Race tracks closings are happening all over the Mid South. Its a cycle in racing at the grass roots level that we see about every five years. The economy plays a big part in this because it cost more to participate in classes and it cost more to attend the races as a spectator. The family of four will spend an average of $80 while at the track or & $320 a month, thats a non budget item and most families cant afford that so they limit their attendance to 1-2 times a month. The tracks need the stands filled and the concession stands busy to pay the bills. The track needs car/driver participants and that has seen a decrease at most tracks. Most car owners work an average job with average pay and sink the extra funds their family has into their race car. Every race car varies on the expenses, fuel, tires, the cost to build, and the overall upkeep, can be expensive. Tracks set rules to where the car owners can maintain a fairly decent cost to raise their class but in some instances tracks let classes get out of and driving up the cost not enforcing the rules which causes teams to spend more money to be competitive. This also causes cars to drop out of racing because 1 theyre not competitive 2. They cant afford to race anymore and its taken the fun out of it. Track owners and promoters need to find sponsorship through advertising and other venues to help support the racing and not depend upon entries into the pits, entries into the stands, or concessions to run their race track. Tracks must be creative bringing in other types of entertainment to make those spectators want to attend which will increase not only the attendance dollars but the concession stand dollars also tracks must have shows that pay a decent amount of money to help offset the racers expenses. I say to offset the racers expenses but we all know that the purse or payback will never pay for racing until you get to the top level and then only sponsors are actually the ones that foot those dollars. Bottom line is tracks must work harder for sponsorship dollars to offset the cost of operating your facilities better promoting is the key. A prime example of tracksuit of survive the years through promotions and due diligence in being aware of what it cost to attend our places like Crowleys Ridge raceway are Wynot speedway & Batesville those come to mind. The track owner/promoter of these tracks can be seen in the advertising around the track through billboards banners painted signs also flyers and the promotion of sponsors at these events. The bottom line is I feel its up to the race track owner/promoter who must make it happen if you do not have those qualities in you and can give 200% then you dont need to be in the racing business. This is just my opinion and many people have different views. But I fear the blame should never be about the racers are the people to fill the stands if you know how to run the race track then youll be successful like the Mooney Stars/Glenn Franciss/Rodney Wing of racetracks.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 15:25:21 +0000
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