"If it don't make dollars, then it don
't make sense."
I listen to many different
types of music and I found a line in a song from Cowboy Tory, a
country music rapper in his song NOT BROKE YET, BUT I AM BADLY
BENT. There is a line that states that “if it don’t make dollars
then it don’t make sense.” When I think about what we do out at
the raceway, it could not be any more true. People asked me all
the time, “Do you make money at this?” and when I tell them
about how much money we spend and what we make, they usually get
the RCA dog look. I am amazed how many short tracks all around
the country talk about cutting the cost of racing on a weekly
basis. YEAH RIGHT! Again, this is just my view on it, and to win
a championship is as American Express likes to say: PRICELESS!
Racetracks talk about things like crate/ spec. motors, X-amount
of tires that team could buy on a nightly basis, aftermarket
parts, etc., etc… Nevertheless, if something is the HOT SET and
everyone is using it, hell I’ll take one of them also. All of
dollars we spend to be competitive at the sport we love would
qualify some to say that it’s an addiction. When the money runs
out the withdrawal is devastating.
Two of my favorite quotes are
from Ron Thiel, Sr. who said, “Dollars per cubic inch.” And
Dennis Freese who always says “How fast do you want to go and
how much do you want to spend?”
As an owner I try to give my
team and drivers the best that I can, but at what cost. Just to
show up at the track to race and be competitive you need to
spend x amount of dollars, knowing that even winning the race
will not allow you to break even. So where does the money come
from? How many times can you keep going to the well (sponsors)
to look for water? Eventually the well is going to be dry and
you are going to be dying of thirst. What can you do when the
team parked next to you has more money in their entry-level
(Blunderbust) racecar than some of the upper-level division
racecars. On the other hand, when you’re in a division that is
racing for $500.00 to win and are putting on 8 10” tires a night
(four stickers for the practice and the heat and four more
stickers for the feature) costing over $900.00, sorry there is
something wrong with this picture. Once I was asked what’s the
difference between a Charger and a Late Model was. My answer was
about $5,000.
The fault lies not only with
the racetrack, it’s also the people who build racecars, build
the motors, and race at the tracks. They try to get the edge
over the competition. People talk about salary caps in major
league sports. If you don’t start capping costs at this level
you are going to find only a handful of cars in the pit area due
to lack of funds and less than that in the grandstand for lack
of interest. The spectators can stay at home and watch the big
boys on television and do not have to take a loan out for a
night of entertainment with the family.
Here are some examples of how
we have taken advantage of a good idea. Lesson #1 the SK
modifieds were started to cut the cost of racing at Stafford and
now the cost of a SK mod is right up there with the rest of
them. Lesson #2 ASA had this great idea with the 9 to 1 rule and
after the engine builders figured out how to make it work, the
cost of the engines skyrocketed. Lesson #3 in the beginning of
the Blunderbust division the most costly part of the car was the
roll cage.
If cost cutting isn’t the
answer, where do we go from here?
Nevertheless, these are just my views from the tailgate.
