NOTE TO SELF: Have Scott Gibson write a column about me winning the lottery....
In the pre-Christmas issue of Inside Track Motorsport News, Scott Gibson wrote an advice column for short tracks, mentioning Delaware Speedway specifically.
After seeing Jim Cressman's column in the London Free Press, it appears someone at Delaware took Gibson's words to heart.
Gibson said: "Delaware Speedway has been absent from the schedule since ‘05 and it’s a shame that the birthplace of the former CASCAR series was not a part of its resurgence in ‘07."
Cressman's story says: "Once completed, these changes, particularly to the racing surface, will likely see Delaware land a NASCAR Canadian Tire Series event. "The major part of it, we're probably a year away," Delaware race director Jeff Wilcox said yesterday. "I really don't want to commit to a timeline. It's not my money. It's between the owners and other investment, but there are people who want to see it done sooner than later. "Our top priority is getting our stage fixed up, which is our speedway. We've had companies in to look at the surface and they're confident that we can repair some of the worst spots and just pave over top and have a track that will last another 30-plus years." Wilcox said he has been told NASCAR "wants to see something happening with the facility, mainly the walls and racing surface, and once that happens I think they'd want to talk to us on a long-term plan" for the Canadian Tire Series. "
Gibson said: Abolish the point fund "At first glance, it may be difficult to understand how eliminating the point fund can improve the state of grassroots racing. Racing is an expensive sport and many teams struggle to obtain the funding required to compete. But, this is the very same reason why tracks should not offer a points fund for their weekly divisions. An unfortunate pattern emerges at our speedways each year; the season begins with a healthy field of competitors but as the season progresses, the fields inevitably shrink. When each team’s source of funding runs dry, on-track incidents may force them to be sidelined for the remainder of the season. Missing races during the championship chase further compounds the problem, with the points fund at many speedways only rewarding the highest finishing teams. Redeploying the points fund to the weekly purse will help each team’s cash flow throughout the season, which is when it is needed most. Allocating more funds to the back half of the finishing order will have the greatest impact. Marginal teams that might not otherwise compete regularly will be encouraged to return to the track and the increased funding will also help them close the gap to the front of the field. In turn, a more entertaining race will encourage fans to visit the speedway, contributing to the financial health of the racing community."
Cressman's story says: "The drivers will also hear about a proposal to change the traditional weekly purses and year-end points funds. "There's been a lot of talk in the industry about taking the year-end payout and dividing it out over the season so those competitors can have that money in their hands each week," [Jeff] Wilcox said. "So we've got a proposal that we want to run by the racers and see what they think, but we've taken a substantial amount of money that we normally pay out at the end of the year and we've put it into the weekly purse. At the end of the year there still will be a payoff, but it just won't be as big as in the past. This way, if a guy can only race five times a year he's going to make more money. If he only races five times a year he's not going to get a year-end payout anyway."
Nice work Scott!
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