The cost of racing!

[play4kps]

Dirttrackker did a great show about the cost of just showing up at a late model event. Whether we want to bury our head in the sand and ignore it, or look for solutions. One big thing is purse structure, top heavy purses are bad for the sport. 125,000 to win and 6,000 for 6th is a joke. Dirt late model racing needs a couple tracks to go all in on late models, like several tracks have done for sprints. Example Knoxville raceway sprints are thriving, 5000 to win weekly and 20,000 to win the points. Look at payouts for 2 thru 4, 2nd 3,000, 3rd 2,750 and 2,500. Husets pays between 4,000 and 5,000 weekly. Port Royal pays 4,000, 2,000 and 1,500. Those tracks are helping the sprint car racing sport grow. The feeder system for late models shrinks more and more every year. Only a fool looks and gauges the health of the sport based on Lucas, WOO and Eldora events. A few tracks need to do this for the dirt late model world. Or Lucas Oil and WOO need to create a feeder system. Or maybe some of the corporate sponsors of those series help fund this to happen.

[Pennsboro32]

This is the year that will be known to hurt DLM racing the most imo. Rumblings of some teams throwing in the towel.

[noitall93w]

such as who?

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

This is the year that will be known to hurt DLM racing the most imo. Rumblings of some teams throwing in the towel.

I'd say just final straws for some. The damage was done at least 10 years ago.

[Tireguy17]

I could be wrong but thought I had heard the weekly Knoxville races lose money, it's funded by a portion of the profits made off the 410 Nationals week.

[play4kps]

We need to stop making excuses. Have you seen the payout for the Knoxville nationals?
1. $185,000 2. $85,000 3. $45,000 4. $30,000
5. $25,000 6. $24,000 7. $23,000 8. $22,000
9. $21,000 10. $20,000 11. $19,500 12. $19,250
13. $19,000 14. $18,750 15. $18,500 16. $18,250
17. $18,000 18. $17,500 19. $17,000 20. $16,500
21. $16,000 22. $15,500 23. $15,250 24. $15,000

Not just some top heavy payout.
1500 for last in B-main and 900 last in C main. So they actually payout decent for not making the feature.
Example 20,000 for 10th at Knoxville nationals, 10th at World 6,000.

[Tireguy17]

The Knoxville Nationals purse is impressive, but they are making A CHIT TON more than they pay out as well.

Grandstand capacity: 20,322
Saturday sells out @ $60/each = $1,219,320

2023 total purse from their website: $1,159,005

Saturday grandstands alone pay the purse for the entire week.

[Paradox28]

As I keep saying... "we need more money" is the easy part. Someone start figuring out where money can/will/should come from.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

The sport used to be a lot bigger than the guys who decide to venture to Eldora. I'm concerned about that class of racer having a place to race. Guys that have 1/2 million+ budgets do not concern me.

The payout of one big race doesn't fix anything.

[84wedge]

This is the year that will be known to hurt DLM racing the most imo. Rumblings of some teams throwing in the towel.Teams such as?

[MRM]

This is the year that will be known to hurt DLM racing the most imo. Rumblings of some teams throwing in the towel.

Most teams are losing a lot of money. I know they're not in it to make a fortune. But they're not in it to lose a fortune either. On the other hand, just wait until these teams start rolling into the track in a new $1 million+ rig.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

Most teams are losing a lot of money. I know they're not in it to make a fortune. But they're not in it to lose a fortune either. On the other hand, just wait until these teams start rolling into the track in a new $1 million+ rig.

We have been thru an extended period of low interest rates and economic prosperity. Wait until the economy actually takes a dive. It may actually provide the collapse needed to reform the sport in a positive way.

[play4kps]

The Knoxville Nationals purse is impressive, but they are making A CHIT TON more than they pay out as well.

Grandstand capacity: 20,322
Saturday sells out @ $60/each = $1,219,320

2023 total purse from their website: $1,159,005

Saturday grandstands alone pay the purse for the entire week.

Eldora gets that many if not more. And Eldora sells far more beer, liquor, and food. If we continue to make excuses, we will continue to slide down. 99% of late models that run at weekly tracks have no chance of running competitively with the top tier teams. That used to be charm of dirt late model racing, watching the locals compete with the big name travelers. Those days are long gone.

[Pennsboro32]

Eldora gets that many if not more. And Eldora sells far more beer, liquor, and food. If we continue to make excuses, we will continue to slide down. 99% of late models that run at weekly tracks have no chance of running competitively with the top tier teams. That used to be charm of dirt late model racing, watching the locals compete with the big name travelers. Those days are long gone.

What locals? There are none anymore.

[jog49]

play4kps.....

Every promoter in the country will accept your contribution to their purses and you will become well known!

[EvelB7]

Alright, how about all the money North Carolina tossed around at the end of covid to 'help racing'? I stood at another facility that could use a facelift to make it more 'fan friendly' and wondered why they did not get the 'help' that was promised. Seems like most of the money went straight to North Wilksboro and that crowd....Shame, think how much better it could have been to spread the $20 million around to maybe 20 tracks (dirt, pavement, drag, etc.) and truly helped a much bigger community. Most of the tracks in our area haven't seen paint in years then wonder why they are not attracting a new group of fans. Nope, they gave our tax money to an organization that bought the track to strip it's dates, not to mention they seem to have the funds to run their other tracks without issue.

[play4kps]

Jog49, that attitude fixes nothing, for starters at least balance the purse. As Dale Mcdowell even stated, its hurting the sport. And 84 wedge, how about Spencer Hughes race team, the Scott brothers, this is just the beginning. And Mastersbuilt your spot on, a lot of these teams did it to themselves, changing chassis every week, fortunes spent on shock packages and select teams hiring hundreds of thousands of dollars in engineers. Inflation is out of control and the sport needs to be proactive. But I can assure you when the corporate sponsors of the 2 biggest series are helping fund the demise of this sport, nothing will change.

[Kipimak]

I find it amazing that 14 regulars ran the entire Lucas tour and 15 regulars ran the entire WOO tour. The series must be doing some things right, or a lot of these guys would have dropped off.

[lurker]

We have been thru an extended period of low interest rates and economic prosperity. Wait until the economy actually takes a dive. It may actually provide the collapse needed to reform the sport in a positive way.

Agreed 100%. The re-set is coming.

[Pennsboro32]

I find it amazing that 14 regulars ran the entire Lucas tour and 15 regulars ran the entire WOO tour. The series must be doing some things right, or a lot of these guys would have dropped off.

that’s why some are going out of business. Lot of teams have no business running a national tour financially.

[kidrock]

Could we possibly see WOO and Lucas merging into one?

[Highside Hustler25]

I find it amazing that 14 regulars ran the entire Lucas tour and 15 regulars ran the entire WOO tour. The series must be doing some things right, or a lot of these guys would have dropped off.

Yup. A lot of people (including myself) thought a lot of those guys would bale. More stuck it out then expected.

[Bforwarned]

You have the big boys, then you have the crates still surviving. The regular weekly shows have all but dried up. The local tours are usually lucky if they can draw 20-25 cars. Most of them only pay 3 to 5 grand to win, which don't cover many expenses. Then you see Hobby Stocks for sale for 30 grand and stockcars for 60 grand. The average guy is lucky to afford a compact if he wants to race anymore.

[Josh Bayko]

Could we possibly see WOO and Lucas merging into one?

Maybe someday, but not soon. There’s more than enough pie for both.

[Raceready]

Could we possibly see WOO and Lucas merging into one?That could be one step further to follow the rest of the country into socialism ? It would be a nice idea if it made more money for the drivers throughout the field and had more dollars going to the non qualifiers. . .

[chopter33]

the sport is more available then its ever been. to a limited amount of fans. htf is doing it right imo. lots of content that everyone has access to. others not so much.

[Mod Runner]

I would not like to see a merger between WOO and Lucas. Each series has its own character. I enjoy going to both Lucas SLM and WOO SLM races. Choices are always great.
As far as the SLM feeder system drying up , no worries because there are enough modified racers taking up the slack and moving into SLM cars. The modifieds are the new feeder system for the Super Late Models.

[SLlDlNG SIDEWAYS]

^WoO and Lucas aren't gonna get married like one poster, for whatever reason thinks that might be in the future, God only knows... Grin

[dirtcrazy4u]

I find it funny in that knoxville, for the sprints, and of course eldora for the slm guys. Never have issues for there 2 biggest races of the year. The money is great at both, yet in reality everybody knows the guy winning the knoxville nationals or the world 100 comes from a small percentage of those that have entered. Case in point, million to win for the sprint car guys this year at eldora, why was there not over 100 cars ?

Knoxville has the slm race that everyone thought was going to be the greatest thing that ever happened. It's a flop.

There are tracks that have really nice purses for there big races in both slm and sprints yet they are on life support because drivers and fans do not support the show. Read flop above for one.

Nobody understands why this happens, the promotors don't because they feel if the purse is right there is no reason why it is not successful. Tulsa for 2 weeks for the micro's then midgets gets enough back gate from those 2 weeks than some promotors make in a year.

Tony Stewart has the grounds of what Earl built. It is probably the only track in America that profits every time they open the gates. Why ? My opinion, these places are mystical places of every drivers dream of wanting to race there. Not win, because few ever will. But they want to be a part of it. Unless you can somehow build on that and that alone. Everyone will scratch there heads and say why.

[dirtcrazy4u]

Oh, and pennsboro making a comeback. I thing the fans, that used to climb the hill and walk long distance from where you parked are gone. The cars today race so much different, but yet because of the name, PENNSBORO, the promotors are hoping they will come. I hope to make it, as I'm sure many others do, will it be the same place. Not a chance.

[jr29]

It's not an original thought, but as long as these guys are running around with $400,000 toters and trailers I just don't really want to hear about how expenses are getting out of hand.

[MEE]

Could we possibly see WOO and Lucas merging into one?LOL not enough provisionals

[Raceready]

LOL not enough provisionalsFunny but true ! !

[cgrace]

It's not an original thought, but as long as these guys are running around with $400,000 toters and trailers I just don't really want to hear about how expenses are getting out of hand.Many have toters that cost far, far less than that. PLUS, toters are the only thing that holds their value or may increase in value.For a while, a toter was cheaper than a newer F350 :)