Shadow Report: Delaware Meetin'

[Shadowracer]

A few bits of news and notes from the annual driver's meeting.

OPENING
Firstly, Jerry Wilcox spoke. He went over last year, saying how well it went, weather was good, finished on the good side of the ledger etc etc...as well as thanked all the sponsors.

Introduced a couple new sponsors, mainly Exeter Toyota. Unveiled new Camry pace car, and spoke briefly about Delaware being the first track in Canada with a link to Toyota Racing.

All the major division sponsors from last year will be returning.

Talked about a few new events for the year...those of us that saw the schedule posted a while ago know this stuff already...Vintages are back, OSCAAR Don Biederman memorial on the 6th of Sept.

Spoke of the possibility of hosting a NASCAR Race of Champions event, where they get in a few ex NASCAR Stars in for a day to do autographs and a short exhibition race. Said Jerry - "Its an expensive show, so we're not sure if we'll do it yet."

New Payout Info

Then came the slideshow and the interesting news: In a nutshell, they're basically eliminating the year end payout, and increasing the weekly purses. Each division sees and increase in payout, from 1st all the way down to 28th. (When you look at the numbers, they don't necesarily sound like a huge increase, but if you look at it right across the board, the total purse increase is quite substantial.)

LM Feature
2007 - 1st $1000 / 28th $100
2008 - 1st-$1200 / 28th $140

SS Feature
2007 - 1st $325 / 28th $50
2008 - 1st $350 / 28th $65

Mod Feature
2007 - 1st $600 / 28th $50
2008 - 1st $650 / 28th $90

Truck Feature
2007 - 1st $250 / 28th $45
2008 - 1st $310 / 28th $60

One note was added at the end: There will be a year end payout, basically contingency money and 50/50 money.

Story in the Paper

In a nutshell, Delaware is now free to invest or find investors to overhaul the speedway. A long term lease agreement has been reached, and this was the major stumbling block in upgrading the facility. The timeline for improvements is yet to be determined.

Chaos Cars

A few race formats were announced, with the caveat that nothing's etched in stone. Possibilities include:

- Fig 8 barrel race on frontstretch
- "Fishing race" (Each car drags a chain with a tire on the end...last car with tire still on wins)
- Balloon Race (Balloons are taped to rear bumpers. Object: break everyone else's balloons)
- Bucket race (Each car has a bucket of water on the hood)
- "The Nilestown Classic" (Every car goes around once. Once you get to the start finish line, you have to stop, and a crew member has to eat a whole hotdog before you can go again) This one got some laughs. Jerry told about how he won one of those races by 2 laps at Nilestown in the old days.
- Slalom race (Gotta go in and out between buckets on frontstretch)
- Stopsign/Flagpole race (have to go once around each obstacle on the track)

I think I got them all. 

Other News

- There will be a regular sit-down, dinner, dance, bring-your-friends banquet at the end of the year. Most likely at a new banquet hall in Ailsa Craig.

- The APC 300 will remain a 1 day event, though racing is planned for the entire weekend. LM teams will have open practice if the do show on Saturday.

- They're looking at a transponder system. If its implemented, transponders can be rented for $200 a year OR $25 per event. This is still in the planning stages yet and may not happen this year.

- There'll be no more "I'll pay you next week" entries in the back gate. Apparently that became a problem this past year.

- "Gold Cards" will be available for $500. This is a photo ID card that gets you in the pits/track for every event all year long. They are non-transferrable. If you don't want to do that, all the prices and procedures for driver/crew members will be the same as last year.

Q and A

Then the floor was opened to questions, and 2 main issues were brought up.

-Some guys don't like the handicapping system. Kirk Hooker even went so far as to suggest drawing random starting spots for heats. Talked a little about that, and it was agreed that whatever system gets used will be readily avaible to everyone and not be "shrouded in mystery"

-Then got into a debate about crate engines in enduro. Should they be claimable, and do they even belong in enduro? I don't feel any conclusions were reached, but it does seem that they will remain an option for enduros.


So...I think that's the bases covered. If I missed anything, yell it out.

Shadow out.

[Thayne]

Great report Shadow. I am interested in this nightly payout increase...it is a good idea! Barrie ahs done this AND kept our points fund...but I think NASCAR pays for the points fund neways as thats where our checks came from....either way this is  forward thinking which is good in this business that heaviuly goes byt eh 'if it aint broke dont fix it' motto and most of the time their views on things is it is never broke...lol...good on Deleware for trying somehting different!

[SS3]

Excellent report Shadow.   Thanks.

[racingwrench]

The only thing that reallys struck me was the comment that currently the outside front stretch wall was down in the region of the inside wall after that big rain storm.  That's alot of work to fix that just to get to practice day

[Mobil1fan]

I realize there's not a whole lot of time, but if they need to fix the entire will, that might force their hand on working on the surface as well...

[up town]

this is good they want to increase the payout but it dosent add up ther will be no points fund at the end of the year they raise the money from 325 to 350 16 races i belive if you won all of the that would only be 400 more dollars the points fund for 1st was about $1200 down 900 some were?

[Shadowracer]

Well, you're right. But the payout increase is consistent right down to last place....so even the back markers are making more back per night. No one finishing position is benefitting in a really huge way, but everyone's benefitting a bit.

I honestly have no idea what the year end payout was like, so I can't comment much further. But they showed the figures, and when you add up the extra 20-30-40-whatever dollars per each finishing position, the total purse bump for each division was pretty substantial.

[Silverstone]

Thats Great. The Chaos Cars sound like a blast! and from what I hear about the quality of the racing, I see a trip with the family to Delaware coming this year for sure.

[hill3]

might bring some banger memories back for you.i still watch them on youtube.

[hill3]

ps i have not forgot the friendly wager silverstone. going to spend any time in front of the tv watching the rolex?

[JohnQPublic]

I usually just read posts on here but this time I feel I must say something about the new purse structure.  I think we have to get out the calculator or have the track tell you exactly what the year end pay out will be with contingency monies and so on because if you just add up the new purses, the drivers are comming up way short I believe.  The mod purse for instance, 14 races and if you win all of them, thats an extra 700 bucks from 2007.  last years champ didn't win all the races and I am sure his payout at the banquet was in the range 0f 1800-2000. Thats a little short I think. Sure the total purse increase for the week looks like a big number.  Shadows report shows the first place payout differences and the 28th place differences.  Now I may have been in the beer garden and had a few buds but when did we have more them about 17 cars in any division other then the trucks? Mod and LM had about 13-16 cars most nights.  So the increases from 16th to 28th can be subtracted from that. And don't even get me started on the poor SS guys purse increase. That one is even more pathetic. So hopefully the drivers send Gerry some emails this week because he said he would listen to you guys and that he wouldn't use this new structure maybe if he got some feed back that you didn't like it.  

But I do like the 300 staying as a one day show. I also like the transponders, thats should speed up caution delays.

[Mobil1fan]

Let's see how it shakes out when the payouts are posted, it's much easier that way...

[Racer43]

The increase weekly payout benefits the guys who dont plan on running every week. The end of year payout... it was said that 50/50 monies and any fines occurred would still be the end of year payout ( wont be too much ).  I cant think of any contingency money other than McColl, Knott, Leaf and APC vouchers. I think if you do the math, the 13 - 16 regulars will actually lose money in the long run. I could be wrong, but thats what it looks like to me.
The transponders are a must if you ask me. I dont know how many times we've been screwed on restarts and even some finishes due to the human error factor. Dont get me wrong, we all make mistakes, but with the technology available at the track why not use it. Two hundred bucks for the year sounds pretty reasonable to ensure accurate scoring. We had to purchase one for our new car. Another great feature of these is the fact that you can go back over your entire night and get an accurate lap time for every lap you ran.

[racerfan44]

Racer43 Yes transponders are a good thing and are needed but Shadow said in his report they (Delaware ) was in the planning stages and may not happen until next year.He said $200.00 a year or $25.00 an event.Would these be used all year or just specials because if it is all year that is a deal as $25.00 an event equals approx $300.00-$350.00 for the year if you paid each night.

[Racer43]

Yes your right. Why anyone would object is beyond me. Sometimes the track just needs to say this is what were doing. If there's a team out there that cant afford two bills for something like this they should reconsider if they can afford to run at all.
Last year it took all year to get the guys to run the one way radios, and I think some of them still hadnt bought one at the end of the year. The need to clamp down on some of this stuff.