Staying on schedule is important
Trust me, no one is more relieved and excited that dirt racing is back than I am. But like many of you, I very much would like to be at the track taking in some of this action in person rather than only having the internet viewing option, but still, any racing is better than no racing.
With that now known, I want to point out that I am not writing this piece to take on the role of some Negative Nelly who always finds something to complain about no matter what the circumstances. Anyone who has been a regular reader of my posts on this site or who actually knows me will hopefully agree that being negative is not part of my normal character.
Also know that I am not writing this piece to pick on any single track or just a few tracks as the subject at hand is something I have believed in for quite some time and does not necessarily reflect anything that has just recently occurred.
All that said, it’s time to get to the topic at hand.
When a race track is hosting an event that involves some sort of special feature that is likely to be drawing attention from far and wide, spectators need to have some sort of assurance that said race will take place on a definite schedule. Fans who may have traveled two or three hours to get to a track and have a similar return drive after the show to get back home need to know that they will not be walking back into their front doors at 4:00am.
I regularly attend races in which I drive anywhere from two to four hours one way to get to the track. I absolutely love racing but that doesn’t mean I love the feeling of being held hostage to it. Few things are more frustrating than to have a show drag on and on, often with too many classes as part of the event, only to have the primary race continue to be pushed further and further back until the realization sets in that the feature I came to see isn’t going to start until as late as midnight.
There was a facility that I used to venture to quite often that I would joke did not require my headlights being on as I traveled to the track because I typically arrive pretty early to begin coverage and I did not always need the headlights as I came home because the sun would be coming back up. That was a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much.
If one of the national touring series is racing at a particular track or even if there is a regional touring series show on the docket, promoters have to count on the fact that they will have more than just their regular fan base on hand. And it’s important to put on the most efficient show possible in order to get those long distance travelers to come back, which ought to be the goal of any business.
With our current circumstances that do not allow for fans in the grandstands, it is still important to have a set time in which those tuning in know when the feature they bought the pay-per-view broadcast for is going to take the green flag. Having viewers sit through caution after caution during a support class race only to then hear that there is going to be a delay for track prep is not exactly the way to entice those viewers to some day venture to a particular speedway.
The NFL does not schedule games for 1:00pm only to announce at 12:55 that there is going to be a delay while the grounds crew comes out and works on the field for thirty minutes.
And this is not to disrespect support class racers by any means. Those competitors are very important to the health of the tracks and to the sport as a whole. However, the reality is that people did not buy a PPV or drive three hours one way to watch those divisions. The local fans who watch them every week will stay, no matter what order within the show those classes run, while the traveling spectators have the opportunity to leave for home following the headliner.
Nothing has to be taken from the show, just rearranged when the occasion calls for it.
Some of the touring series mandate this within their contracts with the tracks but I would like to see every track run their primary race, when they have a visiting series as part of the show, as if the track is operating under a strict curfew whether it actually is or not.
Set a definite time to start that race. Assure fans that the race many of them came to see will take the green flag between 10:00 and 10:30pm. If the running order of the show needs to be changed up to accommodate that time frame, then so be it. If a support class race is taking too long because of numerous cautions, red flag that particular feature and restart it later in the program after the main event has finished.
The sport of dirt racing has had a unique opportunity over the past two weeks being virtually the only live sporting events taking place anywhere in America. Unfortunately in some of those shows, the sport has not put its best foot forward as the broadcasts dragged on longer than they should have due to inefficiency.
And by the way, some of the recent races were run in a very efficient and timely manner.
We on this site have argued for some time that doing things the way they have always been done may not always be the best policy. It should not have to be understood that if a person decides to go to a dirt track they are going to be stuck there for five, six, or even seven hours. No other sporting events operate under that model.
There’s an old saying that goes something like “Your brain can only absorb what your butt can endure.”
We have entered a time in which we are going to have to rethink everything we do. Some aspects of dirt racing have needed to rethink some of its ways of doing things things for quite some time.
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