How do we Make local Short Track Racing Great Again (Dirt & Asphalt)?

[chathamracefan]

I've ranted about it before and will continue to, but we killed weekly racing when we went to straight up starts. It took away passing, which reduced the entertainment value. And it took away any chance for the average racer to win so much as a heat race.

With inverts, you could be the slowest qualifier, yet still win your heat....maybe finish 10th in the feature. But it didn't matter, because you couldn't wait to get to work on Monday and talk about racing. You were excited, and it kept you coming back. What idiot (like me) wants to spend that kind of money, put in those kind of hours, and sacrifice your weekends knowing you stand zero chance of winning anything?

And the best part??? It would cost absolutely nothing the change.

You hit on a great point. That is a big piece of the puzzle. As the cars got more expensive, the big dogs want to not have to race thru traffic. Lets always start up front. Well & good for them but a snoozer for the paying customer. And as u say it discourages the midpackers & back of the pack guys. Kind of like golf. If you hit one or 2 really good shots it keeps you coming back. A guy that finishes 12th every week wins a couple heat races it gives him some energy & buzz to stay in the game. Keeps the sport healthy.

[Highside Hustler25]

I had to go to the kitchen for a sandwich and glass of milk to make it thru that post.👍

[Danimal67x]

You hit on a great point. That is a big piece of the puzzle. As the cars got more expensive, the big dogs want to not have to race thru traffic. Lets always start up front. Well & good for them but a snoozer for the paying customer. And as u say it discourages the midpackers & back of the pack guys. Kind of like golf. If you hit one or 2 really good shots it keeps you coming back. A guy that finishes 12th every week wins a couple heat races it gives him some energy & buzz to stay in the game. Keeps the sport healthy.

when I started racing Street stocks early 90's I had a big old '77 Monte Carlo that was midpack at best.. but once a year things would fall into place and I could try to start up front and run for my life.
it gave me hope and I had some good runs.
the previous week winner would start 12th giving everyone a shot at Glory. lol
the Prima Donnas had to work for it and the stands were packed!
this was at Pittsburgh / PPMS..

[chathamracefan]

My dad raced at Quincy IL in late 70’s and early 80’s. A sportsman car. I don’t remember the format but they used a pill draw and I think there was some sort of handicapping for feature starts as well.

[reid boys]

I feel like promoters should sit in the stands undercover boss style. Lol If these promoters actually had to sit through 1 and half of qualifying maybe they would understand how boring it is. Another thing I think we should focus on is actually having a PR/marking person on staff. Having a well ran TikTok could help capture younger fans. Most of the successful track have a strong local fan base so I feel that most tracks need somebody to help cultivate that with there communities.

[3 wide]

I feel like promoters should sit in the stands undercover boss style. Lol If these promoters actually had to sit through 1 and half of qualifying maybe they would understand how boring it is. Another thing I think we should focus on is actually having a PR/marking person on staff. Having a well ran TikTok could help capture younger fans. Most of the successful track have a strong local fan base so I feel that most tracks need somebody to help cultivate that with there communities.

They need to sit thru 9 or 10 classes and see how they like it,

[BTExpress]

Just saw the schedule for tonight's Summer Nationals at West Liberty Speedway. There are SIX divisions scheduled for tonight....REALLY on a Tuesday night? Today's fans want to see the headliner class, the Dirt Late Models. They don't want to be held hostage on a work night. I wish DirtCar would make it a requirement to only have two divisions for the Hell Tour events Monday thru Thursday. Take a note from High Limit, the World of Outlaws sprint cars and Flo Night in America for their mid week shows. One or two divisions and the grandstands are generally packed for those shows. Just sayin'.

[WisWildManFan]

I've ranted about it before and will continue to, but we killed weekly racing when we went to straight up starts. It took away passing, which reduced the entertainment value. And it took away any chance for the average racer to win so much as a heat race.

With inverts, you could be the slowest qualifier, yet still win your heat....maybe finish 10th in the feature. But it didn't matter, because you couldn't wait to get to work on Monday and talk about racing. You were excited, and it kept you coming back. What idiot (like me) wants to spend that kind of money, put in those kind of hours, and sacrifice your weekends knowing you stand zero chance of winning anything?

And the best part??? It would cost absolutely nothing the change.

As much as I hate to say it I think Bloomer was behind that change on the touring series to begin with. I race a Spectator at Sycamore. Each week we qualify all of us and break us into groups 1-4. For example sake we will say we have 40 cars and this is how we line up our heats/features both 10-1, 20-11, 30-21, 40-31. They pay Q points so keeps most fast guys in group 1. Also every week the last weeks winner has to start in the back. No one really dominates and keeps guys coming back knowing they got a shot to win even if they have a 25th place car on speed alone. We get between 30-40 cars weekly and then the next division up is pure stocks then street stocks. They line those all straight up and 1 guy pretty much dominates all season. They get 12 street stocks and 16 pure stocks.

[cubcadet31]

Im gonna guess this wasnt a national thing, but I vaguely remember in say mid 90s or so in Central PA till the early 2000s (Windber Speedway, Thunder Valley Raceway, and i think maybe Ebensburg Speedway). The winner of the previous weeks feature always started 7th in the feature no matter what they did in their heat. Always made for some good racing.

[WisWildManFan]

Im gonna guess this wasnt a national thing, but I vaguely remember in say mid 90s or so in Central PA till the early 2000s (Windber Speedway, Thunder Valley Raceway, and i think maybe Ebensburg Speedway). The winner of the previous weeks feature always started 7th in the feature no matter what they did in their heat. Always made for some good racing.

Fans like passing the drivers should just deal with it.

[over4T]

The now gone Nevada Pro Stock group rules had the previous week's winner start dead last in next show's main. It gave the lesser cars at least a shot though the hot dogs often made it to the winners' circle again. Made it more fun for the fans as well as the drivers. Also most tracks didn't qualify but used the pill draw. We enjoyed it and often ran with them.

[zyoung25]

Fans like passing the drivers should just deal with it.

If they would ever put starters on sprints, I will probably make a full fan switch to sprint cars. I think they made an 8 car invert for the sprint million they ran a few years ago. They spun the wheel and it landed on 8, nobody cared.

[chathamracefan]

Out east, the PA sprint car tracks use a form of handicapping system based on points, recent finishes or some other factor so the fastest guys don't always start up front. Knoxville uses a points based format for the nationals where time trials, heats & feature pay points. The feature is lined up heads up on point totals from quals & heats. But the heats are an 8 invert from time trials. So the fast guys have to move forward to transfer out of the heat directly to the A.

It creates some weird lineups at the front of the prelim night features but puts on a great show. And usually by Saturday the cream rises to the top. They just have to work a little harder to get there.

[chathamracefan]

Another thing that would help is when the big summernational show comes around not running 6 classes on a weeknight like West Liberty did last night. Then they ran the late model feature 3rd in the order. The stock car feature was 18 laps & legit took an hour. There was a red flag during the race but that is just dumb. Late model feature started around 10pm on a weeknight.

[WisWildManFan]

If they would ever put starters on sprints, I will probably make a full fan switch to sprint cars. I think they made an 8 car invert for the sprint million they ran a few years ago. They spun the wheel and it landed on 8, nobody cared.

Winged sprints have a really good product right now and I think a lot to do with it is inverts.