(For those of you looking for Hawkeye Dirt Tour stories from Oskaloosa and Donnellson, scroll on down)
There was an interesting article from Dirt Racing Connection that was posted on the IowaStockCars forum this morning and I have seen it shared by a few people on Facebook as well today.
If you have not read it yet, take a moment to do so by clicking here and then come back to read my thoughts below.
When I first read through this my initial reaction was "nice to see that the idea is catching on.......too bad that it took years and a steady decline in attendance before it did." After all, the Positively Racing website was born five years ago when it became obvious that the negativity on the internet was having an effect on the sport that we love.
But when I read through the letter again there were three things that jumped out at me that make me wonder just how much of a terror this anonymous race fan was on the internet prior to this sudden, but perhaps not permanent change of heart....
1. "Some think greedy promoters, and overpowering series are a problem. They may be, they may not be".....In my book promoters are supposed to be greedy. Do you think that Humpy Wheeler, Hugh Deery, Al Freiden, Howard Tiedt, etc., etc. were not trying to make some money? To be "greedy" and to be successful at it you need to build your program and the best way to do that is to find that magical mix that makes both your drivers and your fans happy. Yet whenever somebody does go out and puts on a show that is a big success some fans act like it is a sin that the "greedy" promoter made so much money. We need "greedy" promoters, because their success depends on building up a program for the long term!
2. "Two weeks ago I was at a local track, not my home track, and not a track I frequent very often. They did the most bizarre, and disrespectful thing to the driver I was there supporting. It was awful, and extremely un-professional. I would have loved nothing more than to come home, get on Facebook and tell everybody that could see just how terrible it was. What would it have done for me? I wasn’t going back, I knew the driver probably wasn’t going back. What would I have to gain by trying to make them suffer?"......okay does anybody else find this a bit creepy? Obviously this fan has used the internet in the past to punish those who made a call that went against his/her driver. I cannot tell you how often I have been at a race where I have watched the officials make a difficult call and do it exactly by the letter of the rules only to see someone on the internet the next day lambasting them for cheating their favorite driver. As in any sport, whenever an official has to make a call somebody is going to like it and somebody is not. If you don't like it, perhaps you should get the opinion of someone who is not biased before you set out to "make them suffer" on Facebook.
3. "We take a rainout policy that we didn’t like and we act like a driver just got flipped over on purpose, and the promoter just looked on and started laughing at the guy as he was crawling from his destroyed car." ......Holy cow, where in the world does this analogy even exist??? The standard rainout policy has been in effect for as long as I can remember. If you don't like it, go to the Weather Channel's forum and complain there.
The premise of the article is good no doubt, but given the way that it was presented I am skeptical that the author will stick by it as it does not show that he or she has resolved the root issues of how they think about promoters and race officials in the first place.
The internet isn't the problem folks, it is just the facilitator of information that is being spread by people who think that promoters are greedy, that officials deliberately make calls that go against you or your favorite driver for no good reason and that one of those greedy promoters would actually stand by and laugh at a driver who is crawling out of his destroyed race car. Those are the "fans" that I wish would just stay home because after all, that smartphone is just sitting right there, ready and waiting to make someone suffer once again.
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