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

[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]

FALS is to blame, period.

..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.