A bunch of us in Tulsa are argueing about the entry prices. Ours went up due to a lack of spectators/racers. Ours is $10 to watch test & tune $25 to run, it's $25 to just watch the bracket races. I have tried telling the prices of tracks that are close to no avail. What do you guys pay? It is just not worth the huge amount just to enter to even go anymore.

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You don't quit playing because you get old; you get old because you quit playing!

Here in Wichita it is $50 for Super Pro, $40 for Pro and $25 for test and tune. I am not sure what it costs for spectators though.

I was wrong. It is $55 for Super Pro, $45 for Pro and $25 for time onlys. Spectators it's $10

We do not get time only runs, you pay to race & get 2 time trials...

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You don't quit playing because you get old; you get old because you quit playing!

They have a "time only" evening twice a week now I think. Wednesdays and Fridays it's "time onlys" only with a king of the hill thing at the end of the night. Then the regular racing is Saturday evening. They try to limit the TOs on Saturday because it slows the eliminations down alot.

The most i have paid here in So. Cali. is 40.00 which includes tech. card and racing.

10.00 to just watch.

Current rides,

07 Shelby Gt, Black, 5 speed.

A question for you drag racers? For $40-60 entry, how much money do you win if you win your Eliminator or Bracket? Does the loser in the final round or anyone else get anything? I'm just trying to reconcile money spent to enter vs what you can expect to take home.

At the oval tracks around here, a pit pass is $22-25. So long as I unload my modified, I'm guaranteed  $50-75 appearance money. So long as I turn 1 lap in the feature race, the money increases to $100-150. The local tracks don't draw enough modifieds (nor most other divisions) for a B Main so everbody makes the feature,. So even with a car that's half broken, you're guaranteed to get a piece your tow-to-track expense money back.

As to Rick's first statement, I'm still trying to figure out the logic of a track promoter charging more to spectators and competitors because of lack of interest. Does that make sense?

Jan
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My lifelong goal has been to tear down a mall and build a race track!

Most races pay $750-1000 to win $250-500 runner-up Depends on the class

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You don't quit playing because you get old; you get old because you quit playing!

The local tracks start paying at 3rd round loser.

last night was 5 to get in to the track and 15 for test and tune.

$20 total

Pit entry is $10 here, spectator side is $5. Has been forever, not likely to change.

Class info and prices, with payouts: http://abilenedragstrip.com/tech.html
Misc pricing is at the top of the schedule page: http://abilenedragstrip.com/schedule.html

Semis pay two places. Midland has their semi "losers" run off for 3rd - that's a bitch, IMHO. We pay 80% most days because of the low car counts. Debbie runnered up in Pro this weekend and they split, her cut was $171. Think we had about 17 cars in the first round of Pro. Super paid even less - they had maybe 12 cars.

Tulsa's pricing for bracket classes looks about in line with other places. $53 / $43 is kinda odd, they must keep a lot of ones in the tower or at the gate. Stupid, slows your gate way down making change out there.

Payouts are odd - they must be making up the diff counting on buybacks. For example, the payout at 20 cars in Super requires 27 cars to cover the cost. Pro takes 23 to pay the 20 break. So, their payout is pretty generous as that goes. If you place in points, you get a deal up there - especially if you win. Count the gold card and the Super winner gets over $1500 at the banquet.

Tulsa just had a major face lift - I'm sure their operation costs went up along with that. I hate to see any price increases, but... You don't want to know what it costs to swing open the gates here. Hint - we run Thursday, Friday each week for about 4 hours, maybe 2hr of that after dark. And, we run two Saturdays a month, finish about 11:30. Last months electric bill was over $1100. Figure $550 more or less for a weekend's insurance. VHT runs $560 a drum, about 2-3 drums a month and that's cut per VHT's recommendations. There's plenty more costs too. 50 bracket cars buying gas and eating burgers on Saturday and 50 people spectating don't cover it , I guarantee.



1967 Falcon 4 door w/351C

http://raceabilene.com/kelly/hotrod
Owner built, owner abused.

Thanks, guys. I appreciate your input to help me to understand.

I was a bit, well more that a bit shocked at Chris's estimate of 50 spectators at  either Tulsa or Abilene! I know that local drag racing is somewhat of a 'pay to play' sport with the competitors covering a lot of the cost. But isn't there a way to make it more attractive to drawing fans? My guess for either track would've been 4-500 azzes in the bleachers minimum. I wouldn't think that that figure includes spectators/crewfolks/families of the racers buying pit passes. Back in the mid to late '60s, when I went to the drags often,  the local 'strips drew quite a few fans.  

Jan
__________________
My lifelong goal has been to tear down a mall and build a race track!

Bracket racing is by and large not that much fun to watch unless you understand the game. In the 60's, it was mostly class racing and a lot of "first to the stripe wins" kinda stuff. Plus it was still new. The strip here competes with tons of other entertainment venues. There's a lot more things available to families and people now than in the 60's. If it costs you well over $1000 to swing open the gate - why add another $1000 to the bill by doing a week's radio or TV advertising for a bracket race. The local stations don't cut anybody any slack on price, the only sports that get free air time around here are stick/ball and the big horse shows. We have two high schools and the universities with teams - that's all the local sports people seem to want to cover. One station has a "NASCAR minute" on Thursday.

TXR draws a crowd for it's 10.5 shows and the ProMod stuff. We don't - it's just the way it is. TXR draws from a pool of 3.5 million potential spectators within 50 miles. Draw a 100 mile circle around Abilene and you might find 200,000. If you count the dogs.

Also - it's the same thing, mostly the same cars, every week. If the movie theater showed the same movie for 6 months, how many times would you go there? Attendance was good the first year, OK the second and down since. We've bumped it up a bit by starting later on Saturday so it gets cooler quicker. But we still screw around and don't get done till 11:30, so few get to see the "finals". I think if we could pack it in between 6 and 10:30, we'd build up the count. The local dirt track charges more and draws a good crowd on the Saturdays they run. It's just a better show.


The Midland track draws a bunch of people, I figure for two reasons - 1) the track is still new to them and 2) there ain't shit to do in Midland/Odessa if it's not high school football season.

So no, unless you are a true fan you're not going, even at $5.

Your sig says your goal is to tear down a mall and build a race track - better to build the track next to the mall, that way the mall can help pay for the track LOL. You'll only have to maintain one parking lot at $30+ per square foot for asphalt.

1967 Falcon 4 door w/351C

http://raceabilene.com/kelly/hotrod
Owner built, owner abused.