I know there are a lot of other entertainment venues available these days than race tracks. Real racers and fans are very loyal to racing. When I first started going to the dirt track in the early 1970's, you had to get to the track an hour before hot laps to even get a seat in the grandstands. As race fans, we went to a race at the Adams County fairgrounds on Hastings, Nebraska on a Sunday afternoon, then drove to Omaha's Sunset Speedway to see a race that evening.
After I started helping Al Humphrey on his late model in 1975, we went racing on Friday evening at either Red Cloud, Nebraska's Speed Bowl or Hastings, Nebraska on Friday, Mid-Continent Raceway on Saturday and either Lexington, Nebraska or Midwest Speedway in Lincoln, Nebraska on Sunday, Later on, we would go to Eagle, Nebraska on Friday and Sunset Speedway on Sunday.
I moved away from Grand Island late in the summer of 1988 and ended up in Beatrice in November of 1989. As long as I stayed away from the race track it did not bother me too much. However, Beatrice Speedway had a large following at that time and I couldn't stay away. On my days off and when I worked day shift, I hung out with a local late model racer, Johnny Saathoff. He raced at Eagle on Friday, Mid-Continent on Saturday and Sunset on Sunday. He also raced the NASCAR Busch All-Star Tour. Everywhere we went, there were good car counts and the grandstands were packed. When I wasn't able to go with Johnny, I would go to Beatrice Speedway. Once again, you had to get there an hour before hot laps to get a seat as the grandstands were always full.
Fast forward to 1998. My stepson, Jason Rosenthal and I bought a used "factory stock" and began racing at Beatrice. The grandstands were still full and the car counts were great. A whild back I found an old program and saw there were 52 factory stocks that year. I know that not all were always at the track at the same time, but I also remember when there was a C Feature, B Feature and A Feature in the factory stocks. Races at Beatrice at that time were on Saturdays. Al Langdale was the track promoter. You could like him or hate him but we had a good car count and grandstands were full. Record numbers of the famous Beatrice Speedway gizzards were sold and it was said that thousands of dollars worth of beer was sold every race night.
Nobody can control the weather, no matter what the climate change zealots say. I remember times we got to the track and part way into the show it rained. Sometimes we could wait it out and the track could be re-worked and the show was finished. Other times we loaded up and had to get pulled out of the pits by a tractor.
There started to be a big push to get the races over by 10 PM. I understand people being tired of sitting in the grandstands, but if you have large car counts the races will take longer to finish. If you buy or rent a home near a race track that has been there for over 50 years, you should expect that things could get noisy on race nights. If you don't like it, don't buy or rent across the street from a race track. Al Langdale left his position as promoter and since then there have been several promoters, but in my opinion none as successful as Al Langdale was in terms of putting cars on the track and butts in the grandstand. Of course, as time has gone on, the cost of admission and concessions has gone up. Pit passes have gone up and the cost of putting a race car on the track has gone up drastically. Purses paid out to the drivers have not gone up for years, and car owners that don't have sponsors putting up a lot of money are leaving the sport.
Beatrice Speedway is actually run by the Gage County Fair Board. In addition to having had a seemingly revolving door of promoters, a few years ago they hired Toby Kruse to be promoter. However, Toby is also promoter for some Iowa tracks and he was only at Beatrice for Spring Nationals, the Gage County Fair and Octoberfest. I am not sure what his current official capacity is, but his name was still on the registration form for Spring Nationals this year.
Moving right along, late in 2019, Beatrice Speedway advertised for a Marketing Director. This person was to solicit track sponsorships as well as help put people in the grandstands and increase car counts. Beatrice Speedway posted this opening on their website as well as their Facebook page. In early January they announced that Chris Brown was hired to fill this position. Within a short time, the Facebook page was filling up with questions posed to fans with many replies. It looked to most people that were following the Beatrice Speedway Facebook page that there was some new enthusiasm coming to the races. There were more posts in less than 2 months than there had been in 3 years prior to Chris coming on board.
However, this didn't last long. Even though the Fair Board, and ultimately Beatrice Speedway, tried to not let the public know, Chris Brown was released from his position as Marketing Director. Going to both the Beatrice Speedway website and the Facebook page, there has been no mention of this. As a matter of fact, all mention of a marketing director and the hiring of Chris Brown has been deleted from the website as well as the Speedway's web page. Chris made a statement on his own Facebook page that I am quoting here:
"I just wanted to say a few things;
I was so excited about the interactions I had online and in person. The passion is strong and that makes me happy. Together we accomplished a spark capable of turning into a healthy fire.
I was NOT hired as a consultant, even though some of the tasks on my plate would also fall on the plate of a consulting role, that was not my position.
I was critical of the board in an attempt to create a bridge between the hard feelings I encountered and the speedway. This was a strategy we didn't discuss beforehand, I simply acted on instinct. I operated our social media platform under my vision, with each and every post by design, no matter how random they may have seemed. I communicated as my own voice and not as the voice of the board.
The board did what they needed to do when visions and communication styles do not mesh, and that is to part ways. I appreciate the opportunity as I learned a lot in a very short period of time. It only makes me more hungry to give back to the sport I love so much.
For many years I have heard people say that the Fair Board does not want the track to succeed. If that is true, they need to be replaced. If it is not true, the people on the Fair Board need to step up and either do the work to keep Beatrice Speedway successful or turn the reins over to someone who will.
Many of us are waiting for all this crazy Corona virus crap to get over with so we can get back to racing. For myself, it's either Busch Light or Fireball, depending on what the weather is. Most race tracks have decided to close for a while. However, the last I checked, Marshalltown, Iowa is still planning to go ahead with their $5,000 to win King of the Hill on April 9th & 10th. If I can figure out a way to spirit Tyler away from the shop for that time, maybe we will venture out if it does not cancel.
