Sauble ran their first show under the new ownership of Jason and Aimee Thom. Show started almost 20 minutes late which should not have happened on a very cold night and ended just before 11:00 pm. Probably under 400 people in the grandstands.
Joe Chisholm who is still behind the scenes in the marketing of the track gave a strange speech in which he compared Tim Horton's to Jason Thom, saying Tim Horton's started with a single store and look what they have become. He seemed to imply that Jason was looking to expand by either purchasing or building other tracks???
He may want to first concentrate on the Sauble car counts and admission prices because both need to be addressed.
12 Limited Late Models (feature was won by Tyler Williams) , 12 Thunder Cars, 7 Street Stocks, 12 Mini Stocks and 19 Can-Am Midgets. Of course we had to sit through double heats and a meaningless Can-Am "B" Main when all cars made the feature. At least no intermission was taken. The management should be aiming for a 9:30 -10:00 pm finish at the latest with the amount of cars they have.
Sauble admission was $18 for adults. Seniors only get in for a buck less. As a comparison, Flamboro charged $15 for basically the same classes last week with a lot more cars. Sauble is also charging $20 for the OSS on June 28 which will probably have only 12-13 cars show up. They seem to be relying more and more on the July/August occassional summer cottage crowd visitor and turning off regulars who see the car count not living up to the ticket prices.
My advice to Jason is to get out to as many local tracks as possible and see what they do right and wrong. Look at Merrittville, Ohsweken and Humberstone which are only charging $10 for adult admission for regular shows. Sell hot dogs and hamburgers for 1/2 price after a certain time if it is a slow night like Toledo, Ohio does. Or $1 hot dog night like Berlin Raceway in Michigan does regularly.
Take a look at your purse structure which probably should be increased in all divisions. Find out how it compares with other tracks.
Finally, try to run your show off in 3 hours or less (and that could apply to many local tracks). Studies have shown the average person who attend sporting events/concerts, etc. lose their interest after that length, especially families.
My 2008 Race Count: 11
My 2008 Track Count: 6 - New Smyrna (FL), Flamboro (ON), Humberstone (ON), Ransomville (NY), Delaware (ON), Sauble (ON)
agree Steve that some asphalt promoters seem out of touch and that's why I've become a major dirt convert. Last night at Merrittville-28 BRP CanAm Late Models, 29 Sportsman, 28 Hoosier stocks, 23 4 cylinder and 15 mod lites (which seems to be the only class down in numbers as quite a few drivers have switched to sportsman after similar car expenses). The late models ran 4 heats and decided to let all 28 drivers start the feature. Good crowd for a cool night and $12 admission ($2.00 more than normal for the late models) Ran a little late - finished at 10:35 but not bad considering the number of heats and consis for the sportsmen and hoosier stocks.
I'm surprised nobody's started a dirt-track north of Toronto yet....I have no doubts all the paved tracks in the area, save for Capital City and Delaware, would suffer.
I was always surprised that a dirt track was never built to act as a sister track to Brighton. The cars they run there seem to be unique to Brighton and nowhere else. Their mods resemble a Pennsylvania e-mod; their pro stocks are like Niagara Hoosier Stocks, etc.
I know that if there was one built in the barrie area that's where I would be!
