It’s a thankless job. It really is! Being a promoter, and speaking from experience, is sometimes akin to voluntarily running yourself through a virtual meat-grinder. As a promoter you are doctor, lawyer, Indian chief, therapist, bar tender, babysitter, mediator and to a certain segment, no matter what you do, you’re a son-of-a-bitch.
But we ain’t throwing no telethons here for promoters. There are more good ones and more decent folks in the promoting game than bad ones. And everyone who buys a ticket or pit-pass thinks they could do a much better job than the proprietor of the track they purchase their tickets, but they aren’t exactly lining up to buy dirt tracks now are they?
Still, promoters are dead-on right in the eye of the hurricane and the sport’s survival or demise lies in their hands. But it’s the ‘bad’ ones, or maybe I should say the incompetent ones, who give the rest a bad name. I always thought that to be a successful driver, i.e.; racer, one needed to have ‘the gift’. That little extra pinch of talent and skill that verifies your legitimacy in being out on the track. Some got it, some don’t, and it applies to the promotional game too, methinks.
To be a successful promoter you need a game plan and deep pockets, but of course there is that minority who think that hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance? And then there is that (thankfully) shrinking minority of ‘promoters’ who are truly only in it for the money and what they can skim off the top, middle and bottom. Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines, they must think.
With the new season almost ready to kick into full force there will invariably be the new contingent of track promoters who are coming into the biz for the first time. Every year there is a new slate of promoters, some make it, some don’t.
And there is always an annual faction of new promoters who are former racers and when a former racer, for the most part, first assumes the promoter’s role at a track he and his now former competitors usually feel that they hit the lottery with a promoter who ‘knows what it’s like on the other side of the fence’. Hot damn, purses and point funds will soar now!
Not.
In fact, some former racers are the worse promoters and the biggest tightwads. But certainly there are former racers out there who not only had ‘the gift’ for racing, but also ‘a gift’ for promoting and one only needs to look at Tom Helfrich and Johnny Stokes as two obvious examples.
We need promoters, and new blood can and is a good thing, but if you’re going to bite that bullet then you need to do your research and use your brain, not your heart. Passion for the sport is good, as long as it’s funneled correctly. If you’re going into this for the ego-stroke, well, within a year or so you’ll hear someone shouting, “Hey, Peter Promoter, Andy Warhol called. You’re at 14:55 and we’re tickin’ big-time here, Kato.”
If you are just getting into promoting, or are thinking about it, take some free advice. Do your research!
And network.
Call promoters in your area. Form relationships, a sense of camaraderie and go beyond your region to l-e-a-r-n! One of the first calls I’d make would be to someone like Mike Swims, who promotes Dixie and Rome speedways in Georgia. He wouldn’t still be here if he wasn’t successful. And he runs successful tracks. He is also a decent, honest person who has been a driving force in this sport, moreso than most are aware.
I’d call someone like Bill Sawyer who promotes Virginia Motor Speedway. Sawyer is another one who is honest to a fault, has a keen business sense and knows what works and what doesn’t. Like Swims, Sawyer cares about this sport and where it will be years from now. He also knows how to run a race track the ‘right’ way.
I’d call someone like Bob Sargant who owns Track Enterprises and has either full or part ownership in a number of successful tracks. Sargant must be doing something right to accumulate as many tracks as he has, tracks that operates like a business that translates to longevity.
Promoters like Swims, Sawyer & Sargant want you to survive and thrive. There are dozens of others like them scattered across the country who want promoters five, six ten states away to do well, thrive, grow and prosper. With near zero tolerance for bullshit, promoters such as these could very well be your best friends and confidants. Promoters such as these could literally save your ass financially.
We all welcome and wish the best for new promoters, but for their own sake they need to spend a year or two working at a track, and doing their homework, before making the plunge. We want them around for a long time.
But before going into this they all need to be aware of one thing: For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.
(c)2007-2008 Doc Lehman
Tags: Bob Sargant, Track Enterprises, Bill Sawyer, Virginia Motor Speedway, Mike Swims, Dixie Speedway, dirt track racing, dirt Late Model racing, Sprint Car racing
