Last night at Waycross Motor Speedway I had a conversation with popular local driver Cecil Eunice about the state of local short track racing and he had many thoughts that were in line with my own. As a woman it can be, at times, a challenge to get the male species at a track to take you seriously and your intellect serious but I appreciate a driver who can swap different ideas, theories, and views with me while exchanging my own with them. The extent of the conversation was too long to post in this article but what the heart of it was that the current economic climate of our country is what has a tight grip on everything we do.
As Mr. Eunice said, diesel gas prices have a strangle hold on absolutely everything. With diesel gas prices at near $3.95 to $4.29 a gallon it's no wonder things are so out of whack. Nothing, absolutely nothing, comes to us without it coming off of a truck. Whether it's shipped to us from a boat and then picked up or made right here in the United States and shipped out it won't get here without the truck picking it up and bringing it to our local cities. From the tiniest piece of plastic rollbar mounts on a Gopro to the tubing used to build the chassis it all got here by a truck running off that precious liquid gold.
When gas prices go up so do the prices of goods. If we are all trying to find ways to pay for these goods and our own gas to get back and forth to work, home, and school it puts a deep dent in our wallets that is leaving little to no room for the extras in life like racing. Now the point can definitely be made that racing isn't an extra, it's just a part of life like breathing and I agree but this type of breathing requires money to inhale and exhale. A lot of tracks are watchful of their prices at the gates and may offset a slightly higher price at the gate than another track but may be easier on the wallet at the concession or vice versa. We are all trying to do what we can to make it through this and keep our local tracks open it just takes a little bit more resourcefulness on our parts with our own money and with the tracks so they can get fans in and be able to give drivers a decent pay out at the end of the night. Sometimes tracks can't give the drivers what they want because of economic hurting but if they can all stick together eventually we'll all get out of this mess we're in and things can get better for fans, drivers and tracks.
We all should try to be patient with the way things are right now but I know the audience I'm speaking to since I'm one of them and we all want things fast and done right now but there is no easy or fast answers in this situation. Car counts may go down from time to time or fan counts may go down also but as long as we stay steady and true to the course of short track racing we can all keep the heart and soul of the sport we all love going. Gas prices and a bad economy may have us all down in some way or another but we shouldn't count ourselves out. It will take a lot more than gas prices to keep most fans and drivers away. There's a love and addiction not everyone will understand when it comes to racing and come hell or highwater we will be there supporting our local tracks. Let's all do our part to keep this part of America strong and going for ourselves and our future generations. Keep your locals tracks alive by going out and supporting them when you can and make sure to bring a friend, but tell them to bring their own money. Who knows, maybe that night you just helped save your local track and kept it open so one day your future generations or the next Tony Stewart can race there and you can always say I was a part of that.
