Two nights of great racing 1/31 and 2/1 14

[gary laplant]

Citrus Country Speedway is under new ownership and is having there Grand Opening this weekend. We are having great racing Friday and Saturday night, Come out and look at the new face of Citrus County Speedway this weekend. The Friendliest Track in the South

Check out on our website the full program of the great racing at Citrus County Speedway this weekend

www.citruscountyspeedway.com



Gary Laplant

[Old Sunshine Fan]

WOW.... increase ticket cost....$20.00 to $30.00 for pit pass....guess that will limit my going to Citrus quite a bit....Citrus was the only track I went into the pits to watch the races... never liked the front stands.... I'll still go, just not as often as in the past... OSF

[katlizy]

Ooh damn. I guess it is front stretch for us too

[Frasson118]

Great plan..... raise the prices by 50% right off the bat.

Lets see how this works out for Gary & Rick. My prediction is 'not too good'.

[Frasson118]

Anyone else do the math on the Annual Pass cost?

$450 for the full season vs $13 per night. You'd have to see 35 shows before you saved a nickel. And there's a total of 42 nights scheduled. With all the rainouts we suffer through in the summer, there's a major chance that you'd be paying for race nights that didn't even HAPPEN.

If they were smart (instead of greedy), they would make the Season Pass much more reasonable.... say $250 for the year. That way, fans are virtually guaranteed to be getting a DEAL, and will be sitting there just about every Saturday of the season. Nearly 100% of the fans in attendance will buy SOMETHING while they are there. Empty seats don't spend a penny....

[dd38]

Don't forget it is a 2 day show too. They, all tracks need to be 1 day shows. That is part of the problem. A lot of people, me included, cannot afford 2-3 day shows. Do away with these practice days before a special race.

[Matt Albee]

All the fans are going to be over here at Desoto for the Brite House race.

[Mike Bresnahan]

We had a Sweet Bay go out of business not too far from my house. If only they woulda had the foresight to hire a race track promotor to turn that store around... Raising the cost of the groceries would of been a no brainer to attract more customers.

[turnleft]

dont most of the tracks in the state of florida charge 25-30 bucks to get in the pits?? The prices seem in line with all the competition. I am not saying I like it, but it is just part of life. I can remember the pit gate being 10 bucks in the early 80's. if the owner of the track dosent make money, there will be no track....Just my 2 cents....Vince

[Mike Bresnahan]

Vince I'm with you, all tracks have to make money. But they have to find ways of doing it without taxing the racers. If a guy is racing a 4cyl bomber chances are thats all he can afford. Nothing wrong with that at all. But do you think if he has a family of 5 he can afford $150 just to walk in the back gate each week?

When I first started racing there were dozens of new cars every season. How many new faces do we really see anymore? Not near enough to replace the ones leaving, and that goes for ALL divisions. Its not just pit gate fees, fine if you wanna charge that, rewrite the rule books to SAVE money. Put limits on exotic parts. MS,PS,SS have no business on racing tires at any track anywhere. Yeah some racers want it, but obviously we ain't that bright or we wouldn't be doing this do begin with. Can't let the inmates run the prison. The cheaper it is, the less stress there is, the more FUN people will have, the more they'll come back.

End Rant.

[turnleft]

I agree with you Mike, but it is sad to say, the back gate has become the race tracks main income stream....It needs to be changed. In most classes the only guy who might even come close to breaking even for the night, is the winner. Until someone comes up with a solution to make racing more affordable, car counts will continue to drop.....Vince

[Jack Burroughs]

Rising prices to attend tracks

Back in the N.J., Pa. , N.Y. area in the early '80's someone came up with the bright idea that you needed a "Pit License" to race or spectate from the pits, even Pit crew needed it. It was $40-$50. for each track, just to go to 5 different tracks in 1 yr. got real expensive even for back then, I think that was a big contributing factor in the demise of Modified racing up in cold country.

[mpf74]

Cost

We in street stock and pure stock class voted on a tire rule to keep cost down, the track originally agreed, but then decided they couldn't sell radials for a profit. so they come up with a recap, now we can run a radial but it will not be as fast. reluctantly we figured if we had to run it to be competitive we would pull together and buy some. Towel City quoted us 57$(less than that if you buy larger quantity) plus 8$ shipping. the track stops that by becoming the exclusive florida area distributor and marks them up to 96.50. As if things was not hard enough the track tries to price us out of competing. So when there are no cars at the track we will see what track has to offer to try and sell tickets. maybe they are great comedians because when I stand back and look at whats going on all I can do is laugh. no one has to race, we are not making money by doing it, there are hundreds of other hobbies, the saturday night asphalt racing is dying and the GREEDY track operators are suffocating the last bit of life from it.

[Mike Bresnahan]

If what your saying about the tires is true, I'd be calling the manufacture and complaining. Try finding them on eBay or call up a tire store out of this territory and order from them. Or better yet, don't support an owner that doesn't support you. Remember it's a HOBBY.

[Rick B.]

Just to be clear with the facts

Last years pit pass was $25 not $20. It was raised $5
But if you go on the payoff's all of the payoff start money was increased by more than $5. Also we did away with the $15 charge to register your cars number as well. Gary has spent a bunch of money to fix the place up from stuff being let go. You will see new bathrooms, new handicap rest room. Others stuff painted and replaced. VIP tower repaired. Buildings all painted and much more. Most every track is charging $25 or $30 more $30.
The season pass for grandstands was not changed that is what was still up and we are reveiwing those along with sign and sponsor packages.
Gary is the one with the big investment here, he has negociated a lower gas price for the drivers and we continue to look at everything we can, but I do not feel $5 increase in the pits for all that is being done and has been done is so bad.
We will not get in to arguments on here with people, but I did feel we needed to be sure the facts were stated. Thanks