Quote:
Originally Posted by LNorton
We can test for $20 on a well prepped track or $15 on a junk track. Will go to both depending on what we are trying to accomplish. I've heard plenty of complaints about the racing surface at divisional and national events in the past few years. Makes me wonder why you wouldn't want to have a setup for when you end up on a junk racing surface.
If the track is junk at an event, then it's junk for everybody, not just you. The difference maker is if you can get down a track that isn't prepped well.
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I figure most of what I work on gets down the track pretty well already. A new set of slicks will more than likely solve the problems with the Super Stock car.
The solution is not to accept poor track prep at an event, considering a weekend at an event costs around $1000, or more. The solution is to stop accepting poor track prep, and make it plain that it is not acceptable.
While you are only concerned about consistency and winning races, our friends in other classes are concerned about crashing their race cars and getting injured or killed.
It's a really bad thing when we struggle to get down the track in our Stock Eliminator car, most people say it is one of the best working cars around. The Super Stock car, well, we'll find out about that in a month or so. It's a lot worse when one of my Super Gas customers gets sideways due to bad track prep and ends up looking at the wall, or his competitor, at over 100MPH. That wrecks cars, and worse yet, injures or kills people. We as racers need to stop tolerating that from sanctioning bodies. It's unacceptable.
We pay around $200 per car for a division race, and around $300 for a national event. Between diesel and food, we add another $300 to $500 or so. It is time racers stopped accepting inadequate track prep at events. We're paying for track prep, we have a reasonable expectation of getting good track prep.
You say we should just accept poor track prep, and learn to live with it. Despite paying for track prep. What's next? Should we bring our own timing equipment? Do we need to get together and hire our own EMT and ambulance? I do not charge my customers for something I do not give them. Why should we, and my customers, just accept that a sanctioning body is charging us for something we are not going to get?
When you go to a restaurant, do you just accept poorly prepared food and learn to deal with it? When you go to the theater, do you just accept broken speakers and a blurry picture? If you stay in a hotel, do you accept dirty sheets and a stopped up toilet?
When you go anywhere, and accept less than what you paid for, you're telling the proprietor that it is acceptable to rip you off. When you go back, and accept it again, you're telling them you like getting ripped off. You're making it worse for yourself, and everyone else involved. I don't run my business that way, and I don't expect to be treated that way.