Is It Time To Take Latemodel Racing to the Next Level

[RiffRaf67]

Centeroff said:
I can’t count the times I’ve heard, well I would go but I don’t want to drive all that way for a 50 lap feature.

I have NEVER heard anyone say they wouldn't travel for a 50 Lap LM feature. Not in my circle of friends. Never. That lets you see what..., maybe 4 races a year, if thats your prerequisite? Really?

[nc mudcat]

Dirt late model racing went to the "next level" several years back, which lead to the fix we are in now. There will always be a next level, but we can't call it a better level.

[EvelB7]

Alright, I'll add my crazy thought in on this one..... Improve the show and pay the guy who does it! Pay for performance- base what you make on how far you advance. Let the guy who qualifies for the pole choose where he starts, 2nd place choose, etc... Have a 'basic' payoff but bigger rewards for advancing through the field. I tried to get inverts in the south for years, always heard it was 'unfair'. The fair starts in October in Raleigh, racing is entertainment first and foremost, heads up starts make for horrible races and eventually lead to horrible attendance. I raced as long as I could afford it (or until the team I was driving for replaced me), last year was it for me most likely but I still want to see dirt racing outlast the rest.

[chupp n bloomer fan]

Alright, I'll add my crazy thought in on this one..... Improve the show and pay the guy who does it! Pay for performance- base what you make on how far you advance. Let the guy who qualifies for the pole choose where he starts, 2nd place choose, etc... Have a 'basic' payoff but bigger rewards for advancing through the field. I tried to get inverts in the south for years, always heard it was 'unfair'. The fair starts in October in Raleigh, racing is entertainment first and foremost, heads up starts make for horrible races and eventually lead to horrible attendance. I raced as long as I could afford it (or until the team I was driving for replaced me), last year was it for me most likely but I still want to see dirt racing outlast the rest.

You from the Portsmouth area??

[Centeroff]

Remember back in the day when a driver at a local track would get hot and track mgmt would pay an extra 1000$ for the bounty. Problem is now, not enough local tracks run supers anymore.

[nc mudcat]

I don't see the problem as a lack of supers. This fan wants to see the best racing, whatever class that is. At my local track, 311 Speedway, they can't run supers without dust so bad you can't see. I'll take a good crate race over that any day.

[Clayton_Wetter]

I don't see the problem as a lack of supers. This fan wants to see the best racing, whatever class that is. At my local track, 311 Speedway, they can't run supers without dust so bad you can't see. I'll take a good crate race over that any day.

Maybe watering the track???

[TackyTracker]

at the ratio of new tracks opening up vs the tracks that are closed now I'm going to enjoy the level we are at for as long as I can

[nc mudcat]

Maybe watering the track???

You would think it was that simple. They water. Doesn't matter.

[Centeroff]

That’s not dust! It’s a cloud from the dirt gods that follows JD around. When 3 cars break ahead of you and the leader inside 5 to go it’s your year. He was a 12-13th place car at port Royal and everyone ahead of him broke and he salvaged valuable points. Hope he isn’t having a Jimmy Johnson type of year the year he won his 7th championship. If he keeps the car running and out of the fence he will be hard to catch. His aggressive style always gets him 1 or 2 on the restarts. Zero gotta get rolling boys

[EvelB7]

You from the Portsmouth area??

No, North Carolina for the past 26 years, Iowa before that. Always funny that when we pushed for inverts drivers would say 'it wasn't fair' or better yet 'the track is one grooved' (usually one grooved because everyone started exactly where they were time wise, train race). The choose restarts started at Charlotte, tough thing as a driver but actually a very good idea-my idea would just to expand on that and reward people for taking the chance on passing cars.

[UMPDream]

Lets just make this simple. A while back, I remember Kevin Weaver talking about losing his Jimmy Johns deal (Although I think he got it back). It takes a Lucas/WOO team about a $300k operating budget to make it thru one season. Keep in mind, I said Operating (Not what it takes to build the team). With that said, when Harvick won yesterday, and that Jimmy Johns patch was shining bright on his uniform, how much do you think they paid for that? If you want the sport to survive, it first starts with getting big corporations to buy in to the product which means running your team like a Mark Richards, Dunn-Benson etc... That sponsorship deal for Weaver was most likely a very small percentage of what they pay Tony Stewart yet they were so quick to want to take the deal away. In other words, find a way to get more corporations in and then you will see more national and local companies play the game also. And when I say Local, I'm still talking about very large companies when it comes to revenue... Then those same corporations will become series sponsors ($$). There is a ton more to say but the bottom line is this, no race on a National level should pay less than $20k per night with a solid payout throughout the field because as of right now, everyone is losing money. Big Money just to compete....

[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.

[Josh Bayko]

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.

There are no TV contracts. Dirt racing sanctions pay large sums of money to be on TV. For it to be prime time weekly, you're talking tens of millions of dollars over the course of a season.

[Centeroff]

You do not have to pay the tv station to be on tv. That’s what commercials are for. They air the race and sell commercials based off ratings/ how many people are tuning in and not changing the channel.

[Illtsate32]

Not during the week tho...

[W2Racing09]

There are no TV contracts. Dirt racing sanctions pay large sums of money to be on TV. For it to be prime time weekly, you're talking tens of millions of dollars over the course of a season.

In the current format yes, but that is because our format is not conductive to live TV. If the format is tweaked, then it would be possible to sell the product via a TV contract.

All the best drivers in one place, not tape delayed (so dirt fans all over the country would tune in live, where as for the tape delayed shows all of us already know so most don't bother to even watch), at a convenient time that does not conflict with many other events.

It would take a year or two in a spot like MAV TV or something to get it off the ground but if the ratings were even decent it wouldn't be a tough sell. During the hockey season NBCSN has Wed. night rivalry which gets decent ratings of 600k viewers or so, but during the off season for hockey they are airing things such as random figure skating and things like that pulling in some cases less than 80k viewers.

I definitely think big time dirt racing like this would be could pull in better ratings than that. If it could draw 150k-200k regularly I'm sure NBCSN would pay a moderately high licensing fee to run it (by moderately high, I mean it would bring in way more money than ever seen in dirt racing). Even when it isn't super successful these networks are paying good money to cover live sports right now, and something like this would be a logical response to FS1 with NASCAR.

[Josh Bayko]

@Centeroff

Dirt racing sanctions absolutely pay for airtime. They also pay for the TV production. And it’s not anywhere cheap. That’s why it’s always on at odd times during off peak hours, because that time is cheaper.

Besides, TV is a slowly dying medium. Streaming media is the future.