Monmouth, IL (Wednesday, August 30, 2017) - Some of what I am about to write, I know there will be people out there who will disagree with it. But I took the time to do some research to help put some numbers with some of what I am going to cover. What led me to write this you may ask? We'll it comes from all the negativity recently posted on the Quincy Raceways in Quincy, Illinois' Facebook page.
About two months ago Ciltrac promotions Ken Dobson announced that after 4 years of promoting the Quincy Raceways in Quincy, Illinois, that he would not return to the track after the 2017 racing season. His hopes in making the announcement early enough was that somebody or group would approach him about taking over. But several weeks went by and nobody showed any interest, that was until a story appeared in the Quincy Herald-Whig newspaper on August 16th about the fate of the track.
Enter Jason and Robert Goble. They read the story thanks to a share on Facebook that popped in their news feed. They then reached out to Ken Dobson to make arrangements into coming an checking out the racing and the facilities on Sunday, August 20th. Two days later they purchased the grounds and equipment from owner Paul Holtschlag to become the new owners of Quincy Raceways. They immediately took over the facilities, and planned to finish out the rest of 2017 as the new owners / promoters of Quincy Raceways. There was no racing scheduled to take place on Sunday, August 27th. So this would give them some time to get to work in improving the grounds and putting together a schedule for September.
On Sunday, August 27th they released a September schedule on the Quincy Raceways Facebook page. WOW, you would have thought the world came to an end at Quincy Raceways. The new owners decided to drop both the Super Late Models and Crate Late Models from the rest of 2017. Was that a good idea? Well according to the Facebook negatives it was the worst decision every made. Has anybody ever sat down and looked how the Late Model class has dwindled over the past years. Everyone says if the track conditions improved then car counts would go up. Where are these cars coming from? To say these classes are growing, where is your proof? The cost to not only build these cars is out of hand, but what it cost the tracks to run them is just as high.
Here is some numbers that I have put together on both the Super Late Models and Crate Late Models at Quincy Raceways in 2017. Not counting the Big Ten Late Model Series held back in May, the Super Late Models have raced 8 other times at Quincy. In those 8 races they have averaged 8 cars. The payout for 8 cars is $3635. If you take 8 cars x 3 per car in the pits that equals 24. Then take 24 x $30 pit pass and you come up with $720. ($3635 - $720 = a loss of $2915).....The Crate Late Models have ran 10 races at Quincy and have averaged 9 cars. The payout for 9 cars is $2250. If you take 9 cars x 3 per car in the pits that equals 27. Then take 27 x $30 pit pass and you come up with $810. ($2250 - $810 = a loss of $1440).....Then everyone says well what about the Stock Cars and Sport Compacts, there car counts haven't been that good this year either. For the Stock Cars they have ran 9 times this year and have averaged 7 cars. The payout for 7 cars is $1025. If you take 7 cars x 3 per car in the pits that equals 21. Then take 21 x $30 pit pass and you come up with $630. ($1025 - $630 = a loss of $395).....The Sport Compacts have ran 12 times this year and have averaged 9 cars. The payout for 9 cars is $475. If you take 9 cars x 3 per car in the pits that equals 27. Then take 27 x $30 pit pass and you come up with $810. ($475 - $810 = a gain of $335). Even if you take the Sport Compacts average x 1 person per car in the pits this is what you come up with: 9 cars x 30 = $270. ($475 - $270 = a loss of $205). So you can see it is more economical to run the Stock Cars and Sport Compacts with lower car counts, as it will take less people in the stands to cover the loss.
Everybody says improve the track conditions, or raise the purse and cars will come back. That is not a proven fact. Heck the Lee County Speedway (LCS) in Donnellson, Iowa has the best racing surface week in and week out on Friday nights and there car counts have struggled at times this year. The growth of the Crate Late Models at LCS hasn't improved in 2017 over 2016. In 2016 LCS added the Crate Late Models for the first time weekly. And in 2016 they averaged 12.4 cars. 2017 was the second year for the Crates to race weekly at LCS, and this year they have averaged 11.8. That is down about half a car, which isn't much. But where is the growth that everybody keeps talking about?
Then to say raise the purse and cars will come, is another unproven fact. I know a track that added over $2,135 to the purse in there weekly classes over the 2106 payouts. For 2017 they averaged 12.5 Modifieds, 12.9 Stock Cars, 14.9 SportMods, and 14.5 Sport Compacts. Those same classes with less payouts averaged 14 Modifieds, 15.4 Stock Cars, 11.1 SportMods, and 14.9 Sport Compacts. So the only class that showed growth over 2016 was the SportMods. This track ended up paying out $2055 more every night on average in payouts over the 2016 payout. Which meant they needed an additional 206 paid adults in the grandstand just to cover the added purse.
The Farley Speedway, West Liberty Raceway, and Dubuque Speedway all in Eastern Iowa have struggled with car counts this year. Another track that races weekly on Wednesday nights (the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa) is in danger of loosing weekly racing in 2018. Many rumors going around say this track is going to race once a month on Saturday nights in 2018, with NO sanctioning. What is the cause of this, if anybody knew then I am sure they would fix the problem. I for one put some of the blame on social media, yeah I know some will disagree with me on this. But it is very easy and fast for someone who is angry on a call made at the track, track conditions, or something else that made them mad to get on social media to get attention from their friends. But how often do you see those same people posting something positive a track may have done on any given night. Not very often!
My suggestion to these people who say they won't support Quincy Raceways because they have dropped Late Models, or any other track for some reason or the other. If you want your local track to survive then I encourage you to get out there and support them. They only option you will have is to drive hundreds of miles to catch a race or give up going to the races. Because these tracks will not stay open long if they continue to loose money week in and week out. Has any of these negative people who are upset about not having Late Models at Quincy tried to contact the new owners? Have you sat down with and made any suggestions on what can be done to keep theses classes running?
Many people think tracks are raking in the money. Does anybody know exactly what it cost to run a weekly race? You have the purse, employees payouts, sanctioning fees, and insurance just for that night. Before the race night arrives you have fuel for the grader, water trucks, property taxes, sales taxes, expense to buy the food and drinks from the vendors, power bill, and other expenses I am unsure of. A race track is just like a business, and in a business if you don't make some money then the doors don't stay open long.
I hope you think about the impact of not supporting a track, and get out a support one each and every week. Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you at the races!!!
Good blog Brian!
ReplyDeleteGood analysis, however I would like to see the same analysis using the previous years 2015-16 late model car counts before the splitting of the open late model division by Ken at Quincy by adding crate lates.
ReplyDeleteKeeping in mind on the smaller track those crate lates could compete as Jim Moon did win at least one late model feature. No other track in the area ran TWO late models classes weekly at a $12 ticket. Using last years numbers only to gut the open lates may not be apples to apples and may not have been the best idea. Not being negative, but that was a lot of cost to a program. Yet Ken a promoter didn't walk away from his agreement and charged CUSTOMERS $12 admission to regular nights.
Quincy has a solid racing fan base and a open late model tradition. Before the purchase that track had more open late race teams in 30 miles of the track than about any other track within 100 miles of it.
I've been going there since 1989, and yes the main reason was the open late models. After 1999 it was a 170 round trip. I met others that traveled about as far over the years.
I think the negative comments are subject to interpretation, just because CUSTOMERS and drivers disagree with a change its negative. I asked the new owners on Facebook to reconsider dropping the open lates for the rest of the season my third post on Facebook ever. I was the first to comment on the new schedule. The new owner of 34 raceways Burlington posted a photo of a grassy field with a caption ....this could be your race track. It was difficult to tell if the grassy filed was a race track at all, may have been in the 80's a track for go-carts, motorcycles or cars. He was making a point maybe customers and teams have a choice to support any schedule you get or kill racing at the track. I going to go with that as a negative comment. I don't think any of the CUSTOMERS posting on Facebook wanted that for Quincy either. I asked him to remove the post. He said no because of the negative comments. I only mention it because the posts on Facebooks are from customers or potential customers that want to support racing and the new owners Quincy.
Another analysis on the car count in all classes would be helpful after the new owners took over. Admission price for the customer is still the same as what it was with two open late model classes.
I know life is full of change. Quincy has been a track that has bucked the trends for years.
I wish the new owners well and much success for many years as the two previous owners.