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I got a chance to meet Bruce and Pat Eckel a couple of years ago at New Smyrna after reading their columns for many years in Racing News and now on the Hoseheads.com web site... These guys are ultimate race fans who have been following and writing about the sport for a long time... They now live in Indiana which is pretty much racing heaven in the U. S., especially if you are a Sprint Car fan... One of the biggest weeks in the Hoosier State is going on right now with USAC's Indaiana Sprint Speedweek that is held over a ten day period at seven different tracks... If you want to get a little taste of how a track owner can go above and beyond in promotion, check what Joe & Jill Spiker of Lincoln Park Speedway did for their fans this week... I'll re-print what Bruce wrote in it's entirety:
Tonight's destination was the Lawrenceburg Speedway for night three of Indiana Sprint Week but the trip there would take on a different pathway. Joe and Jill Spiker, promoters at the Lincoln Park Speedway, had offered a deal on the Indiana Open Wheel website to transport fans to Lawrenceburg via private coaches. There were no stipulations such as having to attend their Saturday night show of July 9th or so forth just fill out a form and send it to the email of Lincoln Park. Pat and I decided since it was only a 45 minute drive to Putnamville and a 2 1/2 hour drive to Lawrenceburg that we would rather drive 1 1/2 hours than 5 hours. So I sent in the form on Wednesday and an hour later a return email confirmed we had two seats on bus 2 heading to Lawrenceburg. Upon arrival at Lincoln Park we saw scores of people dressed in lime green t-shirts. Upon inquiring about all the t-shirts someone informed us that they were giving them out free to all the people taking the road trip. The t-shirt read: 2016 Indiana Sprint Week at the top with two sprint cars in the middle with Lincoln Park Speedway above the cars. On the bottom it read Lincoln Park 2016 road trip. So after changing our shirts and boarding the bus we were ready to go when Joe Spiker stepped on the bus, turned on the microphone and blew us all away when he announced that Lincoln Park would be paying everyone's admission into Lawrenceburg ($25) for us!!! WOW!! That was totally unexpected. Not only were you having someone provide free transportation on a comfortable bus to the trip wearing a free t-shirt but your admission was covered also. WOW!! I spoke with Joe later in the evening and asked him how and why he had put together this road trip. He explained that he and Jill like to do something for their loyal fans every year and came up with the road trip as they do not often get to go to other tracks during the year with everything going on operating their own track. This gave them and their fans a chance to do something different and have some fun to boot. Thank you Joe and Jill for the tremendous gesture shown to your loyal fans.
The show at Lawrenceburg had 42 Sprints and 26 UMP Modifieds - not bad for a Sunday night show...
Tonight's destination was the Lawrenceburg Speedway for night three of Indiana Sprint Week but the trip there would take on a different pathway. Joe and Jill Spiker, promoters at the Lincoln Park Speedway, had offered a deal on the Indiana Open Wheel website to transport fans to Lawrenceburg via private coaches. There were no stipulations such as having to attend their Saturday night show of July 9th or so forth just fill out a form and send it to the email of Lincoln Park. Pat and I decided since it was only a 45 minute drive to Putnamville and a 2 1/2 hour drive to Lawrenceburg that we would rather drive 1 1/2 hours than 5 hours. So I sent in the form on Wednesday and an hour later a return email confirmed we had two seats on bus 2 heading to Lawrenceburg. Upon arrival at Lincoln Park we saw scores of people dressed in lime green t-shirts. Upon inquiring about all the t-shirts someone informed us that they were giving them out free to all the people taking the road trip. The t-shirt read: 2016 Indiana Sprint Week at the top with two sprint cars in the middle with Lincoln Park Speedway above the cars. On the bottom it read Lincoln Park 2016 road trip. So after changing our shirts and boarding the bus we were ready to go when Joe Spiker stepped on the bus, turned on the microphone and blew us all away when he announced that Lincoln Park would be paying everyone's admission into Lawrenceburg ($25) for us!!! WOW!! That was totally unexpected. Not only were you having someone provide free transportation on a comfortable bus to the trip wearing a free t-shirt but your admission was covered also. WOW!! I spoke with Joe later in the evening and asked him how and why he had put together this road trip. He explained that he and Jill like to do something for their loyal fans every year and came up with the road trip as they do not often get to go to other tracks during the year with everything going on operating their own track. This gave them and their fans a chance to do something different and have some fun to boot. Thank you Joe and Jill for the tremendous gesture shown to your loyal fans.
The show at Lawrenceburg had 42 Sprints and 26 UMP Modifieds - not bad for a Sunday night show...