Hassles that brackets currently represent for track owners.
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"...Tom, I'm interested to now what problems the bracket racers have at your track. There would seem to be little room for controversy as far as the racing is concerned. Politics on the other hand..."
Stickershifter55,
Number 1 at the top of the list is grumbling about the purse. At my own local track, a heated dispute over how much money should be paid a particular participant who had just lost a round dissolved into a fist fight between the track owner and a racer. Believe it or not, bracketeers have even pressured this track owner to use some of his profits on his Friday night test and tune sessions to subsidize his Saturday bracket purse. I'm not kidding or exaggerating. They really think they are entitled to a cut of that money too!
At another nearby track, a free entry fee race was scheduled. At the same event, a heads up class was booked in. Well, things ran late and the track owner announced that the bracketeers would have to settle for a single timerun. Remember now, this is a free entry fee race. Several competitors confronted several of the track officials. The police were called and responded, but not before the track owner had buckled and allowed the bracketeers to have their additional time shot. This resulted in the event running so late that the police this time had to shut the show down before it was completed.
Again at my closest local track, a competitor felt he was wronged because the car he was to run stalled, and was then allowed to restart and run him. I wasn't actually there, so I don't know the exact details of what actually happened. However, the competitor was so upset over this that he felt the need to print several internet messageboard posts condemning the track in general. He recommended that anyone who might be traveling the area to stay completely away from this track.
Two tracks in Ohio are currently under messageboard attack because of alleged cheating going on there. This is not the same old alleged bracket cheating from 1999. These are fresh allegations. Now, guess who is being blamed? The alleged cheaters? Nope. The track for not employing strict enough enforcement. If folks remember their history, concerns about rule enforcement was a big part of why small tracks went from class legal racing to brackets in the first place.
At least one other track within two hours drive of me is now currently being grilled because of glitches in it's starting line system.
Another has simply been closed down completely for four weeks in July. I haven't been able to get at the root cause of their complaints there, but the owner has apparently been recently branded as some awful person. As I say, I don't know the details of that one, only that one weekend there were only approximately 12 cars total in their Pro class, so he cancelled the event and let them run their own gamblers race instead. He's been closed since then. That particular track doesn't have a strong test and tune program or I suspect the track owner would have simply given up on brackets before now.
You'll note that I've talked about several different "nearby" tracks. That may well be a big part of the problem. Here in eastern North Carolina, there are always several tracks to chose from. Bracketeers here have had it very good for a very long time. Test and tune doesn't have any of the problems I've mentioned. There is no argument over the purse, and that alone seems to be the overwhelming base cause for most of this stuff. An overwhelming number of the local competitors are now only concerned with the size of the purse and/or their shot at winning that purse. I don't think these examples would qualify as "political". Take care. Tom Worthington.
http://www.hotrodder.com/Tom396
Posted on Jul 26, 2000, 6:45 AM from IP address 152.163.201.82