New Smryna 8/27/16

[OldSchool+]

Osw

Wow, I thought this thread would be a quick congratulations to the deserving NSS winners, Brad May & Patrick Thomas!

At any rate, regarding Speed World, I created a recent thread with the intent of resurrecting OSW, written from the perspective of track ownership and profitability.

I am available for honest and objective profit-based suggestions, as are a wealth of racers that would like the track to succeed, through Karnac or otherwise.

From there, it is up to Speed World ownership to determine if it is desirable & viable and move forward, either with assistance or without.

[Phil Jacques]

Wow, I thought this thread would be a quick congratulations to the deserving NSS winners, Brad May & Patrick Thomas!

At any rate, regarding Speed World, I created a recent thread with the intent of resurrecting OSW, written from the perspective of track ownership and profitability.

I am available for honest and objective profit-based suggestions, as are a wealth of racers that would like the track to succeed, through Karnac or otherwise.

From there, it is up to Speed World ownership to determine if it is desirable & viable and move forward, either with assistance or without.

You are wasting your time, and energy even caring at this point OS. Even when Carl was there, the place was in a downward spiral. Ozzy just put the nail in the coffin.

[OldSchool+]

I see. Their prerogative.

But for the record, you and I as well as "Katlizy" and many others here on KARNAC did our best to assist.

[OldSchool+]

Maybe the drifters will sub-let the joint and then in addition to their own events, host stock car events.

Think of it: Schlitz-aritas & refried beans-on-nachos available at the concession stand, and a Nissan 240SX pace car (sideways, of course)...

[zerofor]

It's their money and their ballgame

Fair enough. I doubt I would shell out a bucket full of money just to listen to somebody else's suggestions on how to spend it. But a couple things that I don't think track owners here in Florida seem to recognize. First off with all the businesses that fail nationwide that operate five,six,even seven days a week, how are you so confident you will succeed operating four or five days a month? There are other things that can be done with your properties on days that you don't race.After all a racetrack is just as much an event center as it is anything else.It just happens to have a big oval smack dab in the middle of it.Secondly Florida is unique in the fact that it has a large transient population. Here today gone for six months tomorrow. What is the one constant? The school's and the parents of the students. You absolutely need to get the schools involved down here because they are a very large part of the year round residents.There are a lot of ways to do this none of which involve a big monetary commitment. This could bring people to your racetrack who ordinarily never step foot on your property. Not to mention this may include a segment of the population that may come to bat for you in time of need. But why would you want their involvement when all they could do is maybe help keep your gates open?It sounds like a lot of effort and talking to people you may not want to talk to. News flash!! That's what a business involves. It's not all pie in the sky,go there for a few hours a week and go home.That's called winning the power ball.

[OldSchool+]

We could give out free race tickets along with the free lunches and backpacks.

Then they could all look at their guvment provided phones instead of coming to the track.

Actually, it pretty much looks like racing is done by the racers and for the racers. Like a fraternity, sort of.

That is, from track operators to car owners to race fans, you either "get it" or you don't.

Reaching out to the uninterested masses is not viable, imo.

What did the new ownership at Citrus and Showtime have? A decent sized chunk of cash dedicated to racing, with the understanding that a return--or even keeping the original considerable investment-- was questionable.

That is what it took, and that is what it will take with OSW.

Unfortunately, I think Phil is keeping all the investors with Racing in their blood up north.

[zerofor]

Yep.Because no business needs new customers. Then when all us old timers die off there will be plenty of empty seats for our ghosts to come sit in.

[OldSchool+]

Zero4, For sure, those are not bad suggestions, and will help peripherally, but precisely that sort of thing has been tried at Speedworld, and...

I would suggest it is more for the few kids that you can save.

But the track? Money is what makes the racing world go around, and there isn't any right now to spend on Speedworld.

[zerofor]

But what I'm talking about isnt giveaways O.S.

Giveaways only work for the short term and may be great for one night but...they mainly take away from profit and purse structure. I'm talking about truly getting schools involved in ways that show you are embracing them and the community just as much as you want them to embrace you.Especially in the somewhat smaller communities. (And I don't know for sure if you can count Orlando as such but Bithlo sure is.)If I go into specifics we could run this thread to twenty pages.But you can go to a race up in my old home state of Ohio and I'm talking about tracks like Fremont speedway,Attica Raceway ,Shady Bowl Speedway and the stands are packed and they are located in towns by and large that you can blink your eyes and miss them as you go through. And a lot of it is because they have very close ties to the community,both business and school. They promote the school's and their high school football games,print their football schedule in the track program,display the local teams schedules etc.I mean real community involvement and events geared towards the schools at the speedway. I keep hearing a lot of tracks say that the youth is the future of the sport.Well then prove you mean that !!!

[OldSchool+]

Zerofor,

I think those are admirable goals, truly.

And I think they may grow the sport incrementally.

But I would suggest they fall more under "philanthropy" than "profitability".

If, IF, a track had the interest and had the walls painted, the taxes current, the racers happy, the second mortgage caught up, and was actually operating in the black, then it might (or might not, depending on the viewpoint of the operator) be something to think about.

But it is not going to make any real money in the short term--or bankroll a start up.

It takes a large available source of funds to be able to absorb those costs. And where do the funds come from? Why, same as the car owners.

In most cases from money hard earned elsewhere as a business owner. From previous hard work and investment and risk.

Then, because they are racers at heart, they roll the dice and invest in a race track.

Again, thanks go out to those brave souls.

Remember, Citrus general admission $5. Those are 1965 prices. And they are there to gain market share (in fans).

They also have a very real cost, in lost revenue to offset no doubt huge startup costs.

Again, there has to be significant fundage available upfront to make it work. I just do not see any other way.

[zerofor]

Old school

Now as far as start up money goes you are talking about a horse of an entirely different color. Now the powerball part really might come into play. It would in the least take someone who is very well known in the local business community that people would put faith in that person to be willing to invest in that person as much as the track itself. But I see a disconnect between how dirt tracks largely go about things nowadays and how the blacktop tracks go about things. I go into pretty much any dirt track and see just about the entire racetrack surrounded by billboards and banners from both local and national chain businesses. I go to a blacktop track and see barely a half dozen or so.Why?Are the dirt tracks giving away free advertising space or are they working harder at gaining business sponsorship? Those billboards and banners are revenue. Programs are revenue. A lot of things are but I don't believe they are being taken full advantage of by blacktop track owners.Every butt you put in a seat is going to be some sort of revenue regardless of how you drag them in.I can't see very many people who would start up a business that only operates fifty or so days out of the year and think that could possibly fly very long.There has to be revenue coming in from other sources somewhere somehow or you at least better be damn good at what my dad used to call "creative bookkeeping."

[sbracer58]

Patrick I see you view but let me explain mine. NSS sportsman class has seen a ton of rule changes over the last 5 or so years every time it hurts the budget racer not the well funded team. Most of the budget guys accumulate parts (used ones)for there car over a period of time so when they break they can replace them. When a rule change happens all those parts plus the ones on the car become obsolete. Weight penalty dissapears in no time. Race shops and car builders destroy racing (lower classes)because they want to outspend the budget guy giving them the advantage. In my time affiliated in sportsman cars at NSS I have seen way to many changes who cares what the other tracks do!!!!sportsman rule changes in the last 5 yearsor so, that I can remember; tires,wheels,shocks,fire walls,lightwieght clutches, flywheels, quick changes,third links, motors,bodies, and I know I missed a bunch. I love NSS speedway but it gets tougher each year for the budget racer to stay involved. The well funded teams move on to the next big thing in a few years!

Richard Childress is famous for saying, "I can't afford for NASCAR to save me any more money." Meaning every rule change costs' a racer money...every time. STOP IT!

[OldSchool+]

I am all about saving the racers money, making the tracks more money, and increasing car count to improve the show for the fans.

That said, to recap this multipurpose thread:

>There is, and has been, a crate motor in the #111.

>The tracks make the rules, and vortec heads are legal.

>It's official, Citrus is open and Speedworld is closed.

>Brad and Patrick were feature winners @NSS 8/27.

Peace out.

[Lurkin]

Wait, we haven't heard RB answer my question.