racedatabase

I was just reading at another forum and it suddenly struck me how devoid of experts on the sport of stock car racing we are here.

This other place not only had experts on the actual racing, but they had experts on safety, experts on attendance at races, experts on driver compensation, hell, experts on everything under the sun.

Sean, you must go forth and recruit more experts for this place.

I hear he's off selling auto parts these days.
(the x-pert...not Sean)

Did I ever tell you about the time I went to a NAPA store to buy a bottle of assembly lube and the clerk asked me for the make and year of the car I was going to use it on? No bull.

Note: For those of you who are wondering....assembly lube is an extremely thick lubricant (like a grease) that you coat things like cams, bearing surfaces, etc. with during the assembly of an engine. It is needed because when you first start most engines, it takes a few seconds for the oil to reach those places and all it takes to score a surface that isn't lubed is a second or two. Once the engine has been running for 5 seconds or so, the assembly lube is incorporated into the oil and is not required any more. Assembly lube is generic to all engines, not specific to any make or model.

Anyway, 'bank, what percentage of empty seats do you believe are due to the cost of attending a race in today's economy as opposed to people staying away because they believe the NASCAR product is crap?

How many people stayed home from Dega because of the weather forecast?

It absolutely economic.
The mantra of the haters is and always has been....."this ain't racin"....concerning Dega.....and yet they filled the joint up. If it wasn't racin then and isn't racin now.....whats changed?
The economy.

I cannot speak for other tracks, but based upon my experience at Talladega, the drop off in attendance is definitely economic. First thing I noticed was huge vacancies in the cheapest seats. Also, the type of fans you see at Dega now has changed considerably in the last two years or so. The old time, working class fans seem to be disappearing. These were the fans I saw a lot of at the Rock too.

Dega has reduced the price of some of their tower seats by as much as $20-25 for next spring's race. But the overall cost of driving there and paying for a hotel room still prices it out of the range of many people in today's economy. Until last spring, many of the hotels within driving distance of the track were requiring a three day minimum at triple the normal rates. Even in good economic times, going to a race is not cheap.

We estimate the cost of our trip last weekend at about $800. That includes 2 tickets to both races, our parking spot for the trailer, diesel fuel and other vehicle expenses, and food/booze and that's on the conservative side.

There were a pile of seats open, especially as Bingo noted, in the grandstands (as opposed to the towers) and the backstretch. There were also a lot of parking places vacant where we parked and we know that some of the people were planning on coming but changed their plans due to the weather (and cost).

I think the weather had more to do with it than is being credited. This year's fall race was about a month later than last year's and it was quite chilly. We had a nice warm trailer but for those folks who attend on the cheap (tents, etc.) it would not be desireable. I think, but have no actual data to prove this, that Dega probably has at least 4 times the number of at-track campers than any other track with the possible exception of Bristol. There just aren't much in the way of accomodations and weather is a factor for campers.

Only one thing is a sure thing for me and that is that it isn't the racing that's driving those empty seats and if someone is making that claim, they don't know what they are talking about and are probably saying it because they think it makes their own attitude about the racing more believable.

We enter the track on Speedway Blvd the north side and drive by the free camping areas on the north side to get to our lot. While not sparse, I did notice that there were fewer tent campers than in the past. What I saw was more pop-up campers and small trailers in the north side free camping area. Normally that area looks like a third world tent city. It was almost tame by comparison on Sunday.

We park in lot N2 which is nearly the furthest day lot from the track on the north side. They normally do not open that lot on Saturdays and only open it on Sundays after they fill the nearer lots. We used to get into that lot between 7 and 7:30 am. Now we wait until after 8 am to be sure to get into that lot. At the spring race, lot N2 was only about 1/4 full and there was no one around us tailgating. This fall Lot N2 slightly fuller. The furthest lot (N1?) was not even opened this fall.