The Short Track Racing Summitt in Las Vegas

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Short Track Summitt website

Not sure how many people here know about this but just a little FYI.

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Pulled this from Jayski

Short Track Racing Summit Continues: The Short Track Racing Summit, a coalition of short track and weekly racing industry leaders, forged even stronger ties for the second straight day at the Orleans Arena. Motorsports' largest seminar/trade show combination continued Friday with a series of idea-provoking presentations from leaders in the industry.
"Our goal is to rise above the level of mediocrity, and take short track and weekly racing to a new level of excellence," said Don Hawk, NASCAR Director of Regional Racing Development, as he opened the day's activities. "By sharing ideas, by working together and by utilizing this coalition, we can make short track and weekly racing the best it can possibly be."
NASCAR, the only sanctioning body to have fully supported weekly short track racing at a grassroots level throughout its 56 years, is among the many sponsors of the inaugural Short Track Racing Summit through Saturday at the Orleans Arena. A number of different sanctioning bodies and dozens of tracks nationwide are taking part. The ongoing diversity initiative with NASCAR played a major role in Friday's session with Tish Sheets, Director of Diversity and Special Projects for NASCAR, talking with the participants, discussing not just the steps NASCAR has made but suggested steps individual short tracks can make.
"Initiatives on and off the track are vital to making these programs work," Sheets said. "The recruitment and development of drivers is a great step. But internships and supplier diversity, and areas such as the Urban Youth School, are very important as well."
Ten track operators from throughout the country shared their top promotions from the 2004 season with the several hundred participants. They discussed not just ideas but how to implement things such as sales kits, key cross promotions, fan appreciation nights, advance ticket sales and the development of new fans to motorsports. Jack Arute, long-time ABC Television and national radio reporter, led a discussion concerning publicity and promotions for short tracks and weekly tracks. He offered methods for developing greater coverage for short track racing, especially with electronic media.
"By being creative and taking the initiative, you can do things with media that would never have been considered by track operators just a few years ago," Arute told participants before offering a myriad of ways to do just that. The seminar covered public relations and publicity for electronic and print media most of the afternoon. This is a new and exciting way to bring together these business people, so key to our sport, and make our industry stronger and better," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR Vice President of Communications/Regional Touring/Dodge Weekly Racing Series. "What other industry, in sports or in anything else, could do that and freely exchange ways to make each speedway better?" Hunter said. "Nobody is talking 'proprietary information' here. Each person recognizes that for every short track or weekly speedway that is made stronger the entire sport gets stronger - and that's great for all of us. This could only happen in motorsports."(Williams Company PR)(12-11-2004)

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Another story from Thats Racin

[DannyB]

"America's middle class is the backbone of our audience," Wheeler said. "Those are our fans, and we need to keep them within our embrace.



Pretty funny coming from him. What I mean is that all of NASCAR is pricing the American middle class out of its market and is catering to the rich and/or the young.

The thing is, America's short tracks are the only place that middle class race fans can afford to go. And, if they ain't careful, they, too, will alienate what is left of the middle class.

[Race Promoter]

For 32 years, Racing Promotion Monthly (RPM) has been putting on seminars for short track racing management. They have done a tremendous job.

The seminars discussed here are sponsored by NASCAR, and are an attempt to undermine the success of RPM.

Most short track managers/promoters seem to be supporting the original.

I see this as another attempt by NASCAR to control the entire racing industry.