[vincesanity82]

If Bristol Motor Speedway, population 42,000 in a Tri-Cities market of around 480,000 on the Virginia-Tennessee border, can pull in 160,000 people twice a year for its NASCAR weekends, then why couldn't Martinsville Speedway, with a Piedmont Triad market of more than 1.5 million? Certainly, it's not the size of the market that's limiting. In a 130-mile radius of the venerable Blue Ridge foothills track are almost 2 million people in Charlotte and another 1.5 million in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle. Roanoke, just up U.S. 220, has about another 100,000. And this is, after all, still the heartland of stock-car racing country. So perhaps it's time for a major rebuild, just as Paul Sawyer did in Richmond a few years ago, turning the quaint Fairgrounds Raceway into a first-class complex that now draws well over 100,000 to each of its two Sprint Cup races. Clay Campbell, the grandson of Clay Earales, the Martinsville Speedway founder, now runs the track for the France family's International Speedway Corp. He has chafed, sometimes angrily, at any hint that perhaps NASCAR has outgrown the place. -- Winston-Salem Journal



Winston-Salem Journal | CASH INPUT NEEDED: Martinsville could use some help

[BiscuitMan]

Originally Posted by vincesanity82

If Bristol Motor Speedway, population 42,000 in a Tri-Cities market of around 480,000 on the Virginia-Tennessee border, can pull in 160,000 people twice a year for its NASCAR weekends, then why couldn't Martinsville Speedway, with a Piedmont Triad market of more than 1.5 million? Certainly, it's not the size of the market that's limiting. In a 130-mile radius of the venerable Blue Ridge foothills track are almost 2 million people in Charlotte and another 1.5 million in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle. Roanoke, just up U.S. 220, has about another 100,000. And this is, after all, still the heartland of stock-car racing country. So perhaps it's time for a major rebuild, just as Paul Sawyer did in Richmond a few years ago, turning the quaint Fairgrounds Raceway into a first-class complex that now draws well over 100,000 to each of its two Sprint Cup races. Clay Campbell, the grandson of Clay Earales, the Martinsville Speedway founder, now runs the track for the France family's International Speedway Corp. He has chafed, sometimes angrily, at any hint that perhaps NASCAR has outgrown the place. -- Winston-Salem Journal



Winston-Salem Journal | CASH INPUT NEEDED: Martinsville could use some help

The answer is easy: Interstate Highway. There is no Interstate highway passing near Martinsville Speedway. This is backwoods country. You gatta want to get to Martinsville to see the race. I-81 passes right near the Bristol Speedway. Much easier to get to.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by vincesanity82

If Bristol Motor Speedway, population 42,000 in a Tri-Cities market of around 480,000 on the Virginia-Tennessee border, can pull in 160,000 people twice a year for its NASCAR weekends, then why couldn't Martinsville Speedway, with a Piedmont Triad market of more than 1.5 million? Certainly, it's not the size of the market that's limiting. In a 130-mile radius of the venerable Blue Ridge foothills track are almost 2 million people in Charlotte and another 1.5 million in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle. Roanoke, just up U.S. 220, has about another 100,000. And this is, after all, still the heartland of stock-car racing country. So perhaps it's time for a major rebuild, just as Paul Sawyer did in Richmond a few years ago, turning the quaint Fairgrounds Raceway into a first-class complex that now draws well over 100,000 to each of its two Sprint Cup races. Clay Campbell, the grandson of Clay Earales, the Martinsville Speedway founder, now runs the track for the France family's International Speedway Corp. He has chafed, sometimes angrily, at any hint that perhaps NASCAR has outgrown the place. -- Winston-Salem Journal


]

I don't want to go on a rant here, but...

Groan!
May I nominate this specific article for the most Unthinking About Racing Award of 2008?

Yeah, let's take one of NA__AR's most traditional tracks, a track which gives us racing almost the way it has been since 1948, and turn it into just another "cookie-cutter" megalopolis which offer tofu-burgers, Starbucks, stadium seating, valet parking, scented towels and aftershave in the rest rooms, etc., etc.
Let's do to Martinsville what SMI did to Bristol; take a great track that required patience, and pre-race apologies to your competitors because you knew, before the flag dropped, you were going to make some of them made during the race itself - let's take a track like this and turn it into a ½-mile version of Vegas or Michigan.
The drivers all say they absolutely LOVE the "new" Bristol. Personally, I find that any track this current crop of primadonnas "LOVE" has the worst racing.

Biscuitman was 100% correct in his statement: "There is no Interstate highway passing near Martinsville Speedway. This is backwoods country. You gatta want to get to Martinsville to see the race."
People managing to find their way down 220 to Martinsville, who find The Windmill Motel and Restaurant are haute cusine for the area, and who think it doesn't get much better than a chili-slatterned Martinsville hot dog - people who "get" all this come to Martinsville for a race, not an "event!"

They took Clay Earle's ducks and their private pond away. Isn't THAT enough?

Note to article writer: Go back to writing about something you actually understand and leave Martinsville the Hell alone!

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by vincesanity82

If Bristol Motor Speedway, population 42,000 in a Tri-Cities market of around 480,000 on the Virginia-Tennessee border, can pull in 160,000 people twice a year for its NASCAR weekends, then why couldn't Martinsville Speedway, with a Piedmont Triad market of more than 1.5 million? Certainly, it's not the size of the market that's limiting. In a 130-mile radius of the venerable Blue Ridge foothills track are almost 2 million people in Charlotte and another 1.5 million in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle. Roanoke, just up U.S. 220, has about another 100,000. And this is, after all, still the heartland of stock-car racing country. So perhaps it's time for a major rebuild, just as Paul Sawyer did in Richmond a few years ago, turning the quaint Fairgrounds Raceway into a first-class complex that now draws well over 100,000 to each of its two Sprint Cup races. Clay Campbell, the grandson of Clay Earales, the Martinsville Speedway founder, now runs the track for the France family's International Speedway Corp. He has chafed, sometimes angrily, at any hint that perhaps NASCAR has outgrown the place. -- Winston-Salem Journal


]

I don't want to go on a rant here, but...

Groan!
May I nominate this specific article for the most Unthinking About Racing Award of 2008?

Yeah, let's take one of NA__AR's most traditional tracks, a track which gives us racing almost the way it has been since 1948, and turn it into just another "cookie-cutter" megalopolis which offer tofu-burgers, Starbucks, stadium seating, valet parking, scented towels and aftershave in the rest rooms, etc., etc.
Let's do to Martinsville what SMI did to Bristol; take a great track that required patience, and pre-race apologies to your competitors because you knew, before the flag dropped, you were going to make some of them made during the race itself - let's take a track like this and turn it into a ½-mile version of Vegas or Michigan.
The drivers all say they absolutely LOVE the "new" Bristol. Personally, I find that any track this current crop of primadonnas "LOVE" has the worst racing.

Biscuitman was 100% correct in his statement: "There is no Interstate highway passing near Martinsville Speedway. This is backwoods country. You gatta want to get to Martinsville to see the race."
People managing to find their way down 220 to Martinsville, who find The Windmill Motel and Restaurant are haute cusine for the area, and who think it doesn't get much better than a chili-slatterned Martinsville hot dog - people who "get" all this come to Martinsville for a race, not an "event!"

They took Clay Earle's ducks and their private pond away. Isn't THAT enough?

Note to article writer: Go back to writing about something you actually understand and leave Martinsville the Hell alone! It ain't about how many over-fed butts you can pack in a space, it's about the damn racing and the tradition! Thinking like yours has already costs us two good tracks; North Wilksboro and Rockingham. Just go back to your cubicle and write about social events, business ot whatever your area of expertise is. Leave stock car racing, and its tracks, to the traditionalists!

[Jeffrey4396]

Rebuild no. Less cars yes. 43 cars is way too much for this track. I wouldn't put more than 35 on the track. I hate the fact that 10 or more cars have to drop from the race to see any good racing. The track is just too full and it becomes way too much follow the leader. Less cars means more space to race!