News and Rumors

Last updated on:
April 1, 2005

Your cheating heart will make you weep,
you'll cry and cry and try to sleep,
but sleep won't come the whole night through,
Your cheating heart will tell on you,

Well the season hasn't really even started for many tracks or divisions but last minute rule changes and the crack-down on teching the cars is in full swing. In a day when the very future of our local short tracks is being threatened by neighbors complaining about noise, urban development, and NASCAR, IRL Prime time telecasts, it now seems time to put all us local short-track owner-drivers in our place.

You know maybe we should feel guilty about spending our time, energy, and money these days to making an effort to build and run your average local short track car. I mean let's face it who do we think we are? 99.9% of us do this for the love of the sport...we ain't going to Indy or Daytona...we're going to Hanford, Antioch, Watsonville, etc. Most of us pack up the family on Friday or Saturday night, head to our local track where we'll spend $100-$200 dollars between pit fees and fuel for the privilege of putting on a show for the folks in the stands.    

Some promoters, tracks and/or sanctioning groups are cracking down on perceived cheaters and rule benders. Yes I do believe in rules don't get me wrong, but coming up with, and implementing new rules at the start of the season that's not safety oriented to me is strictly a power trip. It does nothing to improve car count, morale in the pits, or butts in the grandstand. It's not even that I necessarily disagree with the rule changes, it's the timing of all this, especially when they say we're trying to cut costs for the competitors and save them money. BS...if that were the case these changes would be noted before the end of the previous season so during the winter competitors would what not to buy or do.

Oh and by the way a lot of these same tracks/groups etc. are so concerned with saving competitors money that many are now requiring them to buy one-way radios at a cost of $100-$250 (Supposedly to help move the show along) and/or radio transponders that cost $150-$250 (to time and score the show). These are of course mandatory and you won't be allowed to run without them. You know maybe the show would run better if every damn short track wasn't worried about running 6-8 divisions a night and would focus on putting on a quality show...yea, you're right it won't happen.

As a fan I want a lot of cars in each division, I want see to competitive-exciting races, I want good food from the concession area, I want announcers that are informative, I want to be entertained, I want a reason to return week after week. As a car owner/driver I'd like to feel like there's a little respect from track personnel for the effort put forth by our race team. I'd like them to realize that we PAID to be in this pit area. I'd like them to know most of the racers goals aren't to see what they can get away with in the rules. I'd like them to know that after I win a race, (if I should) I want to celebrate with my crew & family, not sit around all night for tech.

We don't make a living doing this; we ain't a Nextel Cup team who's trying to impress our multi-million dollars sponsors by finding ways to creatively get around tech issues. We just want to show up at our local short track, visit with some friends, do a little racing, and help put on a show for the folks in the stands. It ain't rocket science and just because they make a new tech tool for the part of the month doesn't mean it needs to be bought and used.

Most of us with a brain know that most short tracks make their money at the back gate. We also know the more classes that you don't have to pay mean's more money in their pocket. There's a movement in American short tracks toward crate or spec type motors. They feel it'll be easier to police and get more cars running the same rules. It'll also be a way to get kick-backs from engine dealers and an excuse to pay lower purses. But that'll be saved for a later column.

Most local short tracks don't pay enough for the effort of opening up our motors in a dirt pit area. What the hell happened to the idea that racing at our local short tracks was supposed to be fun? I guess when you're paying $2.50 + for a gallon of gas (even more for diesel) the fun is that your crazy enough to think about racing else-where, looking for that full night of short track bliss. The highway's a calling...see-ya soon at a short track somewhere.


DOK