What's the diff if there's 28 cars or 16?
Two things.
1) Having a higher car count means your back gate income is higher, and guarantees a higher number of "regulars" in the stands each week from those associated with the teams.
2) Having a higher car count increases the odds of fans seeing a better race, as well as adds fuel for promotion. Regardless of how well the race is, car count is a sign of growth that even casual fans understand.
What's the diff if there's 28 cars or 16?
Two things.
1) Having a higher car count means your back gate income is higher, and guarantees a higher number of "regulars" in the stands each week from those associated with the teams.
2) Having a higher car count increases the odds of fans seeing a better race, as well as adds fuel for promotion. Regardless of how well the race is, car count is a sign of growth that even casual fans understand.
I'll give you number 1, but still disagree on point 2. Maybe if only 6 or 8 cars were competing, then yeah, it would make a difference. But I'd arbitrarily set the bar at 14 or so for a healthy division capable of putting on a good show. Anything else is gravy.
The only people pining for a 28 car field are the older fans that remember when that was the norm. What we have right now is actually pretty normal, when you consider that our one track has its membership spread out over 4 divisions...5 if you count enduro. (with a good dozen or so of them that actually belong in SS) Remember that in the "good old days" there were only 2 divisions to spread em out over. Plus there was no such thing as micro sprints to further thin the herd.
Higher car counts seem to have a snowball effect on bringing more teams and more fans (casual and dedicated alike) into the track. It's one of the reasons guys like competing at Flamboro, or for the success of some of the larger special events. Higher car counts also cater to the die-hard, regular fans (ie. your base) and keep them coming to your speedway. Don't get me wrong, when you've got around 200 drivers/teams racing at your facility over the course of the year, it's a damn good thing, but it doesn't necessarily represent division health as a whole, especially when your most visible division, and the one the most closely relates with the casual fan to NASCAR, has the second-lowest average count. 14 cars per division would work alright at places like Peterborough, Varney and Sauble, but you need more at a place like Delaware to make it look good.
Re 57 Shadowracer I was there for most of the races this year and where I got the average car count was from the Delaware site results added up all the total cars from each feature and divided by # of races each team raced.
I have read all the statements from fans to racers - some want more cars - some want the race track fixed and repaved. Some like the weekly shows and some people want special shows. You can get the big shows in for Delaware. It has in the past and how it was done was with sponsorship. You can bring the big shows but you need big sponsorship to help pay the purse. I remember the Great Canadian Weekends had everything sponsored. The 100 lappers on Thursday or Friday. The Saturday show had a different sponsor and of course the Big show. Canusa sponsors the APC 300 race which is great but there has to be more sponsors to make it for a truly big race weekend. Remember that there was sponsor tents all in turn 4 behind the crowd. That help the race track make money so Delaware can bring in the big show. The more money the track makes the more improvements it can make. I think that would be job 1 if and before you bring or talk about a really big show at Delaware.
The weekly show is very good but some race fans get bored of seeing the same cars and racers each week. So they pick and choose when they come out to watch. If you put in some big shows then the race fans don't get bored and the track keeps the fans.
So in the end if Delaware would like to grow again I think they need to work on getting big sponsors to the table to show if the track.