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The Big Show Is A Huge Success!!!!
« on: Yesterday at 10:33:27 AM »
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Wow!!!!
Full-time racer and once a year race promoter Brett Hearn staged a race last night at Albany Saratoga that totally packed the joint and at the same time punched all those promoters in the face who sit on their ass and claim half-filled grandstands is what everyone is dealing with these days.
It's a sorry state of affairs when a guy who only promotes one show a year can out hustle a whole region of pavement promoters, but it's good to know that if someone is willing to put the effort in it and be creative, an overflow crowd can still be had.
The crowd Hearn attracted was so big, it easily filled the Malta grandstands an hour before the show was supposed to start, and resulted in people being allowed to sit in the aisles and pits because there weren't any seats in the grandstands available for the overflow crowd.
Having a visiting big name driver (Ron Horniday), lots of good music piped over a good sound system, a ton of displays on the midway, cue card girls for each heat race like they have at boxing matches for each round, and ample autograph time with the Dirt Modified stars all gave the event a huge buzz that too few race tracks are able to muster in today’s do-as-little-as-possible-to-promote-an-event environment.
Malta is a track that doesn’t have even a 1/3 of the seating capacity of Thunder Road, yet on Tuesday night they almost doubled the best 50/50 payout Thunder Road will probably have this season ($3020.00).
That’s the power of great race promotion!!!!
Oh yeah, it didn’t hurt the crowd got to see a good race with some fireworks up front either.
One thing is for sure, Brett Hearn the driver doesn’t miss a trick. If he’s racing a guy on the outside who is making a charge, he’ll run his car high in the middle of the straights to break the other cars momentum, likewise if Hearn is running the high side and someone on the inside is making that work, he’ll crowd that car low on the straights so they have a bad angle to take the corners. He also isn’t shy about chopping people in such a way that if they don’t lift, they will screw themselves.
Fortunately Bobby Varin plays the same game just as hard, and didn’t cut Hearn any slack when he took the lead from him in lapped traffic. Varin eventually won the race in the Andy’s Speed Shop #97, but he and Hearn had several tussles in lap traffic that almost allowed Stewart Friesen to beat them both.
Good car count on hand with 34 Big Block SDS entries, and 19 Pro Stocks which also put on a very competitive race.
Jessica Zemken was a last minute fill-in for the suspended Danny Johnson. She was so-so in qualifying, but lasted less than 30 laps in the feature when she got caught up in a wreck on a restart.
Most of the asphalt promoters around here should have been forced to attend the Big Show and see how a successful race with a big crowd should be run. I’m sure once his racing season is over, Mr Hearn would be willing to give some pointers to these promoters too.
« on: Yesterday at 10:33:27 AM »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wow!!!!
Full-time racer and once a year race promoter Brett Hearn staged a race last night at Albany Saratoga that totally packed the joint and at the same time punched all those promoters in the face who sit on their ass and claim half-filled grandstands is what everyone is dealing with these days.
It's a sorry state of affairs when a guy who only promotes one show a year can out hustle a whole region of pavement promoters, but it's good to know that if someone is willing to put the effort in it and be creative, an overflow crowd can still be had.
The crowd Hearn attracted was so big, it easily filled the Malta grandstands an hour before the show was supposed to start, and resulted in people being allowed to sit in the aisles and pits because there weren't any seats in the grandstands available for the overflow crowd.
Having a visiting big name driver (Ron Horniday), lots of good music piped over a good sound system, a ton of displays on the midway, cue card girls for each heat race like they have at boxing matches for each round, and ample autograph time with the Dirt Modified stars all gave the event a huge buzz that too few race tracks are able to muster in today’s do-as-little-as-possible-to-promote-an-event environment.
Malta is a track that doesn’t have even a 1/3 of the seating capacity of Thunder Road, yet on Tuesday night they almost doubled the best 50/50 payout Thunder Road will probably have this season ($3020.00).
That’s the power of great race promotion!!!!
Oh yeah, it didn’t hurt the crowd got to see a good race with some fireworks up front either.
One thing is for sure, Brett Hearn the driver doesn’t miss a trick. If he’s racing a guy on the outside who is making a charge, he’ll run his car high in the middle of the straights to break the other cars momentum, likewise if Hearn is running the high side and someone on the inside is making that work, he’ll crowd that car low on the straights so they have a bad angle to take the corners. He also isn’t shy about chopping people in such a way that if they don’t lift, they will screw themselves.
Fortunately Bobby Varin plays the same game just as hard, and didn’t cut Hearn any slack when he took the lead from him in lapped traffic. Varin eventually won the race in the Andy’s Speed Shop #97, but he and Hearn had several tussles in lap traffic that almost allowed Stewart Friesen to beat them both.
Good car count on hand with 34 Big Block SDS entries, and 19 Pro Stocks which also put on a very competitive race.
Jessica Zemken was a last minute fill-in for the suspended Danny Johnson. She was so-so in qualifying, but lasted less than 30 laps in the feature when she got caught up in a wreck on a restart.
Most of the asphalt promoters around here should have been forced to attend the Big Show and see how a successful race with a big crowd should be run. I’m sure once his racing season is over, Mr Hearn would be willing to give some pointers to these promoters too.
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