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View Full Version : Can The Guinea Pigs Survive This NASCAR Experiment?



ShawnCourchesne
05-07-2007, 12:54 AM
Can The Guinea Pigs Survive This NASCAR Experiment? (http://blogs.courant.com/autoracing/2007/05/can_the_guinea_.html)

ThE sHaDoW
05-07-2007, 08:50 AM
Good stuff ya got there. Watching the first heat I felt as if they were the Guinea Pigs.

I have one question for the fans of heat races and short dash features..... where were you Sunday? I come to read the boards and all I keep hearing is "give us heats, give us short features with no riding around". Well, Sunday was your chance, and very few of you showed up. Now, to those same fans, I hope you enjoyed reading/watching the wreckfest the heats were. It seems an "I told you so" is in order here. From the owners, drivers and right on down to the crews who have to fix these cars, NONE of us wanted to run heats. You got them, cars got wrecked, and no one came out to see it. Unlike the question "if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?", if a modified gets wrecked and no one was there to see it, someone still gets the bill for the parts and several others have to fix it. DO NOT be surprised if several teams stay home from the next flash event. The 48 had the stones to stand up, they may not be alone at the next race.

Axel
05-07-2007, 11:03 AM
Good question. I thought for sure there would be no space in the parking lot when I pulled in at 11:30. I was SHOCKED to see the lot half full. And it (and consequently the stands) did not fill up too much more. I was absolutely shocked.

IMO, they missed a fun day at the races. I liked to flash format. I winced a little at the one day price, but I thought I really got my money's worth. It was a fun day, I really enjoyed the heat races. The feature was pretty wreck-filled, but there were some great racing going on through the field. I think the flash format needs tweaking (shorter heats) and I hope it continues.

Shadow-- two things. First, I could not find you after the race. I did not make the first two races and missed you today. Sorry 'bout that--I was looking forward to it. Second, the heats to me did not seem to be too wreck filled. Most of the cautions seemed to be for spins and relatively minor accidents. I don't work on a car, so I don't know exactly went on with the teams between the heats and the feature, (esp. since the cars were impounded) but it did not look like too many people were the worse for the wear of the heats.

ThE sHaDoW
05-07-2007, 11:13 AM
Shadow-- two things. First, I could not find you after the race. I did not make the first two races and missed you today. Sorry 'bout that--I was looking forward to it.

You missed the grill. I was one of the last people to pack up and leave the pit area, shoulda stopped by the trailer. Next time?

Axel
05-07-2007, 11:20 AM
duh-- my bad. I looked thru the midway and the parking lot till about 30 mins after the feature ended. Did not even think of the pits. Duh! :help:

RGeeProductions
05-07-2007, 11:31 AM
I agree with you Axel, it was an awesome day and light on fans.
And I met sHaDoW AT THE GRILLE!!!!
Nice meeting you finally sHaDoW!!!!

Linda
05-07-2007, 11:48 AM
Axel, it was nice meeting you yesterday. I wanted to comment on the flash races as well. I know where your coming from Shadow and respect your thoughts on them, and as a crew member as well I think they were nail biting and intense filled races, but as a spectator I would have to say I like the aggresive driving of some of the guys. Myself, I thought they put on a good show..no choo choo train during any of the three 50 lappers. But as someone who knows the cost of running these cars, the payout was a joke and Nascar should be ashamed to let our tour run for such a little a purse. Since we didn't bring in the big crowd I am sure the track is happy there was no big payout. I like the track but from what I heard, the track did little in promoting this event.

RGeeProductions
05-07-2007, 11:53 AM
Just a note: NASCAR claims the small purse is to try and get smaller tracks to host a WMT event. This is a great idea BUT hurts the WMT teams with payout.

art11758
05-07-2007, 12:34 PM
duh-- my bad. I looked thru the midway and the parking lot till about 30 mins after the feature ended. Did not even think of the pits. Duh! :help:

And I missed all y'all! I hadda get to NYC to pick up a drill press (an some other stuff)so maybe it was better I didn't find the grill. As it was I didn't get home 'till 11.
First 'tour race of the season for me too. Disappointed by the crowd (or lack thereof). I didn't think we would ever get past lap 30 there for a while.... I'm thinkin' the format needs..... something. A couple of those cautions seemed to me like they might have sorted themselves out without the flag. JMO as always.

Tooner
05-07-2007, 02:14 PM
Just a note: NASCAR claims the small purse is to try and get smaller tracks to host a WMT event. This is a great idea BUT hurts the WMT teams with payout.

Just a personal thought as someone has has managed teams and worked on cars on the modtour more or less from '85 till 2001.

If you are on the bonus plan, which I did hear was reduced for this race, you will fall out of the top 20 or maybe now 25 that are eligible for the extra money at the next race, and if you have a bad race at the next Stafford race, then you miss out on it for the next event. If you look at it from a business standpoint, it is a race you had to attend, over the long run you will lose more then you gain.

Let's face it, no one is getting rich racing Mods, but they do it because they love it, just like the fans who spend their hard earned money to travel and attend the races.

As far as the teams that did not show, I respect there opinion not to race, but do not agree with it. But that's what makes life interesting, right? :)

Tooner

Chris
05-07-2007, 07:59 PM
I enjoyed my Sunday at Wall. The heat races had less yellows than I expected. The feature had the usual amount of cautions for a short track. I would like to see shorter heats maybe 30 laps and 75 lap feature event. the flash format can work if we give it a chance and tweak it a bit.

ModTourMan
05-07-2007, 08:59 PM
And I missed all y'all! I hadda get to NYC to pick up a drill press (an some other stuff)so maybe it was better I didn't find the grill. As it was I didn't get home 'till 11.
First 'tour race of the season for me too. Disappointed by the crowd (or lack thereof). I didn't think we would ever get past lap 30 there for a while.... I'm thinkin' the format needs..... something. A couple of those cautions seemed to me like they might have sorted themselves out without the flag. JMO as always.

Hey Art! How ya been? Sorry I missed you on Sunday.
I 'm hoping to get to Riverhead for their Flash event...I'll keep an eye out for you.

holleratme
05-07-2007, 09:19 PM
You missed the grill. I was one of the last people to pack up and leave the pit area, shoulda stopped by the trailer. Next time?

SHADOW, AXEL could not find the big man with the big grill? This should be a disclaimer on all of his posts:lol:

Axel
05-07-2007, 09:24 PM
I did not even think to look in the pits. I am a knucklehead! :confused:

See you guys next time!

ModTourMan
05-07-2007, 09:39 PM
I have had a day to digest Sundays race and thought I'd post my thoughts. For those that don't know me, I've been a fan long enough to remember heat race qualifying and lots of 'bull ring' short track Modified races. I have grown to like/accept time trials but I do miss the heat race/b-main format. The Flash events, in my opinion, offer a glimpse of how heat races may be able to be incorporated back into the Mod Tour.
The Flash race format at Wall, from this fans perspective, was not too bad at all. The double file restarts kept the freight training down quite a bit. Race one was pretty clean and exiting. Race two had it's share of yellows and short track type wrecks - but nobody got totaled. The Feature was plagued with yellows but you're gonna get that on ANY short track. The double file restarts were KEY to the day not being a boring one. Wall is a tough place to pass and single file would equal zero or few passes. That being said, there were some great charges and bold moves made in all of the races proving that bull ring racers are still alive and kicking! The $35.00 ticket price (for those that could not take advantage of the Sat./Sun combo deal) was a bit too steep in my opinion. Keep in mind that this is NJ, so it's never gonna be cheap but I think 25-30 bucks would have brought more fans. The kids ticket price of $10.00 was fair though. I was worried the crowd would be light after seeing the poor turnout on Sat. evening...the Sunday crowd was better but disappointing. I wish Wall could have run this event on a Sat. evening in the summer. Wall always has a good crowd come by after a day at their beach houses. A little Sea Shore promotion and a slightly cheaper ticket maybe?
It was interesting to view this race as a local - I live less than an hour from the track. I find myself thinking "would I have enjoyed the races if I had travelled four hours?". My answer, hesitantly, was "yes" but I would worry that without satisfying the Modified car owners, drivers and crews that car counts will drop. A four hour ride to see 20 mods? Nope. The format needs tweaking for sure. Maybe top 10 on time. Two 25 lap qualifiers and a 100 lap feature
would be an option. My gut feeling says any format will work as long as the Tour teams get paid a bit more fairly and at least get the chance to race into the feature. Come on promoters! Get creative and bring the crowds!
On a personal note, it was great seeing all of the gang at Wall on Sunday.
We had plenty of time to chat which was nice. See you all at the races and on the board!

ThE sHaDoW
05-08-2007, 09:23 AM
If you take some on time and some on heats, then how do you level the field in relation to tires to start the race? Those in the top 10 will start up front with tires that have anywhere from 50-75 less laps on them. I guess you might as well write the check to one of those cars if the feature is 100 laps.

ModTourMan
05-08-2007, 08:59 PM
Good point Shadow - tires are a certainly a big issue. That' s another reason less laps per heat make sense. I don't know the exact formula. I was only throwing an example out there - my main point was that no team would have to put in 2 laps under the clock and then load up if they timed poorly. A non qualifiers heat (or consolation race, etc.) with a decent payout would be an incentive for the low buck/beginner/hard luck teams to show up at these type events. Multiple events - heats or non-qualifiers plus a Feature would be an incentive for the travelling fan (not just the locals) to make a trip to these events. A short feature alone, while possibly exciting would not be worth a long trip for the die hard Modified Tour fans. The Tours fan base is not strong enough to pull big crowds without them.

KyleMac45
05-08-2007, 09:11 PM
What I think they should do is have the flash fromat but, 2- 25 lap heat races and 100 lap feature... b/c now they are only taking away 50 laps instead of 100... does anyone agree w/ me?? :confused:

talk to everybody later,

Kyle McGowan- Wall Speedway Jr. Flagger- Trophy Boy

RGeeProductions
05-08-2007, 09:13 PM
Do you understand what would happen with 19 cars going for 13 positions in 25 laps. HOLY COW!!!!!
75 lap heats, 100 lap feature

Sicklajoie
05-08-2007, 09:24 PM
3 13 car heats. 25-30 laps.
100 lap feature.

WillyKJr
05-09-2007, 08:14 AM
10 or 12 cars per 25 lap heat race. 4 or 5 heats if needed, depending on car count. 25 laps happens quick enough on a short track to keep the show moving and is long enough to weed out the cars that prolly shouldn't be in the feature anyway but gives them seat time they won't get time-trialing. 100lap feature run on the tires you qualified wich keeps the tires well within their window of efficiency on a short track.

The purse should not be altered (less money paid out) at all. the format is right regardless of the purse. Heats and feature (especially on a short track) are the way it should be at all events (except maybe NHIS and Martinsville). The reduced purse is just a hosshet stunt by NASCAR to say they're helping the tracks.

The format is good and even with the poorly thought out structure used at Wall (50 & 50) it worked. In spite of NASCAR.

Tony Hirschman...I respect the heck out of his accomplishments but if he doesn't want to race then it is fine with me that he stay home. Hope he's at the next one because he is always a threat to win but he showed some of his "persona" by skipping the gig at Wall.

art11758
05-09-2007, 08:33 PM
Hey Art! How ya been? Sorry I missed you on Sunday.
I 'm hoping to get to Riverhead for their Flash event...I'll keep an eye out for you.

Ya it was a busy day. I might make another 'tour show before Riverhead in August. Do you catch any of the ROC races at Mahoning? I'm gonna try and catch at least one of those this year. Maybe New Egypt too. We will catch up I'm sure.

WillyKJr..... I'm liking your take on all of this.

ModTourMan
05-10-2007, 08:40 PM
Ya it was a busy day. I might make another 'tour show before Riverhead in August. Do you catch any of the ROC races at Mahoning? I'm gonna try and catch at least one of those this year. Maybe New Egypt too. We will catch up I'm sure.

WillyKJr..... I'm liking your take on all of this.

Art-
I've been wanting to hit N.E.S. for one of their specials (have to check the schedule). I live pretty close and work only 15 minutes from the speedway. The ROC at Wall is a probable. Other than that, I think Riverhead will be my scheduled race.

uticamike
05-11-2007, 10:04 PM
This week at Oswego (ROC opener) we will race in a heat of 15 laps and/or
the consi 10 laps. Then we will "race" for 75 green laps. Some cars showing up will go home without making the feature. The world will not end. Race on.

gomodsgo
05-14-2007, 09:52 PM
I talked to some of the locals that I was sitting with and they said the track did very little to advertise the race, so I blame that on the track. I know that TSS is already starting to advertise the race.

First trip to wall, and I had a good time. I NEVER watch time trials so to see two heats was extra bonus for me. I liked it, and can't wait for the flash race at TSS. Not sure if anyone knows from last time the mods were at Wall about the wrecks... was it the same amount? more less?

Guess it is an experiment and you know what... all tour and tracks do it. Sucks that the teams have to deal with the bad results some times.... but it's all about getting the fans in the stands. fans like wrecks, fans likes to watch racing and not time trials. Best of luck to all... and tell your freinds July 8th at TSS!!