Up date on adjustments to the BUDDYS Late Model 150 Memorial at CCMP on 1-16&17th-10!

[Bobby Diehl]

\The race is still 3 weeks away. I have made some adjustments. So if you have any suggestion please call or post your Ideas (or concerns).
Here are the changes thus far (thanks for your calls):

We are counting the first 100 laps (green and yellow).
At 101 till 125 only the first three yellow flags will be counted.
the last 25 will be green lap only.
We are still having "The Uncle John's Sausage Challenge". This will happen at the end of the first 75 laps. It will be 10 minutes. The top six will pull their starting position for the second half. This will make for a exciting part of the race. During this time the Fans get a break to stretch, use the rest rooms,or grab a bite to eat. With the Teams can only do on track refueling, clean the windshield, tire pressure only.

We are looking at the idea of starting number with a last chance race allow everyone to get a chance to race. So give your suggestion. The final format will be in stone shortly. So put on the wizard hats and voice your ideas.
Here is the line up (people who have said if they are coming):
Joe Winchell
Steve Dorer
Blake Koch LM and FASTRUCK
Wayne Anderson (90% sure to be there)
Travis Hanson
Brian Blum
Team Bigley (Drivers TBA)
Richie Anderson
Steve Gill
Barry Bartlett III (hoping to get the parts back for his rear end)
Johnny Kay
Gary Padual
Bobby Shelton
Tuffy Hester
Patrick Starpoli
Ross Chastain
Andrew Carbonell
Dustin Dunn
So if you know of anyone who is not on the list have them call me for pit pass packages. 813-817-7223.
Thanks and looking forward to your ideas.
Bobby Diehl

[andre]

So if you have any suggestion please call or post your Ideas

Turn this race into the real show of the year, let's see who has balls & talent:

Milk Bowl Style.... 3 segments of 50 laps, whole field inverted for 2nd and 3rd segments.The best average wins the show, and whoever wins, he(she) will have ''earned it''

[sunshinestateracing1]

Flvideo Bob

Be sure and pack extra tape, sounds like we are going to be in for some great racing action and with the two camera's we run should have great coverage of the action. Sounds like the 150 laps could be action packed.

Can not wait to hear more ideas and see how the race ends up being run.

Robert

[flvideo]

Your are right Robert!

Andre I knew there was good reason to like you, that sounds like good racing. 150 green flag laps. count no caution laps. Fuel and tires between segments. Now that will give the fans a race and should be fun for drivers as well. Bob..

[Bobby Diehl]

Andre now you got the IDEA!!!!

That sounds WILD!!!! Might be just alittle intimidating for some of the Teams on a budget. But, keep thinking. We are listen.......

[andre]

might be just alittle intimidating for some of the Teams

I'm sorry but if you are to be intimidated by a race format, you do not belong in a race car, period...

Keep on putting the fastest qualifier on the pole and you're not done seeing empty grandstands. For one show in the season, put the fans first.

And BTW, I have personnaly seen race cars win races like this format with all their body panels on at the end and scratchfree. The driver(s) make the difference, not the format. The format will only make it more entertaining.... Idiots will entertain the fans and real race car drivers will get the honors, trophies and check$.

[Bobby Diehl]

Sound like WILD format!!!

Where have you seen this format. This would be one to look at it. I like to talk to the promoter and discuss the nuts and bolts of the Event. Looking forward to you response. Thanks
Bobby Diehl

[Osmosis Jones]

He told you.....

The Milk Bowl is held at Thunder Road in Vermont.

Start here:
http://www.thunderroadspeedbowl.com/

Then try here:
http://www.thunderroadspeedbowl.com/...ll&mode=search


Maybe Tom Curley should write a book like Coach Gibbs....he has a history of doing the unpopular thing because it was the right thing. He also seems to have grasped many years ago that a spectator sport has to have spectators to survive.

Good luck trying to get any of these pampered, primadonnas to start any further back than the roll of the die (how rollling a die become the standard for lining up a Late Model race I'll never know).

[andre]

Yep! You can contact Tom Curley and tell him that André Fortin from Québec told you about the Milk Bowl, it's format and how successfull it is.

[flvideo]

That looks like some heads up racing Matt. The back staight is kinda hairy. You go off in never never land. That was some good 3 wide racing according to the picture gallery. Some good crashes. That seems like a good format to me. It gives more teams the oppurtunity to win. Even if they don't win the overall. Its like 3 50 lap races. I don't see the big deal. But thats just me I don't see too good any way. I talked to one of our regular car owners a little while ago and he said they aren't coming because we are going to start too many cars. He didn't seem to be concerned about three segments. Thanks for that link Matt. wasn't there a movie made about that track? Bob..

[Bobby Diehl]

Working from the rear to support the Teams.

We are working hard to support the RACER. It started with Hester Transport sponsoring lap 50 for the 14th place for $100.00. Yesterday Signage Pro said they would sponsor 10 laps for a $100.00 Gift Certificates on a $500.00 graphic package adding $1000.00 to the Lap Sponsorship. Also said to use the 10 laps working backwards from lap 150 to fill in the laps and positions from the end of the laps taken. They are wanting to see every Team get a chance at the lap money or prizes. They also want you to determine what position to give the 10 laps. So give your opinion on which position you would like to see where the sponsorship goes. Call Sherri Krom, (941-809-3498) or me (813-817-7223) to join the support for the drivers. We only have 139 left.
Thanks will keep you up dated.
Bobby Diehl

[carolwicks]

Andre...

SPECTACULAR idea... i think our drivers are up for the challenge. We have some die hard racers who have the nads to do it and I sure hope Bobby takes on your idea. Sounds like you got him motivated and excited! Maybe not enough time for this race but in the future. Florida racing does need a facelift... I can bet that Joe Winchell will do it. ;-)... Joe and others are excited by new challenges...I am ready for some changes... BUT... we do have to keep racing affordable for the drivers and the fans...if not, nothing will fill the stands. Maybe putting aside a %tage of all money taken in just for advertising would help, but in the past personal contact worked the best and if the promoter is excited you can pass that on to the media. But you have to go there. After a few visits you can accomplish things via phone... PERSONAL CONTACT! Make the person you are talking to know that what they are doing will make a BIG difference in the community. Another exciting place to bring their family.... I still talk to people who don't even know we have a track in Charlotte County. New people coming in every year. emails are ok but go to people who already know. Same with the message boards... we have to reach the public! The restaurant thing is ok if our people go inside and politely drop off brochures at every table. Pick a time when people are waiting for a waiter and not trying to enjoy a meal. Concentrate on the people who start asking questions. Standing outside talking to one another is not going to get it...Just a suggestion to help. Not criticism.
carolwicks aka OZ
Andre... have read your posts and you seem VERY knowledgable. Keep those ideas coming. We need help... not a single track in Florida can boast full stands or great car counts... only on special occasions. we need to do it every week. There are about 4,000 racers in this state! and millions of people! This isnt to say that some arent working very hard... they are... but change is needed... or consistancy. Sheri Krom showed us how it can be done. Her first race was a complete success and she had most of it done before we even knew. It never seemed about her. Her efforts were for the Sportsman series ... in turn it helped the track. An amazing job...

[andre]

Carolwicks,

1st, thanks for the compliment, appreciate.

Secundo, when you mention ''we do have to keep racing affordable for the drivers'', well I have to say that I do not agree 100%. I agree that local racing has to be done within limit. But stopping a promoter of doing a certain entertaining format of race Bcuz it might involve some graphic scratching, there I stop. And I will tell you why.

Every where you read these days is stop the spending, be carefull how much it will cost with those rules, make the rules so it is inexpensive, inexpensive racing, AFFORDABLE THIS... AFFORDABLE THAT.... AND ON AND ON AND ON.

And the first thing you hear is they (racers) are calling to rent the track at high price to spend day(s) practicing, showing up in their 2 stories trailers, pulled by brand new trucks, motorized pit bull tool boxes, enough 45 gallons drums of racing fuel to shake the whole county and more racing tires already mounted on wheels than you can count. In other words, Sprint Cup style..... And then they complain that starting from the rear of the pack might cost a fender or a rim !!!!BS...!!!! What if M Complainer goes to a regular race, start up front and in the first ten laps has a flat tire, what does he do then, load up and go home or change the tire and come back from the back?????

Come on!!! This is all ''catering to the racers''. Cater to the fans for a while, and watch what it does. Might just fill up the grandstands for a change. And like I wrote earlier, race format do not make crashes, drivers do.

[mr south 59]

The Milk Bowl has over a $76,000 purse and $10,000 to win. Buddys Late Model is about $2500 to win. That is the big differance. When Bobby said that it might be alittle imtimidating for some of the teams on a budget he didn't mean that the format was imtimidating. Or inverting every segment was imtimidating. He ment that the budget to run that format would imtimidate some of the teams. What a lot of the fans don't realize is that for a small team like mine(3 people total) I have to budget over $1200 to $1300 dollars to run this event. Now if we run the Milk Bowl format I need at least 2 more crew members to work on the car between segments. Two more sets of tires (the Milk Bowl is a 3 set race) and hope we don't have any damage because my budget just went to $2700 to $2800 to try and win a $2500 purse. The $2700 to $2800 wouldn't be to bad if I had a shot at $10,000 or even the $3000 that the Milk Bowl pays for a top 5 finish but not to run for $2500. And what does this do to the teams that just come out to the race to enjoy their selfs, stay out of trouble and try to get a good top 10 or top 5 finish. They won' show up.

My self. I don't think there should be a break in the race unless it's over what a normal fuel run would be. Like a 200 lapper or longer. Why do we need to stop? Put your best set up on the car fill it up and go run the 150 laps and lets see who can get there first. I don't see any reason to stop. Why, So we can let some of the guys catch back up? Let some of them work on their set up? And add fuel. Why? Run the 150 laps all out and put up a bonus for the top 10 qualifyers to start in the rear if they chose to.

If CCMP is going to do breaks and they are going to allow refueling during the breaks ( I think they shouldn't) than they need to run every car acrossed the scales right before we roll onto the track for the feature.

There are a handful fo racers out there that will spend unlimited amounts of money to go race. It seems to me that there used to be a promoter that said I don't want all of the late models in the state, I just want the best ones. That series is gone now because only the best (richest) could afford run it. Now those handful of teams with their 2 story trairers, brand new trucks, and Tires out the a$$ have to come and race at the tracks that made it affordable for the racers because they don't have a series to run in because who wants to go see a late model race with a handful of cars in it. That is exactily what is killing racing. Not making it affordable for the racers, only the rich ones. It takes more than a handful of rich racers to fill the stands. Out of the 30 or so teams that will run the CCMP 150 I bet only a handful will have 2 story rigs and I will bet that not one will rent the track.

[mr south 59]

I will bet that there is not one racer complaining about starting from the rear. I will bet that if you run the race Milk Bowl style and run the cost up to $3000to run the race you will only have those handful of rich team even enter. Who wants to spend $3000 to try and win $2500. I think that if we try to do it your way and not worry about trying to make it affordable for us little (poor) teams than you would only have those few rich teams at the track and only you and your handful of close friends would be in the stands. The next race you proabily wouldn't even go because it isn't "worth" it to go see 8 cars going around in circles. Meaning your $15 grandstand pass wasn't affordable enough to watch 8 cars. But that is ok. Because the next race that you didn't show up for only had those 8 cars that could afford to make it anyway. If you don't make it affordable for the racers than there won't be any cars to watch.