April 25, 2008 -  On Local Tracks

Weekly racetracks certainly have their problems but too many promoters don't use good judgment.

Opening day (night) is a track's "keynote address." It can set the tone of the season. Yet, once again many tracks start the season off with a poor show.
Having a show with straight-up starts or even a position draw can lead to a poor race. At Orange County in Middletown, N.Y, all time feature winner Brett earn started in the front row for both the 358 and big block features. Many fans are probably tired of seeing him win anyway, but winning without working for it is bad no matter how you feel.

Bobby Varin won the Fonda, N.Y. opener from the pole. Likewise Duane Howard at Grandview. It's the same in the sprint car circuit as Fred Rahmer and Greg Hodnett both got wins that way.

I don't see why last year's handicapping can't be used. The argument is that there are new faces at openers. Well for one show, they can start behind the racers who supported the speedway the year before.

Opening races are usually run in chilly weather. Give the fans something to warm themselves up, like a good race. A good race promoter is one in which that fans can't wait to see next week's show. Opening night  almost always has  a good crowd. One should try to put on the best show possible. A race with no passing on a typically uncomfortable night is not the way to go.

With gas prices approaching four bucks a gallon, fans are going to really want to go. Yes, I'm an old-school guy who thinks that racing has to have some passing. Having a regular winner on the pole usually produces no such thing.

April 11, 2008 - Bitterness Runneth Over

I have so much anger with NASCAR that I don't have room for it in my regular column.

You may have noticed many empty seats at the Martinsville Cup race last month. It is claimed that the race was sold out; Martinsville usually is. For many years, Martinsville's spring Cup race was held in late April.

Even though it leans to the south, Virginia seldom has warm weather in March. It was very cold race day this year. The empty seats probably came from families who didn't want to sit through 500 laps on a chilly day.

The truth is, NASCAR wants Martinsville to fail. It is NASCAR's oldest venue and its founder, Clay Earles was very close to Bill France, Sr. Both men are gone and the newer management has only one thought---the bottom line. Tradition is out the window as the folks in Darlington, S.C. will tell you. In fact, NASCAR got fooled at Darlington. The scheduled their race to Mother's Day Eve. I'm sure they thought the date would bomb but the fans surprised them by selling out before the gates were opened.

Look at Rockingham...It was run the week after Daytona. Again, a very cold time of year. NASCAR knocked the Rock off the schedule because of lack of fan interest. Truthfully, the Rock has the smallest seating capacity of all super speedways.

Whatever NASCAR is doing is not working. It was pointed out to me that at last week's Texas race there were banners erected to hide the many empty seats. The fact is, it costs a lot of money to attend a Cup race and with the poor racing probably due to the COT, fans don't want to plunk down the money.

NASCAR should stop glaring at their bank accounts and concern themselves with the fact that what they've been doing the last few years isn't working.
There's more to racing than having every race run at 200,000 capacity arenas. They way interest is waning, more and more of those seats will be empty.

April 4, 2008 - Toyota Going 'Olds' School

Toyota’s ascent into NASCAR, while successful, still burns a lot of people. Despite the fact that Toyota has assembling plants in this country, it still is really a foreign entity. We are losing so much to foreign regions on items, such as racing, which originally prospered here. Much of this is our own fault.
The latest salvo is that Toyota is going to introduce a new model called the “Oldsmobile.” Talk about rubbing our faces in it! Oldsmobile, discontinued by GM four years ago, is a pioneering American company, started by Ransom Olds, who, like Henry Ford, did so much to get the auto industry off the ground.
Oldsmobiles were a long time part of American life. Remember their theme? (“What a thrill to take the wheel, in my merry Oldsmobile.”) This stuck for decades. Olds had a part in racing, too. In early NASCAR days, they were competitive as they were one of the first to have an OHV V-8 under the hood.
In the 1970s came the famed Hurst 442, some of which drew big bucks at the recent Barrett/Jackson auto auction.
I wonder how Chris Economaki feels about this. He was an Olds owner several times. I think that using a long-established American nameplate is a slap in the face. Toyota is not going to stop spending million of dollars to take over every Cup team (except Roush Fenway!) until they rule NASCAR.
• Speaking of Barrett/Jackson, they may be going stale. After a booming success at Arizona last January, the most recent one held in Palm Beach, Fla., was kind of a dud. Lots of empty bidder seats were evident on Friday, usually a busy day. With the racing season opening, Speed didn't give them the coverage they got during the winter. B.J. now will run yet another auction at Las Vegas in October. One wonders if this is too much.
• The NHRA does a lot of things right, but there isn't a lot of newness there. For many years, both the Top Fuel and Funny Car competitors all use the same engine, a variant of the Chrysler Hemi. In Pro Stock, you must run an engine in the manufacturer's line.
Back in the Don Garlits days, there was all sorts of underhood possibilities.