It's that time of year again, or maybe not? lol!

[Phil Jacques]

We have had no snow on the ground the past nearly 3 weeks. It's been sunny, fairly warm in the 50s here and beautiful. We've all been in our shops heaters going crazy and thrashing to get ready for this weekend. Finally we get to have track time! Mother nature says NO! 18" of snow on the ground makes your track look like this...

[OldSchool+]

C'mon now!

Get some sponsors with snow blowers.

Screw some studs in them tires. All them tires.

Get your life-partner to make a 55 gallon drum of hot chocolate.

And, of course, race on a Tuesday night!

Juuuuuuuuuuuuust kidding.

I do know where a nice sportsman car is that you could (buy and) race in the winter down heah.

[fred23]

This is the perfect post to show the biggest difference between racing in the north vs the south....It is March 17th and as you stated, guys have been working on their cars getting them ready for the season......I am not exactly sure when the season ends up there but I would imagine Halloween would be the latest that weekly racing would take place. Correct me if I am wrong.
So basically you have not been on the racetrack for 4 1/2 months. You haven't bought tires or fuel, smashed a fender or door, bent a rim or two, had to do weekly maintenance, paid a pit entrance etc.......Meanwhile, down here, our guys have been racing all along, maybe not weekly but the opportunity is there to do so if you wanted to. Hell, if you decide to run speedweeks, you race about 3 months worth in 2 weeks.

My point is, you race 7 months a year and we race 11 1/2 months a year. We have to spread our budget out for the entire year, while exposing said budget to much more wear and tear on the car itself. This affects the fans as well, they have to decide where and when to spend their dime over a year long opportunity compared to 7 months. Plus they aren't cooped up for 3 or 4 months jonesing to see races.

Not bashing the north, just comparing the apples and oranges.

Awesome picture by the way.......

Just my two cents.

[kendo]

Just about all racers up north run for points weekly,which is an added incentive to be at the track every week.Down here,hardly anyone races for points,with the points winner being the guy who shows up for the most races.Better not plan a wedding or funeral Saturday up north during race season because no one will attend.

I have noticed that Citrus has a nice year end points payout and has even posted it for everyone to see.What other track does that??? May be a key to their success so far.

[Phil Jacques]

This is the perfect post to show the biggest difference between racing in the north vs the south....It is March 17th and as you stated, guys have been working on their cars getting them ready for the season......I am not exactly sure when the season ends up there but I would imagine Halloween would be the latest that weekly racing would take place. Correct me if I am wrong.
So basically you have not been on the racetrack for 4 1/2 months. You haven't bought tires or fuel, smashed a fender or door, bent a rim or two, had to do weekly maintenance, paid a pit entrance etc.......Meanwhile, down here, our guys have been racing all along, maybe not weekly but the opportunity is there to do so if you wanted to. Hell, if you decide to run speedweeks, you race about 3 months worth in 2 weeks.

My point is, you race 7 months a year and we race 11 1/2 months a year. We have to spread our budget out for the entire year, while exposing said budget to much more wear and tear on the car itself. This affects the fans as well, they have to decide where and when to spend their dime over a year long opportunity compared to 7 months. Plus they aren't cooped up for 3 or 4 months jonesing to see races.

Not bashing the north, just comparing the apples and oranges.

Awesome picture by the way.......

Just my two cents.

Fred, while I understand your thoughts and argument, it's fairly flawed honestly.

True, we race from about St. Patrick's Day until Thanksgiving up in this area. There isn't the ability to race year round like you do. However something you are forgetting is that our tracks don't ALL race on Saturday.

In CT, Thompson Runs Wednesday 2 times, Sunday 3 times and Saturday 2 times, Waterford races 24 times, all on Saturday's and the two Saturdays Thompson races, the Speedbowl is off. Stafford runs 22 times, all on Fridays.

Looking at rosters, there are probably close to 30-35 drivers that will try to run the double or triple on any given week. Some even pull off multiple divisions at multiple tracks to race 5-6 times sometimes in one weekend.

While there is no true way to compare FL to CT when it comes to this, trying to say you guys race more, just isn't completely fair or accurate.

As Kendo mentions, up here, points is a big thing. We all run under NASCAR sanctioning so a lot of guys try to run every track every week while both running for National Points and Track and State points titles. If you go to nascar.com and look at their NWAAS national points standings, you will see many guys from Thompson, Waterford, Stafford and even Seekonk throughout most of Division 1, 2 and 3.

Down there, guys don't seem to race for points regularly unless it's one of these series that is 10-12 races at the most.

The argument could actually be made that we race more in 9 months than most FL drivers race in 12 honestly.

This isn't a dick measuring contest though. We are all racers, and we race when we can as much as we can afford to. It's what we do. Me, I race 7 races this year, 9 last year. It's what I do. I stick to Thompson cause that's what I can afford. There are some guys who run almost 100 in one season, some with the same car! There's not a single driver in FL I can think of (correct me if I am wrong) that runs near that number of races in a 12 month period.

[kendo]

In CT, Thompson Runs Wednesday 2 times, Sunday 3 times and Saturday 2 times, Waterford races 24 times, .

Well,looks like Waterfords future is in doubt,,,again.



https://patch.com/connecticut/newlon...ung-men-police

[OldSchool+]

Beyond bizarre.

Hopefully the sicko clown will sell the track to a racer to pay for his unsuccessful defense.

Even the northerners deserve much better than this.

(Phil, the beginning of your last paragraph is particularly ironic...)

[kendo]

Beyond bizarre.

...)

Race director & officials have resigned and NASCAR has pulled their sanction

[Bill Chapman]

Whats gonna happin at Waterford with out NASCAR?