GRANDSTAND PEOPLE

Grandstand people
Back around the turn of the century folks were just getting entertained by this horseless carraige that was going around smoking and popping off at the rear on occasion. But then two guys had one in the same town and over a glass of that foamy stuff sold at the tavern a wager was made as to who had the quickest or fastest motorized carraige.
So the date and time was set to meet at a fairly smooth field for this display of speed. Word got out and a small group of interested and some curious individuals lined the area . Over on one end a couple wagered on who the winner would be. So this could very well be the first grandstand crowd.
Over a period of time some real motorheads got to souping up these tiller steered contraptions and the race is on.
Next thing you know the crowd is growing and control becomes mandatory,and this starts to be a paying business, Crowds are put in proper places for viewing and hopefully where they will be safe,somewhat,from the motorcars.

As speed get steadly faster a better area is needed to run these trials,word gets out and bigger racing facilitys are born. Wood tracks seem to be the best for all involved and spectators have covered grandstands. Money is collected from patrons and the sport grows.
Cars get faster and crowds get larger and promoters get fatter. Next thing you know someone sends a challenge across the big pond and the Brits and French come with their speedsters,hench the international race is born.
People came to see a stanley Steemer outrun a Horseless carraige. Across the pond came those long nosed Bentlys and Ducenburgs and many others and a bigger stadium was born. Stadium seats were growing and pockets were buldging.
On comes the war and that slowed the racing till after 1945.
Then the troops come home and the race is on . Moonshine boys played in pastures drawing spectators and a few short dirt tracks were born.
Then racing was off and running, A few old guys started some series mostly in the south. Fans were begging for more racing and these promotors were wearing bigger pants for a reason .
Old Man France decided that beach racing was not big enough so he brought s trip of swampland and built a track in Daytona. Wonder where he got the idea from? Darlington was started 10 years before and it was packed every time a race was held and it was paved and mile and half long.
Daytona came out at 2 1/2 miles and stands galore. Fans came in droves. Big Bill stood up on top of the stands and smiled, more tracks were being built by France ,Smith and others. The big show was in high gear,fans demanded more and more seats were built . Racing was big business,Win on Sun Sell on Monday. You could tell a chevy from a Ford or Mopar. Drivers were popular and on one day when a president visited daytona a fight broke out and all was on TV now racing is big screen material.
Then a change in power was in the works and along came the change in cars. Attendence is in high gear and the cars are flying.
Next thing you know the cars start looking the same and motors are being strangled with restrictor plates. And a grand son took over nascar.
Slowely the grip on the cars got tighter and a new kit car come to play,they called it C.O.t. for some reason. Now fans were mouthing and some were not happy on the general layout. A crunch in the economey showed its head about this time and fans were failing to show in the numbers. The big tracks were hit hardest but if you look at the short tracks they seem to be booming on any weekend nite. The little guy is still racing and fans are still there.
The superspeedways are killing their selves with their greed and lack of working with the teams.
Today did you happen to look at the stands at Indy?? Seat choice was yours for the taking,I dont see the current system lasting very long at this rate.
The stands are the lifeline to the series lasting and without revenue to cover costs the sponsors will slowely disippear and if you race then you will be back in the pasture again racing .
But some small groups are filling their stands weekly at D I R T tracks and that should tell you something
we are going bsck to our roots to race. Its how each of us started on the small bullrings and fans setting on the dirt and some still in the trees ,and guess the stands are still full. A little dirt is good for you but kissing dirty bricks just aint healthy.
The moral here is if you love racing it is up to us to keep our sport rocking.
Support your local grandstands and the cars will support you.
Racers Reunion started withonly a 100 or so happy racers remembering the good ole days, now we are over 9000 strong just in stock car site only. wonder if anyone has noticed us in certain places.
-------------------------------------- JUST REMEMBER YOUR ROOTS------------------------------------------

Johnny,

Maybe you can find an 18-34 year old to break this down into segments of 140 characters each and tweet it on down to the beach where they can hopefully repurpose it back into one coherent thought as you have written.

My guess Dave is this will probably be read by the second floor crew in Daytona in the next day or two at the most. Now Im not saying they read my stuff, but that our site is monitored by that bldg on International Speedway Blvd. and im not talking about the Dog Track either..

Y'all just wait 'til themglass dashboardskick in! That'll have the 18-34 year old's swinging from the rafters!

They got it just about set up now with electronics so a person with Computer expertise could very well start playing with the COT or maybe have the headsup display show something it shouldnt---that would be a mess on pit road

Now Richard, I'm afraid all of that just makes too much sense. And besides, all such suggestions must run through the marketing department, not to mention the TV-big-wig department, and the I-don't-have-a-clue-but-I'm-the-head/knocker-anyway department. We can't just run around, willy-nilly, making decisions that would direct the sport along that successful path that built it, can we? Well, apparently not! What's needed is gobs more horsepower, from ever increasing custom-made-one-off-engines, and hundreds of pounds of additional down force, AND some more cookie cutter tracks, hopefully, located in the Pacific-northwest and in the NYC area. Heaven forbid NASCAR ever returning to the south. And PLEEEASE bring on them there glass dashboards.

Wouldnt it be nice to throw the whole car into the dump---then come back with car thats not aero --they built plenty of them a few years ago so its not like they dont know how... you can keep the motor if you wish but wouldnt it be nice to see an old 350 chevy or 351 ford or even a 360 dodge powered car out there.

You can build all the horsepower you want but if you lack traction all is for not. Limit the tires to 8 inches in width. No wings on rear either and a mandatory wicker on top to mess the air up big time.

Enough yet?

put another road course in the mix,not one thats used now but another new one like Atlanta or Birmingham --

More short tracks--Rockinham,North Wilksboro,oh dear should I say this or not---How about a couple of dirt tracks, Eldora or that neat track in north Ga

Ok now you saying im being bias because i didnt go west--draw a line and have an east and west division.... yup and then the twelve best from each side meet in the middle to have a best of five shootout..

Now replay the yesteryears, they had more horsepower than they could use because the 8 inch tire restricted the power to the ground. you sure as heck wont sail into a corner on them WFO without being sideways-----and that takes talent but it also kills your longivity on tires.

Put those items listed in a package and you will have a Saturday nite shootout at every track because the talent is that good and the cars will be that close,

And throw away the kissing of the bricks and spraying the bubbly---rather put a great looking girl up there to smooch the driver and have him raise a cheer to the crowd with the flag. You remember how Fred Lorenson or Cale or even Jr Johnson did it?? now you getting the picture..

And sponsors you remember when we didnt have them?? we flew like all get out then, now how did they get in the picture so big?

Now this one I dont know about, its teams--should you be limited to only two cars on a team? True a lot of wives and mothers would own cars but it breaks up domination and puts one on one creativity back in the sport. Page two later

Is Rev. Stagger aware of that knocker department?!

Dave, luckily for me, the Rev. Stagger, is not an 18-34 year old tech savvy, evil-internet-readin'- social media, loving groupie.