Pete Pistone wrote a great column on racingone.com this past weekend urging race fans to visit their local short tracks. He also brought up a great point that in order for short tracks to survive, they have to put some effort into getting fans in the stands.

Back in the 70-80’s some of those efforts included advertising in local newspapers, sending mailers out to their fans, and television commercials. And with that form of advertising, they were successful and short track racing provided great entertainment and created the heroes that I recently wrote about.

So, why are short track promoters not doing so much advertising today? Well, their obvious answer is simple…it costs too much money and they don’t see a return on their investment.

Going back to the Promoter’s Workshop last month, there was a lot of discussion about advertising and what each track does as well as what they are thinking they are doing.

One of my favorite songs that I will crank up on the radio is Tina Turner’s “We Don’t need another hero.” It’s a powerful song and when I saw her sing in concert ten years ago, it was incredible. But, with all do respect to Ms. Turner, that song needs to be avoided by short track & series promoters, because they need heroes.

Growing up in the Midwest, I got into racing by going to a short track in 1981. I will admit that I got scared every time I saw an accident, but then you get to know the name of the drivers and going into the pits afterwards was an awesome thing. The goal was get at least one side of your checkered flag full of driver autographs. I knew the names of local racers before I knew the name of NASCAR stars.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Midwest Tech Seminar and Promoters Roundtable at the Five Star Race Car Bodies headquarters in Twin Lakes, WI. The seminars featured some well known individuals in short track racing and at the end of the day; everyone involved got something out of it.

I had an opportunity to participate in the Promoters Roundtable. Some of the notables included Tom Curley, Promoter of the ACT Tour and Thunder Road Speed Bowl in Barre, VT; Tim Bryant, Promoter of 5 Flags Speedway in Pensacola, FL, home of the Snowball Derby; Dennis Huth, President of the American Speed Association; Glenn Luckett and RJ Scott, co-owners of Championship Racing Association; and Tim Olson and Steve Einhaus, co-owners of the American Speed Association Midwest Tour.

I was sitting in my office chair wondering what I should write about this week. Should I talk about something I did over the weekend? No, that would be boring. Give another sermon to short track promoters? That usually works. Or should I give an observation about something.

My mind wondered over all of the possible things I could talk about.

I had a great conversation with 1995 ASA champion Bryan Reffner this past weekend. He is actually putting a super late model together and will be running in the American Speed Association Midwest Tour this season. I think that is really cool. Bryan has always been a well respected driver and with joining the talent pool that the ASAMT already has, it will be a fun year traveling and writing for the series.

Kevin with Matt at the 2008 All-Star Challenge at MIS (Scott Lofquist Photo)
By: Kevin Ramsell
I will be the first to admit, when NASCAR announced that the 2009 Daytona 500 was declared to be over and Matt Kenseth was the winner, I had tears in my eyes just like Matt and many others did as well. For many Wisconsin race fans, Kenseth winning the Daytona 500 has a more personal meaning than any other “Great American Race.”

I called Roy Kenseth to congratulate him and he said they were going to the Sports Page Bar in Cambridge to celebrate and I hopped in my car to join them. How often will anyone get the chance to celebrate it with the father and sister of the Daytona 500 champion?