Originally Posted by
W2Racing09
Here is what I always thought would work well.
25 Races per season, 75-100 laps racing on a Wed. night weekly at prime time (8PM-10PM EST). Broadcast on FS1 or NBCSN. $20k to win, $2k to start (+$1k for contract drivers). 20 drivers under contract to run every show, the remaining four spots could be track discretion based on local points, or the winner of certain races during the season, etc. The payout is good, but the exposure of live TV is also a prize that you could use to bring drivers in for other special events during the season.
The format would be just time trials (that pay a good amount of points, so no sandbagging) with a random invert of 4,6, or 8 and then a feature event 75-100 laps. This format would mean the show would last about two hours which is perfect for live TV. In addition, you would not have heat races to eliminate drivers meaning that you can guarantee to the network that all of your big name drivers will be in every show and won't be eliminated in heats or what not, but you still have the chance for the best local or regional guys to pull off the upset. Also you wouldn't have the track getting used up by all kinds of racing.
In this idea the point fund would be the big prize, not the regular race purses. You could use the TV contract, and TV sponsors to pay a huge point fund of $250k to the champion, $150k to second, etc. all the way back to 20th. Contract drivers would have to run every show in order to qualify for any point money.
The regular show purse wouldn't be crazy so tracks wouldn't have to charge crazy money to the fans, $20-$25 ticket. It is a weeknight, but with the added fans who would start watching the races on live TV every week I think you wouldn't have much of a problem filling up your stands for something like this.
Tracks would be the big thing, probably would be difficult to run live TV from some of these remote tracks. But places like Knoxville, Williams Grove, Rt 66, Charlotte, Eldora, Mansfield, Lucas Oil, Greenwood, Las Vegas, Texas, etc. would be the type of tracks that would be suited to this.