The State of OUR sport; Past, Present, and Future

A continuing series of interviews through the eyes of YOU, our Teams, Promoters, Tracks, Sanctioning Bodies, Media and Fans.

And as promised, Andy's first (and hopefully last) rant for quite awhile.

Please stop reading if you want the good stuff, it's coming as Part 1 in a few days. (Charly and Janet are letting the "Drama" build.......LOL)  If you have absolutely nothing better to do, and insist on continuing, you'll get more of what you got in the last one. Away we go...

Intro Part 2   

Number one at the top of the list is we need to set a baseline and stop the bleeding, stop the losses. We can't get any worse than we're already at. Racers, Racetracks no more losses. Just do that and you'll never hear from me again. (I know you'd all enjoy that.....LOL) Then its up to you to take back the ground that we've lost.    

As these interviews progress, I am curious to learn if my personal thought is true. Almost all of the problems come back to one single issue......Financial. That dreaded “business model”  (I now HATE that term). There is a lot to learn from our Past. I believe in order to get back to our Past, each of our divisions need to be something close to a “financially viable business” on their own, as we design it. When they’re not, it creates many of the problems we’re seeing from the West down to the Hobby Stocks.

This is good news, because WE can fix this.

Clearly we are at a crossroads in our short track sport. It’s a perfect time to step back, take a look at how we used to do it, and apply the best parts to our future.

I don’t believe we can continue to do what we’re doing on a financial level and think we are going to somehow going to increase our fields and put fans in the stands. Just run the numbers as the promoter has to pass those costs over to your fans. Les Kynett of Champion Speedway will give us a good idea of the numbers. Your "average" team cannot afford the current costs to be Competitive.

(And, I want this to stand out.)

Your average “core” race fan (the plumber, the electrician, the mechanic, the construction guy, the tech who works at Midas, the counter guy at Napa or AZ) can’t afford to spend $75 to take his family of 4 or 5 out to the track every Saturday night!!! 

...(They will watch Cup on TV)

And that’s exactly what we need, EVERY Saturday night fans.

I fully realize $75 bucks to you guys doesn't even cover your pit passes, but I ask you to think like the "average" person out there, not the Cup customer. They're thinking...."$75 bucks will buy us a new toaster oven, and oh, I can still watch racing on TV tonight." The decision is made.

Let's talk cars. Remember when we had so many at Saugus in the Sportsman/Latemodel  class we had B and even C mains? (many of our divisions actually)  They were basically Street Stocks with fiberglass bodies, and many more could afford to race.

The point is every race team that drops out has a HUGE impact on the fan count (something we can all agree we need) ! ! !

The Driver, Crew, Sponsor, even the Sponsor’s employees, all add to our numbers. Then bring in all their friends and family! It all works together to put people in the seats. EVERY race team counts. The High School Racing Series kids at Mesa (our future) clear up to our best funded West teams. We can lose NO ONE.

When our financial house is in order, our race teams become much more attractive to the “average” sponsor that is looking for serious return on investment. (in addition we absolutely need TV or Radio in the long run)

Yes today racing is expensive. Let’s think back to our Past when that wasn’t true. (way back)  If we can at least start heading back to the way it was, even slowly,  I believe we will start to see solutions. When we start seeing “average” sponsors on your cars, we are on our way.

Sponsors

I had a driver friend recently point out the sponsors on the vast majority of our cars. Almost all were either companies owned by the teams themselves, or sponsors that purely just love racing. Stock Building Supply and Star Nursery are perfect examples (a big Thank You to both of you from this fan). What we are missing are those "average" long term sponsors that are in it only for the “return on investment”. (only in it for money....like the Top 3)  Those "average" businesses that don't necessarily care about our racing, but they do care about their sales.

I believe that is an excellent point. We need to seriously consider making our race cars, divisions, and tracks "financially viable advertising choices" in the future.

Especially for our upper divisions to attract those “average” sponsors I was speaking of, we must have TV. (or radio is not a bad way to start also) TV creates the situation where the “cost per contact” is in the pennies. How do we pay for TV? First, we fill the grandstands and divisions with close competition. That’s where we start.....Read on.

We have a Fantastic Product

(I know, I’ve said this before, but needs repeating)

We have the greatest drivers and teams in the Western US. We have Bristol style short tracks up and down the Coast. We have hard side by side racing. We don’t have the unwieldy crowds and outrageous ticket prices of Cup. Our fans can meet the drivers, hang out with the crews, meet the officials, and go to your shops.

We can and should “make people a part of our sport” just like Cup does. In fact, we can do it better than Cup, if we take advantage.

I know I will NEVER forget helping roll out our Sportsman/Late Model to the Start/Finish at Saugus. The cars, the bright lights, all those people, the cheers when we were introduced! And I was a part of that.......AWESOME !! 

I was hooked forever.  

THAT’S our MAGIC! THAT’S our advantage over Cup or most any other sport for that matter.

Every fan needs an experience like that. And the best part, we can do much of this absolutely FREE, it just takes a mindset and an effort. Once you make the average fan a part of our sport, that’s when things work, one by one.

How about going into work on Monday telling everyone what a fantastic Saturday night you had?

"Oh I came in near dead last, but it was GREAT. I was racing this guy I tried to go low, slammed the door, then I got beside him outside and went sideways......... spun, but I came back and PASSED HIM ...... But I'm gonna get a podium next week, come on out and see me." 

With that kind of enthusiasm your co workers WILL come out with you, breeding yet more fans, which are now YOUR fans.  

The fans   (especially new ones)   NEED someone to cheer for, why not make it you! 

(and we need some to boo at too .....Gordon vs. Dale Jr. ....The bad guys against the good guys, It’s all part of the show.)

As a fan, I can't stress how important it is for our NEW fans to have someone to cheer for, even if we have to assign them someone.

And not just racers, tracks and owners of course too!  Pace car rides, Tower tours, Private pit tours, (some of the best stuff happens in the live pits, this can't be underestimated in it's interest to new fans, I vividly remember staring in AMAZEMENT as the Spears crew did a green flag tire change on the 75..... UP CLOSE!!)....Spotters tower when the heat is on, let a new fan or kid throw the green flag, have your drivers get introduced walking down the grandstands once in awhile (when you're ahead of schedule) (LVMS does with the truck series) etc. This is ESSENTIAL, especially to your new fans, ……and……….best of all, this is all free. Involve your fans in the show along with our teams, and they'll find out how cool this all really is! Give them moments like these they'll remember forever! 

That’s why Andy and his family show up to see their “home town heroes; go at it week after week, year after year. Nothing is more fun than hanging out at your shops, then coming out Saturday rooting for my friends, and seeing all your hard work pay off. See, we are BETTER than Cup. And of course, we don’t have to be locked into the “politically correct” style they are nowadays. Let’s have FUN.

Keep the show moving, (gang, please do what you can to limit the boring yellow flag time, especially line-ups, we can all do much better here)  make it fun, make it different, let the boys and girls be themselves, get us back to the "roots" of the rough and tumble good ole days, and I believe many of our problems will resolve themselves. Exactly what we need more of..............NON politically correct..........and another thing I love about racers!  I have to be "politically correct" every damn day of my life. It's so great to come out with you guys and put that aside for just one night a week. Cup can never return to those days. Take advantage!

Yes, I'm saying we ALL need to take a part in bringing people back to our Family, the tracks cannot do this alone. Just take another look at what we've lost, and how precarious the rest is, if you don't believe me.   

Promoters, concerning “the show”:  Speaking as a fan, whatever fun event to put butts in the seats is OK by your “hard core” types like me. Trailer/Boat races, Figure 8, Destruction Derby, Monster Trucks, Drifting, Roll over Contests,  Train Races (my favorite fun event, and always a crowd favorite, I can't imagine why we don't run these any more)  whatever it takes. Be creative, always try new ideas, and learn from other tracks.  

Power When We are Together

The point that has been driven home to me over the past year is that the Gorilla runs their sport “as a business”, end of story. 

Ok, Let’s learn from them. It’s time to run our short track sport as a business, and fix it for good. Our business power is in our numbers.

How many of us are involved in our short track sport in one way or another? Teams, Owners, Officials, Sanctioning, Tracks, Concessions, Parts Suppliers, Sponsors, Car Builders, Fans, plus their families and friends on and on. It is a HUGE number, and one that will get the attention of major companies, but ONLY when all of us are together, ...working together.

Our touring divisions alone spend hundreds of thousands in travel expenses. Airlines, Fuel, Rental Cars, Hotels, on and on. I'm sure numerous hotels would line up to be the "official hotel of short track racing." I know where I would stay. And that’s only one very small example of our power when we are together.

And, as said, we can no longer afford to protect our separate “Agendas”.  We lose that "power" if we separate protecting bogus agendas that won’t mean a thing 10 years from now. And that’s where our heads need to be.....10 years from now.

Just take a look what the splits in open wheel have caused. The longer those two “fight” for second place, the farther the leader pulls ahead,  just like on the racetrack!  

(And of course I can give you the obvious racing analogy of 2nd and 3rd actually working together back to the leader)

No different with us...

“Power in Numbers”, an oldie, but a goodie.

STICK TOGETHER, I’ll follow.  

A Proposal to Consider

And finally, in the thought of  “sticking together”, I’m going to close this one out. I’ve been thinking about this concept quite a bit lately, and I’m gonna go ahead and throw it out there at risk of a severe slamming in the Trailer...

I believe we are currently in a state very similar to when NASCAR was created all those years ago. Different racetracks, teams, sanctioning, and sponsors, all doing their best, but separately.

For Your Consideration:

A Non Profit organization of Tracks, Racers, Sponsors, Sanctioning, Press, Car Builders, Fans, i.e. ALL OF US, only working toward the goals of .....

Keeping Racers Racing and Racetracks Open

Two very simple goals we can ALL agree on.

As a private pilot, AOPA (airplane owners and pilots association) was created for very similar reasons, except for flying of course. (costs going up out of control, airports being closed, and people leaving the hobby in droves) It has been a successful campaign launched many years ago to keeping costs of flying down, bringing new pilots into the fold one at a time, by its members. Its members are comprised of Pilots, Mechanics, Manufacturers of all kinds, Airports, Flight Schools, Support Services, even the FAA, all working together as one force. I think you can see the interesting parallel’s here.

And, it’s a “business model” that working. I'm sure I could come up with dozens of Associations as examples that have made huge strides toward theirs. We could even pool our resources for regional advertising and promotion. Or how about political clout when we need it? (like when we need permits for our new racetracks!)Wouldn’t a national TV or radio promotional blitz for US be fun!

Just imagine what we could do together as a group with these two simple goals. If we each brought just one new person into OUR sport every 5 years, where we could be! Imagine what your track or series could be like 10 years from now! Imagine what it would be like to have an organization of thousands of people working together for US. Imagine having your voice heard within that organization for the good of our Family, for the good of our Lifestyle. 

How do we do any of this?

Gang, we need a Leader. We need a Leader that leads the Racing Family, and "believes" in US and our Saturday night racing. Somewhere among you is the person that has the respect to bring all our separate groups together for these two simple reasons. Someone with the technical and promotional skills, the experience, the vision, and the passion to bring us "back to where we were." Who knows, we may find that Leader among the interviewee's during this series. 

When we do find that person, it's going to be time to live by those famous words your race directors stress every week...

"Give and Take" for our Future.

We need a leader to come along, organize us, do the right things, and unite us against the real enemies. It's time to look to the BIG PICTURE (and I don't mean this seasons Championship) . Ten, Twenty years down the road so we're not looking back at these years as the "good ole days."

................Andy D.

Thank goodness, Part 1 of the series is up next.......(I'm done ranting........for now)

p.s.:  As I finish writing this my Metrolink train is rolling past my home track of Saugus Speedway. I stare at the dilapidated grandstands and wonder..........WHY?

I can still hear over the pit PA system.........."Number 38 team to the BLOCKHOUSE" ................running through my head. Man I miss the "good ole days."

Andy D'Addario
Saugus, Ca

Comments about this article can be sent to andydadd [at] yahoo.com