Who won Thunderbird?

[tjslideways]

So far the only information I've seen is people from the track complaining they had to pay a guaranteed purse.  At least MTS stuck to their guns and didn't play the typical local promoter games with purses.  I'd like to know who won though?

[crewdad]

1 Steve Irwin 2 Joe Bares

[Stevensville Mike]

So far the only information I've seen is people from the track complaining they had to pay a guaranteed purse.

?  This surprised them that they had to ante up?  A low turnout at the gate?  Any further elaboration?

[dirtracer74]

So far the only information I've seen is people from the track complaining they had to pay a guaranteed purse.

?  This surprised them that they had to ante up?  A low turnout at the gate?  Any further elaboration?

In a nutshell, T-bird pays their drivers based on how many paid admissions they have to the front gate. It is on their website: http://www.thunderbirdraceway.net/payout.html

While the track signed the contract, and knew it was a guarenteed purse, alot of the regular race teams are bitching cause their pay was the lowest pay scale they offered even though there was enough crowd to pay the largest purse. Track told them it was because of the sprints.

[dirtracer]

Wonder what the status is of the rest of the MTS shows at Thunderbird. I know the promoter indicated on another form that he would not make the same mistake twice with a guaranteed purse. It is a real shame as I think MTS having a home base track is a real key to making the series work. I hope T-bird doesn't give up on it.

[GavinHunyady187]

I think the exact quote was:

Normally outside classes like Sprint cars bring in enough additional people to pay for their additional purse . The first time the Sprints ran this year this was the case . Saturday it wasnt and that is why ....as stated earlier ..... we are in the process in dropping all outside classes from our schedule and concentrating on our regular classes the rest of the year .,

That doesnt sound good, especially since the Lane's sponsorship was supposed to work with t-bird wasnt it? I thought MTS had a pretty solid schedule this year too.

[Stevensville Mike]

That doesnt sound good, especially since the Lane's sponsorship was supposed to work with t-bird wasnt it? I thought MTS had a pretty solid schedule this year too.

Agree.

I wonder if the track actually knows why the gate was down.  Was the weather that night iffy?  I was out of town.  Was it the extra couple of $$$ to get in?  Or the T-Bird crowd not really caring about the sprints?

Granted, some of the fans going there to watch MTS are sprint fans, but the majority of the crowd by far would still be the weekly customers.

[crewdad]

It looked like a good crowd to me, not over flowing but almost full. They did raise general admission from 12 to $15, don't know if that helps or hurts. I have to wonder if the 12 green lap feature race has anything to do with all of this. I sure hope the track will stick with MTS and give it a chance to catch on!

[dbl0joe]

as of now MTS will not be working with thunderbird the rest of the season due to conflict of interest in the remaining shows. the thunderbird promoter will not drop any of the 6 or 7 classes, like most tracks do, to compensate to afford a special show. Thunderbird shorted their regulars last week and blamed the sprint cars for this.  This is not the way MTS does business and will not be working with thunderbird the rest of 2010.

[crewdad]

That's really too bad, I guess contracts don't mean anything to some tracks. Really late in the season now, but any chance of filling the holes in the schedule because of this?

[dbl0joe]

we will look at all options and try our best to fill in shows.

[Stevensville Mike]

we will look at all options and try our best to fill in shows.

You can only do what you can do, Joe.  You can only do so much to prevent others from torpedoing you.

From the website where this originated, I noted that the T-Bird owner stated that he had 318 paying adults enter through the gate on the 26th.  At $15 a pop, that comes out to $4,770.  You have to consider all other assets like concessions, discounted tickets for seniors, etc., and there will be a little more there.  I don't know what he expected to take in but apparently that wasn't enough (or at least enough to support all of the classes in one night).

Good luck and keep us abreast of any further news with respect to MTS.

[tjslideways]

The entire purse situation why you don't see many non-sanctioned shows anymore for sprint cars around here, because too many bad promoters have burned people.  A few years ago at another track a late year show was held and the purse was altered due to car count.  The promoter was upset at one of the sanctioning bodies because they felt it was the series job for them to provide cars to the track even though they were not sanctioning the event and the promoter could not guarantee things like what insurance was in place, what the purse would be, etc.  That's just a few of the things a sanctioning body (at least a good one) provides for competitors.  Racers, the next time you are at the track thank the people that help run your series to make sure you know what the expect when you get to the race track.  There are scores of weekly competitors that don't have this kind of reassurance.  Thankfully MTS had a contract with Thunderbird, otherwise the sprint cars might not have been paid much more than tow money. 

[dirtracer74]

The entire purse situation why you don't see many non-sanctioned shows anymore for sprint cars around here, because too many bad promoters have burned people.  A few years ago at another track a late year show was held and the purse was altered due to car count.  The promoter was upset at one of the sanctioning bodies because they felt it was the series job for them to provide cars to the track even though they were not sanctioning the event and the promoter could not guarantee things like what insurance was in place, what the purse would be, etc.  That's just a few of the things a sanctioning body (at least a good one) provides for competitors.  Racers, the next time you are at the track thank the people that help run your series to make sure you know what the expect when you get to the race track.  There are scores of weekly competitors that don't have this kind of reassurance.  Thankfully MTS had a contract with Thunderbird, otherwise the sprint cars might not have been paid much more than tow money. 

Perfect statement. Most tracks in this area are ran by good honest people. But there are a few that will try anything. Thunderbird will not last long under current ownership. The way they are trying to conduct business has never worked anywhere else, for any length of time. They have issues every week, with many different items. Not just this one show.

I said at the beginning of the year, there were two tracks that would not see a dime from me, and T-bird is on of the two.

[Stevensville Mike]

Interesting discussion, guys, and as usual, excellent commentary, T.J.

In case anyone wants to see where this all originated, here is the link to the T-Bird thread on another site which Gavin had noted earlier in the topic:

http://shorttrackthunder.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13076&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&sid=628a0b5d159dd504a8bad75d15b6c9cb