Dont Understand

[uticamike]

Yes I agree that 250 laps is too many. When Joe S took over the ROC from Harpell he restored the race to the traditional 250 laps. Me? I would have gone the other way. It is my frim belief that NO short track race anywhere needs to be over 150 laps. Given what we use for tires these races become a strokers game. How many times have you heard "we we're just riding to get our last set of tires...etc". As I said the the old days are gone.
The Thompson 300 is being revived this year ( like it could ever hope to attain the status of the original). The same players will be there at the end in spite of the 16 tires they are allowed to compete on. Hoosier tire dealers would like my words here but those gumballs are a HUGE problem to day in my view. We have guys saving in 75 lappers for Godsake. No one will ever convince me that the 200 lap Spring Sizzler is a better race than the 80 original. I've seen both and more is not automatically better. It just isn't. I can give a stick and ball example for instance. The NFL for all it's warts has this going for it. Since it's a 16 game regular season EVERY game is important (more or less) unlike baseball or hockey and hoops that play 80 + games and is on all the time. A single game isn't necessarily a "big game" save for one against a division rival. The Whelen Tour has 200 lappers all the time...and they are not special. I'm not so died in the wool to think we are going back to the "good old days" but I still love Modified racing and if I have to endure 200 laps of gas and tire wear, bathroom, concession lines to get to the real race in the closing 50..so be it.

 

[Turbo01]

Also to answer the original question, why can Lancaster pack the stands and Erie cant for a modified race? Lancaster is a modified track, with multiple generations of modified fans locally. They've showed up for years. Erie isn't a modified track and doesn't have a huge local modified following. I'd guess that 75% of the fans at Lancaster are longtime local modified fans. You don't have that at Erie. It's almost like asking why does Oswego draw more fans for their Classic Bud 200 race than say Lancaster would draw for a super modified race.

 

[leadfoot4]

Also to answer the original question, why can Lancaster pack the stands and Erie cant for a modified race? Lancaster is a modified track, with multiple generations of modified fans locally. They've showed up for years. Erie isn't a modified track and doesn't have a huge local modified following. I'd guess that 75% of the fans at Lancaster are longtime local modified fans. You don't have that at Erie. It's almost like asking why does Oswego draw more fans for their Classic Bud 200 race than say Lancaster would draw for a super modified race.

This is a great evaluation of the situation. Even BITD, many of us thought of Lancaster as the "western outpost" for the modifieds, as they seem to be more of an "eastern thing", within NY state. Yes, Oswego may not regularly schedule a modified race, but first of all, they're in regular operation, and secondly, their location is such that they're near other tracks that schedule modified shows. Therefore, the modifieds are a familiar class of car, for those in the area, and this helps to attract people.

Lake Erie, if I understand correctly, doesn't have a regular, weekly schedule of races. Therefore, as I previously mentioned, they don't have a number of fans that support the track on a weekly basis, who will fill a reasonable portion of the stands. So when they host a show like the ROC modified show, they're HOPING that ALL of the potential fans are willing to make the drive to a track that's pretty far away.

 

[Crushem]

These are all great points, hopefully next year Lake Erie will get more fan support, I know i will be there

 

[uticamike]

Also to answer the original question, why can Lancaster pack the stands and Erie cant for a modified race? Lancaster is a modified track, with multiple generations of modified fans locally. They've showed up for years. Erie isn't a modified track and doesn't have a huge local modified following. I'd guess that 75% of the fans at Lancaster are longtime local modified fans. You don't have that at Erie. It's almost like asking why does Oswego draw more fans for their Classic Bud 200 race than say Lancaster would draw for a super modified race.

Back at you. Your point? Oswego's best crowds are for SDW yet that is hardly a traditional dirt track. Lancaster had a huge crowd for their WMT show (good for them) but the novelty of a first ever event for them was a large reason for it. Look at Spencer this year. I'll bet a number of attendee's drove from WNY to be part of the buzz that was created there unlike the past when it was as much fun as a funeral home. I still think for some reason people have some negative view of LE but one visit might change that. btw tradition aside it's a great Modified track.

 

[BOZO6106]

Back in the day you would go to Spencer on Friday.Shangri-la or Lancaster on Saturday,and Fulton on Sunday.That is quite a bit of travel but it was a blast and just a different time in life.I might add a special Modified show at Oswego.The racing and fans you would have seen after one these 3 day weekends was priceless.The results could look like this Troyer wins at Spencer,Evans wins at Shangri-la,and Geoff Bodine wins at Fulton.

 

[leadfoot4]

Back in the day you would go to Spencer on Friday. Shangri-la or Lancaster on Saturday, and Fulton on Sunday. That is quite a bit of travel but it was a blast and just a different time in life. I might add a special Modified show at Oswego. The racing and fans you would have seen after one these 3 day weekends was priceless. The results could look like this Troyer wins at Spencer, Evans wins at Shangri-la, and Geoff Bodine wins at Fulton.

You're describing what some of my weekends looked like, BITD. However, as time passes, so do our perspectives. For instance, I used to live on the east side of Rochester, near the intersection of Culver Road and Empire Boulevard. The regular Friday night trip to Spencer's, was to head east on Empire, to Plank Road, then turn east on Plank. Follow Plank to it's end, at route 350, in Ontario. Turn north on 350, and follow to the intersection of "old 104", which I believe is now Route 404. Turn east on old 104, and follow it to the south entrance of the track. Returning home, was simply the reverse of this route.

Doing this at 6:30PM, on our way to the track, when it was still light, was no big deal, it, in fact, was a pleasant drive. Coming home, however, was a potentially different story, as that was, at the time (late 70s-mid 80s), a very rural area.....no houses, no street lights, and definitely the potential to collide with various "critters". Fortunately I never had any "animal encounters", and to be honest, at that age, I hadn't given it a thought. Today, it's a different story. And I think as we've gotten older, we still really enjoy watching the races, we just don't have the infinite tolerance of the inconveniences sometimes involved, like we used to.....

 

[owego26]

Geez, I hate to say it , but back in the day ( we/us) RACEFANS, were SPOILED ... I lived between Chemung (not much going on then) , and Owego, and I must say that we/us Racefans were spoiled every week @ Owego, we got to see THE BEST OF THE BEST E V E R Y WEEK, and throw in a few tow in's from NJ and or NE , and WHAT A SHOW you would see EVERY WEEK, Yes, we were SPOILED, AND WE LOVED IT !!! We never missed a Sat. nite, oh, those sure were the days, we are VERY LUCKY , that we got to do that, wow, what wonderful memories !!!

 

[BOZO6106]

I agree Owego .I have lived in Fulton all my life only 2 miles from the track.

 

[BOZO6106]

The cool thing about racing back then was that there were only 2 classes ,the modifieds and the street stocks and each class had their stars and cars.