Mel Posted January 18, 2003 Report Share Posted January 18, 2003 Hey Nick, Did I read the TPS schedule right, a race date in Houston? Is that correct? Mel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickHolt Posted January 18, 2003 Report Share Posted January 18, 2003 Yep! That should be a fun race! Nick Holt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Larsen Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 Hey Mel, we do get to race in Houston but I hope that the next time we go there,the owner will provide a purse,and I wont complain to much because I just want to race and have a good time no matter what the circumstances. Oh by the way tell your dad that the #3 bug is in houston going through a complete rebuild,it has all new brakes,trans.,front end,new bumpers,side bars,and about $2000.00 worth of engine parts waiting for me to assemble. The car, I think will be repainted red and maybe be number #2 it will be set up to race on the dirt tracks in Alvin,and the dirt track in Cleveland(Millican motor speedway).I hope he is doing O.K. and yall stay in touch.............Randy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tqj3 Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 Randy- Everyone seems to misunderstand how this works. Track owners do not provide a purse. A purse may be offered based on the expected increase in paid race and spectator attendance due to the appearance of the racing series, whether it be ROMCO or TPS or NASCAR Winston Cup. In other words, the track owner doesn't pay the purse, the spectators pay the purse. No spectators, no purse. Henry Ford once said the same thing about business in general: "I don't pay wages, the product pays the wages. I just handle the money." Graham Baker would probably be more than happy to pay, say, a $5,000 purse if he knew a series would bring in $10,000. But there's no way he (or anyone else) can pay more for a product than he can make by selling that product. How do you make the product worth more? The same way NASCAR or McDonald's or Budweiser do: publicize it, make it a big deal. I hope you can race for a purse at Houston Motor Speedway, too. If you want to make that happen, publicize your series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Larsen Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 Yes, I understand how the Pro Sedans series works,since I have raced with the series going on 8 yrs we have always negotiated with the track owners on a set amount that they pay per car that shows up and starts the feature event. The series has been alive and racing for 28 yrs now and Neil Upchurch has done a great job of keeping it going and providing us racers with a purse that is larger than what some of the V-8 classes get,due to his promoting and negotiating. The Houston race we will run was sparked by Hoosier tires donating $500.00 to start things and then other sponsors including my own father have provided the purse,leaving the track owner not having to pay a thing for us to race there.You think that is a good idea??? If so I want to start my own track, and not payout to anyone,sit back and get rich while all classes provide there own purses.To explain why Neil did this (and I did question his reasons), we have a point in our season that we have almost a month off and Neil wanted us to be able to at least have a race during this time,and I am glad he did it,because like all racers,I wish we could race year round. Randy Larsen #50 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickHolt Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 Randy: Thanks to your dad, Jack (and others including Hoosier), Neil was able to scrape up enough purse money to hold a race at HMS. I have never been there and am really looking forward to the experience. I understand the place is really first-class. Over the past year I have worked closely with Neil and have come to understand just how much work he puts into the series. If you added up all the hours he devotes to the series and compared it to the tiny stipend he gets per race, you'd see that he's basically working for nothing. Obviously, he's doing it for the same reason all of us racers do it... for the love of the sport. tqj3: Of course. It's always the final consumer of any product (be it a Model T, a movie or a stock car race) who ultimately foots the bill, just as you say. However, in stock car racing the model has always been that the track owner/promoter take the financial risk to cover his operating expenses (the purse being just one of many). Mr. Baker is attempting to change the model by removing one of his major expenses (the purse) to reduce his financial risk. Fair enough if you can get away with it, and apparently he has to this point. Sooner or later, though, local racers (who already lose money every time they race, even with a decent purse structure in place) and touring series (who already are dependent on outside sponsorship just to survive) will be unable, or unwilling, to assume the increased financial load imposed by running for free. I know you feel one of the possible solutions to this problem is for the racers and/or traveling series to pay public relations types, like yourself, money to gain the attention of the consumer who will then fill the stands (or generate deep-pocketed sponsors). May I suggest that it is the role of the track owner/promoter to fill the stands, not the racers. I do agree, however, that individual race teams and travelling series could well utilize a competent public relations person to assist the team in attracting team/series sponsors. Naturally, one would hope that the PR type would provide free (or very low cost) services, just as many race team members and series officials do. Nick Holt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
97car Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 Nick are we going to have to rent transponders also? As for a response about the track, I hope this new owner gets things sorted out and starts putting up purses for the classes that race at his track or else racing will rapidly die out in this state if this trend he is trying to set continues. The previous owner once bragged that he ran of 200 dirt track drivers,not to very bright considering most promoters would love to have that size of a car count problem. Of course in the promoters defense I know Houston taxes must be tremendous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickHolt Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 97car Nope. We will be bringing some reliable scoring officials with us to HMS. This will save Texas Pro Sedan teams a bunch of money. Nick Holt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jp17 Posted January 20, 2003 Report Share Posted January 20, 2003 All valid points but I would like to add that from my perspective you can't paint Graham as a bad guy. There are alot of racers willing to race for free or fund their own purses and it's been Graham's very public intention to cater to those racers from the onset. Since the track was re-opened with that as the premise for it's operation I don't think it's fair of us to now complain about it because we all want to race there. Everyone just assumes that Graham isn't working to raise purse monies for the classes that compete at HMS and nothing could be further from the truth. Seems like every time I talk with him he's just come from or is preparing to attend a meeting with some potential sposor. Although I have absolutely no first hand knowledge of what his purse arrangements are with touring series I'm pretty confident that he's participating in the ASA purse and wouldn't doubt for a second if he did for ROMCO as well. Why? Because ROMCO dang near filled the place up and I'd say it's a safe bet it will be SRO when the ASA show comes to town. Another niche Graham has found is developing classes of cars that are inexpensive enough to operate that racing for a reduced purse becomes a viable option. I did the math and I could compete in his new spec motor late model class for significantly less money than I will spend racing TSRS even if I were fortunate enough to collect top 3 purse money at every race. Like many of ya'll we've got far too much time and money invested in our current program but I gotta tell ya, if I were just getting started I'd have to look at an HMS late model pretty seriously. JP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
97car Posted January 20, 2003 Report Share Posted January 20, 2003 True I have not met the gentleman yet,and I understand,the promotion of a race involves a lot of work and time,I hope he fills the stands every race. I know of a promoter in Dallas that had his purse sponsored 3 weeks of the month and he paid it the 4th week and had a double purse that night,also standing room only crowds.I am curious about the late model rules that you are talking about but I haven't found them on his web sight. I too am looking forward to running at Houston Speedway if I have my car finished by then,and unless things have changed Romco was paying their own purse also,like I said I don't know the current situation with the and HMS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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