DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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More dirt racing teams and drivers expanding into YouTube and video content | Daily 5-10-2022
Coming up more drivers and teams are getting on the digital media bandwagon, the Short Track Super Series is in action tonight, and I've got some numbers for you from Justin Grant, PPM, Max Blair and Carson Macedo. Let's roll.
Today is Tuesday, May 10th, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
It seems as though we are starting to get more and more drivers and teams finally embracing digital media, and I have a few things I wanted to point you to today. The first is Thomas Meseraull's YouTube channel. You can find it by searching for TMezTv. He seems to have gotten serious about it in the last month, and has posted 13 vlog style videos. Everything from shop content, to RC cars, drifting, and plenty of track days between the sprint cars and midgets. Love him or hate him, TMez is rarely not entertaining, and he's done a nice job with these videos. I'll get his channel added to the dirtrackr YouTube account and the videos section of dirtrackr.com soon. Certainly check him out if you want some more content.
Also, Logan Schuchart and Shark Racing have partnered with Ascent Media and the Buckalews, who do a lot around Knoxville, to document some of their races this season. The first episode is premiering tonight at 5PM ET and the trailer looks great. It's a similar feel to what we saw a few weeks ago from the Sheldon Haudenschild video. You should be able to find it on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Keep an eye on the Shark Racing and Logan Schuchart accounts for links and such. I've been talking about this for years at this point, but there is a huge opportunity for competitors around dirt racing to own their own channels like this. You've seen Hunt the Front do it to massive success. And now others are finally jumping on. I think it's important to keep in mind here, this isn't just about exposure for your team. Yes, that is great, more eyeballs for your sponsors. But what it's more about is the money that can be generated through various methods. If you get across 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours on YouTube, you can get a cut of the Adsense revenue generated by your videos. For the dirtrackr channel, I've averaged between $5 and $6 per thousand views over the last year. If you apply those same numbers to the Hunt the Front channel, they've generated probably something like $200,000 just in Adsense money over the past few years. They have used that audience to also generate revenue through merchandise and their Patreon. On their Patreon, at the lowest end of an estimation with their current number of 1524 patrons, they are making an additional $7 grand a month, at least. And these numbers are low guesses, that don't include merch sales, or additional brand deals and sponsorships they've gotten through their channels. Those are not insignificant amounts of money. Dirt late model racing at the highest levels is incredibly expensive, and that revenue has helped their team get better cars and engines and travel more often. Around motorsports, it's worked out really well for someone like Hailie Deegan, who now has nearly half a million subscribers on YouTube. And just 12 videos over the last few months from Kyle Larson have earned him almost 20,000 subscribers. There is a serious audience for this type of behind the scenes content. If you are a dirt racer that wants to get started, it doesn't even take much knowledge or equipment. You can do quite a bit of it just with your phone and a few YouTube tutorial videos. I will keep spotlighting these channels and videos as they pop up. Definitely good to see more recognizing the potential value here.
If you want some dirt racing in your life today, we've got another round of midweek modified action with the Short Track Super Series at Accord Speedway in New York. This is round two of the north region for 2022. Matt Sheppard is the current north region points leader after he won the opener at Orange County Fair back on April 2nd. Tonight's race is 50 laps and $6000 to win, and we should also see names like Anthony Perrego, Danny Creeden, Jeff Strunk and others. Accord is a quarter mile track located about 100 miles north of New York City, up interstate 87. This will be the eighth appearance by the Short Track Super Series at the track. Also on the card tonight are crate 602 sportsman, and hot laps are scheduled for 6:30pm ET. If you cannot be there, the race will be streamed live on FloRacing, as are all the Short Track Super Series events in 2022.
I think as a whole, these mid week modified shows are kind of a brilliant move from these series. As long as you can still draw the crowds to the gates, getting away from the crowded weekends is a solid opportunity to get your racing front and center on some days where there is nothing else going on, especially on the streaming services. There are certainly plenty of stick and ball sports that happen during the week, so there is no reason why racing can't do the same. The biggest issue is just making sure you get people out of the track at a reasonable time, so folks can get to work the next day and kids can get to school. And obviously that means running an efficient program that doesn't have six or eight divisions competing. Run two divisions, keep the program rolling all night, and get folks out by 9 or 930.
Before we close out today, let's dive into the analytics section at dirtrackr.com and give you a few numbers to ponder today. First, with Brad Sweet's top ten streak busted back at Bristol, the current longest active streak right now in the country is owned by Justin Grant with the USAC National Sprint Car Series. He's gone ten straight. Right behind him are Buddy Kofoid with the USAC midgets at nine straight top tens, and Parker Price-Miller has nine straight All Star top tens. We talked about PPM yesterday, and there are a lot of numbers in his favor right now with the All Stars. He's leading the series in average finish over the last five races, and has nine top tens in nine appearances in 2022. That first win of the year with the series is close. With the World of Outlaws late models, Max Blair has dropped nearly 100 points behind Dennis Erb Jr. And that has happened because he's finished 15th or worse in four of the last five races. That team needs to find ways to time trial and heat race better, as they are way down the order in both categories. They are starting features more than two positions worse than Erb, and not passing as many cars once green. Definitely some work to do when the series returns next week. And when the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars hit Lincoln Speedway and Williams Grove this week, keep an eye on Carson Macedo. He's only 20 points back of Brad Sweet, and Central PA is a good place for him. He has finishes of 5th and 6th in his previous two trips to Lincoln, and has won twice in the past six trips the Outlaws have taken to Williams Grove. With Sweet's known issues in the past racing in PA, this could be a great chance for Macedo to take the lead in the standings. 20 points is ten positions or less, spread over three nights, that's only a bit more than three spots per race. We'll talk more about the Outlaws and Lincoln on tomorrow's show.
The streaming schedule again has two shows on it today. FloRacing has the Short Track Super Series from Accord Speedway and there is FloRacing 24/7. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, have a good Tuesday. If you have thoughts about the topics on today's show, leave them in the comments below or tweet at me.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!