Keep Up The Negativity And You'll Get Nothing And Like It

Remember the movie Caddyshack?  Ted Knight, Rodney Dangerfield.  Funny movie.  Family Guy did a parody of this scene.

They are gonna get something to eat.  Ted Knight's character is with his grandson, who is talking.  "I want a hamburger.  No a cheese burger.  I want a coke..."

Grandpa smacks him upside the head.  "You'll get nothing and like it."

I don't feel like even posting here lately, but I do anyway.  I try to be optimistic, but then I look at forums like Late Model Racer and certain threads just pop up and annoy the hell out of me.  You wanna know why promoters become jerks?  Read some of this crap.  Back in the day with no forums, they at least heard it in person.

Not everybody in the thread was bashing.  There were well thought out posts, and plain out stupidity.  There's a guy who goes by the name of a popular cartoon character.  He's a one note poster on the subject.  "What does it pay."  I knew a guy who cared about that, and it's not a bad question.  It's important.  But this poster obviously hates the promoter and is looking for a reason to bash.

Then there is the track is too wet or is garbage and a bad track.  Every damn track in the state has a bad night.  It happens.  To the bashers who only know how to bash and NEVER pitch in to help, remember this.  When your track closes and you want to know why, just look in the mirror.  That's part of the problem.

Now, the bashed track in question has a reporter who is nationally published.  He's very good at what he does.  He probably didn't help matters by condemning everybody in the thread that posted something.  That's over reaching too.

One poster commented on the positives of social media and using the internet to promote.  It's a valuable tool that should be used.  Ask Tom Sagmiller how useful it was to him when he ran Chowchilla.  Tom is no dummy.  But, it's even more important now than it was then.  You can either get out front of this or get steamrolled.  Oh, and you can make more money at your track if you use it right.

But, that's not why I'm posting.  I'm disappointed in the bashing of an effort being made to keep Late Models going in Northern California.  It's not being helped that every time a race is booked, something is happening at Bakersfield or Santa Maria.  Last week it was Antioch and Bakersfield.  This week it was Antioch and Santa Maria.

Antioch was paying $2500 to win and $250 to start.  I don't know if the 11 car field received that or not.  John is always trying to book big races and has a reputation of paying as advertised last I heard.  Being old school, you aren't likely to see him on the forums talking about it, but he has long been booking big shows to coincide with the NASCAR race in Sonoma ever year.

So, 11 cars showed up.  There was a big show in Santa Maria too.  Now, distance shouldn't allow this to be a factor, but we are talking Late Models here.  How many cars are out there?  Last week wasn't a big show, so Bakersfield and Antioch couldn't have been too disappointed by the 14 and 13 cars, respectively.  However, Antioch and Santa Maria had big shows planned this week.

Communication between promoters obviously did not happen this year, so that's a problem there.  Guys like to race Santa Maria and Bakersfield, and those tracks have a long Late Model history.  Had their been some communication, perhaps something could have been arranged.  If there is any interest in a tour, a leader like Sandy Bainton was back in the day needs to step up and do something about this.

What's not gonna help is being an ignorant moron on a message board fanning flames for the sake of hurting racing.  Offer solutions.  These schedules come out early in the year.  Late Model people should be pointing things out early on, especially when we are talking big shows.  That could help fix problems right there.

What doesn't cut it is saying you went there once and the track sucked (bad night) or posting every time you can "He won't pay!  He won't pay" when you have NO CLUE what you are talking about.  Does it make you feel better to do that?  This is part of the problem not just with racing but the world today.  Way too much negativity.

What did John and Antioch Speedway do that was so wrong?  How dare he try to promote a big event to give his fans something special to see.  How dare he have a history of doing that!  Selfish son of a...  John isn't perfect.  I have had my disagreements with him, but at least I was there trying to help things.

I guess it boils down to if you know you aren't going, don't hate on the event for the sake of hate.  Let it be.  What do you get out of it?  If it fails, you can say "See, I knew it."  Do you need validation that badly?  If it succeeds, it's a good thing for racing.  I just wish people would think before just bashing.

I also don't think a track should bury their heads in the sand when it comes to forums.  They will exist whether you like them or not, so use them.  Hire people to represent the track if you are busy and make sure the track has positive representation.  It can make a difference.

By the way, I had written that the only double winners I knew of on the same night at Antioch were Keith Brown Sr. and Jeff Decker in Late Models and Dirt Modifieds.  I thought Bobby Hogge IV had done it too, but I haven't looked it up.  I don't need to now, because he just did it Saturday night.  I'm shocked!  Well, not really.

Bobby won the Late Model feature ahead of Richard Papenhausen and Troy Foulger.  There were 23 cars in the Dirt Modified race, and Bobby won that race ahead of Ryan McDaniel and Kellen Chadwick.  It's a shame Bobby isn't back east making a name for himself.  He could have been a star there.  I know he's one of THE best in California.