2011 Season(If you can call it that)

[huniebunn]

Just looked at our season and boy does it ? .Only one day of racing and only one race?Wow!Think you are going to lose any out of town racer because it just isn't worth the trip.Iam pretty sure if we can go somewhere and race for 2 days that is where we will be no matter what is going on at our suppose home track.Really disappointed in the track or whoever came up with this.

[speedwrench44]

Guess you should have been at the Awards Banquet/Rules/Schedule meeting when all this was discussed.

Dave

[snowman]

Awards Banquet. Rules and Schedule meeting. When did that happen? Oh My. I must have been asleep at the wheel again.

[sugarray]

Snowman I think that Dave was being a little facetious with his statement. Woud have been nice to have had a banquet and been included in rules and schedule since we the racers do support the track. I personally have been supporting the track for 15 years now and will continue to do so.

Sugarray

[speedwrench44]

Ray, really more like sarcasm. We support the track, and the track needs to do the same if they want the racers to keep coming out. It's easy to see that car count has been going down in the last year.
Want an example of the tracks attitude? How about the 10.5 race Henry put together with the track's blessing last spring? He put money up and signed up sponsors and did the advertising. The track's reaction? Never mention it, shut down the PA and walk off when they were running. Sorta like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

At the SA banquet, Freddy gave Gold Card 's for winning the class, and Silver Cards to RU's. Didn't expect it, had no idea he was going to do that, but goes a long way when it comes to deciding where to go race.
At least he act's like he's happy to see me show up.

Go ahead and delete this, I have the whole thing copied ready to go up somewhere else when you do.

[sugarrayena]

I have tried to stay silent on this issue due to the fact that I have not been racing, but I can not hold off any longer. I am or will say was supposed to start racing at your track again this year. We have supported the track for 18+ yrs now and wanted to continue to do so. But now that is a BIG ? for me. I am waiting to hear the outcome of this new crap they are going to try and put together. Depending on how they decide do run this season I know of 2 cars they will be loosing. The car count was bad last year but if they make the wrong decision their count is going to drop even further. The bracket racer does not mean much to the track anymore. They are going after the test and tuners that pay to run and then there is no pay out at the end of the night. It seems the track is just going after the $$ now. If that is what it is about now I would rather find a track that cares about the racer and not just the money. We have not had a banquet for 2 years now and why no racer appreciation. To my understanding we are not having a banquet this year because only 2 of the 6 classes were won by Valley drivers and the rest of the classes were taken by out of towner's so there was not going to be any precipitation out of the valley people at the banquet so why have one. This came strait from the horses ass' mouth ( Issac ). We along with others have been going to the track since Issac had snot dripping from his nose. Now he is manager and every time you try to talk to him or ask a question you are guaranteed a smart ass sarcastic answer. It gets really frustrating and old. If this is not how it is Issac lets see it on here post it up for all to read the season is only 9 days away. We need to get with the racers and see what it is they want, they are the ones who keep your track going. Without the bracket racer on the same page with you the tracks car count is only going to go lower and then what are you going to have? I would really hate to walk away from your track only because we have built some really good friendships (some are more like family) with some really great people and to me that is what racing is about. Living life have a blast with great friends and family. I could go on but I will hold the tongue until I see what is going to happen. So when is the drivers meeting going to be or do we (racers) even get a say in the matter? Well we probably won't just show up pay your money and deal with it! That seems to be the attitude we are getting from track management....do y'all not realize an unhappy racer will eventually get fed up with it and find another track. This one is almost there, it will be determined at the next DRIVERS MEETING (oh I forgot you stopped having those to take away the racers voice, they were able to voice their opinions and y'all didn't like that so forget drivers meeting) or when you decide to announce the way you are running your season.

RAYENA GALBRAITH

[smokenjoe]

AND THEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[speedwrench44]

Don't hold back gal, tell us how you really feel.
Talked to Issac yesterday. Best I could tell from his beat around the bush answer entry is going up too, but it's lower than last year since you bought entry to two FB races for $45 each, $90, and entry this year is $55, so entry really went down. I see the Obama School of Economics has another honors graduate.
Last year we were promised restroom overhaul and track being ground. I can live with the track the way it is, we figured it out and adjusted the cars so could get them down the track. Rest rooms are a different story. Wonder how many spectator entry's they are loosing because of that. Maybe the track personnel needs to bring their wives and mothers out and make them use what the rest of us put up with instead of their private ones. Does City of Edinburg have a Health Department??? Not near big enough for amount of people.
I like racing there because of the other racers. Too nice a bunch to keep being treated like this

Who really want's our business???

[tommyhernandez]

What about the payouts? WHY! why did they go down again? Why didn't you all lower the ENTRY FEE since you all lower the PAYOUTS! instead of 80.00 bring it down to 60.00 on the PRO COMP. And on PRO-GAS instead of 60.00 bring it down to 50.00 like it was in 2008.

[smokenjoe]

Why did EIRT even have a point program last year if the were not going to have a Awards Banquet for the ones that worked so hard to attend every race and build up points for nothing, I wonder if NHRA knows how EIRT really runs there track and how they treat there racers??? I thought it was really funny when i recived the National Dragster issue 3 and seen that (Isaac Ebrom) had recived an award for 2010 Track Manager of the year. If they only knew??

[sugarrayena]

They seem to live by cut off your nose to spite your own face. I guess they do not realize that without racer appreciation racers leave. We spend our hard earned money to fix our (most home built) cars, spend tones of money dragging to the track pay our race entry fees. Then the track can not get cars they need to make payouts so payouts get cut. We continue to go even with car counts low then at the end of the year after dedicating yourself to our supposed track and for what to be told at the end of the year all your hard work paid off and you took a place in the points for the year but the track doesn't think you are worth the time or effort to say THANK YOU! No just that we don't need to celebrate your victories and to show they appreciate you coming to their track. Just show up again next year so we can have your money. They can look for any reason as to why the track is suffering but it is not due to anything other than the management (Issac) and the economy. You can only be rude, sarcastic and show people that the track does not appreciate them so long before they decide to take their business and money elsewhere. I know as the track reads this they think we don't know how to run a track (words out of their mouth) I may not have run a track but we have run a business for 20+ years and others of us have run MULTI MILLION dollar companies so I think that qualifies us to understand about how to treat your customers and keep them coming back. Yes we are racers but we are the tracks customers without us (all racers) you won't have a track. Unsatisfied customers lead to a business going out of business. No customer appreciation and they will leave and find a business that treats them better and wants them to be repeat customers. The valley is not the only track in Texas. There are a lot of other tracks around that would love for us to race their facility and will appreciate us spending our hard earned dollars with them. The way the track is run from start to beginning, comments made ( sick of someone trying to run everyone else down) over pa to race fee and payout will be the deciding factor as to what track I call HOME! We don't even get support from the track when go to bracket finals and we are going to represent them. I want a track that cares about us not just our money. Dedicated racers looking for a dedicated track.

[huniebunn]

I think all of this is pretty sad.Most racers have tons of money in their cars.At the end of the season we all go through our cars and spend even more to get them safe and ready for the new season.So many idea have been thrown the tracks way yet NONE of them are ever tried.If the track has employees that don't want to work 1 week end a month for the racers ,I would be looking for better help!Rayena you said it all!If the track goes under it will not be the racers doings!We will be heading to a track we can race !

[kb]

well I must say that I was surprised when the schedule was posted ! Fridays were wiped out all but just for street cars. 1 weekend per mth for true drag racing with real drag cars. I like a lot of racers that come to Edinburg are from out of town. with a large part of our expense being the travel to and from the track. The 2 day format helped allow for a lot of racing for the travel dollar. I am not alone in saying that many of your out of town racers from Houston, San Antonio and other locations in Texas will not be pleased with the change. Look at the overall car count subtract the out of towners what do you have? Just my 2 cents
Keith

[huniebunn]

I agree Keith but I don't think they looked at the out of towners that come to their track to race,nor do they care.Looks like the Edinburg racer that are serious about racing are going to become the out of towners .It is sad that there is a track within 15 miles of you and you have to travel 4 or more hrs to find a home track.There are some really nice track in Texas and they act like they want you there.Try Abilene,Temple they have both treated us great and their tracks are good.Hope to see everyone racing somewhere.

[IsaacEbrom (EIR Staff)]

The topic began as a post about the 2011 Bracket Series, then took a turn to the Banquet, followed by sarcasm, and now I am not a 100% sure what to call it.

Regarding the Bracket Series, the number of races has gone from 16 to 10. The number of weekends is still the same; however, The Bracket Bash Double Dash is no more. There will be only one race per day this year and not two as in years past. The decision was made based on the average number of Super Pro entries for both years of the Double Dash. In 2009, the average was 21.5 entries and last year dropped to 20.75 entries. Both the first race weekend (February) and last race weekend (December) in 2010 saw 18 Super Pro entries.

As was the case last year, the Banquet will be held at the track after an event. Just to clarify what came from the horses’ mouth was, “It’s hard to pick a random date for a banquet when so many winners are from out of town.” Both the Super Pro Champion and Runner up live over 100 miles away. Both the Sportsman Champion and Runner up live over 200 miles way plus the Junior Champion lives over 100 miles away.

Another clarification is about the entry fee and payout of the Sportsman class. Last year, it was $45 to enter one race and it paid $300.00 to win or $60 to enter both races. This year the entry is $50 and pays $500 to win, thus one can say the entry went up or down. The bottom line is the more vehicles—the more payout!

I realize we live in a “What have you done for me lately” society and people in general have short memories BUT How come no one mentioned all the awards given out to drivers over the years?

In the last five year alone, Edinburg International Racetrack has had
-A $5,000.00 points fund for the Bracket Bash
-Given away flights to Las Vegas
-Given away Gold Cards to class champions
-Awarded Jackets and Trophies to champions
-Awarded Helmets and Driving Suits

The last Bracket Bash Double Dash had a total of 18 entries. Only 7 drivers were from the Rio Grande Valley and 3 of those drivers had gold cards. This means we only had 4 paid Valley racers, SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE FOR THE BRACKET SERIES TO SURVIVE.

Thanks…Isaac Ebrom
Edinburg International Racetrack