August 12, 2010
From, Mike a Pioneer fan...
My letter to the Nascar hall of fame
Re: Attendance at the Nascar hall of Fame
My family and I are from California and we were planning to take a trip to the Nascar hall of fame sometime this year, so that my father and all of us could see some of the exhibits there and the hall of fame building and of course the legends of nascar. But during the past two weeks we noticed on the news on television that attendance at the hall of fame is down and that nascar is a little worried about that problem. And we have inquired about this with some of the fans and some of my co-workers that have already toured the hall this year. And we feel that there is a major problem here and it can be corrected. And that the problem that we have noticed is.....Where are the Pioneers of Nascar in the hall of fame??? WE the fans want the True History of Nascar and the men and women who started this sport. The hall of fame needs to induct the pioneers of nascar in the hall today, and not just 5 inductions a year, that will take 50 years before every pioneer is inducted. These men and women are ages 60 thru 84 today and they deserve to have there moment of glory in person at the Nascar hall of fame. You should take notice that the Racers Reunion hall of fame is doing it right, they are the ones that are remembering the Pioneers of Racing and the ones that came first!!!
The website www.racersreunion.com have done it right and they honor the pioneers of racing, and its so nice of racersreunion to be a non profit organization to keep the real legends who started racing alive. Why hasn't nascar as rich of a sport it is, stepped up to the plate and accomplish what www.racersreunion.com has done on there own and yet nascar doesn't keep the memory alive for these drivers why is this? For without these men and women there would be no racing today! And now its the Nascar Hall of Fames turn to do the right thing here!!! We would really like to see the hall of fame put at least 25 pioneers of nascar inducted every year. And if the hall of fame would have done this right in the first place, you would not be having this attendance problem today. Right now you are putting people in the hall of fame that did not start the sport and the drivers of today, they don't care about their fans like the Pioneers do!!! Dont the drivers of today make enough money?? Why not put the Pioneers in the hall of fame, these men did not make any money like these drivers do today. And yet the Pioneers drove for nothing because there heart was fueled for racing only and not the almighty dollar!!
All of these Pioneers for Nascar, they go to signings and events and at ALL the places they go they wait patiently and sign every single thing for the fans. And if the Hall of Fame did this right, it would be a better place to go and see the REAL history of racing. So many people that I have spoken to, say they are disappointed in the hall of fame because they did not see many of the Pioneers of Nascar like: Raymond Parks who recently passed away, and Tiny Lund, and also Wendall Scott, and Neil Castle or Tiger Tom Pistone and Rex White, Dick Fleck, and Bobby Allison, and Ned Jarrett, Joe Thurman and Louise Smith, etc.....Why are these Pioneers not in the Nascar Hall of Fame?? These pioneers are The Ones who started this sport and not these young drivers of today!! Some of these racers they have inducted in already sure they made big names for themselves but they were not there in the beginng There's no interesting history with these young drivers like there is with the stories with the pioneers. When they raced back then, they did not have all the fancy things in the cars like they do today, and no safety equipment like we have today, they used one belt in the car and they had to use there own clothes that they wore, and they had to buy there own helmets, and some did not wear helmets my dad tells me, and they had to fix there own cars as well. These men are the true heroes of nascar, and how it was back then when racing was truly a sport and men and women busted there tails to make a living at this. Your attendance issues at the Nascar Hall of Fame will do a 360' degree turn around if you listen to the fans and begin the process of inducting the many Pioneers of Nascar. Lets do the right thing here and lets get the Pioneers inducted into the Nascar Hall of Fame.
Sincerely,
Mike a Pioneer fan
BRAVO!!!! Well said Mike, but, unfortunately to deaf ears of NASCAR and blind eyes to read. I wish you and your family would come over to Mooresville for the RR HOF induction on October 17th. Check it out because it is turning into much more than just an induction ceremony. Memory Lane Museum is all you ask for and much, much more. Alex Beam and his staff there give a fan an extraordianary adventure into the history of the sport. I love your style! Stay in touch, I would love to have you on the Tuesday night radio show in the "Meet a Member" segment. We need to talk about that.Thanks,Tim
Way to go Mike maybe one day Nascar will wake up i hope so Tim is right if you get a chance to get to Moresville Alex Beam has got the real Hall there hope to here from you more on RR
Thank you so very much Mr. Johnson and my family and I appreciate all the hard work you all are doing there at Racersreunion and the Memory Lane Museum, and I look forward to going there soon and meeting all of you. I will always give my All to the Pioneers of Racing and do everything I can for them, because they are truly The Ones that made the sport of Racing what it is today.Keep up the great work!!!Sincerely, Mike
I Love what you said Mike, it is right on the money. Hopefully Nascar will figure it out before its too late. Also we are thrilled to have you here at RR!
Mike, your comments are spot on and any fan with common sense will agree with you 100%. You will note that I said any fan, this does not include NASCAR. I worked with a NASCAR touring series team for 5 years and got to witness just a small portion of their unfairness and motives. To understand NASCAR you first have to look at the money; each and every move they make has little to do with the fan or the history of the sport, it is all centered arround How- When & Where they will make the next dollar. In my opinon NASCAR could care less about the Pioneers or the rich history of our sport and would forget about them if they could. The only reason they built the HOF was to build up and keep alive the France name and hoped to get us coming back year after year to see what few names have been added. Just my opinon ya'll can form your own.
Good comments. There should be a way for the pioneers to get in there before they are too old. Keep us updated if there is a response.
Very well put, but I agreed with the comment below. It is just a money thing with Nascar. My father worked with Walter Ballard in the 1970's and has several things that he could put in the HOF. But when I contacted the HOF, they told me that we could loan the stuff to them but the HOF was not going to buy anything. So we kept our stuff. Also why couldn't NASCAR provide the people who were in the sport early on, a pass to one race a year for them to go to. I hope that NASCAR implodes one day in the near future. Then maybe real racing will return. Smokey Yunick said that this France would ruin NASCAR. See you in Hillsborough.
Jerry, very well put. It looked like a monument to Big Bill and Bill jr. It will become a true hall of fame when the history makers from the 40's and 50's get in.
Good letter,well written;Thank you for posting this.peace,out.
Mike,that is a wonderful letter.It is such a shame that it will probaly fall on deaf ears becuase the powers that be truly only care about money. You see they are concerned that attendence is poor because it affects the bottom line.I truly love the sport of racing,Nascar included but I have come to understand the cup series for what it is not what it was.It is all about the show and how many dollars can it generate.That's why it is so expensive.Too many ego's involved and not enough plain old love of the sport.I guess that's why the folks here are so dear to me. Jeff Gilder will always be a hero to me for what he started here out of pure love for the sport and the people who built it.. I'm sure many others feel the same as me. I have met some of the very best people thru this website and Jeff Gilder.If I could choose between 10 minutes with Jeff Gilder of 2 hrs with Brian France,I would take the 10 minutes with Jeff any day because I know he would listen to what I had to say.Maybe the RacersReunion Hall of Fame can surpass the other one just on pure love alone.I know where I would rather go spend my time.The Nascar Hall of Fame is important,too important to be as wrong as it is. Can I get an Amen on that?
There was a recent editorial, syndicated in North Carolina newspapers, on this very subject. Not surprisingly, NASCAR was dangling the HOF before the potential host cities hoping to gain the best possible (financial) arrnagement. Makes good business sense. And, without question, Charlotte, NC is a worthy, obvious location and has earned a preeminate place in all things NASCAR......past and present.After listening to the rosy prediction from NASCAR execs of the 800,00 HOF visitors that would be realized the first year of the Hall's operation, Charlotte hedged its offer by not only constructing the hall with tax dollars, but added the Charlotte Regional Vistors Authority to staff it. The NASCAR forecasters tempered the Hall's second year vistors projection at 400,00.Since its May opening, the NASCAR HOF has averaged a little more than 1000 visitors per day, a pace that will have to exponentiate to meet the earlier projections. Perhaps it's the nagging and flagging economy, but critics quickly defer to NASCAR's on-going plunge in popularity. In fact, according to the experts, of the top 10 major professional sports, NASCAR had the steepest drop in fan interest. Maybe it's a lot of sabre rattling about nothing, but as was pointed out, if the HOF fails, what could this publicly-owned building be used for?There was a definite connection between who was chosen for the first class, and the number of paying visitors it might attract. You all are dead-on about all of this being finance oriented endeavor as opposed to historical one. As usual, NACAR did not factor in the "backlash" (where's the real heroes and founders?) reaction to their cant'-miss financial strategy. Could be they are reaping it now.