As Fans, should we be concerned?

[BTExpress]

This topic has been on my mind all season. As DLM fans should we be worried about the future of the sport we follow and love? Car counts have been dismal throughout the country this season for many races, both on a weekly basis and even for well paying regional shows. Not including Crown Jewel events and for the most part regular LOLMS & WoO shows where the fields appear decent, but almost everywhere else 15 to 17 car fields seem to be the norm now. Two examples from here in the Mid-Atlantic region: Last night at Bedford Speedway there were 19 cars for a $5,055 to win race on a holiday weekend no less. Another was the race at VMS paying $20,000 to win and they couldn't even get a full 24 car field (23 cars). Now granted there were big names there (Bloomquist won) .....but still? If teams are not showing up for larger purse shows what incentive will promoters have to raise the purses when they seem to get the same amount of cars paying half the purse.

As fans are we just burying our heads in the sand and hoping for the best? Do the local teams really need $500k worth of haulers & trailers to race a few hours from home....$40k engines to race for $1500 to win? teams going through two or three different chassis (and various brands) just to find the magic one? I think the sport is in trouble....but what do I know, I am just a fan in the stands. Thoughts?

[huskerdirt]

I think its something to keep an eye out on, but not sound the alarm yet. I believe what's going on is guys are being more picky on when/where they race.

We had an MLRA race on Thursday night, drew 22 cars. But less than 10 locals showed up because most of the other locals are racing 2 nights already this week and some are battling for track titles, 8-10 cars didn't disappear overnight. Since it was on a Thursday we didn't get those southern Missouri guys that managed to be at lakeside last night.

[huskerdirt]

[QUOTE=BTExpress;

As fans are we just burying our heads in the sand and hoping for the best? Do the local teams really need $500k worth of haulers & trailers to race a few hours from home....$40k engines to race for $1500 to win? teams going through two or three different chassis (and various brands) just to find the magic one? I think the sport is in trouble....but what do I know, I am just a fan in the stands. Thoughts?[/QUOTE]

The only people that can stop the outrageous spending is the racers themselves. Those guys are as much as the problem as anything else. I honestly believe it's a contest to see who has the biggest checkbook.

I always get a good laugh when a driver switches chassis to go from 9th to 7th on the racetrack. My favorite is when a guy jumps from chassis to chassis trying to find something that "works" for him and he's "comfortable" in. Hate to be that guy, but it's you, not them.

[Bob Hubbard]

As long as the ticket prices are matched to the level of racing Im seeing I could care lesss what their rigs cost ... Alot of times the mods put on a better show IMO ...

[zyoung25]

Car counts in my area have been about the same for about 10 years. The only one that I've been too that has made me scratch my head was the gator 50 at prp in May. Normally prp has no problem drawing 30 cars on the 5k to win shows. That night they got 17 i think was. Other than that, car counts have been stable around here.

[hoosier race fan]

The only people that can stop the outrageous spending is the racers themselves. Those guys are as much as the problem as anything else. I honestly believe it's a contest to see who has the biggest checkbook.

I always get a good laugh when a driver switches chassis to go from 9th to 7th on the racetrack. My favorite is when a guy jumps from chassis to chassis trying to find something that "works" for him and he's "comfortable" in. Hate to be that guy, but it's you, not them.

Absolutely agree. Many racers are their own worst enemy. A lot of them are racing a class or two above their ability level and think their checkbook will make up the difference for them.

[Bubstr]

Racing has always been in trouble. I remember a conversation with a couple hall o fame drivers in 1974. One said there will be a time when we have to travel a good bit to race. There wont be 60 cars at every local race.

The thing to worry about is Late models loosing favor with the fans. Back in the 50s Midgets drew 50,000 fans at certain tracks. They came to see the guy down the street whip the big boys. They priced the guy down the street out of racing and his fans stayed home. A old midget racer tolld me," Curtis and Offy ruined Midget racing. LMs have a similar problem with tech today. Nothing we fans can do about it, even worrying serves no purpose. Let it burn downn and see what comes out of the ashes.

[Cardirt0]

Racing is in big trouble .... Football is going down... NBA just $ucks.. Just look at the stands a lot of Sports just cost to much now....Collage football down cause too meany games on tv and the beer at home is a lot cheaper...

[Highwayman]

This topic has been on my mind all season. As DLM fans should we be worried about the future of the sport we follow and love? Car counts have been dismal throughout the country this season for many races, both on a weekly basis and even for well paying regional shows. Not including Crown Jewel events and for the most part regular LOLMS & WoO shows where the fields appear decent, but almost everywhere else 15 to 17 car fields seem to be the norm now. Two examples from here in the Mid-Atlantic region: Last night at Bedford Speedway there were 19 cars for a $5,055 to win race on a holiday weekend no less. Another was the race at VMS paying $20,000 to win and they couldn't even get a full 24 car field (23 cars). Now granted there were big names there (Bloomquist won) .....but still? If teams are not showing up for larger purse shows what incentive will promoters have to raise the purses when they seem to get the same amount of cars paying half the purse.

Purse size is important but there is more going on now and an overall decline in interest, just look at the number of guys throwing in the towel...

As fans are we just burying our heads in the sand and hoping for the best? Do the local teams really need $500k worth of haulers & trailers to race a few hours from home....$40k engines to race for $1500 to win? teams going through two or three different chassis (and various brands) just to find the magic one? I think the sport is in trouble....but what do I know, I am just a fan in the stands. Thoughts?

10 years ago in my area, here in the Southeast, we had 4 tracks, Dixie/Rome-GA, Toccoa-GA, Lavonia-GA and Laurens County-SC that ran weekly supers that I was aware of. The average field was 10-12 and Limited Late had probably 18 average. Now I only know of "1" remaining track that has weekly Supers running every week, Dixie/Rome(same owners, same cars). Unenforced rules as well as rule creep led to cost increases across the board for both Super & Limited which opened the door for Crate. Crate came out of the gate offering bigger or equal value purses to Super and it just made sense for a lot of guys to quit Super and run Crate for same money. Several years pass, Weekly Super Dies completely, Limited shrinks and now averages 5-6 cars. So we have stupid expensive at the top end of the sport, with rules written by elites for elites and enforced on everyone and a scavenger class at the bottom end, eroding car counts. Add to this that Promotion is a sad shell of its former self consisting of FB page announcements and what you get is a sport that at its height 40 years ago was ranked higher in the US than F1, is now reduced to a shrinking niche market and a generation of younger people who don't like cars, much less getting dirty and competing. I don't think there is a single answer, but I'm starting to think we may just have to watch it burn and rebuild on the other side... Soon the body will be picked clean by the vultures, LUCAS, WoO, FASTRAK, RUSH and many more all feasting on the same dying body.

I came along just after NDRA went away, Southern Allstars was the only series around. Back then most big shows I traveled to were UN-sanctioned independent affairs, you didn't know who might pull through the gate and that was part of the appeal, everybody was an outlaw. We had multiple papers advertising events across the region, commercials on the radio, parades thru town with the race cars, fish fry's at the fire department and really only 1 class of actual late model, "Super". The limiteds back then were clip cars, most home built or modified crashed chassis's. Late model is just too diluted and 3-4 lower divisions all look the same to the casual observer. Thats enough from my soapbox for now.

[Cardirt0]

Purse size is important but there is more going on now and an overall decline in interest, just look at the number of guys throwing in the towel...




10 years ago in my area, here in the Southeast, we had 4 tracks, Dixie/Rome-GA, Toccoa-GA, Lavonia-GA and Laurens County-SC that ran weekly supers that I was aware of. The average field was 10-12 and Limited Late had probably 18 average. Now I only know of "1" remaining track that has weekly Supers running every week, Dixie/Rome(same owners, same cars). Unenforced rules as well as rule creep led to cost increases across the board for both Super & Limited which opened the door for Crate. Crate came out of the gate offering bigger or equal value purses to Super and it just made sense for a lot of guys to quit Super and run Crate for same money. Several years pass, Weekly Super Dies completely, Limited shrinks and now averages 5-6 cars. So we have stupid expensive at the top end of the sport, with rules written by elites for elites and enforced on everyone and a scavenger class at the bottom end, eroding car counts. Add to this that Promotion is a sad shell of its former self consisting of FB page announcements and what you get is a sport that at its height 30 years ago was ranked higher in the US than F1, is now reduced to a shrinking niche market and a generation of younger people who don't like cars, much less getting dirty and competing. I don't think there is a single answer, but I'm starting to think we may just have to watch it burn and rebuild on the other side... Soon the body will be picked clean by the vultures, LUCAS, WoO, FASTRAK, RUSH and many more all feasting on the same dying body.

I came along just after NDRA went away, Southern Allstars was the only series around. Back then most big shows I traveled to were UN-sanctioned independent affairs, you didn't know who might pull through the gate and that was part of the appeal, everybody was an outlaw. We had multiple papers advertising events across the region, commercials on the radio, parades thru town with the race cars, fish fry's at the fire department and really only 1 class of actual late model, "Super". The limiteds back then were clip cars, most home built or modified crashed chassis's. Late model is just too diluted and 3-4 lower divisions all look the same to the casual observer. Thats enough from my soapbox for now.

You make a good point the crates were to help make it cheaper and now it just hurts cause 3 or so classes of them just spreads it all out.. with lots of less cause lots of more classes less cars in each..

[dirtcrazy4u]

Car owners are to blame. You get one that spends stupid money and another follows right along.Track promotors are to blame. There just screwed up. Heck let's start another stupid class.crate racing is to blame. If you think it's cheaper, I got a pc of land to sell you under water. Make a set of rules that cuts all these big spenders right off at the knee'sTrack promotors, drop all these made for my track classes, raise your purse for your premier class. Crate racing, go away, I said it years ago. It's killing the sport.

[Cardirt0]

Car owners are to blame. You get one that spends stupid money and another follows right along.Track promotors are to blame. There just screwed up. Heck let's start another stupid class.crate racing is to blame. If you think it's cheaper, I got a pc of land to sell you under water. Make a set of rules that cuts all these big spenders right off at the knee'sTrack promotors, drop all these made for my track classes, raise your purse for your premier class. Crate racing, go away, I said it years ago. It's killing the sport.

With the Wrong people running it it will never happen.. They think things are great as long as there is money in there hands... Then one day they look up and it will all be gone...for all of us....

[mccreadiefan39]

Racing in general is down because of the age of the fan base. Next time you go to a race take a look around at the fans and who they are, for the most part they are older white males.

How do you get 15-30 year olds who don't like or know nothing about it into motorsports?

Today's 20yo who doesn't like racing isn't just going to flip a switch at 40 and become a diehard racing fan, it starts at a very young age.

NBA and NFL by average have the 2 youngest fan bases of the pro sports in this country meanwhile NASCAR has the 2nd oldest only to the PGA Tour.

For whatever reason older people look down upon millennials but the truth is in this country if your business can't attract millennials especially in sports you are going to be in big trouble.

[Highwayman]

Racing in general is down because of the age of the fan base. Next time you go to a race take a look around at the fans and who they are, for the most part they are older white males.

How do you get 15-30 year olds who don't like or know nothing about it into motorsports?

Today's 20yo who doesn't like racing isn't just going to flip a switch at 40 and become a diehard racing fan, it starts at a very young age.

NBA and NFL by average have the 2 youngest fan bases of the pro sports in this country meanwhile NASCAR has the 2nd oldest only to the PGA Tour.

For whatever reason older people look down upon millennials but the truth is in this country if your business can't attract millennials especially in sports you are going to be in big trouble.

Your right, the current generation have no love for cars, much less racing. They'd rather do a planking selfie or rant a snap chat than actually do something. I'm 47, from almost birth I loved anything with wheels, go karts, dirt bikes, skate boards and you get the point. Younger generation do everything digitally and I fully expect to hear one day they exchange actual sex for an attachment to their phones. I myself have an iPhone 6, I love it but if they were outlawed tomorrow I wouldn't be distraught. Now the younger set, oh boy they'd go into heavy withdrawal and most likely revolt. Not sure if this generational/racing problem can be fixed, but I think it's more serious than people at top would care to consider.

[dirtcrazy4u]

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.