As Fans, should we be concerned?

[Latemodel333]

Look around, and count how many 3-5k shows in your area (100mi), how many are there? Every week you can find one or three nearby, and they will pull cars from weekly racing. Heck there for a while you could pick and choose between two to three 5-10k shows in Tennessee, Catalina's Georgia, etc. You cant blame a local guy for leaving his home track to chase that money! Overall there are less cars, and fewer fans. There are way to many choices of entertainment, heck my boys 19&21 dont follow the sport, they say its boring, and they have been to many races. Heck I have ordered every race that has been on ppv that we did not attend. I say all of that and I think what did I do wrong, why dont they enjoy the sport I love, and I think back to the day I hung up helmet and walked away to pursue my career.... My boys cant relate when I talk about building cars, and engines etc to go race, they never had that experience. No matter how we tell our story's of how things where people cannot relate..... We cant turn back time, we need to find a way to get people back into it, not just me, all of us. Grab a friend, family member, or coworker and stop by a racers shop, see if you can help them out for a few nights before you drag them to the track, once they have invested a few hours working on a car, they will be hooked!!! Stop all the bitchin, and do something you can do to make things better!!!
I hope everyone has a safe, and great holiday weekend!!!!
Pray for our great people of Texas, they really need all of us to pray for Them!!

[Cardirt0]

Look around, and count how many 3-5k shows in your area (100mi), how many are there? Every week you can find one or three nearby, and they will pull cars from weekly racing. Heck there for a while you could pick and choose between two to three 5-10k shows in Tennessee, Catalina's Georgia, etc. You cant blame a local guy for leaving his home track to chase that money! Overall there are less cars, and fewer fans. There are way to many choices of entertainment, heck my boys 19&21 dont follow the sport, they say its boring, and they have been to many races. Heck I have ordered every race that has been on ppv that we did not attend. I say all of that and I think what did I do wrong, why dont they enjoy the sport I love, and I think back to the day I hung up helmet and walked away to pursue my career.... My boys cant relate when I talk about building cars, and engines etc to go race, they never had that experience. No matter how we tell our story's of how things where people cannot relate..... We cant turn back time, we need to find a way to get people back into it, not just me, all of us. Grab a friend, family member, or coworker and stop by a racers shop, see if you can help them out for a few nights before you drag them to the track, once they have invested a few hours working on a car, they will be hooked!!! Stop all the bitchin, and do something you can do to make things better!!!
I hope everyone has a safe, and great holiday weekend!!!!
Pray for our great people of Texas, they really need all of us to pray for Them!!

Yep the kids to day just think racing is not were it is... Got there heads in there phones .. and get bored in 2 sec...

[Highwayman]

Young people are there. Go look at a 4cyl. Race. The little bass t*rds are everywhere. 40 + car fields and family and friends. At your local speedway.

You must be in a bubble somewhere, we get maybe 10 POS FWD cars, then 15 602 crates that train race, then 5-6 limiteds(old guys who refuse to buy engines in a box) and 10-15 604 Crates(3 capable of winning). Hobby became 602 and they are Heavy and DULL and sound like sh!t..

Its the same at the 4 tracks within and hour of me along the GA/SC border. Toccoa, Lavonia, Hartwell & Modoc(when they run). Travelers Rest and Laurens County have a slightly different class structure, but probably the healthiest tracks as far as fan/racer turn out.

Thunder & Lightning was a great class back in the 90's, I think it gave way to Limited Sportsman in the Carolina's but I think they are in decline too. Decent HP but on skinnier tires so you had to drive them. Going to Gaffney back in the day was awesome to see T&L's run, really exciting class.

The Super train has left the station for my area, I do not believe the series lured away locals to travel that played no part in the decline from my perspective. However rule changes that kept allowing more and more drove up cost, add in the decline/stagnation in income nationwide since 1970 and runaway inflation and your average guy with a wife and 1 child can barely afford to go watch. Now add in the time factor to trying to setup a modern car and you almost need a full time crew guy to do it all. Crate was a mistake and only made things worse, now add in spring smashers, bump stops, wind tunnels, shaker rigs and engines eclipsing $50K and it becomes a hill too tough to climb for Joe Blue Collar racer. Even if you leave out the big rig stacker shop on wheels its pointless. Rome is burning and I'm starting to think we should let it.

[pierceFAN]

I think for local racing...you need to run crates as a headliner and have mods and street stocks...maybe a 4 cylinder class as well...then bring as many touring series as you could...and if you really wanted to keep the costs down eliminate having a stacker trailer...sounds crazy but with a standard enclosed trailer you don't have room to haul around a complete race shop...2 cars at the tune of $100k each...thousands of dollars in wheels and tires...the list goes on and on...nope you pull in with your truck and single car trailer holding your $25000 crate and pretty much go out and be competitive without having millions invested...not intended for the touring guys only the local racers

[Highwayman]

and your fan base will go down the crapper , this weekend, for instance, local track not running supers I WILL BE STAYING HOME

Me too, I've tried being supportive weekly but now with 3-4 classes all looking like a late model(602 Hobby, 604 Crate and Limited/525). The cars handle the same, look the same, only the tone of the engine seems to differentiate the classes. The FWD class is where the cars are where the drunks hang out and wash the car once per season at best, 602 is a droning bore of a train race, 604 is a slightly faster droning train race, only limited is mildly interesting but only 5-6 cars. Part of the issue is a decline in suitable cars to build for any V8 class, but allowing DLM suspension tech into a class thats under powered and over tired is DULL. Nowadays I only hit the big shows or stay home.

I'd like to see non-wing sprints catch on, maybe something like the UMSS traditional or like the Elite racesaver 305's. No body work, no bump stops, no need for lots of crew members, fast inexpensive to maintain and very racy. Mods came around in the late 80's early 90's but didn't catch on and vanished, but they've gotten high on motors and setups too.

[Highwayman]

They tried crates around us but they swore teams were cheating well how teams with national championship in other classes with 20 plus yrs experience dropping down to run crates i would hope they would win

We had that issue too, but I never believed it was as wide spread as most thought. Then they got it in their heads that "blue printing" was the same as cheating and that it would give you 100HP more. So the lesser intelligent and lazier among us lobbied to have engine rebuilds outlawed, a prominent engine builder was barred for legally rebuilding engines and in the end started a whole another class with 602's only after their engine conspiracy theory proved false. Crates fixed nothing because the same ones believing they were being outspent in limited and super, believed they were outspent in 604 crate and then Hobby too. Most didn't drive or setup their cars properly for racing with low HP. Gotta run straight or to the back you go.

[Illtsate32]

This may not be a popular thing to say but the problem with cheating in the crate class is that you need unbiased tech...and with a local track you have racers that have sway over the track officials and promoters for what ever reason ive seen it first hand and these teams use it to their advantage when they know the tech guy will look the other way...

[Forward Bite]

An engine claim rule would eliminate the hassels of tech. The racers then become the ones who keep engine cost in check. Simple and proven to be effective.

[MissouriMadMan]

Never really have been concerned until THIS weekend.. the MLRA ran 3 stand alone shows over the weekend (thurs-sat.) never had more than 26 cars. MARS west ran 2 stand alone shows (Sunday & Monday). they had 24 cars for the show Sunday at Monett and LAST NIGHT's show at Midway (Lebanon, MO) they had ONLY 11 cars!!!! I went to the MLRA @ Wheatland Saturday and Monett Sunday, first time I EVER can remember either series NOT having to run any B-Mains that those tracks!!!!

[huskerdirt]

Never really have been concerned until THIS weekend.. the MLRA ran 3 stand alone shows over the weekend (thurs-sat.) never had more than 26 cars. MARS west ran 2 stand alone shows (Sunday & Monday). they had 24 cars for the show Sunday at Monett and LAST NIGHT's show at Midway (Lebanon, MO) they had ONLY 11 cars!!!! I wend to the MLRA @ Wheatland Saturday and Monett Sunday, first time I EVER can remember either series NOT having to run any B-Mains that those tracks!!!!

I-80 was down because of guys racing for track championships that weekend. Probably should've had 6-10 more cars. Plus it was on a Thursday so that kept guys like Austin Rettig, Logan Martin, and Payton Looney away. I thought Lucas would have 30 plus easily, guess not. Lakeside is in a tricky spot because not a lot of late models out in that area anymore.

Heck, I didn't even know Lebanon was racing last night. I'm guessing nobody else did either.

[MissouriMadMan]

I-80 was down because of guys racing for track championships that weekend. Probably should've had 6-10 more cars. Plus it was on a Thursday so that kept guys like Austin Rettig, Logan Martin, and Payton Looney away. I thought Lucas would have 30 plus easily, guess not. Lakeside is in a tricky spot because not a lot of late models out in that area anymore. Heck, I didn't even know Lebanon was racing last night. I'm guessing nobody else did either.

I am starting to think that Wheatland is on an island... too far south for some of the Iowa/Nebraska ect guys up there and too far north for guys out of Arkansas/Tennessee ect..and unless you have rainouts they are not getting any of the guys from St. Louis on east. I really thought for MLRA to pay $5,575 to win Saturday they would have had at least 32-35 cars, but I know there was a lot going on, Eldora, shows out in the UMP part of the world, West Plains ran Lates Friday and Saturday and the CCDS was running down south also.

[Snake X3]

I don't know. I'm really too old to care much about the future. The sport seems healthy enough at the national level and the time it will take for it to die will probably be about how long I have to live anyway, soooooo...

If the sport's fan base is older white males then when they die, who will be left to care? I love racing...always have, but I have no vested interest in seeing it perpetuate beyond my years. I'm glad Earl Baltes didn't feel that way though. Of course Earl died before people could marry a paint can or people could deny that what they have between their legs determined their gender. He might have burned the place to the ground otherwise.

[huskerdirt]

I am starting to think that Wheatland is on an island... too far south for some of the Iowa/Nebraska ect guys up there and too far north for guys out of Arkansas/Tennessee ect..and unless you have rainouts they are not getting any of the guys from St. Louis on east. I really thought for MLRA to pay $5,575 to win Saturday they would have had at least 32-35 cars, but I know there was a lot going on, Eldora, shows out in the UMP part of the world, West Plains ran Lates Friday and Saturday and the CCDS was running down south also.

I think it's each individual track is on island. Guys don't wanna travel anymore, particularly in my parts. People keep saying we are losing cars, while I completely agree on that part. Guys just don't travel anymore. I think it's mostly because the payouts don't make it worth it anymore for what it costs to race.

FWIW, Lakeside drew 20 in 2016. Lucas drew 37 and had drawn some St Louis cars along with ULMA(it looks like). That definitely wasn't the car this year.

[Clayton_Wetter]

Crates and Hornets need to be done away with. Sorry to those offended.

[Illtsate32]

The old white men were the pioneers, the fabricators, the innovators of the sport we have today...who is gonna build these cars when those guys are gone...I dont know exact facts but I will say 75% of drivers maybe upwards of 90 do not even know how to use a grinder or a welder these days...