Another Great Read by Brian Danko

[Winston]

http://briandanko.speedwaylinereport.com/.

I figured this would be a good conversation starter from someone who has been around this Tour for a long time and is as passionate about the Modifieds as we are. I remember coming on this site Sunday night after getting home after a race, and numerous threads about the race, people's opinions, congrats to the winner, etc. I'm honestly amazed that sometimes it takes half a week, and sometimes not at all, before a thread about the weekends action pops up. Even then it may get a response or 2 and that's it. I know you still have guys like Long Island Mod Maniac, and UticaMike that are passionate about this sport and help and do what they can, but where is everyone else that used to have some entertaining and enlightening discussions on this board and others? Not a complaint, just an observation. Enjoy the article-thoughts?

[MOD JUNKIE]

I have been thinking the same as you winston, this site has gone a lil dead lately. I was fun reading peoples opinions and all after races but if it's not long island or new jersey races it's left alone here for the most part.

[RBH]

Maybe Facebook & Twitter have taken some of the input. I miss it also. I'm not on any of them so don't know for sure.

[Gil]

I see random posts on FaceBook, but the way FB works things are scattered all over the place!

[JWfor8x]

As for me, it's really simple. In the 1980's and 90's, I used to go to most of the races on the tour. Then, in 1999 I lost the job that I had for 20 years do to corporate downsizing. From there, I lost 3 more jobs in 5 years for the same reason. I took on a series of low paying jobs just to get by but it was impossible to attend many races off of Long Island. In 2005, I got a driving job that only paid me $10/hr, but did pay medical benefits and I kept it for 5 1/2 years. In that time, I got no pay raise and eventually they couldn't afford to pay the benefits. In june of 2010, I was 65 years old and had a horrible job with little chance of getting a better one, so I have had to limit my racing excursions to Riverhead. Now, I am living on Social Security and a very small pension , so it isn't easy for me to travel for many races. Since I can't go to the races, I really can't comment too much on them. As far as the races that I do go to, such as the Riverhead tour races, I enjoy sharing my observations and hope to continue doing so. I don't bother much with social media, so I rarely see anything on Facebook and yes, I would love to see more discussion here.


http://briandanko.speedwaylinereport.com/.

I figured this would be a good conversation starter from someone who has been around this Tour for a long time and is as passionate about the Modifieds as we are. I remember coming on this site Sunday night after getting home after a race, and numerous threads about the race, people's opinions, congrats to the winner, etc. I'm honestly amazed that sometimes it takes half a week, and sometimes not at all, before a thread about the weekends action pops up. Even then it may get a response or 2 and that's it. I know you still have guys like Long Island Mod Maniac, and UticaMike that are passionate about this sport and help and do what they can, but where is everyone else that used to have some entertaining and enlightening discussions on this board and others? Not a complaint, just an observation. Enjoy the article-thoughts?

[bud]

Not allowed to have an opinion without getting spanked.

[RLP]

I just found some people annoying with all there doom and gloom, why bother when i can sit and chat with people like long island who actually go to track

[Axel]

I'd love to see more chit chat on here. I try to post and contribute when I can, but time is a big factor when posting and also getting to races.

YOu have to admit, that Acadia did liven things up with his "fact based" rants, but it does get a little sleepy here.

[jbonez21]

I wish the races were televised, I'm in FL so unfortunately I never get to watch them.

[uticamike]

You want lively? Maybe someone can ask Brian Danko where the original content of his May 6th article went.
He wrote a pretty scathing piece on the WMT Tour that lasted about 2 days and it's morphed into a puff piece about Stafford.
What gives Mr Danko?

[Goldy]

Very interesting sub topic within your thread here Winston. I think we’ve all been feeling the same. Leading up to the Icebreaker and Sizzler (aka the Fizzler).. there was nothing, absolutely nothing and that’s why after seeing there was only 26 cars set to qualify at Stafford I posted my own thread for discussion; “Fizzler” and nobody really got talking..

Why is this? Was it my “doom and gloom” tone or the fact that I didn’t shine it up pretty and optimistic, about how great a race it will be, bla, bla, bla… I’ll get back to this..

Why aren’t we chatting? Why no pre and or post-race chatter? Is it because we all fear getting “spanked” by the administration? Please, come on – that’s weak.. I think it’s a combination of a few things.. like...

1. The pre-race and post-race press release; generally fluff but pretty useful in terms of analysis and stats, draw you’re conclusions from these and I guess you on with your busy life..

2. Competing sites; Shawn’s place, sure – I’m there all the time but I’m finding it just about as annoying as Speed 51, which by the way, now, is totally useless to me. (sorry Shawn, calling it like I see it) Depending on the device I’m on, I have a hard time navigating around all the adds - and posting a comment there, well put it this way, I just now saw how I can actually do this – and I’m not all that dumb a user. But I’ll take the hit here; dumb user, poor site design, busy life = no chatter there yet for me…

3. Social Networks; well I'm not there yet and I bet many of us are not.. I don’t Twitter or Facebook, no thank you – so I’m out of all that, but many are in, taking their thought of the minute… “Great Bruins game, can’t wait to go racing this weekend” or it’s something like this… “Great race @Sizzler #greatrace_twitpic#”....... WTF-ahrvergnügen am I supposed to do with that? Have conversation with it? Click on 3 different things? Stare at my mobile device all day?? For ….. sake…

As Gil mentioned – with the social sites, things tend to get scattered all over the place – I don’t have hours and hours to go down some rat hole chasing topics and conversation..

4. For me, my awesome workplace blocks not only the social sites, but message boards as well – so where I used to make good with idle time at the workplace and post and contribute away, not any more.. chalk one up for my awesome workplace and getting more production out of me..

5. Have meaningful topics for discussion all but dried up? Have we all beat them to death over the years? Maybe, maybe just a little – but somewhere, someone is thinking something about racing, something about this weekend’s tour show at MadDog and yet there will likely be nothing posted..

RLP – respectfully, is it all “doom and gloom”? Here’s an idea - bring something optimistic and useful to the table to discuss.

Back to my “Fizzler” thread – it had a couple replies; all I really wanted was to get some folks actually talking here and it faded, quick… but wait – low and behold I see that “scattering” Gil was talking about – I see at Shawn’s place a familiar looking topic, titled “Size Matters: Short Fields Don’t Dampen Whelen Modified Tour Competition On The Track”… It starts, "Remember when".. bla, bla, bla… gezz, I guess I tend to do that a lot, glorifying the good ole days and such.. the storyline was seemingly borrowed from my thread about the dwindling car counts – and I know Shawn isn’t one to “lift” information and use it as his work – that’s not the case here.. I’m happy that the conversation continues, that it does get taken elsewhere and possibly to a larger audience.. However, I won’t let Shawn off the hook here..

… see, I know he himself has written pieces over the years about the car counts, the doom and gloom, the state of the tour and so on. This is why I find his piece such a dramatic shift in point of view. Are we all living in the past, in that glorious time? Or are we taking keen observation and expressing concern as to an obvious downward trend?

I also beg to differ on Shawn’s point that the racing at the Sizzler in positions 2-12 was “heated and dramatic”.. huh? I just don’t see that at Stafford. At Thompson, you had the same small field but the racing there is a different story – at Stafford, the small field, is it a good thing and actually justified by calling the racing better? I don't think so. You need cars added to the field, yes just like the days of old when other cars would show up – Hossfeld, even though he was out early – a great add to the field, Lajoie last year, a welcome add.. this needs to be more of the trend we see, cars joining the field, not cars dropping off and then saying.. ehhh, it’s okay, cause well - half of the field is contending and there are less cautions – I’m not buying that..

Further, and I was going to post this after the Sizzler but I really didn’t want to just post a negative comment.. the TOUR racing at Stafford basically blows, I doubt I’ll go back this year. Santos had them covered, which is usually the case there – 1 or 2 cars up front and then single file freight train “action” throughout the field.. thing is – it didn’t USED to be this way there – I don’t know what it is, the pavement, the tires but we’re not seeing the passing there like we used to – certainly nothing like - and pardon me for saying, yes, the days of old – Ronnie Bouchard with his sticky M&H Racematers making passes on the outside.. or even 10 years ago so we don’t have to go back to my golden era..

Perhaps there’s some conversation there to be had..

Anyway – just wanted to chime in - I’m off to work now where I can’t pay attention to this thread.. see ya..

[RGeeProductions]

NOTE:
Except for a few stray bashing each others, only issues here I have had were with 2 members, which have been fixed.
Don't think the 'spanked by admin' is the reason. Don't call each other names and respect others opinions and we have no issues.

[cornellsgt12]

I've been on this site pretty much from it's inception. "In the good ole" days there were several races per week that garnered attention/conversation - midweek shows were the norm & many special event races all over the northeast on any given weekend. Those days are gone. The loss of actual racing has made conversation hard to come by. I don't think it appropriate to come on here and speak negatively about things I do not witness first hand or know anything about.

That being said I find this site to be very useful for what I'm looking for, which is to keep up to date with race results from around the northeast and the occasional thread that peaks my interest. The live reports from the different events has been a very welcome addition within the last few years and follow them very often.

This site is one of, if not the best, racing sites on the internet and has been for a long long time. I hope it continues to be moderated to maintain a certain amount of civility - allowing for different opinions without allowing people to bash people/tracks/officials.

Just my 2 cents

[BigMac]

Kind of funny, the hottest topic going is about the lack of posts. There was zero Monadnock talk up until it got postponed earlier today. Sounds like maybe people are waiting for the other guy to start a topic. Here's hoping Stafford provided some fireworks both on the track and here on the Horn.

[RGeeProductions]

I've been on this site pretty much from it's inception. "In the good ole" days there were several races per week that garnered attention/conversation - midweek shows were the norm & many special event races all over the northeast on any given weekend. Those days are gone. The loss of actual racing has made conversation hard to come by. I don't think it appropriate to come on here and speak negatively about things I do not witness first hand or know anything about.

That being said I find this site to be very useful for what I'm looking for, which is to keep up to date with race results from around the northeast and the occasional thread that peaks my interest. The live reports from the different events has been a very welcome addition within the last few years and follow them very often.

This site is one of, if not the best, racing sites on the internet and has been for a long long time. I hope it continues to be moderated to maintain a certain amount of civility - allowing for different opinions without allowing people to bash people/tracks/officials.

Just my 2 cents

Thanks!!!!

[NWMT PR]

I also beg to differ on Shawn’s point that the racing at the Sizzler in positions 2-12 was “heated and dramatic”.. huh? I just don’t see that at Stafford. At Thompson, you had the same small field but the racing there is a different story – at Stafford, the small field, is it a good thing and actually justified by calling the racing better? I don't think so. You need cars added to the field, yes just like the days of old when other cars would show up – Hossfeld, even though he was out early – a great add to the field, Lajoie last year, a welcome add.. this needs to be more of the trend we see, cars joining the field, not cars dropping off and then saying.. ehhh, it’s okay, cause well - half of the field is contending and there are less cautions – I’m not buying that..

Further, and I was going to post this after the Sizzler but I really didn’t want to just post a negative comment.. the TOUR racing at Stafford basically blows, I doubt I’ll go back this year. Santos had them covered, which is usually the case there – 1 or 2 cars up front and then single file freight train “action” throughout the field.. thing is – it didn’t USED to be this way there – I don’t know what it is, the pavement, the tires but we’re not seeing the passing there like we used to – certainly nothing like - and pardon me for saying, yes, the days of old – Ronnie Bouchard with his sticky M&H Racematers making passes on the outside.. or even 10 years ago so we don’t have to go back to my golden era..

Let's take a brief statistical look at just how much better the "good ole days" were than the present day.

I compared five races from 2000-01 to the last five races run at Stafford as well as Thompson. Since lead changes, passing and cautions seem to be the most frequent subjects, I pulled those three categories.


Stafford 2000-01
4.2 - average number of lead changes
3.6 - average number of Top-10 finishers that improved 10+ positions from their start position
36.2 - average laps run under caution

Stafford 2012-13
2.4 - average number of lead changes
2.8 - average number of Top-10 finishers that improved 10+ positions from their start position
30.8 - average laps run under caution

Good Ole Days at Stafford ... 1.6 more lead changes, 0.8 more drivers on the move, 5.4 more laps run under cation


Thompson 2000-01
4.2 - average number of lead changes
3.8 - average number of Top-10 finishers that improved 10+ positions from their start position
41.6 - average laps run under caution

Thompson 2012-13
3.6 - average number of lead changes
2.4 - average number of Top-10 finishers that improved 10+ positions from their start position
32.8 - average laps run under caution

Good Ole Days at Thompson ... 0.6 more lead changes, 1.4 more drivers on the move, 8.8 more laps run under cation


There are a number of other areas to look at as well. For example, in 26 races in 1989 there were eight different drivers that won a race. There were also eight different drivers to win in just 14 races in 2012. There has also been a different driver win the championship each of the last five years. The 23 years before that produced 12 different champions, approximately one every other year.

The reduction in car count is undeniable, so I won't waste time trying to argue that. The actual competition remains essentially the same statistically, however, if not improved in some areas.

[cornellsgt12]

The stats are very interesting. What they don't tell you, is that the fan base for the NWMT has dwindled significantly over the past 10-15 years. The fan base has shifted to New England due to the lack of races in the rest of the Northeast. No upstate New York, New Jersey or Pennsylvania races for the past several years. The tour has gone the way of NASCAR in general - they have forgotten what made them successful in the first place. They have traded tradition for the almighty dollar. This has taken a toll on fan participation significantly and thus the original premise of the thread.