Can Friday night racing work?

[JackTripper]

While at OSW Friday night, I had a couple of conversations with some car owners and we got to talking about racing on Friday nights. One car owner said something that got me to thinking...so I figured I would post a poll and see if we can't have a somewhat decent discussion on this topic.

So - can Friday night racing still work in this day and age? If so, how? If not, why do you think that way?

[carolwicks]

Don't seem to work...

Jack... our track has tried some Friday nights for many many years and none of them have brought crowds or cars. People don't get home from work until 5 or 6 and then eat and shower... too much.... then theres getting ready for saturday...
for some reason it does work for ocala but i dont know why. ;-) we do have karts racing on friday nights.
actually, your poll says it all...
carol aka OZ

[Winger]

I'm curious to hear what the car owner said to get you thinking. It seems to work well at Ocala and I've seen it work at other tracks in the Northeast. I admit I haven't been to a Friday night show up north in a few years though. It is a little difficult if you get off work and then need to travel a couple hours to a show. Sure you might make it but you might choose to skip the show if you're tired.
BTW, I've seen early Sunday evening shows do extremely well. Cayuga County and Utica-Rome in NY are prime examples of that.

[Boneman]

I love having a Friday night track nearby. I can go to a track two nights a weekend without driving very far.

Yes, it is tougher to race on Friday nights. Either I have to miss a few hours of work and get there on time, or I show up late and miss practice. Either way, everyone else is in the same situation.

[AJ14]

I remember reading an article about Tony Stewart several years ago , and Tony was discussing his love of short track racing . At that time , which was the year before he started in Cup racing , he was racing 6 nights a week within reasonable driving distance of his home in Indiana . Then he found a dirt track that ran Super Lates on Wednesdays , so he was racing 7 nights a week . I know that area is a completely different market , and the people in Indiana do love their dirt track racing . But if there is a track running every night of the week somewhere around that area , then maybe which night of the week may not be as important as we think . And as was mentioned above , numerous tracks run Sunday afternoon and Sunday night and do just fine . I have heard from some fans and drivers over the years that Friday night races are good because they leave the rest of the weekend open for other things .

[andre]

Quality of events is more important than the day of presentation.

Everybody have seen it, track failing on Saturday, and other, having success on other days. Take Thunder Rd in Vermont, (1/4 mile high bank) being one of the most, if not the most, successfull short track in America, Thursday night.

Up here, we have one (paved) in Ottawa area that has been running on Wednesday for years. Autodrome Granby (dirt) is on Friday, and there's 3500+ every week for regular event, & up to 7500 to 8000 when Empire Super Sprint are in town.

The most attended paved oval race track for regular stock car weekly shows in Québec province is Autodrome Chaudière(1/4 mile progressive high bank) and they are on Friday.

Eastern Ontario, you have Cornwall,(1/4 mile dirt) that runs on Sunday. Always jam packed.

Does Friday works:Hell yeah!!! Give them what they paid for and they will come & come back for more, no matter what day it is.

Friday night are very good for concession too. Since many go from work to race track, lotsa people arrive hungry.

André

[Todd McCreary]

Quality of events is more important than the day of presentation.

this.

New Smyrna was actually running on Thursday nights for a while in the 70s and got very successful doing it.

[ancrdave]

In 1968 New Smyrna ran on Sunday nights with just one class... Late Models... Big field each week from all over FL... Three heats, a consy, and a 50 lap feature... Admission, I think was $3.50...

[JackTripper]

To answer Winger's question regarding, "I'm curious to hear what the car owner said to get you thinking," we were looking at the stands during the autograph session and I was telling him how I really thought there would have been a better fan turnout and he mentioned that he thinks today's families are too busy and spread out (commuting to work farther, daycare, etc.) to gather the family up and make it to a track on time on a Friday night. I wasn't thinking about it (not enough fans in the stands) that way, I was thinking about it from the point of view of me sitting on the fan's side of the bleachers and watching Sunbelt Series races in years past and wondering if I'd get to see a pass for the lead at some point of the night and never coming back.

[flvideo]

I think Friday nights can work well at almost any track. I have seen tracks run Fridays when they normally run Sat. and they don't normally have a good fan count or car count. That being said I think an area has to be conditioned for Friday racing. The start up will most probably be slow but it doesn't have to be.
As an example last year when the UDLMCS went to Ocala for their opening night and the stands were full, over 4000 people. I wasn't there for years before, but I understand the car count and the fan count had dwindled down to nothing. When we, the UDLMCS, were there for the opening show this year it was pretty much the same. I think the people will adjust to the friday Show making arrangements to do things differently. I think a later starting time, 8:00 would help, but like ccmp has a 11:30 Curfew and unless they cut the classes way down they would have less time to run the show. Just my thoughts. Bob...

[The Ocala Speedway]

Interesting post. We start our show at 8:00 on time. My staff makes that happen. The 8 start time is easier for our drivers on dirt than asphalt. When we were asphalt most of the drivers wanted to practice more and it was harder to get there much earlier. On dirt everyone gets one short practice session. We finish before 11. The last two weeks we finished at 10:30. We try to give the fans a 2.5 hour show.

[tccaz]

I think Fridays would work if the fans knew that there would be a good show waiting for them when they got there. There are other forms of entertainment that do well on Fridays and the people don't care whether they work on Sat. or not so that argument seems mute. If the tracks could somehow let the fans know who will be there it would help. I would have been at Orlando this past Friday if I had an idea who would be there, NSS 6 car super lates show last week scared me from that 100 mile drive.

[SeminoleWind]

I think Friday night shows have a better chance in less populated areas. Ever been stuck in Friday night traffic in Orlando? I've spent over 3 1/2 hours in traffic trying to make a Friday night qualifying/practice session at Lanier (Atlanta). I also think in more urban areas, the woman also works a job, which makes it even more difficult to assemble the family to go to the racetrack.

[georgep]

Friday Formula from the 1960's
Gates open at 6:30 pm. First Heat was at 8:30 pm. Show over by Midnight. Place was PACKED since people had time to get home from work, eat and go to the track. The had one warm-up at 8:00 pm and then raced.

[Winger]

I see the important points as follows: Provide a quality show. Start late enough for everyone to be able to get to the show and get it over with in a timely manner. Provide a quality show. Schedule around traffic issues. Provide a quality show. Sounds like the night isn't important.

Jack, I'm wondering if the reason the crowd was down was because of the quality of the show? Are there consistently good car counts with good racing and passing? Or is it a case of 8 different classes of cars with less than 10 cars per class, that just follow the leader? I don't know the answer to the questions and I'm not picking on OSW. I've only been there a few times for specials and I like the track. I do think it's important for tracks to run nights other than Saturday's. If all tracks ran the same night, the car counts would really be diluted.

Disclaimer: I came from an area of the country where the tracks had about 4 classes of cars with around 30 cars (or more) per class. It didn't matter what night they ran. I moved to Florida and quickly became disenchanted in the racing here. I stopped going for a while. Now I've lived here long enough to think that a 20 car field is great. At least I've convinced myself that it's good racing. Plus you can see some great racing during speedweeks. That will provide the boost a race fan needs.