Thursday Notebook: February 25, 2016

After two weeks of dirt racing to watch from Arizona in January followed by the feast of Speed Weeks video to devour over the past three weeks, this coming weekend will seem like a let down. But as the calendar turns to March it means that the racing action is getting closer and closer to us here in the Midwest and it won't be long until a reasonable road trip will find us in the stands to watch that first race of the year live and in person.

Don't you love that feeling of going to your first race of the season? The excitement, the anticipation as you make the drive? Last year when I opened my season in Beatrice, Nebraska, the six hour drive to get there seemed to fly by knowing that the unusually warm temperatures would produce an amazing field of cars. And the next day, after taking in that full night of great racing action, that same drive took and felt every bit like a six hour trip but it was soooooo worth it!

Yes, I already have my first race of 2016 under my belt, but it was a "surprise" opportunity with only a 15-mile trip, lengthened of course by Tampa's rush hour traffic, so hopefully it will not take away that thrill of my first true road trip that I hope to make sometime in March. But just where will that be? If you too are asking that question make sure that you check out the Calendar page at Positively Racing as the latest update now lists 1,124 special events at tracks in our coverage area of Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. Amazing as it is already that list will continue to grow as there are still several tracks and even a few series that have not yet released their 2016 schedule. Plus, just after I sent the update to Webmistress Sue I realized that I had failed to include the Gateway Dirt Nationals in December. It will be anchored at the bottom of the list on the next update, unless of course someone decides to schedule a race on Christmas weekend.

There is no doubt that compiling these schedules helps me get through the winter months and I am amazed in just the past couple of years how early some tracks and series put out their schedules. I literally could have started this process in mid-October last year before the racing season was even over in Iowa and Missouri, but I instead waited until after Thanksgiving to get started on the 2016 project. Of course these early releases are more likely to have changes to them as time goes by and as we actually get within a month or two of the opener and unless there is some sort of announcement beyond the track's website or Facebook page I am probably not going to catch it. And that is why we have that disclaimer at the top reminding you that you should ALWAYS confirm a date with the track before making the actual trip.

Going through this process does allow me to catch some news that I might not otherwise.

Yesterday it was announced that Wagner Speedway in South Dakota will not be running a weekly schedule this year, but will announce a few special events dates in the near future.

Lebanon Midway Speedway in Missouri is changing nights from Friday to Sunday in 2016 and hopefully that will improve its car counts that have dwindled over the past few years.

The St. Croix Speedway in Wisconsin is also making the move from Friday nights to Sundays in 2016 and they just hired the hard working Chris Stepan as the General Manager. Stepan flags at KRA Speedway in Willmar, Minnesota, on Thursday nights, is the General Manager at the Granite City Speedway in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, on Friday nights, is the announcer at the Cedar Lake Speedway on Saturday nights, announces special events in Arizona, Florida and likely other venues during the Northland's off season and even promotes some special events of his own from time to time. Remind you any of Toby Kruse? I have never met Chris, but I have definitely enjoyed his mic work both online and in person.

Spring Lake Speedway in Unity, Wisconsin, announced at its banquet last Saturday that the track will be NASCAR sanctioned in 2016.

The Eagle Valley Speedway in Jim Falls, Wisconsin, has announced that they will now race on Thursday nights with a schedule still pending.

The Thunder City Speedway in Doniphan, Missouri, has been a bit of a mystery. Built a couple of years ago likely to fill the void of the Malden Speedway closing down the track had a website that was never updated with information and I was eventually able to find results on their Facebook page. Checking to see if they were still in operation I noticed a post dated December 31st stating that not only will they be reopening in 2016, but that the track will be relocated! So there you go, this guy has built not just one, but two different race tracks in less than five years. Guess we will see how things play out.

In more southeast Missouri news, or lack thereof, the USCS Sprint Car schedule for 2016 has not one but two two-day shows listed for the Poplar Bluff Speedway. The problem is that from all sources that I can or cannot locate on the net it would appear that the speedway that closed its doors after the 2014 season remains closed. Guess we will find out for sure on March 18th and 19th when that first show is supposed to take place. Well now, let me take that back. As I checked out the forum board at Mid South Racing it looks like the USCS has edited out the four dates for Poplar Buff, but apparently have not yet made the change on their website.

Closer to home the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders recently announced their 2016 schedule that includes a June 17th date at the Eldon Raceway. However, I was soon after contacted by someone close to the fair board at Eldon who told me that the date had not yet been confirmed as the Invaders were just one of the grandstand entertainment options being considered for that Friday night of the Wapello County Fair. Here's hoping that it gets confirmed as it has been a long time since I have seen Sprint Cars on the big half-mile in Eldon.

One other date on that original Sprint Invaders schedule has been changed though as instead of running on Thursday night at the Dubuque County Fair, the Invaders will join the Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds on Tuesday night. I was thrilled with this change for a couple of reasons. One is that it will be great to have the Sprinters return to Dubuque and to do so sharing the stage with what should be a great field of IMCA Modifieds, and two is that I would not have been able to be at the fair on Thursday night as we will be heading to Atlanta to attend a wedding that weekend. I love the Dubuque Speedway and wish that it was about an hour closer to home.....

While searching the Mid South Racing forum for information on the status of Poplar Bluff I stumbled across this gem on page two of a thread that had the results from last weekend's Winter special at the Northeast Arkansas Speedway. Now as you read this I want to make sure that you notice how this is from an AWP who is obviously biased because one of his or her favorites was perhaps roughed up a bit and, because of that, makes a blanket statement predicting the demise of the speedway.

KCracing says: "Judgement calls? Everything I seen the last two nights, judgement calls were not needed. If your going to put on a show like this you have to have rules and follow them. This clearly was not the case here. Multiple occasions of "rough" driving that deserved the black flag. How many cautions can a race have before something changes! NEA will not last ran like this ...poor management"

To which NEA Promoter responds: "Thank you for your evaluation... We broke every record in the books for 25 years and had a 95% approval rating. This track has come along way in less than a year and continues to grow. We improve each week with only 23 weeks under our belt so to judge us... thats ok. I look at it as a way to address our issues and move forward. The statement of we won't last long, take exception to, based on a bump and grind to move to the front you say this will close us down .... todays racers need to Grow a set and quit thinking they can't get a nudge or quarter panel damage because they run the groove and are slower than others. I raced when racing was racing and we had very few CRY Babies...why because we were men. I never said anything ever about a competitor cheating I said "I need to get faster". Today its drama like a white trash Momma in racing. Sorry we disagree because "I've got a set"

The cheering from the fans and the ton of positive posts and face to face attaboys seem to say differently.... Glass half full or glass half empty perspective I suppose.

This is my last post other than information about a race in this or any other forum because I can't handle people who want to be promoters or car divers that think they know it all. If those people know it bale off in it and get some. If you know me I'm a hard nosed Bastard that loves my track, fans and drivers, I've got a set......and will fight for our track. I see posts about everyone of us in the MidSouth that have tracks....worse than watching All My Children. I prefer being blasted face to face than over a keyboard. Thanks to everyone for their thoughtful advice, We'll see you in the dirt."

Okay, so I will admit that I cleaned up some of his grammar and spelling errors that were probably made because he was pissed off while he was typing his response, but Mr. Promoter I salute you! And for all of you forum jockeys who think that you are helping the sport by sounding off on a forum his most important statement was one of his last ones. If you really want to accomplish something, then address it face to face. Oh yeah, and I still refuse to watch The Chew since it took the place of All My Children a few years ago! Is Erica Kane still on in Arkansas???

Earlier in the day I came across a thread on 4m titled "Do Social Media Policies Help or Hurt?" and I immediately cringed since one of the last blogs on this topic eventually led one person to conclude that I am the reason for the downfall of racing. The responses on the thread indicated that once again somebody was trying to make the point that nothing bad should be said about a race track, but after reading this blog by Kristin Swartzlander it was obvious that was not the case. Perhaps some of those AWP's should have actually taken the time to read it before defending their right to bitch?

First of all, at the risk of being sexist, reading through the rest of the materials on Ms. Swartzlander's site it is obvious that she is knowledgeable and has the talent to provide great insight to promoters and race teams who are in need of her services. The pictures that she has included are there for a reason and the entire package is a powerful combination in this male dominated sport.

When I first heard that some tracks were putting forth policies that would allow them to take action against those who were making negative comments about them on social media I defended their rights to do so stating that it was no different than any other business who has a sign posted that they have the right to refuse to do business with any customer that they feel is disruptive to that business. After all, the primary chant from people when a rule like this is set forth is that it is taking away their right to free speech. No, you still have the right to say whatever you want, but as always someone else has the right to take action against you if what you have to say is damaging or inflammatory.

The premise of Ms. Swartzlander's blog though, and one that I totally agree with, is that having this policy is not a good image for the track.

"It tells customers, and potential future customers, that we don’t care what they think. That we’re not open to improving. That if they want to give us their money, that’s fine, but they’re going to take what we give them in exchange for it and like it. Or don’t come back.

Or, if you dare to complain about it, you won’t even be allowed to come back even if you wanted to."

As I have stated before, the big difference between eight years ago and now is that most of the people who are doing the complaining on social media are doing so on Facebook or Twitter where usually they are identifiable, no longer Anonymous Weasel Posters. In most cases this should give the reader the background that is needed to determine how much stock to put into the complaints that are being made. Plus, it gives a track promoter the opportunity to deal with it as needed.

As in the example above with the promoter in Arkansas, and with every other promoter out there, they would prefer to handle issues directly rather than being bashed on social media so in this day and age if the person making the negative comments, whether it is a driver or a fan, is actually still coming to the track what would happen if the promoter came up to that person, politely introduced himself and asked if they could have a conversation about how to improve the situation? Hopefully that would be considered a welcomed opportunity, but I'm not so sure that it would.

Swartzlander concedes that there are still going to be AWP's out there and agrees with me about the long term effect.

I agree that ‘bashing’ on social media isn’t good for the sport. But there’s a huge difference between ‘bashing’ and constructive criticism.

There will always be people who bash – with or without any sense of reason. You can’t escape that. But if you’re building an open line of communication with your fans, you’ll find that even when you make mistakes, you’ll have more supporters standing up for you than customers turned away by a basher’s sentiments.

And a post by Highside Hustler25 sums it up as well as anybody by stating

"Nothing wrong with constructive criticism. It's good for the sport and the fans.

Biased and non factual accusations are what's wrong with social media. Too many temperamental hotheads with a chip on their shoulder. It's too easy for someone to jump on the internet and spread bold untruths without having to be held accountable."

If only I had written that!!

Rather than having policies stating what penalties might be set forth due to negative comments on social media I believe that tracks should instead have incentives for drivers who make positive posts and statements that help to promote the track and if any of you promoters are interested, stop me the next time that I visit your facility and ask me about my ideas. I am not as bright and attractive, but I will share my thoughts for free.