The Answer is NO!!!!

After twenty minutes of steady rain at 34 Raceway my Saturday night plans suddenly changed as the Lucas Oil POWRi WAR Sprint Car series was rained out just before hot laps started. A good field of twenty non-winged warriors were ready to tackle the high banks in the first visit of this series, but Mother Nature had other plans and those in attendance were now heading for home just before seven o'clock.

The timing was perfect for me to hustle home, put on my walking shoes and head on over to the Old Settlers and Threshers Reunion here in Mount Pleasant where Joe Diffie was set to take the stage at 8 p.m. The attendance was amazing as I do not think I have ever seen more people here for a show, but I managed to find a spot down front and thoroughly enjoyed an hour and a half of country music from an artist who has had ten number one hits during his career.

Waking up this Sunday morning my goal was to get some yard work done knowing that I did not have a story to write from last night's racing, but one quick check of Facebook before heading outside posed this question to me. "Should Major Dirt Track Racing Events Be Televised?"

Reading this story irritated me so much that I just had to respond, so the yard work can wait for a few minutes. So first click the link and then come back to me here.

Don't fall into the trap and think what would be the most convenient for you, the race fan, because just like the others who have commented so far on the Facebook post your easy answer would be "yes".

All you need to do is to go back about ten years ago when the Knoxville Nationals had become so big that they were selling out all of the tickets on Friday and Saturday night, and the logical step was now "let's put this on live television so that all can enjoy it."

Dirt track racing does not translate well to live television, period, end of sentence.

First of all it cannot be boxed into a time frame that network television would want from it. There was nothing more annoying than to be sitting in the stands at Knoxville on Saturday night, with the E and the D Mains already completed and having to wait until nine o'clock for the live telecast to begin so that we could finally bring the C-Main to the track. Of course before that would happen though we were all told that we needed to be making noise like trained monkeys so that everybody watching from home would "see how much fun it was to be here in person".

Caution flags would take longer because we would have to wait for the broadcast to come back from commercials, the start of the next race would be delayed so that the interview of the driver who just won could to be completed and heaven forbid that weather might be approaching because we sure wouldn't want to speed things up or start earlier and have the folks watching from home be robbed of what they were expecting to see!

This is the line of the story though that really pissed me off in reference to the availability of live streaming events today. The problem with these services is they can add up quickly and take-a-hit to your pocketbook, from some events costing over $100 for a week of racing at the Knoxville Nationals to a monthly subscription being over $40.00 in other cases can be tough for the average American family to take-in all the racing there is to take-in.

Wow, cry me a freaking river!

How much would it have cost that average American family of four to have actually attended the Knoxville Nationals? My tickets for all four nights totaled $190 just for me and with my wife and son joining me on Friday and Saturday that was another $194, so I was at $384. Assuming that little Buffy and Jody were young enough for the "average American family" to get the children's half-price tickets on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, by my calculations their total ticket costs for the week would have been $605, plus concessions, fuel to get there and back and hotels or camping fees. Do you really have anything to bitch about paying $100 to watch all four nights from your easy chair?

Not one bit!

And a $40 monthly subscription to some of these streaming services has to be the deal of the century as it would cost the "average American family" that much just to go to one weekly show at their local track, something that Mom, Dad, Buffy and Jody aren't doing enough of anyway these days due to the fact that they now have all of these opportunities "to take in all of the racing there is to take in" on all of the streaming services available to them.

Oh yes, and since Buffy and Jody are no longer actually at the track enjoying the sights, the sounds, the battle for sixth that you aren't seeing on the live stream as the leader who is ten car lengths in front of everybody else is the only car in the shot right now, they will NOT become race fans and neither the tracks or the streaming services will get their money ten years from now when they are young adults.

So where does that leave the future of our sport?

Can you imagine if this year's Knoxville Nationals had been televised live? All of the focus would have been on David Gravel who was never seriously challenged and the struggle for Donny Schatz trying to make his way through the field after starting near the back. You would have missed the early charge by Daryn Pittman and the persistent drive by Logan Schuchart who came from twenty-second to finish second, the drive that the TV producers were expecting from Schatz.

Yes, as a fan in the stands you could have missed those as well, but at least you would have had the opportunity to see it if you were paying attention. When you watch on television, or live streaming you get what the camera is currently focused on and that is a big reason why DIRT TRACK RACING DOES NOT TRANSLATE WELL TO LIVE TELEVISION!

So let's go back to our example of the Knoxville Nationals being broadcast live on television. Attendance at the actual event dropped off noticeably over the next couple of years, so much so that that Knoxville made the decision to stop giving it away for free. And, while it has taken several years to build back up, the Saturday night show has returned to being a sell out for each of the last two years.

Should major dirt track racing events be televised? If you are truly a fan of the sport, the answer is NO!

I have a commitment to work the dinner line at out church tent at Old Threshers this evening so I will have to miss the return of the Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models to the Quincy Raceways tonight, but hopefully you will go and fill my seat. Tomorrow I plan on making the trip up to Boone for the Deery Brothers Summer Series race as the IMCA Super Nationals get underway for another huge week of racing.

Hope to see you there!