No media guide in 2004

[racin4fun]

Well,

I am sure it could not cost that much to put a add in his guide. The sponsors put more money out to drivers taking the chance that the driver may wreck his can and not finish the season. I am sure taking the chance on placing a add could not hurt them that much and it is also a tax write off. The only way this Tg can do this guide is with the help from us. If it don't go over don't do it next year. If you have the attidude lets see how it goes and if it takes off we will jump on the band wagon well it aint going to go no where.

I truly do not see what the big deal is. Tq has a great idea and is just tring to help the drivers. I have e mailed him and offered to pass out flyers and what ever I can at the tracks we race at. I am even willing to get information on drivers and there phone numbers and e mail them to him myself. Just think the more media attition racing gets the more fans and sponsors we get. Everyone wins. The track and the drivers. JMO.

[Sarge]

supertx,

 

Let me clarify once again.

 

I never said a media guide was a bad idea.

 

The problems I have with the original post are:

 

1. The methods used to gather the information.

 

2. Who got blamed for it not working.

 

My main points are these.

 

1. If you want that information, you have to go and get it yourself.

 

2. Racing on a local level will never be in the same universe as any professional sport to the media.

 

but how often do you get to say our sponsors name and how much effect does it really have

 

Every freak'n time a car is on the track for a race. If I have the sponsor information I will announce it EVERY FREAK'N TIME. And I do my dead level best to get all the information I possible can.

 

And I have had many many sponsors and drivers come and thank me for taking care of them. Take what I do out of the equation and how much exposure is the sponsor going to get? And most drivers and sponsors are smart enough to know what the impact of that is. It might not be as big as anyone wants, but it is the best I personally can do for you. I honestly can't do much more than that. I more than uphold my part of the bargin.

 

Again, I have never said that a media guide was a bad idea. I just think the way the gentleman tried to do it was flawed, and I am peeved that the drivers/teams/series got the blame for his misjudgement.

 

Again, if you want to gather all that information, your going to have to do it yourself. No sending out cards, letters or asking for data sheets. Your going to have to go to each and every racer you want included in the guide and write down the information yourself. Obviously the other way didn't work, or he wouldn't have thrown his hands up and quit. If his methods were so dang good where is the guide?

 

Thought so.

 

Good idea. Poor execution.

 

I have been promised time and time again that they (the track, series, ect) will have all the info I need to announce a race, just to be handed squat 2 minutes before the first heat race. I was just pointing out where I thought he was going wrong and where the blame really lies.

 

racin4fun

 

I understand where your coming from and I believe a media guide could be a good thing. But if he is going to receive money for it, shouldn't he be doing the work? Shouldn't the producer get the rewards? And what your talking of doing has been tried and found lacking, as the subject of this thread indicates. The only way your going to get all that info on local drivers is to gather it, by hand, yourself. Because from the sounds of it, not many local track announcers have the data you need.

 

Again, not saying it's a bad idea, y'all just need to understand the challenge of what you seek to do. It surely can be done, but not with out a ton of leg work. I am trying to give you all the benifit of my having learned leasons the hardway. I am not thinking here, I am speaking from cold, hard experience.

 

Both y'all come on down to I-37 Speedway and see some great IMCA racing. Ask for Sarge, I will be running around the pits before the races getting my driver cards done.

 

Bill "Sarge" Masom

[racerjim2]

Just a couple of things about this thred if your going to make money on something your going to have to work.I have never seen TQJ3 at the track I race at nor has anyone put a pencile in my hand.My job require me to gather information (correct information)so the company I work for can know what is going on in our industry.I cant sit back and wate for people to call me with information Ihave to be proactive in obtaining the info I need.TQ show up to the race track with your pen and paper and Im sutr you can get all the info you need for the media guide the drivers at SAS are usally verry willing to share info about themselfswith the fans and the media.Again to make the big $$$$ you have to work "thats why they call it work and not charity".TQ dont take it the wrong way but being in the promotion business I dont think your going to do this press guide out of the kindness of your heart.I E-MAILED my info as soon as I read your post no questions ask.the other thing is a hobby is something a person does in thier leasure time and does not get paid for.Racing is a business the drivers get paid for doing it even at the local level ,unless you race in houston these guys are hobby racers because they DONT GET PAID,it is just not a sucessful business you might even call us ssemi-pro racers because we are like the baseball players of 50 yrs ago we get paid for participayting in our soprt but we have to work at other jobs to make a living .racers on the east coast running the weekly racing series in NASCAR do it for a living and even employ one to two mechanics full time the SAS late model guys are racing for points against these guys.One thing before I stop the guys in Houston should get paid for racing they workas hard and race as hard as those of us that do get paid.

Our tarck anouncer Milton walks the pits several time during the season updating the the drivers /sponsors information doing his legwork not just sitting back in the air conditioning and not caring .THANKS MILTON

[racin4fun]

From what I understood was TQ was going to put the drivers in for free but if a team or someone wanted to put a larger add in the guide they would have to pay for it. Yes if you are going to make money off it you have to do leg work and go to the tracks and let people know what you are doing. But... as for putting the drivers and their information in the guide for free well... I would think the drivers should go to TQ and give them there info. JMO.

 

Sarge

We raced at I 37 the weekend before last and at the end of last season. I am not tring to be sarcastic but I do not remember anyone coming to our pit getting our information and our drivers names where not announced at first we had to go to the booth and tell the annoucer because he when our car came out they said they they had not info on the car. I figured it was because we did not race there all the time but we did fill out all the information when we registered. No big deal. Like I said I figured it was because we do not race there all the time. I thought when we registered they would give our information, at least the drivers names and where they are from to the annoucer. We come all the way from Rockport to play in the dirt.

Like I said the way I understood it he was going to put the drivers in for free and that is great and if you wanted to help out with money to make the guide work you could place a add. And some tracks season has not yet started so it would be kind of hard to talk to the drivers. I know CC has practice going on but... not all the drivers are there. I thought maybe TQ was just tring to get started with the drivers info and let them talk to thier sponsors and team mates and let them know he is doing this guide.

But oh well. I never thought it was going to turn into such a discussion . Wow.

That is great that the annoucers go to the drivers to make sure there information is correct. Keep up the good work guys and gals. I think a good annoucer makes the race. I have seen some that do not talk much and it makes for a boring night of racing. Our announcer last year at CC was great. Very funny and a lot of fun. I sure hope we get him back this season.

Good luck all.

[Rookie49]

I am new to racing as a driver, but i'm not new to business or new to racin as a fan. I think both sides of this are right and wrong. If the guy was trying to make a career off of this one media guide then he should have put more work into it. But I think his main purpose was trying to do some good with a media guide. He was doing some legwork, he was asking racers to give him their info.

As far as whether its a hobby or not, yeah its a hobby, unless your like the davidsons or brandon bendele. Semi-pro is when you're in the minor leagues. ROMCO, TSRS, and the like are minor leagues. Everything less than that is amateur. Whether you get paid winnings to win is not what decides whether you are semi-pro or not. What decides it is if you get paid to race the car or not.

As far as whether anyone owes him the info, If a developer comes to town and asks for info about the area, because he will be willing to put a business or neighborhood in the town, most communities would give him the info. He will take this info use it as a starting point, add to it and then conduct his business. If the city says,"your making money off of our community, go get your own info.", he is going to say,"Seeya" and go to the next town.

Its all about supply and demand. Do tracks and drivers need the exposure more than he needs the info. I'll let everyone else answer that. Not bashing, just thoughts from a bystander.

 

Johnny

[racerjim2]

Johnny I diagree with your position on racing being a hobby.If you hunt ,fish or play tiddly winks no one is going to give you a dime to do it. Every time I put my car on the race track I getting paid. Again the IRS considers it a business and wants to see profit and loss reports but could care less about the number of fish hooks you use or how many fish you catch.

I race an hold a NASCAR licence and have the opertinuty to win $160,00.00 in post season prize money every year I dont think qualifiess what I do as hobby.Look up the word hobby in the dictionary, it dosent mention getting paid or for profit. Again in the east the local guys race for a living and employ others in thier"hobby"? It is a business and if you dont take it seriously try fishing.

I have raced against Bradon ,Greg and Chris.they are all great drivers and have the funds to perform at the level they choose.The ROMCO series does not feed any other major series in motorsports.TSRS is in its infancy and is carving a nitch for itself but neither has aligned itself with any major series.If they wanted to be considered a minor leauge they would get on board with ASA,NASCAR,Woo or someone else. Dont get me wrong both of these series are great to race in and I would drive in either series but dont fool yourself thinking they will get you any more creditability with ASA t(hat is the premere short track series in the US) or NASCAR (that is the pinnical of motorsports in America)or any other national series than if you just showed up.Theonly thing it does is get you experance in that type of a car.The NASCAR late model series is the starting point for the feeder system that NASCAR has put together. Mike Mcfarland the NASCAR national late model champion is going to run 4 Bush grand national races with Tommy Baldwins team this year. Do you think he would have gotten that opertinituy with another series.

[Sarge]

racin4fun

 

What time did you arrive at the track? I try and start pre-race activities in the booth at 1:30 PM. So if you arrived after that I didn't get you. I could have simply missed you, as I have been very busy. And there have been many a driver's info I collected off of the crew and or family of the driver. Often times the driver is still at the pit shack taken care of licenses and such, while the crew is unloading the car. If that is the case, I just ask the crew for the info and use what they have. I can't hang around and talk to every driver. Once I have the basic info, I am off to the next new car. So perhaps that is why I didn't talk directly to you.

 

Two weeks ago I had a snafu with a couple of the cards. I had them, they just got lost in the suffle. At the intermission I was able to locate several that I thought I had missed. So I may have miss spoke that I didn't have info on a car I actually did.

 

I have only been the announcer at I-37 since the Thanksgiving race last year. I was hired by the new management. I had seen a grand total of one race at that track prior to announcing there.

 

So to me everyone is new.

 

As a general rule, those sheets you fill out when you register are useless to me. 9 times outa 10 I can't read the writing. Not anyones fault, it is just the way it is. And they are not in a format that makes it easy to use as announcing tools. So the best way to get the info in a format that I can read and use, I collect it all myself.

 

And I am not perfect, it is entirely possible that I just plain didn't get your info. If that is the case I apologize.

 

racerjim2

 

It doesn't matter for one second if you get paid to do it or not. The point is....

 

TO THE MEDIA, LOCAL WEEKLY RACING IS A HOBBY. THEY WILL NEVER TREAT IT AS ANYTHING ELSE. BECAUSE IT ISN'T ANYTHING OTHER THAN THAT.

 

It matters not how you treat it, or if in fact you are a paid shoe. To the media it is what it is. Locals competing agianst locals. A hobby. It ranks right up there with the local bowling or softball league. Locals competing against locals. Amature sports.

 

That is my point.

 

Can we do things to make local weekly racing more media friendly? Sure. Will the results from Mud Pit Speedway ever lead off the Sunday night sports coverage at 10? Nope, not unless someone dies.

 

Those are the facts. Doesn't mean I don't treat my role in the sport as professionaly as possible, but the fact is I am really just an amature myself. Never went to any annoucer schools. I don't have a state license, didn't pass any exams. I decided that it looked like a bunch of fun and a neat way to get a little pocket change. I am a fan out of the stands. I am not the greatest announcer in the world, but I know I am not the worst either. But I do take the job as seriously as I can. But I also know that in the grand scheme of things I am just an amature annoucer announcing amature races. A hobbiest watching other hobbiest. Doesn't bother me a bit.

 

Did you know that there are professional slot car racers? Bet most don't know that. If professional was the criteria for media coverage you would have known that, cause the media would cover it. The reason the media doesn't cover it is because in the grand scheme of things it impacts very few people. That is the criteria the media uses to decide what gets covered and what doesn't. Local racing very rarely meets that criteria.

 

I make money annoucing racing. Does that make me a professional? Think about it. It isn't my only source of income. In fact, it is a very very small protion of my gross earnings. The answer to that is the same for a guy racing at the local level.

 

And yes, I do declare the money I make to the IRS.

 

Bill "Sarge" Masom

[ChuckLicata]

I make money annoucing racing. Does that make me a professional?

Sarge,

Do you REALLY WANT ME to answer that??

 

Just kidding, Dawg..you da man!

(p.s.--not that I have anything to talk about! )

[racerjim2]

Thanks Chuck, I think the defination of amateur is "someone that does not play for pay" doesent that change your amateur status SARGE.And now you have called racing a hobby and insulted everyone that ownes or drives a race car I hope you will recosider your position. The problem with the Media is their preception of what racing is about and how serious we "professionals" are.I have played softball and bowled in a league and never got paid for my efforts this makes racing different.

[Rookie49]

racerjim,

 

I am not trying to put anything or anybody down. But think about this-

 

1-Profession: What you do to make your living

2-Proffessional: Someone who makes their living at a certain profession (example-minor league ball player)

 

3-Semi-Pro: Someone who gets paid to perform a certain profession, but doesn't perform this profession for a living (Baseball player in lower levels who still has another job)

4-Hobby: Something you do for fun, relaxation, or recreation

5-Business: Anything you do that involves making or spending money

1-4 all can can all pertain to 5 but not all of them have to be.

 

I rode bulls for 6 years. Almost every bull I ever got on offered the oppurtunity to make money. But I was only a professional bull rider for less than a year. Why? Because when I was making a living doing it I wasn't making squat and got tired of living in a broken down trailer with 10 other broken down cowboys who thought thewy were pros too. Being paid to drive makes you a proffessional. Being paid to win makes you a winner.

 

In closing, Jim, I want you to know that I don't know you, but I know people who do, and they all speak highly of you, so that's where my opinion of you starts.

 

Johnny

[ProTree]

Enough on this subject/-its turning into a pi--ing contest.-back and forth-back and forth.-move on to something else-

[Rookie49]

Agreed Tommy42. Thanks

 

I apologize racerjim. Just got sucked into arguing about something for arguing's sake. I hate it when i let that happen Sometimes it takes an outside perspective to make it obvious.

[racerjim2]

Johnny,

Its ok to diagree not everyone thinks the same about all subjects and sometime I am wrong about the way I thing. I feel that if we want to be taken seriously enough to be covered by the media then we cant look at racing as a hobby and yes we are semi-pros at best and we may never get the media coverage racing deserves but the next guy might it starts with us.Hope you will come by my car at the races some time.

[Sarge]

racerjim2

 

Last time, then I am done. I am not mad or upset or anything like that. Ask Rebelracewriter, I can disagree with someone on something and still call them a friend (I like the new NASCAR points, Reb hates them)

 

You can win money and still be an amature. You can get someone to help out with the cost of competing, and still be an amature. You can pay to play and be an amature. The cost to compete has nothing to do with it.

 

I am not calling your operation "amaturish", i.e. second-class. But if you are racing at the local weekly level, it is at an amature level. It does not impact your dedication to, or the effort given, to compete at that level. And professionals, when allowed, can compete in an amature event and the event remains amature. i.e. Tony Stewart runs a modified in a regular weekly race at Poedunk Speedway. He is a professional, but the event is still considered amature. Vice versa, amatures can and do play in pro golf tournaments. It doesn't make the amature golfer a pro, not does it turn the pro event into an amature one.

 

I want the media to pay more attention to the sport I love. I would love to see great big on-the-front-page- of-the-sports-section articles about last nights races in the Express News. But it isn't going to happen. I would love to see recaps on TV from the area's tracks. It would be great. But unless you find someone to purchase the column inches or TV time, it isn't going to happen. Local racing will not garner much more media attention than any other local amature competition.

 

And if you ever bowled in a league, you have payed to play. There are membership dues and lane fees to be paid. Also most serious league bowlers spend money for the equipment needed to play. If not, you spend money to rent it. Some good league bowlers will even try competing in the PBA events near them. Still makes them amatures. And most bowling leagues offer some sort of prize (usually money) at the end of the season. So the analogy stands.

 

If you are offended by my characterization of local racing, I apologize. But I won't back down from that characterization. It is what it is. And I absolutely love it.

 

I get asked all the time by people what my favorite racing is. My answer is if I only get to see one form of racing then take me to the local bullring on a Saturday night. There is no better racing on the planet. And when asked who my favorite driver is, it is #52 Ken Old, IMCA Modified driver from Kempner Texas. Never heard of him? I am not surprised, he is an amature.

 

I put my time and my effort where my mouth is. Before I started announcing at Texas Thunder Speedway, I drove the 5 hour round trip to Killeen and paid my money to sit and watch the greatest racing on the planet. I did that for 2 years, missing only a couple of races a year. And if for some reason they no longer want me in the announcer's booth, I will again make the drive just to be another fan in the stands.

 

I love this sport, I truly do. I have great respect for anyone that gets out on the track and races. Even more so when they are doing so for the simple fact that they are racers and are there to have fun. Everyone of them is a hero to me. (even you )

 

I just don't have any delusions about the sport at the local level. Or the media's response to it.

 

Peace

 

Bill "Sarge" Masom

 

P.S. I am an announcer, I have to have the last word, it's in my contract.