Can The Guinea Pigs Survive This NASCAR Experiment?

[ShawnCourchesne]

Can The Guinea Pigs Survive This NASCAR Experiment?

[ThE sHaDoW]

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]

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]

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]

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!

[RGeeProductions]

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]

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]

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]

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!

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Axel]

I did not even think to look in the pits. I am a knucklehead!

See you guys next time!

[ModTourMan]

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!