Ohsweken weekly sprint car racing

[JoeChance]

 JoeDirt i am not sure why you feel the need to bad mouth mike32 to make your points but i think he brings up several valid points you chose not to address.
 Going from paying the Sportsmans 600 to win to paying the Sprints 1200 to win will almost certainly require a jump in the admission prices . When a track increases admission prices they always lose a portion of their fan base that just barely has enough to come to the track at the lower admission price . In Glenn's statement he mentions a "downward spiralling trend in attendance" i don't think trying to squeeze more money out of less people is going to help the track . Since car counts are directly related to attendance does anyone really think they will have more Sprinters then they had Sportsmans ?  Another problem that will arise is , it is one thing to have the track owner running  in the specials but its another to have him running in the weekly show . Competitors will think there is favoritism going on wether real or imagined , i have seen this phenomenon before . The other big issue is the Caledonia land claim and all the ill will it brings . I know people that refuse to attend the track specifically because of this and i don't see that being resolved anytime soon .
 My personal attending of races at Oshweken will not change from the 2 or 3 times a year in the 07 season because of the Friday night schedule .

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[mike32]

thanks Joe C-what I was getting at was that at a time when the drivers were finally graduating from the minis to the higher classes (like Erskine-sorry if I got the wrong family member) and Rounce (who cares where he ran this year), the class is gone and the sprint cars may be a more expensive step up. I guess they hope more will move to the stocks. The crossover with Flammys thunder cars has been a flop with the #1 from Paris being the only regular cross over car and thats what I pointed out.
 Joe Dirt-I never questioned the success of the Thunder Stock division at Flammy-only that the anticipated influx of asphalt drivers to Oshweken never happened and on the dirt front, usually no more than one or two Niagara based SS drivers showed at any show. The sportsman purse was never being disputed, just pointing out how little these guys ran for, perhaps as a reason for mediocre car counts. Read a little more carefully next time before jumping on your horse and riding off in all directions.

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[JoeDirt]

JoeChance, I'm just telling it like it is.  I've read many a posts from Mike from many different boards.  Rarely are his posts positive and frequently they are full of incorrect information.  I was just setting the record straight...Should I just sit back and let someone make points which I know for a fact aren't true.

I'm not trying to attack Mike, I'm just letting the people that read this board how it really is....seeing as I was at Ohsweken every single week last year. 

Mike, throughout the course of the year a total of 11 different merrittville/humerstone cars came to run at Ohsweken...that seems like a decent number to me.  9 different cars ran the rules package most similar to Flamboro's rules.  The goal of this thunderstock class is not to convert asphalt racers to dirt.  The option is there for them to run....why criticize that option?

About the sportsman purse, your point is that at Ohsweken they dont run for a lot of money....and my point is that Ohsweken's purse is bigger than anyone else's. 

I read your post as carefully as it deserved.

Like Crash mentioned though...An 80 dollar seasons pass like Merrittville and Humberstone have might be the ticket to attracting cars.   


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[mike32]

Joe-the Merrittville Humberstone cars that attended were rarely there at the same time, usually once a month visitors. I admire your passion for the Thunderstocks but lets face it, what mini stocker is going to move up to Thunderstocks for an extra $25 to win? I thought it was great when a number of mini drivers moved up and made the plunge in the sportsman ranks. I love Oshweken but thought it was under promoted and sure you can niggle re stats or the occasional wrong first name but the Thunder stock class averaged 12 cars weekly. There is no way also you can double the purse of the top class and not expect the fan to pay for a lot of it also, unless the place is cleaned up to where corporate sponsors want to attend. What I was getting at about the purse, is that even at $600 to win ($100 more than the other DIRT tracks) , the division is grossly underpaid and it would have behoved them to try and pay a bit more to get the Niagara drivers to go that extra mile and attend. Paying a little more than the standard purse wasn't enough to draw many outsiders other than Rob Pratt who likes the width and banking of the track over Ransomville. I just hope they hire a full time promotions manager. Ken Pelkie last season was pretty well limited to the two major shows. Cheers

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[JoeDirt]

My passion is for racing in general...not the thunderstocks.  The track is in desparate need for promotion that's for certain.  Whether Ken Pelkie is the right guy for the job, I'm not so sure.  He does a great job with the big sprint car events, but is he willing to promote the local weekly racers in the support divisons? Who knows.

I have to give a lot of credit to the great job that Flamboro did this season.  For one, although some people dislike the radio advertising method of promotion, I must say I heard Flamboro's radio ad more than I care to remember.  I'm a channel surfer when it comes to the radio, and still managed to hear the ad quite often. 
Another thing they did which I thought was pretty neat, is they took the support divisions like the ministocks and thundercars and promoted the drivers as local heros.  They created nicknames for some drivers like Randy "The Rocket" Rusnell, Brad "The Iceman" Collision, and The "Flying Farmer" Kevin Gallant, and included these in their promos. 
Flamboro takes a lot of flack for low fan counts, but speaking as someone who's been going to Flamboro since the early 80's I must say that the past few seasons have been on par with those years in the 80's consider to be "the good ole days".
So whether it's radio, or print or whichever, Ohsweken needs to bring any sort of public attention to their racing program. 

Mike, while you claim the sportsman class is underpaid, and thus the reason few drivers travel to Ohsweken, do you no think that the thunderstock class is underpaid as well, and thus the reason for not attracting as many drivers from Flamboro or elsewhere. 
Let's face it Flamboro thundercars get $300 to win, merrittville/humberstone $200, Ohsweken $160 to
win. 
Ohsweken sportsman $600 to win, Merrittville/humberstone (not 100%, but pretty sure) $500 to win...so who's really underpaid here??
I have no reason to argue you on the thunderstock car counts....you're right it needs to improve...everybody knows that, even the current drivers. 

If Glenn wants to make his weekly program work, admission prices and promotion are his biggest keys like you guys mentioned.  Increasing weekly admission prices certainly won't help the situation. 




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[racingwrench]

I will start by saying I don't know beans about the minis, stocks, mods or any other ohsweken (note the spelling from the website address) class that isn't alcohol powered and stuck to the ground via a wing. I do have wrenching experience on sprints during the sos formative years,  the high frequency of sprint nights on the schedule should give glen a pretty good idea of what kind of fan base he will get on a regular night.  Also this is an excellent time to start up this class for him with the amount of cars in ontario ready to go.  I know several people who were disheartened and or frustrated by the fact that is so hard to make show when you have 30 or more cars on a very regular basis (congrats though).  What I hope will happen now is that some of the "learning" (aren't we all) teams will be able to find a niche where car counts are just about equal to start positions and will be able to get more time in on the track to learn from and come home with start money rather than start money.  Car counts will be strong at the big O but I don't think that the SOS will be very bad off for cars either.  As for promotional stuff and fan attendance I don't know I would hope that a steady card would go far in the word of mouth form of advertisement.  Good luck to the Styres and Pelkies I will be there a few time on the busy nights but I don't know about how many regular nights I will be there.

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[racerfan44]

People think that  Oshweken will have a hard time getting cars (Sprints ) for regular shows I  have to disagree reason being
 1) S.O.S group getting bigger need place to race
 2) Most S.O.S. races on Saturdays -Oshweken regular shows-Friday - Not a big deal to run Oshweken Friday & South Buxton or any other track that S.O.S.. series track the next night
Glen Styers has the right idea and with the S.O.S. having Mr Turford back as president of S.O.S. I see them working very close together as S.O.S. no this track is the best it races on and if this track is sucessful in their new venture they will be sucessful too.Only time will tell.
 

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[hurricane7]

  this is great news for all sprint car teams for sure.

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[TommySalami]

The purse for a regular race night is going to be $1500 to win and $250 to start (Canadian funds)...With the Canadian dollar hovering at par, that is a better purse than most touring 360 sprint series...They will not have trouble getting cars...there are even drivers in the US thinking about running Ohsweken weekly.

Contrary to the rumours, the front gate price for regular is not going to go up...in fact it might even go down...

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