Are “Big” Races Really All That Big Anymore?

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Are “Big” Races Really All That Big Anymore?
By: Pete MacDonald

Remember back in the early to mid 2000’s when 60 plus cars would show up for a midweek race that only paid $5,000 to win?

Fast forward to 2015.

Now you have races that pay $10,000 to win  and can’t pull 40 cars.

Why is that? Is it a sign of the times? Is it the economy? Are people just not interested in our sport anymore? Or is big money not that important to anyone anymore?

The thing that seems to be bringing in car counts now is the start money. People lately seem to be looking more at how much it is to start a race than it is to win. That really bothers me. I’m not a fan at all of racers that are in it just to start races and collect “green money.” If you’re going somewhere to race the ultimate goal is to win, correct? It’s like getting a participation ribbon.

The Short Track Super Series base purse seems to be the best way to go with $5,000 going to the winner, $1,000 to finish tenth and $400 to start. It’s not too top heavy, yet pays through the field pretty decent, but only one driver (and its usually one of the heavier funded cars) is able to pick up the victory.

What scares me is that one day we’ll all be racing for just one standard purse throughout the entire field. RaceSaver (305 Sprint Cars) mandates that what you pay to win, at least half of that has to be what it is to take the green, taking the entire concept of competition out the window.

Another thing is dates. Wasn’t it just a few years ago that you were almost able to set a schedule without even looking at any of the schedules. Syracuse would be this weekend and the next weekend would be Fonda, and the week after that Eastern States, and the weekend after that was Hagerstown, etc. Now it seems every race track promoter wants to cut each other’s throats and have a big race against another big race just miles apart. Which at the end of the day everyone ends up losing. It used to be you knew which drivers were where at the end of the year. Now it’s just a guessing game every weekend.

What do you think about the state of “Big” races? Let us know over on the Racers Guide discussion forums. I can be emailed at racersguide@gmail.com or found on Twitter @PMacDonald51. Thanks For Reading!

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