05:39:39am, Saturday, May 18, 2024
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Eldora Million and Dream
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Moderator Registered: 07/06/2008 Posts: 1,349 |
With the discussions about purses, I wanted to mention this in it's own thread so as not to derail the more specific pulling purse discussions.
Here is a contrast: The past few years, Ft. Recovery has hosted a PPL Champions Tour pull. This year, it will be a one day OSTPA hook this Saturday. Meanwhile, one county away and one week later, Eldora Speedway is hosting a historic dirt late model race. For those of you who are not familiar with the world of dirt track racing, Eldora is like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway or Daytona of dirt tracks (Knoxville, IA for sprints would be the closest comparison). Eldora runs a couple prestigious sprint events, including King's Royal (World of Outlaws) and 4 Crown Nationals (which features WoO sprints one day, and USAC National Silver Crown, Sprint, and Midgets on the other day on same program). However, the type of dirt racing I'd like to compare to pulling is dirt late models. There are high $ sprint races, but late models have seen an explosion of larger purses this decade. This is where the money is at. There are now several races paying $50k or more to win. Any weekend, you will probably find a few $20k to wins and even more $10k to win features. Keep in mind, these races normally also have several support races. Eldora has hosted the crown jewel of Dirt Late Model racing, the World 100, the weekend after Labor Day. Ironically, it's not their highest paying race. That has gone to their big June race, the Dream, which pays over $100k to win. Last year, to make up for the 2020 cancellation, they ran two of them the same weekend. This year, they are running the $100k+ Dream, but also the Eldora Million, which will pay $1,000,000 to win next Thursday night (the Dream is Saturday). My question for the board is: What is dirt late model racing doing that pulling is not doing in order to profitably offer these large purses? Many sports are struggling, but from what I've seen, the big dirt races like at Eldora or the Prairie Dirt Classic in Illinois are having great crowds (I am not counting gimmick races like Bristol that pay big $ but relatively few fans. I think dirt racing fans prefer to watch their sport at a real dirt track). Any thoughts? Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2022 08:46AM by The Original Michael. |
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Re: Eldora Million and Dream
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Posts: 1,164 |
A much bigger following in dirt track racing than pulling in this case. Because of that there are more sponsors. They also are willing to pay more per ticket, pay extra for pit passes, all crew members also have to pay to get into the pits. Plus with Eldora being a prestige venue, people from all over the country will pack that place with probably tens of thousands watching on FloRacing. Dirt track, racing in my opinion, is as popular as it is as it's straight up action with not a lot of downtime other than cautions, cars leaving/entering track between heats/features, and track prep between divisions if they do any prep. Brent Yaron Hooked Up Pulling Productions hookeduppullingproductions@gmail.com Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2022 09:03AM by Brent Yaron. |
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Re: Eldora Million and Dream
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$
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Is pulling more watered down,compared to dirt racing?
Does pulling have to many organizations/ levels of events/classes/ or events in general ? Does it hurt pulling, having top level pullers, hook at lower level (cheaper)events? |
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Re: Eldora Million and Dream
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Unfortunately
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1. Yes. 2. Yes. 3. Yes. The only way pulling purses are ever going up is by a mass consolidation of events, organizations, and classes. The market is already limited, and is currently flooded in all three categories. |
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Re: Eldora Million and Dream
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$
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$500 entry fee plus $50 pit passes for everybody each day major sponsorships plus the owner of the track is tony stewart which has manny many corporate connections along millions of his own to play with a sport he got his start from |
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Re: Eldora Million and Dream
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Moderator Registered: 07/06/2008 Posts: 1,349 |
The questions is tough to answer. There are dirt tracks from coast to coast. Just like pulling, there are some areas where sprints are more popular (west coast) or stock cars (south) just as some classes may be more popular in some areas of the country. However, if we consider pulling is most popular east of the rockies and from Tennessee/Carolinas northward, then within a limited area yes, there may be oversaturation. In dirt late models, the premier division are called Super Late Models these days, but there are crate classes (called 604 and 602), which may compare to Pro Stock/Limited Pro//Super Farm. There are lots more racers than pullers. Most tracks that run late models may also run modifieds (sort of an open wheel car with elements of a stock car) and lower level classes of stock cars. Actually, this is a lot like pulling. Regarding top level pullers at lower level events, if a state (OSTPA for example) runs Pro Stocks, and PPL or NTPA has an off week for that class, I don't see the issue. There are classes (GN/Champions Tour mod classes, and more and more Super Stock tractors) that are either exclusively or largely national classes. I think one thing that hurts pulling are rules that are similar but just different enough to prevent true apples to apples (Outlaws Pro Stocks vs NTPA PPL, or PPL mods are more powerful than NTPA 7500 mods but less so than true unlimiteds). It may help an individual organization for a class with different rules, but I'm not sure it helps the sport. In contrast, I believe for Super Late model dirt cars, the 2 largest series (Lucas Oil and World of Outlaws) plus most other series, use the same rules with the possible exception of which tires to use. |
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Re: Eldora Million and Dream
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$
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IF classes were only sold by true 4 tier a system, and not available to other levels (up or down scale).
Would that help or hurt, the prize money/fan experience/ ability to sell pulls/ ability to attract sponsors? example Tier 1.(GN/Champions Tour) Tier 2 (Regional/ Silver Series) Tier 3 (state level) Tier 4 (local/brush) |
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Re: Eldora Million and Dream
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Registered: 06/25/2008 Posts: 66 |
Dirt track racing also has a greater chance of wrecks than pulling, thus being more dangerous.
The average person nowadays can relate better to a racecar than a tractor. Pulling only has one vehicle on the track at a time, so the pace is slower. Those are the differences I see, but I don't know how you ever change those 3 things. |
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Re: Eldora Million and Dream
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F-30puller
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I grew up in a house a block away from Farmer City raceway. There was almost as big of a line leaving town on Friday nights as there was coming in. I went maybe twice over the years. To each their own. The biggest differences I have seen are merch and fanatics (not just fans). One night I got off work really late on a Friday night and was getting gas at the Hucks. Old beat up minivan pulls up covered in dirt obviously had been at the races. It was a family of 5 or 6. You could tell they weren't well off. To my surprise I saw that the van had no wiper blabes on it.... Now to me wiper blades are more important than going pulling with my last $$$... But they weren't just fans apparently. |
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Re: Eldora Million and Dream
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Registered: 04/04/2008 Posts: 1,523 |
Adopting the nqs format would be a big improvement for the big organizations...it works and is exciting!!! |
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Re: Eldora Million and Dream
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Uncle buck
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I have say dirt racing has one hell of a following. People will pay $bank to watch races. Big car counts get big pit gate cash. Attracts lots of sponsors too… |
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Re: Eldora Million and Dream
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Registered: 08/22/2019 Posts: 84 |
Down time is a big thing. There is very little down time at a dirt race. Where even at a pull with 2 tracks there is down time. It is harder to keep the crowd entertained. Another thing that some people may disagree with is the cost of getting started and the crowd you get to race in front of. You can get into a lower class of racing relatively cheap compared to pulling. Even then, you get to race in front of the same crowd as the bigger classes that night. I am in S.W. WI and you can buy a ready to run Sport Mod cheaper than you could buy a 50.5 cube garden tractor puller. You also get to drive a lot longer, vs a 10 second pass on a pulling vehicle. I wish there an easy answer on how to get better payouts and better crowds in the stand. |
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