Merry Christmas!!

So on this glorious day which story do you think that you will hear about more often, the potential return of our Lord Jesus, or the potential return of Brett Favre? :)

Here is my 2008 season wrapup column that appeared in the December 2008 edition of Hawkeye Racing News....if you're not already a subscriber you should be!

As I wrap up my thirtieth year of writing for Hawkeye Racing News those of you who have read this column from time to time know that I use the December issue as my one time of the year where I will write, in a general basis, something negative. Thirty years ago that wasn’t the case as I often complained about things that must have seemed important to a teenaged race fan at the time, but now as I read some of those original columns I am thinking that I must have been a very disturbed young man!

In this day and age our sport receives enough of a shake down or dismantling by the anonymous weasel posters (copyright Craig Kelley) on the internet forums that, to me at least, it makes no sense to "pile on" in this column so I am instead committed to always finding the positives to report on here. With that said, I hope that the following comments will be taken as "constructive criticism" in the hope that everybody enjoys their experience at the tracks even more in 2009.

Once again I am trying not to call out an individual track or series because I truly believe that the promoters of each and every event that I saw this year were trying hard to put on the best show possible. Sometimes though it is hard for a promoter to step back and think that their traditional way of doing something just might not be very fan-friendly, or maybe they continue to do things to cater to a few drivers who are more vocal than the others. Or it might just be something that they don’t realize unless they are sitting in the stands watching their event unfold, and that is usually when a promoter will determine whether or not his announcer is doing a good job. I am old-fashioned, but the very least that I expect from an announcer is to be able to walk out of a track at the end of the night knowing the driver’s name for each and every car and that driver’s hometown. If they say it once during the night, and I miss it, that’s fine, but at least make sure that your racers are being identified to the fans. I don’t need to know every single sponsor that somebody has, which is often the reason why an announcer ends up only getting a few names out before the green flag drops. Give me the full line-up with names and hometowns first then, if you want to recite a full list of sponsors for each driver before the race starts, go for it. I must say that during our 2008 "tour" the quality of announcing that we heard was pretty darn good outside of two or three exceptions. The lowlight was during a mid-summer touring Late Model event when the veteran local announcer knew the names of very few of the travelers and ended up giving most of the lineups with just numbers and no names. His folksy approach probably goes over well for their weekly show, but he had many in the crowd frustrated with the lack of information. Promoters need to realize just how valuable a good announcer is to their racing program and I am confident that most do as we have several great announcers located right here in the tri-state area!

I am proud to say that the "Free Restart" rule or "the stupidest rule in racing" as it is known on the Back Stretch was only used at a couple of tracks that I attended this year. And, even at those tracks I did not notice any drivers taking unfair advantage of it as I have seen in the past. It is good to know that more and more promoters now realize that when a driver causes a caution, even if it is on the first lap of the race, that driver needs to be penalized. Common sense prevails!
Late running shows were a problem for us a couple of times this year and it is exasperated when the track takes an intermission that lasts for more than ten minutes. A break in the action long enough to allow your flagman and the scorers to slip out to the restroom is all that is needed on any race night and minimum down-time is especially important for a weeknight special event. I actually left a couple of weeknight shows this season when the intermission hit the fifteen minute mark and there was no sign of any track officials returning to their positions. In both cases it was nearly ten o’clock and I had at least a two hour drive home ahead of me, so does fifteen minutes really make that big of a difference to your fans? Well, I guess that is up to each promoter to decide. If promoters are concerned that a lack of an intermission would hurt their concession sales, I would urge them to perform the following test. Take your twenty minute intermission and have your fans stand in a long line to maybe get a soda or a late evening snack during that intermission and see what your concession sales revenue is per ticket sold for the night. Then, on another race night, have your announcer state early in the evening that you will not be taking an intermission tonight and have him encourage the fans to stop down and pick something up to eat or drink when perhaps their least favorite division is on the track. My experience has shown that you have a more steady flow of customers at the concession stand rather than the twenty minute glut and the result is that your concession revenue per ticket sold increases. Plus, you could likely reduce your concessions staff as well since your stand is not overwhelmed all at once. Give it a try and see what happens, my bet is that you will increase your sales and reduce the length of your racing program and that is a positive result for everybody!

Finally I’ll finish off this section of the December Back Stretch with an opinion that I have held for several years now, and it is in regard to the number of divisions being run at a track. It is my belief that if you are currently averaging 80 cars at your weekly show that means that you have 80 racecar drivers in the area to race at your track. If you have six divisions running at your track then my guess would be that your car counts in each of those divisions would be right around the 15 car average and that means that you are running two heat races in each that really don’t mean a thing since everybody transfers to the feature. You have no need for any "last chance" races or B-Mains and you have six feature races that have around 15 cars each in them. If you think about it, those feature races are the only events that really mean anything all night long as those races determine the point distribution and the purse payout. Your heat races are really nothing more than small sets of organized hot laps as even if you are inverting based upon track points for the feature a driver only needs to finish in the top five out of seven or eight to make the feature invert.

What would happen if you reduced your number of divisions to four, or even three, making sure that you maintain an appropriate mix that allows your 80 drivers to find the division that meets their budget? With three divisions your average car count would be just under 27 per class resulting in heat races that requires a driver to finish in the top five or six to make the A-Main and a "last chance" race that may include the drama of your point leader having to race his way into the feature or risk losing that point lead. Now each and every race that you run during the evening means something and that creates more excitement for your fans. Sure, your top division might still only have 15 cars in it and you might even lose some of your original 80 drivers, but even at 70 you are going to at least have one or two divisions that will require a driver to "make the show".

I recently saw a track announce that it will be re-opening in 2009 and that, as of right now, they are only planning on running three divisions. One of the forum comments was a sarcastic one stating that with only three divisions the races would be completed in less than two hours. Is that really a bad thing? I would love to see a well-run competitive race program presented in two hours or less! How many more "casual fans" would keep coming back, likely with kids in tow, to see that same quick program week after week?

Promoters who currently run five, six or seven divisions on their weekly show would have a tough decision to make as to what class or classes to drop and, of course, whatever division does get the axe would find those ten or twelve drivers and their supporters predicting the end of the world given the decision. But those same drivers would likely be back in one of the remaining divisions within a year or two, unless they are just ready to quit racing. For tracks that have shut down over the past season or two it would be much easier for a new promoter to step in and say "we’re bringing back racing to Good Ole’ Speedway in 2009 and here are the three divisions that we will be running." Of course the guys in the area who have a racecar in their garage that doesn’t fall into one of those three divisions will pitch a fit, but hey, it wasn’t like he was going to get to race that car at a closed Good Ole’ Speedway anyway. Might as well sell the beast at an off season auction or on eBay and get to work on a car that you can run in 2009 at GOS and support the new promoter. Just a thought…..

We made it to forty-seven events during 2008 at nineteen different tracks located in six different states (Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina and Wisconsin). Once again we spent the most time, fourteen nights, at the Knoxville Raceway and we spent five evenings at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. We went to the Lake Ozark Speedway near Eldon Missouri and to 34 Raceway near Burlington four times this year. We spent two nights at each of the following tracks; West Liberty, Quincy, Oskaloosa, Tri-City Speedway (Pontoon Beach IL) and Lowe’s Dirt Track in Concord North Carolina. We attended one event each at Lebanon’s (MO) I-44 Speedway, Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland MO, Charter Raceway Park near Beaver Dam WI, Des Moines, Memphis MO, Eldon IA, Spoon River Speedway near Canton IL and Farley. Our only two first-time tracks this year were Columbus Speedway in Mississippi to kick off the year and the Macomb Speedway just 80 miles from home in Illinois. I definitely need to get to some more new tracks in 2009!

As far as series were concerned we saw the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models, the USAC Midgets and the World of Outlaw Sprints three times each, and the USMTS Modifieds, the World of Outlaw Late Models, the ASCS Sprints on Tour and the UMP Summer Nationals twice. We caught one show each of the MLRA Late Models, the Sprint Invaders, the IRA Sprints, the Badger Midgets, and the Winged Outlaw Warriors. We started the year with a March 1st road trip with Barry Johnson and Terry Hoenig to Mississippi and ended it with another great November weekend in North Carolina with my sprint car guru Kurt Moon. Along the way we saw some great racing with solid car counts and good crowds despite the gloom and doom predicted with the then high prices for fuel and the total devastation faced by many due to the tornado and floods. Here’s hoping that the 2009 season will be a good one for all of us both at, and away from the racetrack.

Have a safe and wonderful Holiday season from Jeff, Christine, Ashley, Kyle and Morgan out here on the Back Stretch!