Joined
·
3,086 Posts
That's the car event, right? Well, that event was dying anyways. The track scheduled it the same weekend as a big event in CA. Fewer and fewer cool cars have been showing up in the past few years because of that.quote:
Bye, bye Vintage Celebration
JB - Sounds like you are a NASCAR baron.quote:
Yep, vintage celebration was way better in August.
Here's what funny about NASCAR and tracks. A company the size of SMI could quite possibly buy NHIS for one reason....to move the NASCAR dates to another track that is more profitable or holds more people. The tracks negotiate with NASCAR for races...so if you own the tracks you can just take them off the table and lobby to have the dates moved to one of your other tracks.
The other option for NHIS might be the destruction of the road course and the installation of additional stands. The place holds about 100,000 now. If you can add 50,000 seats, and an average of $200 spend per person..that's $10,000,000 more in your pocket every NASCAR race (assuming you can fill the stands).
I doubt all their roadcoarse money in a year comes close to $10mil...no where close. Also...you dump the road course, run a skeleton maintainance crew and only populate the track with a full staff for a couple of dates a year.
Another option...you take away the NASCAR dates, pay for the track with the millions you make moving the races to larger tracks, you keep running the road course with a full boat of dates and rentals. This seems unlikely considering a NH track has to be close 4 months of the year.
I think the most likely option will be tearing down the road course and putting in more stands, and renting the oval to the driving schools. More money, less noise, fewer employees. LRRS is a tough call though...it's the largest club racing organization in the country. Nothing to be scoffed at money wise.
Perhaps a new, basic road course? I doubt it, too many legal problems. Perhaps a "motorsports park", doubt it, legal problems and closed 4 months a year.
If it was my money...I'd be tearing down the road course a putting up more seating, and renting the track to the Nascar Driving Schools and testing. If the deal is made soon, it's conceivable that we'd see the changes before next year...doubtful though. I'm guessing they'd wait until the end of next season since the 2008 NASCAR dates are already made. Note that we've lost our October date next year. Think about it...we lost a Columbus day Monday in October....now who would want that date? My guess it nobody wants that date to race....however the bulldozers want that month to start work. That's how I'd plan it out if it was my track (and I was a NASCAR baron).
JohnnyB