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I will tell you what went down, but you'll have to forgive the fact that this is a Florida board and it happened tonight at Fayetteville Motor Speedway in NC.
I made my first visit to FMS tonight; it is a very nice 1/4 mile dirt. The surface preparation was excellent, they had 8 local classes with plenty of cars, perfect weather, a good crowd....what could go wrong?
The show sucked because of its organization.
They opened "the show" with 3+ hours on qualifying, hot laps and track prep. Yep, more than 3 hours to qualify every car in every class, and then they all started straight up. Halfway through qualifying I was already zoned out and looking at my phone.
The FIRST race finally rolled off at 9:15, then they had INTERMISSION! Try running a slow show like this in Florida, and a riot would break out like it was BLM night at the track.
Something struck me as very funny during intermission. They had a candy drop where a few hundred kids gathered below the starters stand, and the starter rained down a treat provided by a local sponsor. Tonight, the sponsor was a septic tank company. Was it sick that I imagined the potential for a horrible practical joke regarding the sponsor? It all ended well however. The starter dropped down several pounds of candy and everyone went away happy.
Everyone except me. For starters I didn't get any candy. And I had a long drive back coupled with a very early morning coming on Sunday. So I bailed at 11 after seeing THREE out of eight features.
This is a racey track, and the teams came prepared to go. I don't fault them at all. The starter was impatient like I was. In fact, I could see he was at war with the infield crew who were moving like DOT employees on a highway project.
The take-away is that the track fumbled an opportunity to make new race fans. The show started so slowly and so late that I suspect many fans checked out and never got into it. A damn shame, but I bet they do this every week. Racing in the Carolinas is no where near as entertaining as it is in Florida!
I made my first visit to FMS tonight; it is a very nice 1/4 mile dirt. The surface preparation was excellent, they had 8 local classes with plenty of cars, perfect weather, a good crowd....what could go wrong?
The show sucked because of its organization.
They opened "the show" with 3+ hours on qualifying, hot laps and track prep. Yep, more than 3 hours to qualify every car in every class, and then they all started straight up. Halfway through qualifying I was already zoned out and looking at my phone.
The FIRST race finally rolled off at 9:15, then they had INTERMISSION! Try running a slow show like this in Florida, and a riot would break out like it was BLM night at the track.
Something struck me as very funny during intermission. They had a candy drop where a few hundred kids gathered below the starters stand, and the starter rained down a treat provided by a local sponsor. Tonight, the sponsor was a septic tank company. Was it sick that I imagined the potential for a horrible practical joke regarding the sponsor? It all ended well however. The starter dropped down several pounds of candy and everyone went away happy.
Everyone except me. For starters I didn't get any candy. And I had a long drive back coupled with a very early morning coming on Sunday. So I bailed at 11 after seeing THREE out of eight features.
This is a racey track, and the teams came prepared to go. I don't fault them at all. The starter was impatient like I was. In fact, I could see he was at war with the infield crew who were moving like DOT employees on a highway project.
The take-away is that the track fumbled an opportunity to make new race fans. The show started so slowly and so late that I suspect many fans checked out and never got into it. A damn shame, but I bet they do this every week. Racing in the Carolinas is no where near as entertaining as it is in Florida!
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