The Pace Lap, April 22, 2010

(a continuation, if you will)

-As you may have already noticed, there's a slight change on the site. I've gone with Google's Blogspot hosting service for the short term. The changes I want to make may take more time than the May 1 deadline I had going now. Everything should be pretty transparent.

- I've railed on about too many support classes. An idea I first rolled my eyes at started to grow on me, as evidenced by this thread on dirtdrivers.com: starting the "featured class" A feature at a set time.

By the way: user "kmart" has a valid question.

I think starting a set time of 10 or 10:30 PM could have some issues, if heats or B's run long. But, I would propose this: the Featured Class A feature runs 1 hour after intermission. That's enough time. If they made the A, they have that and MORE to get any repairs or changes taken care of. As for B feature cars, it's always been a pressure cooker, it's part of the game. If there's no B, then 1 hour after intermission is enough.

With that in mind, are some promoters willing to establish a pecking order of importance? Some places have really made a point to act like all classes are the same, sadly, it's often by degrading the "feature class" as being whiny, expensive, disloyal, etc. And, are promoters willing to watch potential customers leave at the end of the "main event?" It's a tough balance.

The fact is, the support classes aren't inferior to a featured class, it's just that they play a different role. But I'm still not sure some egos could handle that distinction either.

- "April showers bring May flowers." Why do people bitch about rainouts in April? What do you expect?

- Chris Moses of OvalOperations.com proposes that it's time for Knoxville to end 410 weekly racing. I agree. They let go of wingless and life went on, so the whole "that's the way they've done it" argument doesn't hold. Will it bring more crowd? Probably not, unless perhaps the ticket price is lowered too. But will it cut expenses? Significantly.