW? Strictly Stock and Pro-Stock. Why? Because they are the most cost-effective classes running. When participants can't afford to race competitively they get discouraged and quit. Eventually there aren't enough cars to make racing interesting, the spectators quit coming, and the track struggles. Of course the economy has had some effect on racing, but racing survived the Great Depression of the 1930s and even flourished in some areas. Race organizers (track owners or promoters) need to look back at their own history, figure out what went wrong and when, and learn from it. There is no quick easy fix, but wishing won't help. The powers that be need to be pro-active, stop dictating rules that cost more money, and listen to the needs of the racers.

I have seen many rulebooks from different tracks over the years that have been rewritten and ammended over and over until they are contradictory, unclear, and overcomplicated. OSW/ New Smyrna has one of those. Instead of slapping more band-aids on an ailing set of rules, they need to be thrown away and started over with a clean sheet and every rule needs to be considered carefully with an eye on cost.

[xracer54]

only track that

BIG 50 Lap Sportsman race there next friday on 6/1. $1000 to win!!! Super Lates on the card also. Should be a great show. If you've got a Sportsman then drag it on over. If your a spectator then come on out! Only one thing will save this place. PARTICIPATION!

yes,a big 50 lap sportsman race,but OSW is the only track that has their own rules.....we could have 6 cars there,but only 2 pass tect,and its all because of how you read the rules,talk to Mr T.R. about that!!!!!

[scottgarrity07]

Umm, all tracks have their "own rules". Unfortunately all tracks have different rules for Sportsman cars. The only two that are the same are OSW and NSS. I found that OSW was the ONLY track I have been to that has a thorough pre-race tech before the fifty lapper I ran there last year. I called and talked to Wayne the tech man and told him about my car and he told me about the weight penalties I needed to add to my car a few weeks before the initial date for the 50. Fair enough in my book. I am assuming that you are with Jim Daley's bunch. Why not simply just make the cars legal??? If he owns six cars in Florida and more in New Hampshire and can offer money to add to the purse at Desoto then surely he has enough money to make ALL of his cars legal. Right???