Thanks for the threadstart Raceguy. I beleive you refer to this thread on the Inside Track board. If there's others please let us know.
As moderator and head cheerleader for Delaware and CRO, the numbers of posts and amounts of chatter have been a little bit of a concern for me for a couple of years now. I used to think it was something that we did wrong and that maybe the "be respectful, clean, on topic" rules have served to weed out too many people, but I came to realize that a lot of the chitchat is simply happening on Facebook instead of here. We have a lot of people who were pretty hardcore posters both here and on the GRR boards when they were around, who are rarely seen now here, but are always chatting merrily away on Facebook. One social network has supplanted another I suppose.
On that other thread, we do have some ex-posters from here that simply, for whatever reason, do not feel the need to grace the actual Delaware community with their opinions, and would simply like to chirp away at us from the sidelines.
A few of them have been encouraged to come back here, but are basically either A: simply too stubborn, or B: are still stuck in the mindset that you can't really say what's on your mind here for fear of reprisals from the officials.
Well, A I can't help anyone with. You will get involved or you won't.
As far as B goes, that era is OVER OVER OVER. Did I mention it's over? (in fact, it mostly never started, except in a few cases...and the parties involved are no longer with us.)
To address the thread above, it's essentially regarding the drop in LM car counts. There's been some "Ok, so now what to they do?" thinking been going on over there, and others and myself have offered a couple ideas on the matter. Some would say I'm partly out to lunch....but I can deal with that. If anyone knows me, I sometimes go outside the box to promote discussion.
Some guys think that repaving the track is some sort of miracle cure: do this and all will solve itself.
Some guys think that aligning the rules with other tracks so everyone can race everywhere is the miracle pill.
Some randon thoughts on the matter from me, and bear in mind I'm not being a Delawre apologist. I'm simply trying to offer perspective:
-Delaware's had some bad luck with LMs this year. Robblee is out sick, Sheridan's up top, Kennedy is mad at Delaware again, and rumors seem to be that Lindsay's wreck last month ended that race operation indefinitely. There's 4 of your top guys suddenly gone on one year. There's not much you can do about this except roll with it and do you best. Gresel worked himself to a spot where he could compete with the big guns, just to find the big guns are gone. (even though he's winning all the time, I still can't help the feeling that this sorta sucks for him too.)
-As Wattie ever so eloquently pointed out, we "used to have 30" LMs. Lets correct this to "2 years ago we had about 28 LMs in the pits on opening day, had great counts for a couple of weeks, then dropped to a more normal 16-18 or so for the regular show, and great fields for the specials" I'll only add that that year was an anomaly. Maybe it was due to our re-embracing the NASCAR weekly deal, and maybe it was due to the fact that crate motors + available used chassis = a lot of cars. Car counts were iffy the year before, and they were the year after too. For some reason a lot of guys came out of the woodwork for that year.
-Obviously, Delaware's concern is going to be right now, not how to draw cars from elsewhere, but how to get our semi-regulars out every week. I'm talking about Watson, Verhoeven, Doerr (although he has other stuff going on too) Cox, Christie...even Urlin. This is the question that must be giving them fits right now.
-As someone mentioned on the other thread, costs need to come down. Its not about evening the field out, its about making racing halfway affordable to do on a weekly basis. I floated the idea of turning SS into our premier division, based on the roaring successes the last time someone (Novotny) tried it. But then I'm biased. SS has, for a long time, always been the highlight of the night for me, and this year its the best thing they've got going on the track. I'm not suggesting changes to the division....just making them the main event....and maybe offer some incentives to refresh those body styles that don't involve crreating a monopoly for someone. (Having to use "Tony's bodies" was a sore point for a lot of people when the old CASCAR Sportsman div. started using fiberglass.)
So there's a few random thoughts, simply tossed out for discussion. I don't believe the sky is falling....nor do I beleive it even APPEARS that it might fall. Racing has always always always been a cyclic thing, and we're on a bit of a downturn here. But even then not much of one. Trust me, I work the grandstands every night. People are having a good time. The whole first month the crowds were pretty slim because of threatening weather. But when its nice, the crowds are there.
Sure they have work to do. No one's that naive. And I'm pretty sure that to realign the LM division, some eggs are going to have to get broken, and that just sucks. I do not envy the guys making the decisions on that.
But I do have faith.
A track which has offered each racer tickets to bring their sponsors out to the track free of charge (of which almost none have taken advantage of)
John, we recently took advantage of this offer and must say that our sponsors were treated like royalty by Joe and his staff. They had a wonderful time and are planning to return to the track on regular race nights (they were not frequent visitors). Good stuff.
I want to say this with a positive note, up the payouts, and drop the nascar member pit fee. It annoys many people to pay $20 when they could sit up top for 15.
wow......didnt realize my thoughts would create this much activity. I'm glad it created discussion. I am proud of this track and it will always be my Home Track. It's just nice to hear some positive once in awhile (along with the negative). Beleive me, I know the issues of todays racing and Delaware isn't the only track that has issues, but it it's the only one I really care about. There is a lot going on at the track that is positive, we just tend to not talk about it on here. Thanks John, for posting. Sometimes it needs to be put out there. Room for improvement....always. But what track doesnt? See you all on the top of the hill tonite......should be a great show.
I don't usually say a whole lot on here. The track is a hole no matter how much paint you put on it. It needs repair there is no way around it. Cars bring people and a decent surface and real payouts bring cars. Rolloing the rules back and costing teams money and massive amounts of time to make these changes. The people in tech arew another issue I was optomistic that the two new people in key positions would fix this but alas instead of cleaning house they just added two new names for the pay stubbs. The nascar membership is a joke its expensive and is only good at other weekly series races so unless you travel every weekend to other tracks (skipping delaware to do so) and its not a special event you can use it however it is not good at other nascar events like ncats. What needs to happen is scherba needs to spend some money and do some track work and then hire some people who aren't just some of his friends but actual people who will make this work. If you want to see how to turn a track around go to oswego under past ownership it was actually worse off than delaware but in its first year of new ownership it is already flourishing, for the first time in 10 years they ran a consi for their weekly supermod show and the grandstand has been over a third fulll (it seats a lot of people). This has been accomplished by massive personnell changes and major attitude changes for those who are still there. It turns out that paying people and treating them with respect is the key. If I didn't live 2 miles from delaware I probably wouldn't go and I grew up at the track. When touring series come and I go to see people I know who are racing I find that their biggest issue is the surface. As for the classes most of the cars are well maintained and prepared but I just have a hard time seeing grandma's nova as a race car. As for the food well I am not a millionaire so I don't eat there I just can't waste that much money on bad food just knock down the concessions and hire it otu to sammy souvlacki or a pulled pork trailer. Pit admission is terrible I mean 30 bucks on a normal day is bad and the specials is just plain rape. After the GCR the fans and the crews should have been given their money back delaware really missed the boat there. To end on a positive hey its still open and the camping is vibrant