FALS Sprint Mania 10/5 and 10/6 Rained Out

[CageFaraday]

That's great news, Cage. Will this be a WAR show?

Are there enough wingless sprint cars in the State of Georgia to get a good field of cars? That's some pretty solid stock car country down there.

No its part of the POWRi Southern States D2 Midget tour. Wayne Davis who Owns/Operates SS-Midgets is adding Non-wing sprints to his group for this special event and then building a schedule for them in 2019. The rules sound the same as WAR/ELITE, but I don't know that for sure.

http://www.ssmidgets.com/sprint-car-rules.html

[kidrock]

Ya' can't/won't prove anything, ya' can't/won't name the sanction that is in financial arrears to Fairbury, BUT, you have a highly credible anonymous source who desperately wishes to stay anonymous. Sounds like someone needs to grow a set on behalf of FALS! LOLOL!!

Why would the FALS brain trust schedule a sanction that owes them money from a show in 2017...................AGAIN................ then cancel the show they should never have scheduled in the first place partially because this phantom sanction allegedly owes them money. Does anyone else think FALS maybe shouldn't have rescheduled a dead beat sanction?

And in cancelling they fail to let Casey Shuman know and they put him in a huge bind. Sounds like a horse **** deal and stupidity working in unison.

What is it that you want me, or anyone else to believe? You're not offering anything but bull****.

You know what you know but shhhhhh, you mustn't tell. Sure am glad it's irrelevant whether anyone believes you or not 'cause it's a safe bet no one does, for sure I don't.

It's good that you cleared the air and set the record straight once and for all! Don't know what we'd do without your insightful and informative explanation! LOL!!

I have never heard of a sanction body paying the track to race there but, I sure have heard the track paying the sanction body so, this would be a first that I have heard of but, Skids usually is a straight shooter so, not sure what to believe here.

[CIRF]

I have never heard of a sanction body paying the track to race there but, I sure have heard the track paying the sanction body so, this would be a first that I have heard of but, Skids usually is a straight shooter so, not sure what to believe here.

Kid, I'm with you on the sanction paying the track being a bit hard to believe. That situation seems out of the ordinary, but then again I've never promoted a racing event. That information was not offered by Fairbury in any official capacity. It was brought up by people who know people, who know people who said..............You know how that goes so unless we see some proof from people like ol' skids, who doesn't care if any of us believe him or not but he knows it's true, LOL, then I for one will consider that to be just idle hearsay.

This whole affair seems very, very sophomoric on FALS part. I'm betting that prospective open wheel sanctions will be very wary of FALS in the future. No matter what happens going forward from here FALS has taken a huge hit in the area of credibility. I have many friends over in Indiana that know little about FALS and they're totally baffled with this turn of events. I've got egg on my face since I've bragged up FALS to them for several years now and boasted how great it would be if some open wheel events would become part of FALS schedule. The less than acceptable track conditions for the WoO sprint cars and now this debacle has not endeared me to my Hoosier friends! LOL!!

I'll not be nearly as enthusiastic about bragging about FALS in the future, that's for sure.

[kidrock]

Kid, I'm with you on the sanction paying the track being a bit hard to believe. That situation seems out of the ordinary, but then again I've never promoted a racing event. That information was not offered by Fairbury in any official capacity. It was brought up by people who know people, who know people who said..............You know how that goes so unless we see some proof from people like ol' skids, who doesn't care if any of us believe him or not but he knows it's true, LOL, then I for one will consider that to be just idle hearsay.

This whole affair seems very, very sophomoric on FALS part. I'm betting that prospective open wheel sanctions will be very wary of FALS in the future. No matter what happens going forward from here FALS has taken a huge hit in the area of credibility. I have many friends over in Indiana that know little about FALS and they're totally baffled with this turn of events. I've got egg on my face since I've bragged up FALS to them for several years now and boasted how great it would be if some open wheel events would become part of FALS schedule. The less than acceptable track conditions for the WoO sprint cars and now this debacle has not endeared me to my Hoosier friends! LOL!!

I'll not be nearly as enthusiastic about bragging about FALS in the future, that's for sure.

Yes I would be very apprehensive to schedule another race with FALS if I owned a sprint car sanction. FALS is primarily a late model track as far as your top class goes as you know so, no love for the sprint car divisions in my opinion at FALS and I'm not faulting them for that. It's just the way it is.

[CIRF]

Yes I would be very apprehensive to schedule another race with FALS if I owned a sprint car sanction. FALS is primarily a late model track as far as your top class goes as you know so, no love for the sprint car divisions in my opinion at FALS and I'm not faulting them for that. It's just the way it is.

You're exactly correct, Kid. FALS bread and butter is dirt late models and naturally they're going to give their best effort and most ethical dealings to their primary DLM sanctions. Can't really fault them for that but from strictly an uninformed spectator point of view it seems very unseemly to cancel based upon the fact that the track is owed money by one of the sanctions scheduled and then blatantly lie about it to attempt to save face. The moral of the story? Don't schedule outfits that owe you money for over a year.

At least it wasn't the WAR series that owes FALS the money. Casey Shuman said so on the FALS Facebook page and I have unwavering faith in Casey's word.

There are people that have admitted that they're involved with the operation of FALS on the FALS Facebook page that are very busy defending the indefensible. One of these people in particular seems to be very forthright and apologetic but has very little to work with in FALS defense except to urge spectators and open wheel competitors alike to forgive them and give them another chance. Feel sorry for those folks.

[CageFaraday]

You're exactly correct, Kid. FALS bread and butter is dirt late models and naturally they're going to give their best effort and most ethical dealings to their primary DLM sanctions. Can't really fault them for that but from strictly an uninformed spectator point of view it seems very unseemly to cancel based upon the fact that the track is owed money by one of the sanctions scheduled and then blatantly lie about it to attempt to save face. The moral of the story? Don't schedule outfits that owe you money for over a year.

At least it wasn't the WAR series that owes FALS the money. Casey Shuman said so on the FALS Facebook page and I have unwavering faith in Casey's word.

There are people that have admitted that they're involved with the operation of FALS on the FALS Facebook page that are very busy defending the indefensible. One of these people in particular seems to be very forthright and apologetic but has very little to work with in FALS defense except to urge spectators and open wheel competitors alike to forgive them and give them another chance. Feel sorry for those folks.

Uhhh, so let me get this straight:

First, it was called on account of rain 2 weeks out.
Second, no its because the "Sanction" owes us money.
Third, no wait its not that its that we like DLM's and don't think the sprints will support us.
Fourth, no it is that we are owed money but its somebody else, not WAR...
Fifth, we're not sure why we canceled but we love race fans, please trust us.

I think this is the, "Web" they warn about when you start trying to deceive folks. I've seen politicians that were better at handling the truth when they're caught nude in a motel room with a midget and a donkey. This is why I'm not going to vote anymore, truth, integrity and honesty are foreign concepts anymore. I for one wouldn't plan anything involving FALS at this point. They obviously have no character and are willing to say or do anything. They are now crossed out and NOT checked off my bucket list. Moving on.

As a side note, 76 Sprints showed up on a, "Friday Night" at Jacksonville Speedway (42 Non-wing) for the rescheduled event. I'm pretty sure they didn't get that many DLM's for the PDC, only 65 in 2017... Just sayin'

https://www.onedirt.com/event-covera...ille-thriller/

[CIRF]

Uhhh, so let me get this straight:

First, it was called on account of rain 2 weeks out.
Second, no its because the "Sanction" owes us money.
Third, no wait its not that its that we like DLM's and don't think the sprints will support us.
Fourth, no it is that we are owed money but its somebody else, not WAR...
Fifth, we're not sure why we canceled but we love race fans, please trust us.

I think this is the, "Web" they warn about when you start trying to deceive folks. I've seen politicians that were better at handling the truth when they're caught nude in a motel room with a midget and a donkey. This is why I'm not going to vote anymore, truth, integrity and honesty are foreign concepts anymore. I for one wouldn't plan anything involving FALS at this point. They obviously have no character and are willing to say or do anything. They are now crossed out and NOT checked off my bucket list. Moving on.

As a side note, 76 Sprints showed up on a, "Friday Night" at Jacksonville Speedway (42 Non-wing) for the rescheduled event. I'm pretty sure they didn't get that many DLM's for the PDC, only 65 in 2017... Just sayin'

https://www.onedirt.com/event-covera...ille-thriller/

Yep, you got the FALS talking points down pretty well, Cage.

I feel pretty much the same as you do Cage, in reference to what you say about not being able to trust FALS, and I live close enough to Fairbury that I regard FALS as my home track. That said, it will take a special attraction to lure us to an open wheel event there. The WoO sprint cars at FALS were a bore this past season. The only thing relatively exciting was watching Kyle Larson and a young kid from Ohio, I think, scorch the overall track record. Other than that the A-main was a choo-choo from about lap 10 on and their push truck organization was atrocious!! I will probably attend a couple of the mud cab races there throughout the season since that is their preferred genre' and that's where most of their focus and effort seems to go.

It's really sad from our perspective. A good track as close to us as FALS finally gets a foothold on running some quality open wheel sanctions and events and they totally piss away any goodwill they'd built up from the open wheel community and they're followers. I have a buddy who lives out in central Missouri who's been laughing like hell ever since this all came to pass. He'd heard all the over cooked hype about FALS and believed it...........till now.

[Midwest Racer Online]

Not trying to stir stuff up, but the real problem lies with the sanction body that stiffed the track out of money if thats true, Why don't you do some investigating and contact the sanctions involved and figure out who it is? I'm only assuming the sanction collected entry fees at driver registration the year prior as one of the few ways they would owe a track unless they collected sponsor money that was supposed to go to the track. The other issue would be that the drivers elected to attend a race that had just recently been put on a schedule. You guys are hung up on the story they came up with ( which was not a good reason ) but I really think you need to redirect your anti- trust issues.

[kidrock]

Not trying to stir stuff up, but the real problem lies with the sanction body that stiffed the track out of money if thats true, Why don't you do some investigating and contact the sanctions involved and figure out who it is? I'm only assuming the sanction collected entry fees at driver registration the year prior as one of the few ways they would owe a track unless they collected sponsor money that was supposed to go to the track. The other issue would be that the drivers elected to attend a race that had just recently been put on a schedule. You guys are hung up on the story they came up with ( which was not a good reason ) but I really think you need to redirect your anti- trust issues.

Same here not trying to stir the pot but, if the real problem is with the sanctioning body and it's not with War Sanctioning body then why would you cancel their race. Doesn't make much sense to me. I have my suspicions on what went on here but, will keep them to myself because there probably not right in the first place.

[CIRF]

Not trying to stir stuff up, but the real problem lies with the sanction body that stiffed the track out of money if thats true, Why don't you do some investigating and contact the sanctions involved and figure out who it is? I'm only assuming the sanction collected entry fees at driver registration the year prior as one of the few ways they would owe a track unless they collected sponsor money that was supposed to go to the track. The other issue would be that the drivers elected to attend a race that had just recently been put on a schedule. You guys are hung up on the story they came up with ( which was not a good reason ) but I really think you need to redirect your anti- trust issues.

MRO, personally I'm only really concerned with the wingless divisions that were included in the Sprint Mania deal. Casey Shuman is a stand up guy and has aptly handled the advancement of the WAR series from it's infancy. I will take his word implicitly and recommend you do, too. Casey was taken completely by surprise and got word of the cancellation, not directly from FALS, but from social media. The nameless FALS spokesman on their Facebook page is on record stating that Kenny Brown (Brown is the head man at POWRi) was in the loop so that lets FALS off the hook as far as how they treated Casey.

Who is to blame for scheduling a deadbeat sanction that doesn't fulfill their obligations? The blame is clearly at the feet of FALS. I've been in business for around 2 decades and if someone owes me money I'm not at all interested in continued business dealings until the ledger has been balanced. Is there not reason to question FALS business practices when they once again schedule an entity that owes them money? I think so, don't you?

Our trust issues? Hmmm. The trust issues are the result of the underhanded manner in which FALS handled this whole deal starting with scheduling a sanction that owes them money and ended with them having to admit they lied to the competitors, the fans and Casey Shuman. If FALS is worthy of anyone's trust then it needs to be clearly explained as to the reasons why.

[CIRF]

Same here not trying to stir the pot but, if the real problem is with the sanctioning body and it's not with War Sanctioning body then why would you cancel their race. Doesn't make much sense to me. I have my suspicions on what went on here but, will keep them to myself because there probably not right in the first place.

Very good point, Kid. If MOWA, and/or IRA is the deadbeat sanction then drop them off of the scheduled lineup of classes and replace them with some other class or run WAR as a stand alone. Champaign County ran WAR as their headline division the past 2 years and both were good shows. I was there. Possibly that would not be feasible in this case but at least FALS could have given a clear and believable explanation as to the reasons why something like this wouldn't work. Instead they beg people for their blind trust with no particular reason as to why their worthy of it.

Two years ago La Salle dropped the POWRi National Midgets off of their Bill Waite Memorial event lineup and replaced them with dirt late models. This situation happened just a couple of weeks prior to the event date and it worked just fine! La Salle Speedway management was very clear and forthright with their reasons why the midgets were dropped. It was due to fears of a less than satisfactory car count. Does that sound familiar? Some tracks handle these things in an ethical way and others, not so much.

Oh well, it looked like FALS had a good thing going in regards to diversifying their racing repertoire but that seems to have take a huge hit. Sad.

[CageFaraday]

..but the real problem lies with the sanction body that stiffed the track out of money if thats true, Why don't you do some investigating and contact the sanctions involved and figure out who it is?

The first problem isn't with a sanctioning body, the credibility issue is with FALS, they chose who they got in bed with, knowingly. Then to get out of an "alleged" unpleasant fiscal situation they invent a flimsy excuse that was an obvious lie...

"first lie" sighting a rain forecast 2 weeks out and threw everybody out with the bath water. When this obvious deception started blowing back on them they tried taking the moral high-ground by leaking yet another lie ...

"second lie" came through social media that a sanction (hinting at WAR) allegedly owed them money from the previous year, it wasn't. This deception stirred outrage in the sprint community and really started blowing back so they grappled for yet another way out and then tried a dual excuse approach by playing the "sympathy card" ...

"sympathy ploy" While it is true they do mostly cater to DLM, they aren't that far outside sprint territory, heck Maxim is in the same state. So they tried by claiming they were a DLM track and because Kokomo was running on the same night they feared they wouldn't get the fan/racer support.

76 Sprints showed up for the rescheduled event at Jacksonville, 42 were non-wing... They finally settled on, "We're stupid, but we love race fans. Please trust us."

So your assertion that the blame belongs to someone else, frankly that doesn't wash and is the same attitude FALS is guilty of, "anybody is to blame but us." Just like CIRF stated, Casey Shuman(WAR) is a man I know to be honorable and to have a track leak info through social media that he might owe them money and is to blame for the cancellation, is the most cowardly and under handed move I have ever witnessed by track or promoter.
It will be a long time before any OW fans/Racers/Sanctions even consider trusting FALS. I come from a DLM background, 30+ years and recently switched to non-wing sprints and the amount of disrespect from FALS towards everyone cut very deeply. Trust is earned and right now FALS is running a deficit. To me their attempt to hint around that Casey Shuman was to blame is the same as a woman making a false claim of rape. They attempted to assault a mans name and character in an effort save themselves. Not Cool.

Its Shicken Chit!

[dualdj1]

You guys are only looking at this on the micro level as this year's event. This event got put on the calendar for last year, because the sprint guys were looking for a place to do a big end of year event. A deal was made with FALS to basically split the costs of the event - This is NOT an open wheel issue - FALS has always been hesitant to do post-season ending events, because every time they have they've lost their ass (be it a make up, etc), and most of their labor are farmers. Hell they talked about the WoO LM show for like 5 years before that actually happened. However, due to their deal, they decided to give it a shot. Most of you know that the weather last year was horrible, Friday rained out, and saturday was very late, and though they did have an OK turnout, there were not a lot of fans, so it was a pretty big loss.

As stated, the other half of the deal was not owned up to (don't know and don't care which sanctioning group was responsible, being a joint venture). But FALS starts building their schedule in November. So this event made the calendar again due to the time frame of building the new schedule. Now I 100% agree this is not the way you should handle things like this. But to flat out say FALS is trying to screw people is BS. They were obviously concerned about losing money again, and in the end this is a business. And yes, goodwill is a factor there, no arguing that.

The other thing is that I keep hearing this "change of regime" and "new regime" crap. Only 1 person changed... That was the guy that runs the races. The schedule, events, etc gets put together by the board AND the promoter. This wasn't a 1 man Matt Curl show; this was Matt Curl and Fair board, now Scott Drendal and Fair Board. So yeah there may be a new face in front, but 95% of the staff that puts this stuff together was the same, and most of this was already in place before the new face came in.

So yes, I'll never disagree that this cancellation wasn't poorly handled, but seriously, if this was your business what would you have done? Put yourself in someone else's shoes before you sit there and bash on the track for making a PR mistake. Y'all are humans too right? Or just some mindless forum bots? I love sprint cars, was excited to not only watch last year but to be able to race another night as well. But sadly over the last 30 or so years, fans do not support open wheel shows there. Pretty much every sprint show that's been run in the last 3 decades has lost money. So while I can't blame them for being concerned about another loss, I can and do blame them for poor handling of the event. However, to me it's simply a move on and learn from your mistakes moment. The amount of good things that group does far outweighs this one negative.

[Krooser]

Many events are co-run by the tracks and the sanctioning bodies. Some sanctions rent the track and the money gets split. Some promoters do everything. Some sanctions pay a flat fee to rent the facility... some pay per head thru the gates... many different deals are made.

I've been part of deals where I got the front gate, the sanction got the back gate and the entry fees. Sometimes the entry fees are split.

The truth is no one outside of the two parties really know the truth. I was always the guy who winged it and ran regardless of the weather... that's one of the reason I don't promote anymore. I got a little smarter... lose $30K in one night and your promoting style changes.

[chathamracefan]

From all accounts (I did not attend), Jacksonville's show on Friday night was a rousing success. I'm guessing this 2 day show will go there from the get go next year.

[CIRF]

You guys are only looking at this on the micro level as this year's event. This event got put on the calendar for last year, because the sprint guys were looking for a place to do a big end of year event. A deal was made with FALS to basically split the costs of the event - This is NOT an open wheel issue - FALS has always been hesitant to do post-season ending events, because every time they have they've lost their ass (be it a make up, etc), and most of their labor are farmers. Hell they talked about the WoO LM show for like 5 years before that actually happened. However, due to their deal, they decided to give it a shot. Most of you know that the weather last year was horrible, Friday rained out, and saturday was very late, and though they did have an OK turnout, there were not a lot of fans, so it was a pretty big loss.

As stated, the other half of the deal was not owned up to (don't know and don't care which sanctioning group was responsible, being a joint venture). But FALS starts building their schedule in November. So this event made the calendar again due to the time frame of building the new schedule. Now I 100% agree this is not the way you should handle things like this. But to flat out say FALS is trying to screw people is BS. They were obviously concerned about losing money again, and in the end this is a business. And yes, goodwill is a factor there, no arguing that.

The other thing is that I keep hearing this "change of regime" and "new regime" crap. Only 1 person changed... That was the guy that runs the races. The schedule, events, etc gets put together by the board AND the promoter. This wasn't a 1 man Matt Curl show; this was Matt Curl and Fair board, now Scott Drendal and Fair Board. So yeah there may be a new face in front, but 95% of the staff that puts this stuff together was the same, and most of this was already in place before the new face came in.

So yes, I'll never disagree that this cancellation wasn't poorly handled, but seriously, if this was your business what would you have done? Put yourself in someone else's shoes before you sit there and bash on the track for making a PR mistake. Y'all are humans too right? Or just some mindless forum bots? I love sprint cars, was excited to not only watch last year but to be able to race another night as well. But sadly over the last 30 or so years, fans do not support open wheel shows there. Pretty much every sprint show that's been run in the last 3 decades has lost money. So while I can't blame them for being concerned about another loss, I can and do blame them for poor handling of the event. However, to me it's simply a move on and learn from your mistakes moment. The amount of good things that group does far outweighs this one negative.

Where do you get your information? How does anyone here know if you have the slightest idea as to what you're talking about? Present irrefutable proof what you say is true or own up to the fact that you're a FALS minion who isn't comfortable when the obvious is on display.

If FALS lost so much money, as you allege, then why even bother with the chance of staining their impeccable reputation (LOL!!) with loser open wheel events like the one they cancelled? Are they (FALS) that dense? If you lose money once, or numerous times over the past 30 years as you allege, then I reckon it's somewhat dumb to go for double or nothing. Did they think things were going to be significantly different?

It's even dumber to flat our lie about the reason the event was cancelled and what's even worse to throw a stand up guy like Casey Shuman under the bus and put out some bull**** about how Kenny Brown was notified and that should for sure let FALS off the hook. Casey is the head man of WAR and he didn't know a thing about the bailing of FALS 'till he read it on social media. Nice way to treat a guy that is just trying to do what's right! It isn't WAR that owes FALS money. Casey had to further clarify that fact on social media because FALS didn't have the guts to specify the guilty party, or parties that owes them money. I listened to a podcast featuring Casey from a few months ago and he was very complimentary of FALS only to be treated like crap. I've got a feeling that tune has changed. It's as safe bet that Kyle Cummins is less than overjoyed with FALS antics, as well.

Lack of cars and spectators wasn't a problem at Jacksonville on just a few days lead time. What, prey tell, is Kenny Dobson doing that the paragon's of virtue that run FALS aren't doing? Dobson is another stand up guy worthy of the trust of the fans and competitors.

So, you know for a fact that every open wheel event held at FALS in the past 30 years has been a bust. Hmmm. That may or may not be true, I'm not privy to FALS financial records but please forgive me if I need a bit more evidence than a post on a public message board.

It is abundantly clear that you're one who believes that FALS is worthy of being praised and extended our blind trust in spite of all evidence to the contrary. There's a lot of bad things on the negative side of the ledger and very few on the positive side. Just move on, it's all good? Many of us have certainly learned from the mistakes made. We've learned not to trust FALS and we'll move on from that standpoint. Period! FALS definitely has some fences to mend, but it appears doubtful that they give a rats ass if they mend 'em or not.

[CIRF]

From all accounts (I did not attend), Jacksonville's show on Friday night was a rousing success. I'm guessing this 2 day show will go there from the get go next year.

Yep, I'll bet a Grant that you're right, crf. I was there and Jacksonville's track prep and push truck organization far exceeded FALS WoO Sprint Car show back in July. Hard to figure what Kenny Dobson knows that the boys and girls at FALS don't know. Kenny had but a few days to get the whole thing together, too.

[CageFaraday]

Yep, I'll bet a Grant that you're right, crf. I was there and Jacksonville's track prep and push truck organization far exceeded FALS WoO Sprint Car show back in July. Hard to figure what Kenny Dobson knows that the boys and girls at FALS don't know. Kenny had but a few days to get the whole thing together, too.

So what happened with Terry Babb? He looked loose under accel on that restart and then TMez swung around the outside of him, they made contact and TB goes tumbling down the shoot. Coudn't tell on replay if something broke and thats why contact or if he didn't know TMez was there. POWRi had clips on youtube from inside Simon & Tmez as well as a replay from outside track, but its unclear what led to contact as camera follows leader.

[CIRF]

So what happened with Terry Babb? He looked loose under accel on that restart and then TMez swung around the outside of him, they made contact and TB goes tumbling down the shoot. Coudn't tell on replay if something broke and thats why contact or if he didn't know TMez was there. POWRi had clips on youtube from inside Simon & Tmez as well as a replay from outside track, but its unclear what led to contact as camera follows leader.

We couldn't tell from the grandstands, either. Didn't have time to head to the pits afterwards to ask Terry. If I was to guess I'd say Terry didn't know Meseraull was there. but as I say, that's only a guess.