Citrus County Speedway cancels remainder of season….

[Matt Albee]

You sir, have just won idiot of the year! I won a whopping $250 bucks in 2009 when I was track champion. It has ZERO to do with the money and EVERYTHING to do with principle.If 50/50 tickets were sold under the pretense that "half goes to the points fund" and a portion from every tire sold goes into the general points fund it is OWED to the drivers. If you knew anything about racing other than what you watched on TV or from the stands you would know this. That's how the banquet and points fund is generated in most cases. It would be no different than my daughter selling Girl Scout Cookies in the neighborhood and POCKETING the half that was suppose to go to the intended cause...the Girl Scouts. If Laplant doesn't give those guys a banquet and at the very least trophies, he is no better than a common THIEF.

" it has ZERO to do with the money and Everything to do with principle "
" if 50/50 tickets were sold under the pretense that "half goes to the points fund" and a portion from every tire sold goes into the general points fund it is OWED to the drivers ".
Make up your mind!
I'll help you out. Yes, it has everything to do with the money and NOTHING to do with a glamorous night out. And if the money is owed to the racers then i hope they'll get it. And the trophies, and the embroidered jackets, and all the press coverage the class champions deserve. But the track is closing for the rest of the year, and potentially longer, so maybe there are bigger issues for racers and fans alike.
It's been said before and it's still so true. It takes a lot of money to run a track, it can't be done on a shoestring budget. And it takes an owner/leasee who can manage the place. It looks like Gary had neither and thats a shame for a track with the history and fan/racer base that Citrus has.

[Benny The Mule]

" it has ZERO to do with the money and Everything to do with principle "
" if 50/50 tickets were sold under the pretense that "half goes to the points fund" and a portion from every tire sold goes into the general points fund it is OWED to the drivers ".
Make up your mind!
I'll help you out. Yes, it has everything to do with the money and NOTHING to do with a glamorous night out. And if the money is owed to the racers then i hope they'll get it. And the trophies, and the embroidered jackets, and all the press coverage the class champions deserve. But the track is closing for the rest of the year, and potentially longer, so maybe there are bigger issues for racers and fans alike.
It's been said before and it's still so true. It takes a lot of money to run a track, it can't be done on a shoestring budget. And it takes an owner/leasee who can manage the place. It looks like Gary had neither and thats a shame for a track with the history and fan/racer base that Citrus has.

I see the views from both of you, Matt and Nathan on this. I will add that i knew it would take a guy on his "A" game to make the track continue success when Showtime re-opened. Many of the regulars were from Tampa. MOST of the fans in the stands were local and there to see great racing. When i was going there over the years they got just that, great racing. I raced there some myself and crewed on a few cars when i wasn't and that place never let me down for a show. I noticed lately before i came back to NC the fan base was shrinking........due to lower car counts and quality of racing. It's a great place and hope it comes back to life.

[ocalaisback3]

Mr Florian please spare us. We get it you hate Gary. Your constant bashing of him is almost obsessive. How do you know he doesn't have health problems? Do us all a favor stop acting like you represent all of citrus county/inverness. I deal with alot of businesses in the area and very few have actually heard of CCS. So explain to me how he has burnt bridges with all the local businesses? I wish Gary all the best while i know his intentions were good i don't quite think he knew what he was getting into.

[dd38]

Unfortunately the oval track at Orlando is shut down because apparently the new owner does not like circle track racing.

[Phil Jacques]

Unfortunately the oval track at Orlando is shut down because apparently the new owner does not like circle track racing.

Would you give it the F up dude? HOLY F'N HELL! This post has NOTHING to do with Orlando! If you got such a problem with them, grow a set and call them and tell them instead of hiding behind a forum name.

[Don Nerone]

so as the track promoters get a belly full of the bashing and name calling and clost the local tracks how long will it take for the few of you to make it so we have no place to go?
Some day you will run out of people that are race fans that have enough money to try to be a promoter and save a track.
My children were bashed in school buy the kind of racers that love to hate.
It wasent to bad in my day because the on line race forms were few and far between.
Now days every tome a promoter does something that one racer didn't like the post start. 100s of them over one time that the officals wanted to look at someones car.
I have watched Gary get beat up for months over the smallest things that till he had enough of the trash talkers.
Rember I think his rent is payed for next year .
Would you blame him if he just left it closed for another year.
How about if the county needed a parking lot and they don't want to put up with the bashers either.
Keep up the trash and you will lose another local track.
Grow up people its a hobby.

Don62

[Don Nerone]

Would you give it the F up dude? HOLY F'N HELL! This post has NOTHING to do with Orlando! If you got such a problem with them, grow a set and call them and tell them instead of hiding behind a forum name.

every one knows who he is that's for sure .
Thinking he is saying that this is going to happen in citrus like it did in Orlando

don62

[OldSchool+]

Don, you have been around the bullring a few times and are familiar with the Inverness deal.

Given that the "rent is paid for the next year" and given that good racing is the objective, what would your suggestions to Gary be, assuming he gave you full rein?

[Phil Jacques]

every one knows who he is that's for sure .
Thinking he is saying that this is going to happen in citrus like it did in Orlando

don62

Doesn't matter Don, he posts the same exact thing almost word for word any time a track discussion of any sort comes up.

There is a man here with health issues which is extremely unfortunate and sadly a track had to close it's doors at least temporarily as we hope. The issue with Orlando is a different deal and is not even relevant at this point.

If it weren't for seeing Dave post the same thing 15 times in the past 2 months, it would be different. I understand him being upset, and his passion. I love Orlando too, and I have been doing all I can to help them over there with anything I can, even from 1500 miles away. But it's gotten old and I think everyone on the board get's his point much the same way they got sick of me saying to support Orlando every 5 minutes. It gets old

[Phil Jacques]

Don, you have been around the bullring a few times and are familiar with the Inverness deal.

Given that the "rent is paid for the next year" and given that good racing is the objective, what would your suggestions to Gary be, assuming he gave you full rein?

I know it's not directed towards me, but I will interject a little bit of my thoughts here.

I have said it up here many times. Tracks need other tracks to survive. If you look up at what just happened to Gresham in GA you will see much truth to that. As soon as Lanier closed it's doors, with SGMP being so far away, many of the regulars sold out or went dirt racing. When it closed, Gresham was averaging worse car counts than the worst track in FL with 3-7 cars per field AVERAGE...

The tracks all need to get on the same page. Put their pride aside and understand that to survive for the long term, they all need to have some sort of agreement to work with each other to an extent if not completely. There are many racers that would surely love to race multiple tracks every year and some even every week. I think having every track in FL running on Saturday alone is a bad thing. I bet if you spread out racing from Thursday Night to Sunday Afternoon and didn't have tracks stepping on each others toes it could work better for everyone.

Varying rules between tracks so close together as they are on the west coast can pose problems too. If one track rains out and another misses the storm, a driver might want to head for another track but if it requires changes to their cars, they likely just stay put.

I'm not saying any of this will solve everything and make everything magically better... It's one key to a large puzzle. with Desoto and NSS on an upswing and other tracks maintaining or struggling there is a vast difference obviously in idea in racing in FL. if you got all heads together and put ideas out, things stand a good chance to turn for the positive, especially if everyone is in agreement and works together.

I know, it's a pipedream.

[Don Nerone]

A good start over is needed there.
Wash the old taste out of every ones mouth and start with reg old time weekly stock car racing.
Rebuild the faith in the fans so they will return to the track.
There are many ways to do these things but I wont and cant list them on here.
Pay no attention to any one that only thinks of them self or there eago on the internet.
Its a great track and puts on a great show.

Ok here is one

If you went to a new restrant that claims to have great food and it sucked.
Nest week they ha a ad on TV that said come back it better now would you go back?? (no)
If the ad said comeback its better now and this week its FREE then would
you go back??
The job is going to be tough but it can be done there .
There are lots of race fans there..
God bless Dan Jones he showed all of us how to do it..

Don62

[Groundpounder]

The handful of folks bitching on message boards did not cause problems at Citrus...that's a real stretch. In the big picture it's nothing. The reality is though, social media is part of life now whether one likes it or not. I do seem to recall him bitching on this forum when he lost out at Punta Gorda...that's ok though, right?

Did he really promote to the fans in his market, other than using the FREE internet? Which may be the case... If he did any other promotion, he chose the wrong method. Did he create a reason for people to come with building a great show? I seem to remember a few "morning after" type DQ's...Did he welcome his participants? I remember him initially ignoring TBARA who had a turn key program...you know like Sinatra says "I did it my way"??? He had some nights of good car counts. It's up to HIM and his STAFF to get the message to fans so that He can make some money.

Bottom line it's the promotor's responsibilty.

[Matt Albee]

But it never seems to be the promoters fault.

[Groundpounder]

But it never seems to be the promoters fault.

As AJ would say "that's quite true"...

[OldSchool+]

Maybe a meeting could be set up with the racers, with the stated goal of moving forward with racing and getting along, not beaching about the past.

Concerns could be raised, and dealt with, and then an event scheduled.

Ironically it appears that it costs a lot more money to rebuild than to build.

Keep in mind that this would not be a bend-over by the promoter.

Somehow Yoho has packed pits and packed grandstands, and he is not begging them to show up. In fact, HOW DOES he do that?

He RUNS the show, arguably with a heavy hand, and the racers come? LOTS of racers. Including the ones that got pulled out of there with the motor running by a wrecker previously.

If it is money, then that should be a self-admission by promoters. If you don't have the jack, Jack, it is going to be a tough row to hoe.