If you have not looked

[Darren]

at the In Memoriam Bryan Wescott please do so . Thank you Jim for putting that up. I understand what and why you said that you did not what to take away from the thread. Please comment on the foot and shoe question. Also I wanted to start a new thread using that video in a respectful way to being out the old subject of - what has happen to local stock car racing. Look at what seen to be a pack grandstand and I beleive it is safe to say on just a reg. night of racing when you could get late models to stay at their home track. Also, on a reg. night of racing back then there was proably more people in the pits then show up at a race track now, pits and grandstands counted together. However, we have been over this many, many, many, many times before. Someone please correct me if I am wrong about this just being a reg. night of racing. If I am wrong, still more people there then there would be now at any local track on a special late model race. Something has to change in Florida.

[Jane]

There was a time, before I ever started writing for local racing, that if you did not get to Orlando or NSS EARLY, you could not and would not find a good seat. There were plenty of cars and plenty of fans and really, the grandstand admission was about the same as now maybe a few dollars less but not alot less. People had their favorites and would definitely voice their opinions on race night. Yes Darren, racing has changed alot and not for the better. Cars cost more to build now and sure look alot different. I remember once that a certain man told me that a Super Stock engine should NEVER cost more than $1500 to build but that is just not the case anymore. We once had a runabout and my stupid ex put more than $5000 in the motor and never did win a race.

I miss those days but have found that dirt racing has more open trailers like the old days and they seem to get good car counts and far more fans than asphalt. Don't know why but since switching to dirt from asphalt this year, I have seen a difference. Honestly, I don't know if they let cheating go too far in asphalt where the everyday racer found he could never win if he was legal and just did not have the money to cheat enough to win. But Mini Stocks use to be pintos that looked like a pinto but today they are more like small Late Models.

Who do we blame and how do we get it back, I wish I had the answer because I love Orlando and New Smyrna. But we have killed this subject over the years and nothing has ever been the answer. They tried lowering the grandstand admission, the pit admission and although those did help and you did see it help, owners must make money also.

The best track I ever went to was in the middle of a salvage yard and was done for pure fun. No one paid to race, no one paid to watch and the guys had a blast. It was just done for the pure love of running around in a circle beating and banging on each other until either the car died or they gave up. But expenses went up for owners and in return expenses went up for the racers and fans and it is just a no-win situation all the way around. I have seen 10,000 free tickets given away for a race and gotten a decent crowd but getting them to come back the next week is the trick.

Still today, I much rather go to a local race than a NASCAR race. Local racing is the heart of racing and if you truly want to see how it is really done, that is where you need to go. And again, support your local track because tomorrow it could be a shopping mall or be like Eau Gallie Speedway and just pieces left in an old field.

Anyway, that is my two cents for the day. Got to get ready to go to Volusia and then "Blast from the Past" tomorrow.

[Jim Fenton]

Thank you Jim for putting that up. I understand what and why you said that you did not what to take away from the thread. Please comment on the foot and shoe question.

Thanks for the kind words Darren.

FYI - I had already responded to your foot / shoe question in a new thread down at the bottom of the page in the forum titled; "Where Are They Now?" so I didn't want to duplicate it here.

Uhavaguden

[Jimmy McKinley]

RE: the Bryan Wescott crash video and crowds at the race track.

That *was* a regular Saturday-night crowd. We'd run Golden Gate (when it was open) on Friday nights; go get the motel room at Rodeway Inn at I-4 and 50th St in Tampa, head over to Nelson Bros Machine on Starkey Rd and get the car set up for Sunshine on Saturday morning. Head to the track about noon-one-ish, then race and head home Sunday morning. After Tampa closed, we'd run either DeSoto (remember when THEY ran on Friday nights...??) or Inverness.

In the early to late '80s at Sunshine, the place was absolutely PACKED every week; at least nine DIFFERENT divisions of cars; alternated Sprint Cars and Super Sixes every week, and alternated Mini Stock Figure Eight and Thunder Car/Street Stock Figure Eight. The (Super) Late Model feature was 25 or 30 laps, depending on how many cars showed; two or three heats per division, sometimes four or five for like the Thunder Cars/Street Stocks and Mini Stocks; and the SLM feature paid $1,000 to win. Fast guys started in the back every week, but if you missed two weeks or more, you went to the back as well.

It was probably the best racing I'd ever seen, and still haven't seen since.

[ronabneysr]

and folks that is really the way it was what fenton said

i remember leaving one race track were there was a race in after noon and another one that night

and while traveling to other track riding in back of trailer changing heads and oil before we got to other track

and to answere one other question about and open trailer at dirt tracks when you tear a car up it 'S LOT EASIER TO PUT IT ON AND OPEN TRAILER THAN AN ENCLOSED TRAILER BUT WHEN YOU STOP FOR BREAKFAST YOUR STUFF IS STILL IN ENCLOSED WERE THE THINGS ON OPEN TRAILER CAN WALK OFF

BUT LOT OF PEOPLE DO SEE CARS GOING DOWN ROAD WHICH IS GOOD