Published: March 25, 2009 10:23 pm      

BOWMAN: Optimism runs high heading into season

Visit a local track and you’ll get hooked on the action

Call me the eternal optimist but I honestly have high hopes for local race tracks as the 2009 season approaches.

Turn on the television and hit any of the round-the-clock news channels and it would be all too easy to simply give up hope. All you see and hear is doom and gloom.

A few weeks back there was a even a post on a racing website talking about how many of the local tracks are destined to fail soon and it included the Kokomo Speedway.

Personally, I look at what we as a country face as a challenge, but I am confident that we will pull through and persevere as we have so many times before. These trying times could be a great opportunity for promoters to garner fans they might not have otherwise had the opportunity to reach.

The doomsday folks are quick to point out that attendance at NASCAR events is dwindling and television ratings are down. Even before the recession set in NASCAR events were beginning to lag in the public eye.

Part of it is simply that we are getting fed up with two hours of hype before the green flag falls on a given event. Like Brett Haynes noted in his reader’s letter in the sports section last week, had there not been all the pre-race pomp and circumstance and a 4 p.m. start time for the Daytona 500, the entire race could have been completed and fans wouldn’t have been deprived of almost half the race.

Leave all the hype and endless interviews to SPEED TV and/or ESPN. When we look at the television listings and it says the race will be aired at 1:30, then we expect to tune in and hear the command to start engines.

So, having said that, since attendance is down at just about all the big-time racing series, it could easily be the fact that those fans who typically follow those series from venue to venue just can’t feasibly do that any longer.

I do feel area tracks could easily see an increase in attendance this season.

The price is right for a regular show (typically $12 for an adult) and the action is superior to that of the bigger-name series. I’ve been to the Brickyard 400 and aside from the electricity of the fans in attendance, the on-track racing doesn’t hold a candle to a modified feature event at Gas City.

I’ll have to admit that seeing 33 Indy cars on the parade laps for the Indianapolis 500 still gives me chills to this day and there are few racing events anywhere that compare to the sights and sounds of 500 on race day.

All during the offseason folks have asked me what I think things are going to be like in 2009 for the local tracks and I have told them I am very optimistic. Those fans who typically travel great distances to watch NASCAR need to see just one feature of any division at Kokomo on a Sunday night to get hooked.

If a remake of a Walt Disney movie (Race to Witch Mountain) can rake in millions of dollars worldwide in one weekend, it’s hard to fathom local race fans not making it out to the track on race night.

Hearing the amount of money that people spend each weekend at the cinemas across the country is solid proof that we still want to be entertained. Spending a few hours at the track makes all of us forget about all the negative things happening in our country.

And like the legendary Jack Hewitt has always said, a bad day at the race track is better than a great day anyplace else.

No truer words have ever been spoken, so even though things aren’t as good as we would like, just remember that in just a few short weeks the dirt will fly and a new season will be underway.

Coming up

Next week in this column the 2009 Gas City I-69 season preview and schedule will be the topic, followed by USAC previews and predictions, new car owner/driver combinations and the Kokomo Speedway preview.

Brett Bowman is the Tribune’s auto racing columnist. He may be reached by e-mail at brettbowman29@aol.com.