those races . So , I think those what I call “ in-betweeners ,” they ’ re going to have their work cut out for them .
ROLISON AND CUMMINGS ARE QUICK TO ADMIT THAT THEIR RACES WOULDN ’ T BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT TRACK OPERATORS LIKE TERRY “ JABBO ” FORSYTHE ( CENTER ), THE OWNER OF HOLLY SPRINGS MOTORSPORTS .
What are the challenges facing this type of racing ?
CUMMINGS : We thought last year , with COVID hitting , that only the better races were going to survive , and I think that ’ s holding true . I think that there ’ s going to be a lot of people putting on races . It might not be a big race . It might be guys putting on 20-granders or 30-granders or whatever . I think they ’ re going to suffer . And that ’ s my personal opinion .
I think you ’ ll see some promoters get out of the game , and I think actually the ones that are going to benefit is local tracks . The local weekly races are what ’ s going to come out of this to the good , which is a good thing . We need every track there is . We don ’ t need any tracks closing up .
Like you said earlier , the schedule ’ s been flooded with all these big races , and everybody ’ s a promoter these days . Anybody can go rent a track and put on a race , but to put on a successful race and actually put thought into it , it ’ s a full-time job . I can tell you for the Million , for a year-and-a-half , two years , I would stripe parking lots and I would be on the phone with sponsors and racers : “ Hey man , when are you going to pre-enter ? Hey , can I sell you this spot here ? We ’ re going to do this with the live feed .” For 10 hours a day , that ’ s what I did for a yearand-a-half , two years . And I don ’ t think that a lot of people put that much time into it . I think that ’ ll be the ones that kind of go away . And I don ’ t wish nothing bad on anyone , you know ?
The benefit is the local tracks should do better , in my opinion . This past weekend , Tyler Crossnoe just put on a race at Virginia Motorsports Park that was track ran and track promoted , and they were knocking right on the door of 400 entries . That was good for that racetrack .
ROLISON : I think one of the challenges is that racers have so many events to choose from . I don ’ t know that there ’ s going to be enough [ racers ] out there to support them all . For me , that ’ s been one of my biggest challenges is trying to grab your racers and keep them close to you because if you let them go off , someone else is going to scoop them up .
I think another obstacle is trying to keep costs down for the racer . It ’ s not cheap to run a racetrack . The racetracks have to make money . Now their expenses are going up exponentially . Insurance goes up . Glue goes up . You have to pay your employees , and yet you have to pay more money for quality employees . So , trying to maintain that cost that the racers are comfortable with , that is a challenge .
Where do you see room for growth and improvement ?
ROLISON : As far as improvement – and I don ’ t know if this has ever happened – but maybe some kind of universal rulebook for bracket racing because now rules vary from track to track and from promotion to promotion . There ’ s no one rule that ’ s right . There ’ s no one rule that ’ s wrong . As long as you have your rules in place before the event starts , and as long as you go by them , you ’ ll be fine . But I think if some of the bigger races or promoters would get together and try to form a universal rulebook , that would be great . That way when these racers go to these bigger races , they know the rules are the same .
Another improvement that could be made is putting more emphasis on fairness to make sure e each racer feels that they have an equal opportunity to race as far as catching illegal equipment . Obviously , it ’ s out there . If we can put somebody on the International Space Station , you would think somebody can develop something to prevent or catch unethical things in bracket racing .
Safety is another thing . I ’ m guilty like anybody else . These are adults . They know the risk they ’ re taking . If they choose to not wear their arm restraints , and they go down there and hurt themselves , they ’ re adults , and that ’ s their decision . But I think that mentality has got to change and I have to hold myself accountable for that too . If everybody doesn ’ t go home safe , what have you really done ? What have you really accomplished in the grand scheme of things ?
CUMMINGS : Improvement wise , I think trying to make stars out of the bracket racers , which , by the way , is a very hard task . Getting bracket racing as a well-known thing would be big . I ’ m not going to go No Prep-style or Street Outlaws-style , but get it well-known . If we could get 60 % of the ink that No Prep and Street Outlaws gets , bracket racing would be doing a lot better .
People just don ’ t understand it . I think making the average person aware of it , that there ’ s more to drag racing than just spending all the money you can , going as fast as you can , and whoever gets there first wins . I think educating spectators and just anyone in the general household that likes any type of racing , it ’ s important . There has to be a way that we can do that .
Another thing is putting spectators in the seats at a bracket race . It ’ s hard to do . There ’ s another promoter , Tyler Bohannon , who had a July 4th race in Ohio Valley , Kentucky . I don ’ t know how many spectators he had , but he did very well . He had a fireworks show , he had the local news out there . He promoted the shit out of it and he had the spectators there . I was very impressed by it .
When we first started our Million , we had the Factory Stock class that was going to run basically for the same $ 3,000 entry fee . We were going to make it 90 % payback of however many entered , and up to 32 cars , which would ’ ve been big for the Factory Stock racers getting a little bit of their investment back , but at the same time , I was going to use that to put asses in the seats .
If we could ’ ve made that happen without the COVID , we would ’ ve had Factory Stock , we would ’ ve had a TV show , we would ’ ve had Chevrolet Performance behind us in a big way – more than they were – as far as TV time and sponsorship . We would ’ ve possibly had Ford and Mopar . Basically , it would ’ ve been the biggest Factory Stock race ever . It didn ’ t happen , but that was my approach to putting asses in the seats for last year ’ s race .
I have a couple of other ideas for things that I think will work . You do have to bring in some type of side show to put asses in the seats , and I ’ ve got a couple of ideas . We ’ ll just see if they pan out . DI
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