MikePeters95

26 minutes ago, 24nomo said:

Really?  When did they have 9 tracks with 50+ pro late models?   Never, that is when.   The track is doing what is can but there is just very little interest here in Texas.  In the past 25 years or so, There was a 3 or 4 year window where Texas had 4 asphalt tracks running.  Kyle, San Antonio, Houston and Corpus Christi, for the Late Models.  Everyone has there own reasons why it all went away, but the best days were when the rental guys were throwing money around renting cars and sponsoring tracks.    Other parts of the Southeast are booming with Late Models with lots of rental rides.   Here in Texas, we cant even get guys who want to buy tires.  LOL

Well, you seem to have forgotten a track in Austin, Wichita Falls, Odessa, TMS, a few layouts at TWS, etc etc etc not to mention the 3-4 tracks Oklahoma had.  There was even a touring series, there were a couple.  I thought you guys were supposed to be the historians here? lol.  I remember watching some ROMCO races as a kid thinking it was super cool, plenty of places, including this place, document the people, and places of that completely different era.  The more I read the posts here sometimes I think half you guys are just here to complain about " The way it was " but you can't even remember the way it was.  Ironic.  I just don't get it.

Then we have someone else saying " I wish I had somewhere to race " then going on record, again, stating the track has told them to bring it out, but they don't.  I just don't get it.

I'm sure I'll get some interesting replies.  Maybe I'll get the guy who claims there is $50k in sponsorships that's easy to find for any team until you tell him every local team will give him 50% commission to go find them, lol.

Come on dudes.

21 hours ago, 24nomo said:

It is not always just the rental kids.  We need them, they bring the cash man.  I wish we had more of them around with money.  When we had a bunch of them, we had a nice Pro-Late model class.  That is the class people come out to see.  With all of the money in Oil City USA (Houston), it boggles my mind why we cant het 15 to 20 Late Models.  The fans and sponsorship will follow.  I dont see a major sponsor jumping on board for the current race card

Texas also used to have 9 operational tracks with 50+ pro late models, before the target demographic for motorsports got tired of <10% of the field tearing up 90% of everyone's equipment, and now here we are.  lol.  NASA/SCCA any other wheel to wheel racing requires about $1500 in competition school and they will 100% tell you not to come out...since we wanted to talk about things we used to have.

The show at HMP is fine, I think the double header some the racers were humbled a little with their ambition being faced with reality, folks cant' travel 10+ hours twice in two weeks, and the kids are being policed better, but again, 10% of the field, 90% of the problems.  

Anywho.

18 hours ago, metroracer said:

I would my self....   But I have an Classic style Asphalt Street Stock......   Unfortunately it won't fit to the Current Rules Direction of the HMP Stock Cars / Factory Stock.   I have been hoping to get it sold to a young HMP racer.  But it Won't fit the Stock Car Rules!!!!

Have you attempted in any way to talk to the  track staff Owen or Karl?  I am pretty sure you haven't, otherwise they would have already told you like they'll tell about anyone, bring it out, run it, and they will work with you/anyone to get just about anything on track.

This really isn't a big deal. These classes have ran together since they first time they allowed factory stocks to come out.  The races have been nose to tail with both classes, it works really well.  

Bootleggers (same as I37 fireball essentially) and Factory Stocks all in one class.  Car count is growing, the cars and drivers at this time are pretty even, they've had almost 10 events over a year or so for the Bootleggers to "pull the cars out of the weeds".  This weekend was mostly all factory stocks and the older street stocks last weekend were all on par with the 45 car who this weekend won.  Great job observing and trying something new to see if it would work and verifying it did with the promoters at HMP.  I think this will be a great class as it develops further over time.  I know quite a few folks looking at running that class since they don't tear stuff up and the rules are somewhat open on car selection.

Two weekends in a row is tough on a track where most the drivers are traveling 2-3 hours and have families on Mother's Day weekend.

One the trucks that was going to run didn't because it got torn up by some rental kid that caused two cautions in the first three laps last week.  

I understand the modified lost two cars in practice due to a rental car kid driving straight into a bunch of cars stopped during practice.

Outlaw car count was about normal for that class.  

Stock Car class was good, none of the bootleggers showed up ( again, double header, tough on folks ) but Factory stocks did.  That class is now in the double digits with cars that are coming and going, combining them is great and will develop it further.  Several folks I know are looking at it hard with the lack of rental kids too, myself included.

Legends is also doing super well.  That is probably the most Houston-Centric class with 8 cars in the Houston area, all of the guys in that class working together.  I think 5 of them are at the same shop in the Conroe area, 2 are in Houston, and I know another 3-4 getting put together that should be on track soon, so they can be at the track almost any time it is open since they all live within 45 minutes of the track and they all don't tear stuff up in that class and race super respectfully knowing if they tear up stuff they're just hurting themselves.

Legacy was strong too.

The double header + mothers day weekend was tough on a few folks. Have to choose between supporting the track or spending time with family.  The weekend that wasn't competing with family time / holiday seemed to fare better on car count.

Not trying to be cynical/negative just stating some data points.  I'm sure I'm a horrible person for doing so.  smh.

I know one the legacy guys who got tore up pretty badly ended up renting a Legend this weekend.  It was one of the ones when a car spun, everyone checked up....except...a...well, a rental car kid, that pushed one of Knott's cars right into a parked car destroying three cars.  

Can't make this stuff up.  People are sick of it, and they're afraid to say anything because people get crucified for it.  You've got guys who own/run their own equipment who want to commit to the track, but they don't want to risk having their work destroyed in practice or on the first two laps by some child who some team has convinced their parents they're going to be class champion.  It's a pretty obvious and isolated problem.  Easy to solve.

Several of my buddies went and I almost went, I'm still shocked they got this in.  I remember the post "ignore the radar and head down to Cotton Bowl" lol.  

This was one the funniest Facebook posts from a track that isn't Weaber Valley Speedway I've seen in a while.

On 3/15/2024 at 10:59 AM, 24nomo said:

If you cant sell, you cant race.   There should be no problem raising 10 or 15 grand a race with marketing partners in Houston.   Noone is entitled to race, you have to earn it.    The only classes left at HMP are the tea cup classes.  

 

Sorry I'm not familiar with screen names.  Which team do you run?  I know there are a couple guys with stackers, I still don't know who all is who.  But either way,  I know about 20 teams that would love to hire you for all these partners that "There should be no problem raising 10 or 15 grand a race".  I'll give you a 50% commission, and put you in touch with 25 teams.  With 11 races, this should be the easiest $1.3MM you've ever made, and I'd be happy to see you succeed at it!  DM me your deck and proposal, I already know several million/billion dollar companies that would love to hear the marketing ROI on dropping $10k a race, $110k a season at at a facility with a seating capacity of 3,500 that streams to approximately 3,000 people since as you've said, "there should be no problem raising that".

12 hours ago, RodneyRodriguez said:

The promoter put out 11 dates in December and this was the return? Pretty sad.

This mindset has gotta stop.  Several people spending the money to go race have said it.

Track is open 12 times.  Great.  That's 12 times you're expected to show up.  $2000 every time the trailer gate drops without damage.  That's $24,000 a year.  Nobody wants to go out there and run mid-pack or at the rear and get out spent.  Having a "sealed crate" engine class with 1/2 the dudes running motors they're verbally open are illegal but "approved builder" engines, etc.  But hey, the dudes with full-time crew members are there in the entry level classes all the way up to the late models.  

Help the racers show up, go with proven cost-cutting options.

Or just crucify anyone who points this out.  I never realized how bad I was failing at life until the dudes who weren't actually racing the cars tried to tell all of us actually racing the cars how much it costs to race the cars.  Quite fascinating.  Haven't seen that in any other motorsport I've partaken in which has been quite a few.  Most organizations are able to go "Hmm...if they can't afford to race, we don't have races" even as far as dropping tire sponsors that were contributing $1000 an event, since the racers wanted to run $800 tires that lasted 4-5 races as opposed to $1300 a weekend tire bills. 

But instead the mindset is "you evil people who won't spend $10,000+ a year to race at our track we gave you a place to race!, SPEND THE MONEY!!!"

This is in no way a personal attack on anyone but a point of fact.  Everyone is hesitant / afraid to say anything because they don't want to get socially crucified.  I advocated for them to speak up instead of complaining about it to everyone except the promoter.  I've never seen so many people cry about something, someone says something on their behalf and even gets them to sign off on it since they won't say anything, then ironically, gets alienated. 

An absolutely wild mindset in the community.  

There are over one million people that live within 45 minutes of the track proportionate to each truck that showed up.  If the take rate is literally less than one in a million for the 4th largest metro area in the United States, even under this nonsense Biden administration, it seems logical to me to look into the product being offered that literally, mathematically, less than one person per million is participating in, but that's just me.

Many folks asked for costs to be cut one way or another, and the whole idea got shit on harder than a bedsheet Amber Heard was wrapped up in.

At least 105 is having the Crown Vics out again soon.  I guess that's cool.  It's almost like the Legends and Legacy classes hint that classes without crazy shock costs, crazy engine costs, and crazy tire costs get people interested because it's attainable to them even though 70% of those dudes are very open they wish they were running 1/1 scale cars with V8's.

I don't know why I bother saying anything.  Be awesome to see 15-20 trucks out there.  I had to sell mine because the way it is, between the random rental kids, and tire bills, I can't afford to run 12 races.  Looks like several other folks decided that too, although I'm sure a lot of outbound calls have been made to tell them how badly their presence is wanted next race to folks with trucks, but decisions won't get made to cut costs and mitigate damages.

It was ironic that there was a large discussion about rental-kids who had never been to the track were tearing up stuff, which turned into the people who expressed concern must hate the idea of motorsports growing in any way (wtf?) didn't show up at all, after running off several people in the class who got tired of fixing stuff from the damage.

What a mess. Hope it gets better.  It was sad to see.  

But as stated earlier, the car count for the Legends cars (which all have agreed to run on the same tires) and Legacy cars, which also self police themselves, seem to be thriving.  It's almost like the classes that self police cost cutting and don't let people repeatedly cause wrecks are thriving.  Who would have thought it?

Really?  

Interesting. What first hand observable data points do you know of people who were circle track racing but now spend money to be an influencer on "tic toc"

Most the folks I know who have disposable income look at the competition for flushing money down the toilet with motorsports have instead selected boats, airplanes, drag cars, off road racing, road racing, exotic cars, etc etc etc.  I can't say I've ever met anyone with the resources to go racing that instead spends money to be a "tic toc" influencer.  Maybe we can solve all the circle track world's problems by studying these ''tic toc'' influencers...

Or maybe the issue is costs are out of control and the ROI on fun for circle track in some these classes folks look at what they're getting out of it with the community they interact with, the time investment, who they're competing against, the venues they can use the equipment they have etc etc etc.

If you want to compare the CARS tour, cool.  How many tracks do they run at?  How many nights a week can you run them?  Clearly that is an apples to apples comparison to the only track within a 7 hour radius you can run equipment at, but that number bumps up to an absolutely incredible and salivating number of 3 if you make the radius 10 hours, and all are at largely destination places everyone wants to drive 20+ hours round trip to such as Mobile Alabama and Montgomery Alabama, booming tourism destinations.

Can also invest a full standard American work week of time for a 50 lap race in Florida/Carolina, also great options.

Seems logical and well thought out, great critique, thanks for making it.

I didn't even realize how off the Legacy results were.

Kahlen Koch in the #57 started and finished P1 in a car that hasn't seen a track in 5+ years prepped by CJE Performance.

21 was 2nd

Ty Hymel was third after starting dead last, missing practice and heats with what he originally thought was a blown headgasket, but after helping him go through the car was actually just contamination in the system clogging it because THAT car hadn't seen the outside of a warehouse in 10+ years.  Ty pulled that car from Graham Baker's collection, and went through it in about a month in his 2 car garage at his house.  Was super cool to see him go from thinking his car is blown up, starting dead last, to third.  That was really cool.

And Mike Knotts also started from the back and wound up 6th.

I did notice the Race Monitor results were somewhat off after the fact but didn't realize they were copied here.

On the results up there the factory stocks and bootleggers were combined, and looks like the Outlaw Late Models were overlooked, but we all know Robert Barker showed up, therefore won that lol.

Who would have thought a year ago Legends and Legacies would outnumber every other class combined.

Wild.

(Not counting karts)

*maybe there was some merit to all those conversations about cost cutting to make the full size classes more sustainable*

What's crazy is had Cindric not come up a couple inches Chastain would have fit in that hole and we would have gotten the finish we wanted to see to the checkers.

Still good race though.  

My buddy Corey had some Crown Vic lowers I kinda mocked up and they didn't look to be too big of a gain.  Just going to have some custom lowers with a removable brace.

The G Body / Metric Car I'm building could have been easier but since I'm gonna have to make stuff probably just make stuff for that too.

Thanks for the help.

Looking to see if anyone has a 9'' rear end setup to go onto a metric chassis.  With or without 3rd member is fine.

Hey guys,

Realized a lot of companies don't make stuff for FBody front clips because tracks all use A body and Metric stuff.  

I'm trying to widen the track about 1.5 inches on each side on my 70 Camaro.  The uppers are easy, but on the lowers, are there any off the shelf things that can be mixed and matched with some creativity on the lowers.  I can fabricate something but don't want to.

Just curious if any you guys had any tips and tricks. Speedway and the others don't even sell extended length F Body stuff anymore because none of the tracks apparently have anyone using Fbody stuff, which is wild to me. 

Just saw this on Facebook on the CARS tour page.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100071567284009


 

I think the CARS West Coast deal is to establish it on the West Coast.

Also if you ever want to check on the health of Irwindale, I doubt any y'all keep up with drifting, but Formula Drift always starts at the Long Beach Grand Prix and ends at Irwindale.  Nothing changing for 2024 / 2025 last I heard.  

The conspiracy theory of the week is 2025 manufacturer change and new ownership once TV/Charter negotiations are done.

Earnhardt/Harvick/Stewart Chevrolet team.  BRCC and Bass Pro are reported to have been on the 10 and no word on if Wendy's dropped out. 

Seems like a sensible conspiracy theory.  I think Gragson will be a huge bust though on track.

Glad to see TMS back in action, saw it on some other schedules too.

On 11/3/2023 at 8:22 AM, 24nomo said:

d Joe Gibbs would have never handled the situation like Pop Pop did.  They have a little class.  

This is exactly why everyone you just mentioned has won a Cup title this century, and Pop Pop is clubbing baby seals in Xfinity.

I saw him pop up in all those and thought it was pretty cool.  And yeah Young's equipment isn't super great, a top 10 at a track like Phoenix is a great job.

So apparently today RCR decided they didn't like everyone online calling it for what it is, so Andy Petree is going on an apology tour now stating "We didn't realize 2's (Creed's) bumper bar was pushed in so his RF wheel couldn't turn which is why he parked it into three, our bad we should have looked at it first".  

Sure.  LOL.

You mean if the guy who just needed to finish 2nd didn't come down on him on corner entry trying to wreck his team mate, didn't push the support bar into the RF tire this wouldn't have happened?

Just so we're clear, 100%, if the 2 won with 21 second, both RCR cars would have gone to Xfinity final 4.  

I am not a JGR fan but I will be cheering on Creed next year and I hope he wins 10 races and the championship (and cheering for him to leave JRG when he eventually moves up to Cup lol)

I mean...

Harvick left...

Reddick left.....

I've thought highly of Creed since I worked in Trans-Am and he showed up first race at Road America and absolutely stomped everyone in a rain race in a TA2 car first time he drove one.  TA2 isn't a kids game either.  Dudes a killer.  Showed it in trucks and I'm not one of the consolation prize folks but he has a lot of P2's that could have been W's if he played his game a tad different last lap or so in Xfinity.  

With the right coaching  and risk/reward mindset I could see him doing great things.

On 10/24/2023 at 6:58 PM, F5RACING said:

Happen to know where some fenders would be for that body style? Still interested though. Where are you located?

https://cmwraceparts.com/category/body-fabrication/ar-bodies-race-truck-bodies/race-truck-body-panels/

Several other vendors but AR bodies is what 90% of the trucks are running.