Trends In Our Sport

[Bret Kepner]

Originally Posted by k.pascoe

Bret also knows in his home state the 3 drag strips in the last couple years have closed, and no new ones have been built.

In the "last couple years"? One closed two years ago but the other two of which you speak closed ten and twenty years ago, respectively. Missouri currently has five operating tracks, though.

Originally Posted by Mike Gray

Except in "California"

It's important to remember the period during which California had what folks would consider a large number of operating tracks was astonishingly brief. However, California STILL has a dozen operating dragstrips which many folks STILL consider a "large number".

Originally Posted by rawhide

I can reference to 25 different dragstrips in SC.

You're less than halfway there if you're trying to find 'em all, Roland.

[k.pascoe]

Bret I was only making the point that even though it might be status quo, there are areas in the country where drag racing scene isn't doing well. Such as KCIR a major city with out now a operating drag strip. And yes you're right time flies by, seems like just yesterday those historic strips were still open.

[Gary Smith]

Bret, some of those in Cali are closed, or closing. Irwindale land just got sold, and the smart money says the new owners have already greased the pockets of local government to have it rezoned by late next year for major retail development. In 2011 at the March Meet, Richey Pauly had a long conversation about the fate of Pomona, and a similar land/lease arrangement with NHRA that could have the Winters and the WF relocated to Famoso. All eyes are on Fontana now as we wait the fate of Irwindale.

But the real trigger of my thinking wasn't just SoCal, but drive-in movie closings across America, and racing in Florida. In the 20 some years I lived there, 2 new tracks opened while 4 closed, one re-opened (Lakeland). I took a look at the Miami Hollywood Dragway tribute page on FB and saw so many familiar names that have left the sport, or parked their cars for various reasons, including economics.

Another point has been the decline in weekly bracket participation as that of divisional and national events (I would attribute to the current economic climate).

I must admit I was dumbfounded to discover Samoa and Redding were still operating as of this year, although Redding hangs in the balance as well.....http://reddingdragstrip.info/wordpre...3/11/RFP-1.jpg

It appears the "super track" era is on the decline...with no new facilities replacing those that have closed. But again, I wished I knew of compiled info.

[Bret Kepner]

I, too, didn't want to refer to any particular state. However, using the posted example, the fact remains California has twelve operating dragstrips as of November 23, 2013. As for the future, more will close and more will be built. The ratio can only be determined after the fact.

Florida also currently has twelve operating tracks with the addition of a new one just six weeks ago.

In most areas of the country, 2013 bracket racing attendance was higher than in the past eight years. The midwest had a banner season and not too many track operators are disappointed. The majority of suffering tracks are in areas of high competition among facilities. A track at which I regularly compete is one of nine dragstrips within a one hundred-mile radius, (eight are within a seventy mile radius!), but it, (and all but two of its competitors), did exceptionally well this season.

I'm not sure of your definition of a "supertrack" but there are now more National Event-style facilities, (seating capacity over 10,000), than there EVER were in the past.

Drive-ins, however, are not my forte.

Originally Posted by k.pascoe

...there are areas in the country where drag racing scene isn't doing well. Such as KCIR a major city with out now a operating drag strip.

Sure, KCIR closed. However, Kansas City still has two operating dragstrips within sixty miles. It could be two tracks worse.

[Randall Klein]

Trends? How about the youth caring more about video games than getting a license, cost of cars (let alone race gas, entry fees, showroom cars not in the guide etc), or the aging curve of class racers, general economy stagnation, more choices for discretionary income, dysfunctional sanctioning body......those are more discouraging than track availability. More encouraging is the on-going investment of racers building $100k plus cars, the new blood from the factory race cars.....these single purpose cars will be raced somewhere, and the Northern Class Nats may be a start of racers taking ownership of our future

I would guess there is enough passion and $ to run this out about 10 more years, could be wrong, hope so...it's the trend I see

[goinbroke2]

I guess it's all perspective, My nearest track (of the four I must travel to, to be in the points series here) is 2hr's. The next is on an island 3hr's away. Third is 4hr's and the farthest is 5 1/2 to 6hr's. This is each way. Gas here is $5.10 per US gallon. All four tracks here are doing fine because they work together to coordinate 2 major meets per track on alternate weekends and the locals keep them running in between those major meets.

I see lots of new cars/people and notice a lot of old cars/people are gone. Total amount though seems to be the same, the only difference I see is nobody in the stands at 3 of the 4 tracks. (one track has a couple hundred to a thousand show up on big weekends, not just family either, actual "spectators")

When I was young, we had a local stockcar track 1hr away and the nearest dragstrip was about 6-8hr's away. That was it. Period.
Now there is a stockcar track 10 minutes from my place, they run gocarts too, there is mudbogging 10 minutes the other way. There is a 2 mile long sportscar track with 50 or so turns in it 15 minutes from here. There is "thunder in the valley" rally trucks and truck pulls here. There is lawnmower racing a couple hours away as well as boat racing, etc,etc,etc.
I fully agree that we're not a "car society" anymore, but to compound it, dragracing ain't the only game in town anymore. You want to race belt sanders? Look up the closest place to race and have at it.

I have no fear of "dragracing going away" because there will always be the select few that will drag anything and everything.

I think today it's more "I have X amount of $$ for my automotive hobby, what my hobby is though is no longer limited to stockcar/dragcar.

[boostedf22c]

Looking at how packed it was at this event I would say this is where things are trending.

http://www.lsxtv.com/news/camaro-ver...ld-cup-finals/

[Mike Carr]

Bret, how about Pennsylvania tracks? As best as Dad and I can come up with, there were fourteen tracks that ran, at one time, in PA. Six are still running.

1. Maple Grove
2. Numidia
3. Beaver Springs
4. South Mountain/Quarter Aces
5. Pittsburgh Raceway Park (Keystone)
6. Lucky's Dragway (Erie)

The eight that closed:
1. Sunset Raceway (Mercer)
2. Skyline DRagway (New Castle)
3. New Bethlehem
4. Peterson Memorial (Altoona/Tyronne)
5. York US 30
6. Pittsburgh Int'l Dragway (Cecil)
7. Pocono Drag Lodge
8. Vargo Dragway (Perkesie)

Ohio and WV we could only come up with three each that closed. In Ohio, Howland, Meander and one up by Toledo, Glass City?). WV Fairmont/Eldora, Princeton, and Winfield. I'm sure there are more, in each state, those are just the ones we could remember (many closed before I was born in 1979, sadly).

[rawhide]

My reference to the 25 tracks in South Carolina was taken from a book called "The History of America's Speedways" written by Allan E. Brown and was printed in 2003. He has a newer version out but I do not have it in my collection yet. I see several of the tracks have had two or three names but my count was just the physical locations. Mr. Brown probably gets to add tracks each time he releases a new edition. My copy is a third edition. Bret has the most knowledge about the history of drag racing of anyone I know about and he most likely raced at all of them, even when they were drag racing horses and mules.
Roland

[Ronnie Smith Jr]

Originally Posted by Mike Carr

Ohio and WV we could only come up with three each that closed. In Ohio, Howland, Meander and one up by Toledo, Glass City?). WV Fairmont/Eldora, Princeton, and Winfield. I'm sure there are more, in each state, those are just the ones we could remember (many closed before I was born in 1979, sadly).

One that I know of in Ohio was Riverside (Proctorville, across the river from Huntington). Went there as a kid and have great memories of it. Another one in WV was Raleigh County (Beckley). I'm not sure if Fort Gay is still running - also known as the 100 yard dash. Originally a sand drag and truck pulling track that converted to asphalt drags (at the same distance).