DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Go inside this dirt track's opening night finances | Daily 4-25-2023

Insight into short track economics today, plus High Limit is back for round two and more. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, April 25th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

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The rain is gone, and the pits need some time to dry out, but the High Limit Sprint Car Series is going racing tonight at 34 Raceway in Iowa. 46 cars are on the preliminary entry list released by the series, and this week's race will look very different to the one we had a few weeks ago at Lakeside. $23,000 to win, and basically no Outlaw guys will be in attendance. I say basically though, because there does actually appear to be one, and that is Kasey Kahne. He's listed with the rest of the entries, and this would be one of his four or eight races to burn as part of the World of Outlaws platinum team restrictions. I don't know if this is Kasey cherry picking a good one for him, or maybe if they are looking more towards the eight race tier, or if it's something bigger. We'll have to wait and see there. There is certainly no lack of talent or cars incoming tonight, but six of the top ten finishers from the opener won't be racing, so the results will look very different. Tonight's field though will be much more indicative of what we'll see for most of the High Limit events with the Outlaw restrictions, except maybe Lernerville, which is the other $50,000 to win show. With a third place finish in the opener, Tyler Courtney is the series points leader over Kyle Larson, Brian Brown, Anthony Macri, and Cory Eliason. Speaking of Macri, there were some folks wondering why he ran the Dyson car on Sunday at Selinsgrove, and the reason was High Limit. Macri's car was already in the box for this event, so that's why he was in the 20. Even without the Outlaws, tonight's racing will be tough and the entry list includes the points guys I just named, plus Buddy Kofoid, Justin Peck, Aaron Reutzel, Brent Marks, Rico Abreu, Zeb Wise, Parker Price Miller, Justin Sanders, and a lot more. There are also some other interesting names including Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Mario Clouser making a rare winged start, and Brady Bacon. The two Outlaw shows from 34 that I have in the dirtrackr.com analytics database were won by Brad Sweet and Parker Price Miller, and PPM could be one to watch tonight. He's been fast already in the McCandless 29 and he nearly won at 34 a few weeks ago with the IRA. Drop me a comment, let me know who you are picking for the win tonight. We will obviously break down the whole night on tomorrow's show. If you can't get to 34 Raceway tonight, FloRacing will have live coverage.

One other sprint car driver note for you. Carson Macedo did go run the Sprint Car Challenge Tour race at Merced over the weekend. He started fifth and finished second behind winner Dominic Scelzi. He was in a third Tarlton entry along with brother Cole and Gauge Garcia. He was allowed to run that race because it was a 360 show and not a 410 race. Might be something we'll see scattered throughout the year if guys want to get in some extra seat time, is a few 360 races. Since it is technically a different division, it shouldn't be a problem against the Outlaw restrictions.

One schedule note for you, the USAC national sprint car show for tomorrow night at Texarkana 67 Speedway has been cancelled because of flooding. That's why we are seeing Brady Bacon in at the High Limit show tonight. His schedule probably wouldn't have included the wing race otherwise. USAC will try again Thursday at Rocket Raceway Park. They also have two nights on Devil's Bowl on tap for Friday and Saturday.

Alright, if you don't follow Jackonsville Speedway on Facebook, track promoter Kenny Dobson shared a nine paragraph post last night talking all about their season opener and the money involved. This is not the kind of thing a track normally shares, but it gives incredible insight into the economics of weekly dirt racing. Jacksonville ran Friday night with five divisions. Eric Braundmeier won the winged micro feature, Jaret Duff took the stock car win, Dave Wietholder won the modified race, Joey Moughan was a 305 sprint car winner, and as we mentioned yesterday, Ryan Timms took the 410 win. For the night, Kenny says they had 702 adults in the grandstands plus 105 teenagers. That resulted in $10,300 in income. An additional 378 pit passes led to another $11,350, so total for the night in attendance, Jacksonville brought in $21,650. On the expense side, they paid out $16,850 in purse money, spent $1950 on quote "help and the ambulance," insurance was $1000, power and the lights was about $250, water was also $250, and the rent was $1000. So that's $21,300 in expenses, plus Kenny mentions he needed a tire repair for a tractor that cost $395. So based on those expenses and the gate revenue, they were actually down $95. As he mentions though, this does not include their track sponsorships, concessions, and the money they get from DIRTVision. I don't know what Jacksonville's cooler policy is, but based on a best guess, maybe like half the crowd spending $10, they probably made a few thousand dollars at the concession stand and that along with DIRTVision and sponsorships means they covered their costs for the night and maybe put a little in the account for future projects. That could be affected though if Kenny has to share the concession revenue with the fair board, which is not uncommon. And as the the post says, this was an above average crowd for the track, so you can get an idea how things can turn with less folks in the stands. In a few weeks, the All Stars will be at Jacksonville, and Kenny says they need another 400 people in the seats to make that night work. If you average that out, he's saying they need an additional $5000 to cover the added purse and sanction fees, which are offset a bit by only running three divisions that night. The All Stars are joined by 305s and the micros. So at a place that can hold 2000 people in the stands, he needs it to be at least 60% full to break even on an All Star night. And don't forget this is a track that has hosted World of Outlaws shows in the past. As we continue to talk about the future for a lot of these dirt tracks and what it takes to be successful, these numbers are really valuable context. Kudos to Kenny for being so transparent about this. If there was a guy to share though, it was going to be him. Don't forget this is the same guy who wasn't afraid to live stream all of his races for free on YouTube. If you want to see the full post, I'll link to it in the video description below.

Streaming schedule today, three shows. That includes High Limit at 34 Raceway on FloRacing, Flo 24/7, and DIRTVision Now. To see the full schedule, with links to watch, head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

Hope you guys have a good Tuesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.