Bobby

Exactly! And if you are willing to do that to attract classes from other forms of racing, why not for the ones already established? The governing and economic factors are no different. If you keep bringing the same logic to bear, you will get the same results. And in addition to the suspension changes, there are probably gearing issues too...

Good to know! Thanks.

On those cheap tires - at a dirt track for a typical local purse, no one checks to see if you are running on second-hand asphalt tires, because it doesn't make much of a difference. But in the context of an asphalt track, what defines a "pulloff" and how do you tech for it? Because if you can't do both, there goes a major part of your justification for the class, as opposed to others. And if you disregard the tire cost angle, the argument for one class vs another just reduces to how much purse do you have to pay to draw each class, as it always has been. I don't think $5K as paid for big Factory Stock races is going to happen in the local asphalt world, at least not in the near future.

"I'm not trying to be mean here to Scotty9 and MetroRacer but didn't they give the super stocks a chance and not enough showed up? " Was this you ?????? And the broader point, which I was trying to make in the bracket race discussion, is when you just add and delete classes willy-nilly, with no consideration of how you are effecting other classes, you drive racers away, often permanently. People can't afford to spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours just to throw it away because the promoter changes. One of the participants in this thread has been hit once by that, and may be hit again.

Nathan - It shouldn't be an either/or, there is room for both, if things are handled correctly (emphasis on correctly). I can tell by your statement there is plenty of HMP history on Pro Stocks and Super Stocks you aren't aware of. Very obviously there is a large pool of Factory Stocks out there, which should be clear to anyone who has gone to a dirt race in the last few years. What is not so obvious is what should happen with the pool of Pro Stocks sitting around from the Mandalback days, and the Super Stock class which more recent management has tried to get going, with mixed success. The most obvious issue, which has effected Super Stocks, Pro Stocks, and will effect Factory Stocks too, is the tire cost vs purse issue. If you pay Factory Stocks enough to offset the tire bill, yes, they will come. But the same could be said for Supers and Pro's (and I think accommodations should be made in the rules for Pro's, it wouldn't be that hard). But even the Factorys aren't going to come for Ecostock purses, which is pretty much the situation you've had recently. And if the purse could be reasonable for Factories, why not the other stock bodied classes? Tires vs purses for the stock bodied form factor *is* the issue. Previous management decided they weren't real race cars and didn't pay accordingly. And for $5K to win, as you mentioned, cars will turn out for ANY class.... And if you want a place for all of those cars, irrespective of tires, keep the bracket race idea in mind...

It's an incredibly serious problem. That said, wishing you the best! If you had to get it, a place where the docs know about it is clearly the best, and, as your doc, said, early diagnosis is the key. I went four years with no answers because "it doesn't happen around here".

If you need a Lyme-literate MD, there is one in Houston, possibly one in Austin. I'm very surprised you found anyone in S.A. that even knew what that was. Been there, done that. Since you got diagnosed early, the conventional 2-4 weeks of antibiotics might kill it. You are extremely (!!) fortunate, many, if not most Lyme patients don't get diagnosed early and would kill for only a few weeks of treatment. Feel free to PM if you come to need more info.

Mary Ann and Gina have very similar mindsets. Both are working to enlarge the total size of the racing pie, rather than than enlarge their parts at the expense of others. I hope they are successful. They both represent beautiful tracks which would be a shame to have go dormant.

I would doubly recommend that. Speedzone has been the hub of the wheel of social media, before there were even any spokes. Facebook pages come and go, there needs to be a central point of reference, not to mention that it is device-independent, so everyone has access. And I hope Gina hasn't been holding back for fear of monopolizing the content here. HMP is the Big Daddy track in the state, and it's fortunes affect everyone else's, so it has a right to prominent placement.

Thank you, HiTech. I couldn't agree more! The more show you can see in a shorter time, the more people will come, from a wider area. It isn't rocket science... This is supposed to be about entertainment, not endurance.

Nice people, too.

When I googled IMCA modified rules, I saw a max width of 78". Couldn't find anything for sprint cars, oddly enough.

If Whitey weren’t out of town, this could be a special attraction gold mine for intermission! Meet the drivers and ToyotaTim! Watch him tune shocks! Always thinking of marketing, here....

It's nice to see them talking about change (and doing things differently), driven by economic necessity.

As an FYI, Gina is Promoter and Track Manager, Brad is Race Director.

LIKE, LIKE, LIKE!!!

Very happy to see that there will be full time promotion/track management. Also glad to see the long overdue, "out of the box" recognition of the long race days and the need for a shorter, alternating program. Along those lines, I was hoping to hear some at least preliminary thinking about mix of classes (a strategic overall look, how to integrate cars (including dirt) in non-traditional ways, etc) but perhaps that will be considered with time.

Wristbands from last practice honored?

I know I was.

Indeed. It seems most tracks treat food service as a nuisance rather than something that can be done well for profit. As a result, you only eat the bare minimum to get you by. Because you have to, not because you want to. A hugely overlooked area in my opinion.

Fowler, Harper, Yantis - Good to see those names again. In another decade they will be as obscure as the other names on that flyer.

Agreed. I remember him running dirt modifieds on the USMTS tour a while back.

I think Tim has a point, to some extent. We are no longer able to support racing under the old idea, where the track dictates both how you will build your cars and how much they will pay you to race them, which may not be compatible. Just as in business, where you can't dictate both how someone will do a job, and what results they will get. One variable is controlled, the other goes wild, you pick which one you want. If the variable that must be controlled is payout, then what spec the cars are built to must float. On the other hand, if the track is going to enforce a class specification, then the payout must be whatever the racers can tolerate. By the same token, if the track is going to both dictate what classes/rules/payout combinations are, and reserve the right to kill certain classes after investments are made in them, they will have to let the variable of how many participants they have go wild. People who could still afford to heads up race according to specs they don't control would be welcome to. But you still need a volume of racers to participate and pay the track bills. What I propose is an alternative. It may flounder, it may take off, it may be way more interesting than people think at first. It would cost almost nothing to try. It would also provide a fall back position for heads-up racers who are not on their game on a given night because of mechanical problems, accidents, etc.

That's one option for how to do it, but as you say, it isn't the most exciting one. But since you've put it that way, lets put it in perspective. How is that different from what we have now, aside from the attitude of the announcer? What I envision is to have the different speed cars running against each other. Cars begin in reverse order of speed, fast cars chase down the slower ones. Hare and Hound. Just to illustrate, with easy math - a thirty lap race, slowest car is eighteen seconds, fastest is fifteen. Total race time is 540 seconds (18 x 30). Eighteen second car gets a 90 second head start (540 -450) compared to the last car. The race is over or flag thrown at 540 seconds, anyone crossing sooner (breaking out) loses. Winners are determined by how they cross the line. It is all visual. After the last car starts the entire race is anticipation over how it is going to end. The math wouldn't be complicated. The track would calculate when to throw the checkered flag (or have the announcer announce it, as a flag in the hand of the flagman would give a clue to the racers), and you could let the cars figure for themselves when to start. Everyone would have to submit a "dial in" to the track. The track publishes the total race time for the slowest one, and puts the cars in order. Driver's would calculate their own delays and start whenever they want, depending on their race strategies, probably with a timer inside the car or with a spotter.

Top-Shelf I agree with much of what you say (probably all of it, actually). I'm glad you said it, as some of it (that it is boring) is not politically correct to say about our beloved asphalt racing. My own thought is the first five laps and last five laps are interesting. So why do we have 75 lap races when you only want to see 10? Because we tell ourselves that we "have to give the fan value". If we were honest, we would own up to the fact that we are putting on boring shows and do something else. The enduro concept is actually what I used as a guide for how certain aspects of this would work in practice.