Drag
racing – bracket racing in particular – is all
about
consistency. Find what works and
don’t
change a thing. Perhaps, this is a
formula
drag strips could look into. My
local asphalt short track, Grundy County Speedway, races every
Friday night through Labor Day weekend. Each
Friday, the grandstands open at 6:00PM, time trials begin at 6:45 and
heat
races kick off at 8:00. Every Friday,
fans are treated to a familiar show with a regular cast of racers. The
racing is exciting, there is always a
large crowd, the race cars are covered with sponsors, the ticket prices
are
fair and it makes for an enjoyable date night, family night or time out
with
friends. My
dad and I make it a point to watch at least one race at
Grundy every year, sometimes more. It
was a tradition his father started and he has continued with me. Although
we have yet to make it to a race
this year, it is on our calendar and something we will not miss. After
decades, why do we continue to go to Grundy? It’s
not the Mecca of auto racing. It lacks the
creature
comforts of most
corporate owned tracks and probably operates on a fraction of their
budget. Besides
once meeting Dale Earnhardt at Grundy and my dad
watching Tim Richmond drive a borrowed car to a victory many years ago,
I don’t
know anybody going around the track, working on the cars or even
watching from
the stands. So,
it’s not the fanciest track and we hardly know a soul on
the whole property. So again, why do we
continue watching races at Grundy? Driving
into Grundy’s parking lot, buying buttery popcorn
and taking a seat is like coming home. It
is a familiar place. We can go once a
year and know exactly when they’re racing and what time we
need to be
their. We have come to expect
the same
thing and that is alright. I’ve
probably lost enough quarter-milers by this point that
nobody is still reading but I’ll bring this full circle and
tie drag racing
into it. I’m
not saying it’s a break through idea or that nobody has
tried this yet, because I’m sure it exists somewhere. Just
imagine every Friday night, a drag strip
that put on a consistent show that drew ten thousand fans on a weekly
basis? Perhaps an Outlaw
10.5” tire
class, a heads-up quick-8 Super Stock Outlaw showdown and a
10.00-second and
11.00-second index race that qualifies the 32-closest qualifiers. Don’t
plan on having 600 cars every weekend - maybe 150-200
racers every weekend, racing for a respectable payout.
But
plan on promoting the show, keeping the
show consistent, run it in a four hour window and if you're a smaller
venue, pack the grandstands. The
oval racers attract quite a few sponsors
so hopefully a core group of regular racers can secure the funding to
make it
the full 16 weekend series (May-August). I
have come to expect the show that Grundy puts on every
Friday. They too have come to
expect
that their system that has worked for decades will continue to work
long into
the future. So just imagine your
local
short track racing under the lights - except without the left turns.
Is
this something that could work? Would you
watch
something like this? Would you race in
something like this? Surely we can't let
the oval racers hog all of the Friday night glory! What is YOUR
opinion?
