Too Many Classes-Hell Tour

[chathamracefan]

Poppyc0ck. Most tracks take in more money with their SN date than they do with the rest of their schedule combined.

Especially some of the tracks that the tour could quite frankly do without. One of them is solving itself with Clarksville going away. That has never been a UMP hotbed & most years ran like an 8 division show on a dried up track. No need to go to some of those. Kind of separate the wheat from the chaff to use an Old Testament reference.

[Dirt Clod]

Guys,

You make good points. Each of you, like me, have been following these summer nationals for years. We can debate the weekly format vs 21 straight days till were blue in the face. DIRT Car will decide that. But something is working with this new format. The fields this year have been solid. Go on Dirt of Dirt and look at the addresses of the 35 cars that entered last night at Butler. FL, OH, MI, IL, SC, IA, OR., GA. MO. Back in the 21 straight days, we never had as many travelers as we've had this year. If the series ran 21 straight days, how many of these travelers would have entered all of them?

Clearly the issues DIRT Car needs to work on is mid-week race night mgmt, number of classes, track prep and team support. Five weeks too long? They can always work on increasing the purses. But the weekly championship format, tow money program, and contingency must be working if you are getting 35 late models on a Thursday night, the final week. More late models last night at Butler than the Lucas race. How many late models would be left had they been forced to run 21 straight nights? Now is the time for DIRT Car to take the Summer Nationals to the next level.

[reid boys]

I think the overall point is that Dirtcar (Driggers or whoever is calling the shots) needs to take a lot more ownership of the nightly presentation at the track. This includes what classes to run, what order to run them in, what time the pits should be open for teams traveling overnight & track prep.

Just within the Dirtcar organization, the WoO sprints run a show that they seem to control most all aspects of. They specify what (if any) support classes & the order of the program. Of course it can deviate based on weather or other factors but it seems to be a much tighter ship than the summernationals.

Seems the hell tour has evolved into a bit of a bloated thing where dirtcar is basically acting as the money changer in collecting the sanction fee each night & administering the tech at each track.

Some tracks run 5 classes on a Tuesday, some run 2. Some tracks run lm feature first. Others run the hornets & b mods before they get around to the main event. Some tracks are prepped & some take rubber halfway thru qualifying. Some tracks open the gates at 10pm the night before, others open them at 1pm the day of. Etc, etc.

Just doesn't make sense to me to slap your logo all over the event & then let large portions of how the program is run (which can greatly effect the spectator & participant experience) up to the whim of how each track wants to do things.

And if certain tracks can't meet the specified criteria, they probably don't need to be on the tour imo. The tour seems to hit the doldrums about the start of week 4 so it could use a bit of pruning anyway.

I disagree. I want the guy that runs that grader every week to be the one prepping the track not some guy from 4 states away. I also dont think promoter A that can run 4 classes in 3 hours should be punished for promoter B you takes 5 hours to complete 2 classes.

[blncfn57]

Poppyc0ck. Most tracks take in more money with their SN date than they do with the rest of their schedule combined.

LMFAO!!! There are some (but not many) tracks that make decent money doing it, but I'd be willing to bet most are praying to God they break even. I also do not see the word PROFIT anywhere in your response.

[over4T]

I disagree. I want the guy that runs that grader every week to be the one prepping the track not some guy from 4 states away. I also dont think promoter A that can run 4 classes in 3 hours should be punished for promoter B you takes 5 hours to complete 2 classes.

Not to speak for the rest of the country but I'm darned familiar with how WoO does it on the West Coast. Local guys generally do the prep but it's under very specific orders from WoO what they want and get. Local classes ( I was often in one of them) had zero to say and almost always got screwed over with little to no practice, often no heats and a main after the Sprints were done and on a terrible beat to death track. We usually did a year's worth of damage in that one night and it's been about 10 years since I participated in my last one and they couldn't pay me enough to ever do it again. But the WoO show was usually good and run quickly.

[over4T]

Especially some of the tracks that the tour could quite frankly do without. One of them is solving itself with Clarksville going away. That has never been a UMP hotbed & most years ran like an 8 division show on a dried up track. No need to go to some of those. Kind of separate the wheat from the chaff to use an Old Testament reference.

But no more Toilet Bowl and probably the most unusual Trophy in racing to the winner.

[chathamracefan]

I disagree. I want the guy that runs that grader every week to be the one prepping the track not some guy from 4 states away. I also dont think promoter A that can run 4 classes in 3 hours should be punished for promoter B you takes 5 hours to complete 2 classes.

I guess what I meant is that dirtcar should at least oversee it. The places that consistently demonstrate they know what they are doing don’t need as much guidance (FALS and Springfield MO as examples) can be left alone. But the tracks that are known for choo choo racing should at least be guided so it’s not a rubbered up track all night. If I was putting my name on the tour I’d at least give my input if I felt it was warranted

[Highside Hustler25]

Flo got it right for tonight's Fairbury show. 👍

[BTExpress]

Ray Cook's Southern Nationals race at Toccoa had 7 divisions last night. Just too many for a midweek race....but what do I know, I am just an old racefan....

[Dirt Clod]

Ray Cook's Southern Nationals race at Toccoa had 7 divisions last night. Just too many for a midweek race....but what do I know, I am just an old racefan....

Exactly what is wrong with a midweek show! I saw they were still qualifying at 9pm eastern time. What time they finally run / finish the late model feature? Brutal.

[reid boys]

Flo got it right for tonight's Fairbury show. 👍

Still got over super late.

[Highside Hustler25]

Still got over super late.

Uh,yeah. If they didn't start it later because of the heat, it would of been over by 9:30.

[Dirt Clod]

Still got over super late.

As Highside says, started an hour late due to heat. Had 66 cars. Super late? Seriously?

[cgrace]

There was a lot of young guys who obviously have money behind them following the tour. They must have wealthy parent or backers. It takes quite a lot of money to stay on the road that long. IMO they think following the Summernationals will make them the next Bobby Pierce or Brandon Sheppard. There were 10 teams who were at every race. The year before, I think only 1 or 2.

In regards to too many classes - YES! There should only be one or two support classes on any night depending on the quantity in those classes.

DIRTCAR is the only organization making lots of money. Many promoters in Illinois are not as excited about the SN as they used to be. DIRTCAR doesn't share from their streaming revenue.

My other gripe - the Summernationals and WOO announcers rarely if ever mention racers other accomplishments outside of what they do on the their series. It's not that hard to look up a drivers website to check.

[MRM]

Exactly what is wrong with a midweek show! I saw they were still qualifying at 9pm eastern time. What time they finally run / finish the late model feature? Brutal.

They were delayed a bit by a rain shower. Still, that's too many for a midweek show. Then at Sugar Creek last night, they had 30 minutes where nothing was taking place. I had the sound down and I don't know if there was an explanation.