The State of OUR sport; Past, Present, and Future

A continuing series of interviews through the eyes of YOU, our Teams, Promoters, Tracks, Sanctioning Bodies, and Fans...

Stockton99 Speedway's final crowd.

And so it ends. The final checkered flag has fallen on Stockton 99 Speedway. What's next?

Let's bring all those cars (the divisions that are running of course), all those people, all those emotions, and all that enthusiasm, to the last ever Southwest Tour points race this weekend. Let’s celebrate the Final Tour Champion “the way it should be”.

Gang, sorry for being quiet on the interview front this Summer, I had work issues which kept me from transcribing the hours and hours of interviews. We have much good stuff coming up. A three part story from Magic Valley Speedway, A two part from Shasta, and chats with numerous racers, promoters, media, and sanctioning bodies.

I'm going to warn you the rest of this one is going to be laced with 4 letter words and do of course have to edit those down to PG for posting. For those that like their “journalism” raunchier, Please feel free to fill in the 4 letter words on your end, I think you'll find it much more entertaining. As I'm writing this I'm tired, sleepy, and VERY cranky. I'm banging this out pretty much unedited and messy. This means it will be even more haphazard than normal. (as opposed to just the usual unpolished "work"...LOL) Lots of bad grammar, incomplete and incoherent statements.... the usual. Thank goodness for spell-check, at least that will be right.

Yup, time for another rant, I've held off patiently all Summer.

I was going to save much of this for a wrap up of the first year of interviews, but being po'ed once again by walking out the gates of 99 the final time, has moved up the schedule to well...NOW. The reason it's NOW is because we have some important things to cover before next weekend.

If you take nothing else from this...

Let's bring all those cars (the divisions that are running of course), all those people, all those emotions, and all that enthusiasm, to the last ever Southwest Tour points race this weekend. Let’s celebrate the Final Tour Champion “the way it should be.”

The Final Night of Stockton

First off, as I'm writing this, I just returned home from just about the most memorable night of racing one could ask. (despite my day starting with me finding the one mud hole in the whole infield. Yup, up to my ankle).

Lines around the block...

Huge Crowds...

Dramatic and Emotional. One race after another hard fought and exciting. Everyone was trying to be the last listed winner at S99. It all came to the peak with hard (butt) side by side racing for the final Late Model race ever. I can't even describe the last few laps to those that weren't there. And then the stunned silence that followed at the checkered flag by even the officials, was well....you had to be there.

It was controversial I guess would be the word. The controversy quickly subsided with Mr. Moore's burnout dedication to his son at the very place in turns 1 and 2 where he was lost two years ago, with a torch flickering in his honor behind the fence. What can you say, it got me. I don't know Mr. Moore at all, but what I can say is he gave his son to racing. That’s more than enough for me.

Final Nights

I'm not sure why I insist on subjecting myself to "final" this, and "final" that. (yes I'll be there for the "final" Tour points race), but it does get me P’d off and motivated. Stockton is of course not my home track, yet I felt the pain of walking out of there the last time not much different than my final nights at Mesa and Champion last year. Lots of big tough guys shedding tears a year ago at Mesa I can tell you. (myself included) Good thing we had the light "Collins" rain saving those tough guy images. I can only imagine the same went on at 99 as the sun was coming up this morning.

I didn't quite make it with the rest of you until 3am, I had to pack it in about 2:30 and head home to LA stopping for a short sleep. My congrats to everyone at Stockton 99 for ending it in Style! I wish I could say the same for the way our Elite divisions are ending.

I can truly say I'm FREAKIN' sick and tired of "finals".

What’s Next?

That’s easy. Yup Stockton folks, we now focus our attention toward all our other local tracks for the rest of this season, and more important, 07. WE NEED YOU. Here's your opportunity to show that we're not going to let this setback slow us down. I'll be up for the final Southwest Tour points race next weekend. Let's bring out that crowd we saw at Stockton last night, heck I know it's a tall order, but let's...DO. All the Philpott folks blowing their air horns, I ask every one of them to come to send the final Tour Champion home with cheers they’ll hear in freakin’ Daytona Beach....Got it! Let's bring all the enthusiasm and excitement we had last night with us. It's up to you, I'm depending on YOU.

About a year and a half ago I asked the question in the Trailer...... "How many racetracks are we willing to lose?". It's time to draw the line...RIGHT HERE. We need them ALL.

I had a chance to speak with a couple of the Altamonts folks at S99, and am looking forward to making my first visit there. Since "you know who" isn't going to help the Tour go out with style, PLEASE let's do it ourselves. It all comes back to the most important thing I've learned this year...

We're On Our Own.

Anyone waiting and wishing for freakin' (you know who) to save the day, that just isn't going to happen. I wanted it to happen, I believed they were MUCH more than just a sanctioning body, but they're not. In fact they run their business closer to the style of the NBA than what I always saw them as. They only sanction races, nothing more. Honestly, I used to see them as more like MLBaseball with Major and Minor leagues. The Farm Teams (us) sending our best up to the Majors. Well, as I’ve learned, it's not the MLB system at all, and that leaves all our Saturday Night short tracks up to US and no one else.

We can't wait for our next track to be attacked nor allow them to be financially unhealthy, because we know what will happen next. Whining neighbors who moved too close to a damn freakin' race track hire lawyers, or developers who are waiting in the wings are chomping at the bit to bulldoze us. They’ll move in for the easy kill. The real estate downturn is going to buy us "some" time, but not much.

To our Racers:

Our Promoters and Owners need to make profits, huge profits.

Over the past 2 weeks I did near 3 hours worth of interviews with Mr. Ken Clapp of Stockton. It will be awhile before it is transcribed, (probably 07 at this rate) but the one big message I got from it...We're On Our Own.

Ok, ok, ok. I don't know Mr. Clapp at all, I don't. I still live by the old way of assuming someone is a good guy till I’m treated otherwise. (I’m ignoring the Trailer BS completely)

I can only say he spent 3 hours with me he didn't have to, and gave us some VERY good information. I could spend literally a week asking questions, hearing stories, and debating the issues with Mr. Clapp....easy. The point I'm trying to make is this...

We need our Promoters to be ROLLING in cash.

How else do you expect to keep our racetracks healthy? If the rumors are correct that 99 sold for 5-6 million, do you think it would have sold if the track was profiting say....1 or 2 million a year? VERY doubtful.

See, I want our promoters to be making SO much money it's embarrassing. Then, when that day does come, that our racetrack does have to move because of development, we can all move to that newer facility we built out of the huge profits our track made. Hating our promoters for the dollars that are made is only going to hurt us, not help. All those people we saw at the front gate standing in an hour long line to get in last night, that's what we need EVERY night. That's really all that matters....Right?

DO WE REALLY HAVE TO HAVE A FREAKIN' RACETRACK FUNERAL TO HAVE OVERFLOWING GRANDSTANDS???

I certainly hope not. It's up to us to figure this out. In the interim there is much we can do, each one of us, to help and protect our racetracks. As you can see by the delay that the new Mesa is experiencing getting approved, it ain't easy to just say we're going to build another one. And Bakersfield is pretty much the most pro-race friendly city you could hope for. Building a new race track in these days is a monumental task.

Unless some miracle occurs, Stockton, El Cajon, and Champion, won't be replaced. Are we going to continue to accept this, to lose these cities forever as racing cities, or do we do something about it? Do we continue to lose these market areas FOREVER for our Touring divisions, or not? We decide by our actions, no one else.

NEW FANS

Fans in the stands make all those problems go away. The one common theme among every interview I've done is that things were WAY better years ago. Six, Seven, 8 thousand in the grandstands for a normal night of racing, even more at many major events. Way bigger purses were happening, I'm shocked by some of the numbers I read as purses from the “not so old” days. 10K, 15K to win. HUGE NUMBERS and these were 20-30 years ago!!! Why were those purses so big?...Easy. Fans in the stands. Fans are the key to fixing our business problems, and it is a business problem for all of us. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY. Once you have fans, everything else falls into place. Sponsorships, Competition, maybe even TV, etc. It all begins there.

So....My question to all of you is this...

How many new people did you bring to the races this year???? Yes, I'm talking to you who's reading this! How many? How many last year?

All I ask is ONE SIMPLE THING. ...Bring someone new to the races next Saturday wherever your racetrack is. You got bit by the "racing bug", why wouldn't someone else? (Especially guided by YOU to show how cool this all is) Your promoters should have no problem giving you some free tix for newbies. If you have trouble with that, please feel free to drop me an email with the name and phone number of your promoter. I can't wait to make that call !!!

The other thing I learned this year is this...

Our promoters ABSOLUTELY NEED OUR HELP.

I can hear you all the way here in LA saying "promoting is not my job, racing is". Well that was true 20 years ago, not today.

I'm asking every Racer, Team Member, Track Owner, Promoter, Official, Announcer, Fan, Supplier, and Sponsor to make an effort to get someone out to your local track next weekend. I'm not joking around on this one. Do you want another rant like this next Sunday???? It’s up to US, we’re in this together.

I have a favorite quotation in this area...

"Do or Don't, there is no TRY".

You can't just "try" to bring new fans, we must DO. There is no choice, there is no one who is going to save us but ourselves. We all need to do better including myself. (everyone I’ve asked to go with me to Altamont can’t make it so far, but I’m not giving up).

And I can again go into a long rant on making these fans literally a part of your race team which I believe is paramount, but this would go on another 4 pages, so I'll save that for another day. If nothing else, once we get them there, we need to absolutely show them how cool this sport is. Just cars running round the race track isn't going to do it. IT'S NOT, because they can get that on TV............Right???

Promoters and Racers, it's then up to you. I feel every newbie should get something special done for them, we may NEVER get another chance. This is where our promoters can be creative for virtually nothing. I made a list for you in Intro Part 1 and 2, and I still don't see any of our tracks doing this or anything else special for newbies. NOT ONE.

My point here is easy for me to describe. I live in LA. Do I care about a game between say Baltimore and Texas? No of course not. I don’t know those teams or the players. Same thing at any of our local tracks. I’m a newbie, I arrive at a track, I don’t know any of the drivers or crews. Then it really just is cars running round and round in circles. If the fans don’t have someone to identify with and root for, WHY WOULD ANYONE RETURN??? They are lost.

I think I can truthfully say some of the best things I love about racing aren’t the racing itself anyway...

It’s the people.

Promoters, Owners, and Officials

This is going to be very short, but pretty much says it all.

It’s time to consider your Racers as Customers, or even better, Partners in your racetrack. (I credit all my friends at Magic Valley Speedway for teaching me this).

I know some of the tracks out there use this approach VERY successfully, and it shows. I've said this before..."It's not YOUR racetrack, it's OUR racetrack”. It’s a partnership. Otherwise, well, another Funeral is imminent. There are enough rumors out there involving just about every track on the West Coast. As most of you probably realize, too many of these rumors turn out to be true.

**As this is going to posting at RW, I understand the rumors surrounding Madera are sadly much more than rumors this time around. Madera gang, I’ll be up there to see you one more time before the season is over. It’s un freaking believable what is happening, and I’m VERY frustrated tonight. I have to ask again, “How many racetracks are we willing to lose?”

Promoters and RD's, I know how tough a job you have, I do. You have to continually balance the financial side with the racing side. As an example……..Do you allow that high buck team to get that rule change? That same high buck team that buys mid week test time that pays your bills? Or do you deny the rule change and potentially suffer the consequences. It's tough stuff, and wouldn't want to make that decision if my track is hurting. I would hope your racers start realizing that putting your track management into making this kind of decision, is adding to our losses. Get that high buck rule change, the low buck guys drop out. We can't afford to lose anybody...........freakin' UNDERSTAND!!!! And you wonder why we have trouble putting people in the grandstands???

Wrapping up the championship.

Wrapping Up

Ok, so I'm done with my rant of the weekend. Thanks again to everyone at 99 for a truly memorable day, evening AND morning It was awesome and I won’t forget it. We had just about everything you could want in a night of racing, and we must keep that momentum going.

I'll leave you with this one “final” time.

Let's bring all those cars, all those people, all those emotions, and all that enthusiasm, to your local track next week AND next year.

99er's...It’s up to YOU. We’re depending on YOU.

Headin’ out for the final time.

Andy D’Addario
Saugus, Ca.

Comments about this article can be sent to andydadd [at] yahoo.com