What Makes it a Great Venue ?

[Dave M]

We all have our favorite race course.

What makes a venue such a great place to race ? Take a few moments and then post up what you feel draws you to a particular venue each year. Things such as, prize money, tow money, location, people, pits, easy to get to, close to home, trees for shade, Nice bathrooms, etc etc.

Looking for some key items that seem to stand out and make a race great. Please don't turn it into a debate. I am sick of the election debates already on TV. It is also not about what makes stock or mod or pro great. It is simply what draws you to the place.

If we can glean a few key priorities from this, race organizers can make efforts to include these at their venues. It might help grow the sport a little. At the very least it will help sustain current members.

[blueskyracer]

For us it is a couple things that we enjoy at a race site. The first item is a must. Camping has to be really close to the pit area or we flat don't go. We have to be able to keep our handicapped son close to us. Shade trees also help when its hot.

Distance is not a big deal as long as we can get there is 5-6 hours of driving but since you only race a few hours a day good fishing helps kill the rest of the day and nice scenery. Also dogs must be allowed with responsible pet owners.

[Islandmon]

Mike touch on a few good points which I'll incorporate into my list.

1. Reasonable drive times 4-6 hours tops for a weekend event.
2. Camping and or reasonable hotel rates.
3. Good pits with plenty of parking and easy access to the water.
4. After race activities either a pot luck dinner or in some cases the local municipality will have events that we can attend.
5. Best case scenario is that you have option to adjust the course based on the wind conditions. I know this is not the case at most venues.
6. A concession stand is a plus for those that do not travel in a motor home.

[walleye]

Lock Haven

[blueskyracer]

Lock Haven

For those of us who have never been there and may never get there please tell us a little more.

[Shep]

Shaded, flat pits - preferably paved.
good launch
spectators (good looking ones)
Lots of competitors - 8 or more boats for stock - 15 or more for opc per class the more the better
challenging race course
Beer

[walleye]

Carnival atmosphere for 3 days. Venders, live bands, unique viewing all around and over the course, cooler bobbing, fast water, tight corners, beer tent, concrete grandstand seating, the wildest coolest longstanding race on the planet. The setting is beautiful. A few miles upstream from the little league world series. Planes landing at the Lock Haven airport right next to the old original home of Piper Aircraft near the banks of turn 3. Oh ya, the Fallon if its still opens. Party headquarters. And most of all its run by region 3.Those guys are good. Driving around the coarse is like a video game. You'll never forget it.

[walleye]

One more important thing. I't raises a lot of money for local charities

[pops67g]

De Pue, Wakefield, Whitney Point

All have long enough courses, decent space for motorhomes, OK pits (plenty of space and fair shoreline), and reasonably smooth water to go flat out on most of the time. And no I didn't just pick close ones - they range from 300 to 1250 miles from me.

[Gunjumper]

Walleye, who are you?

Biased of course, but the offerings of Lock Haven are hard to beat... hotels within walking distance (beer goggles or not), beer tents, real bathrooms, paved and grass pits, shade trees, protected water, carnival for the family, prize $$$, race under a bridge with spectators over head, Dash for the Cash, more CSH's than @ the Nationals!, cooler bobbing, crystal clear water to find missing props/cowlings, Region 3 scorers, I could go on and on......

Honestly, if I had to say one thing that pulls people to a race, is the number of other racers. I've raced at some dumpy places with less than efficient scorers and not that great pits/water/course. But if other guys are there racing/partying/camping in the same place, thats all that matters. I'd take Denton MD with a good crowd of racers over the lake on the infield of Daytona Speedway by myself.

Keep the prize $$$, set the entry fee at whatever you want, throw a dinner/drivers party on Saturday night, run an efficient race, have an enthusiastic announcer, finish up at a reasonable hour Sunday, all important things to me. Dayton OH comes to mind for an out of region race for me that I will put on my hit list for its' quality. G. Lyons

[Jack Stotts]

Hey Gregg, would you PM me on how to get hold of Jerry Davids? Jack

[Bill Huson]

Camden, NC

*sniff-sniff* Ah the memories . . .

[jsilvestri]

Competition!

[B Walker]

Must haves:

Good camping facilities
After racing adult recreation facilities

Nice to have:

everything else

If a venue has the "big 2" then over time a history develops and a venue gets a following. Once a following is established it becomes an event which cant be missed.

Jesup, GA is the new Camden, NC...all it needs is a pig pickin'....

Lockhaven, PA is probably the best "event" in Stock Outboarding.

My first list had "Good water for racing" on it but then I thought of a few venues like Denton, MD which is probably the worst race course I ever raced on but a really good event that I looked forward to every year.

[Larry M]

1. Good race water. ( If the water is to bad to race in why go)
2. Good pits. ( I have seen good water and the pits were almost impossible)
3. Place to camp close by.
4. Prize money. ( I haven't heard much about money but if two sites are equal and I can only go to one I'll take the money race.)

Larry Mac