Have you ever noticed that Car Counts have always had a cycle to filling a race field.
Everyone talks about a poor car count and we see it more and more in all levels of racing.
Up till 5 years ago, the term "FEILD FILLER" in Nascar Nextel Cup was never used, but now it has become the norm and we don't even pay attention to it. Almost every series has been hit with poor car counts from F1 to Indy to several Stock Car series.
Closer to home we have seen the Fields get smaller and smaller every year, and it does not matter which class of racing you follow. The Dirt car series still have a pretty good roster, but the Asphalt guys seem to dwindle. WHY ??
The high cost of racing, poor economy, less interest in racing, younger fans not following racing as we did in the day of old, ticket prices, entry fee's, sanctioning fees, fuel, travel, little purse money, and the word- PARK IT, has become a racers biggest threat.
We need a solution to fixing the Fields, before there is no reason to fill a field. Whats your 2 cents say ??
I think part of the problem is the money earned after each race night, have chatted with guys from the states and they seem to get alot more money than our local tracks hand out. I also think there hasn't been enough advertising to let people know that there is short track racing alive and well. I don't think people that get into racing have any idea of the cost of the sport or how much of your spare time it takes up. Thats my two cents lol
two main reasons out west imo. dilution of classes,united we stand divided we fall. second is the length of season, it is a very short season to invest the type of capital needed to race. it will take me two years to fund a slm team from ground up. but what is a good car count,we have been trained by nascar that 43 is good. i would rather see 18 to 24 equal cars racing hard than 43 going in a single line. newalta slm have been setting records with car count this year 45? in Calgary high 30s else where.
I think the biggest problem is the rising cost to race and the lack of support from sponsors. Racing is a sponsor drivent sport and there is a lack of sponsor support in Ontario. You may think a lot of cars have hight paying full sponsors with the big decails on them but in reality some are paying very little money and the guys are just putting big stickers on there cars to fill them.
In other words if sponsors start coming out and helping teams the car count will grow.
for a sponsor to put his name on a car there has to be fans in the stands to see, to get fans in the seats there must be car count to get car count the must be sponsors---oh theres a problem this is just a vicious circle--my head hurts. IT WILL BE UP TO THE RACER AND THE TEAMS TO BREAK THE CIRCLE.