Why is Sprint Car Racing NOT on TV?!

Sprint Car racing is one of the most exciting sports on the planet. So why is it not on TV?

If you’ve ever been to or seen a Sprint Car race, the chances are high that it was one of the most exciting forms of motorsport you’ve ever witnessed.

24 cars with 900 horsepower sliding around a dirt track, slinging clay with constant passing and wild wrecks.
I’m clearly biased, but I’m sure you’d agree that the on-track Sprint Car racing product is far more entertaining than other major motorsport categories like NASCAR, Formula 1, or Supercars.

On the flip side though, those other major motorsport categories have WORLD CLASS productions that ensure their sport is seen by millions across the globe, whereas Sprint Car racing doesn’t.

For the most part, Sprint Car racing has been left behind and only now with the growth of streaming in recent years has Sprint Car racing been accessible by people not at the track.

Putting Sprint Car racing on TV should be, in my opinion, the top priority for the industry to not only grow the audience, but ensure the sport has a future.

For such an important topic, I wanted to discuss it with someone who knows far more than I do

That’s why I got in contact with a bloke named Dean Neal.

Dean is an expert in the area, and is pushing like crazy to for Sprint Car racing to have that first-class TV production we all want, shown by his efforts with Night Thunder - A Television program highlighting Sure, this video is pretty long, BUT it’s full of information that fits perfect for Sprint Car Hub where we aim to provide unique Sprint Car racing insights that you won’t get anywhere else.

Dean and I chat about the cost of putting Sprint Car racing on TV, the conflict between TV and streaming, what the end goal is for his efforts and who is ultimately responsible for putting Sprint Car racing on TV.

Let us know what you think of the vid!

- Toby

YOUTUBE ➡️ @SprintCarHub

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[jordanmonaghan]

Unpopular opinion but some of the charm of sprintcar racing is that it’s accessible for the little guy to still run, making it a regular tv thing would make it more commercialised and then eventually push out the little guys cos they wont be able to afford to run against these guys, same as the v8 supercars when they used to have privateers

[gregoryjohnson]

To his comment, the low production value is the best part. I like how it's just like there is a camera on a tri-pod sitting in the seat i would be sitting in and it just records.

[chriswood]

A really raw and honest chat. Absolutely enjoyed the key honest points with clay per view and streaming. I think a lot of people think similarly, just just don't speak forwardly about it. Let's keep the conversation open 👍. In terms of raw ingredients it has the potential to be an incredible finished product

[dewyse]

Things to take out of that interview - Island Thinking.

Inside speedway we have Track Promotion, Competitors, Fans and governance. These factions need to work to a collective goal. And in Australian speedway, history has shown we certainly could do better.

When we talk about world wide motorsport we don't talk about sedan racing, or open wheel racing, or motorbike racing, we talk about individual businesses like Formula one. Nascar. Indy car. Moto GP. Supercars. We don't have that in speedway. Sure there are series like World of Outlaws, and in Australia, World Series Sprintcars (even thought it has been on ice). But Australian speedway needs to change its thinking and develop that business mentality of those world motorsport brand names mentioned.

If we had a Business group, or a consolidated stakeholder group, that put on lets say 30 sprintcars in a 12-20 week schedule initially, that all bought in like the Supercars teams, then you have a product that could sell to the advertising dollar, to be able to invest in facilities to lift their standard and give fans someone to follow on main stream TV and digital streaming. This would be the apex of speedway. Where all equipment was cutting edge and the cream would rise to the top.

Then we could have lower tier competition to strive to get into the top tier competition. That's would be where the budget teams, and lets face it, the hobbyists like myself, get to enjoy speedway on a more affordable level.


Unfortunately to get the exposure speedway deserves, it needs to isolate the very best from weekly racing to encourage broadcast, whilst fostering grassed roots for participation. Not easy, a lot of interested parties to consider and nurture. Unfortunately without one, you can't have the other.

So World series sprintcars seams to be the best course of action, but the series format is not aiming high enough. It has always been a centred around a travelling circus run over a couple of condensed months over Christmas . Be professional. Run weekly or bi-weekly. As an idea, Spread it out over the year using all of the tracks around Australia. Take advantage of climate differences in the country. We have north Queensland, Darwin and Northern Western Australia. Utilise them. Then fans can anticipate events rather than be bombarded with events. They could save up and travel to these exotic destinations. Potentially encouraging input from Government tourist money.

We need to remove the island thinking for this to happen. And get on the same page. Speedway deserves this.

[dwayne]

Take a page from the dirt series on flow racing, they are doing the same thing as drive to survive with f1 and showing the drivers personality, its hard to follow a sport if you don't have a driver to back.
And you can't back someone you don't know anything about, all we see is a car and pick who we want to win from the look or how they raced the week before.

[westennant]

Great interview 👍🏻 I'm in my late 50s and when I was younger they used to play reruns of sprintcars on a Sunday afternoon, I used to wait for every Sunday afternoon to come around just to watch it, I think that should be brought back, the problem with live TV is the stoppages delays, I then started going to Avalon and watching, and wow better watching on track from TV,

[rolandhicks]

I used to love Thursday night thunder. Midget racing. Then it became Saturday night thunder, I looked forward to it each week

[richardvinson]

That’s why I got flo racing. I love sprint car racing and dirt in general

[glenchapman]

I think a stumbling block for a long time was a series of meets that were televised from Parramatta Speedway back in the 90s. The coverage was so bad, not even speedway fans could watched it. Most of the commentors acted as if they had never seen a sprint car before. One drive after having won a heat was asked. "What's that wingy thing on the front do" Ratings tanked and so did interest from network television.

[hawkifish]

This is an interesting topic. I remember when the Knoxville Nationals was on live TV. One of the bad things about that was that the timing doesn't work well with live TV. It was really frustrating as a person who bought a ticket and was at the race to have to wait on TV for commercials or wait because the broadcast hasn't started yet. So it always felt like the paying customers got punished so people could watch from home for free. All of that said, if you want to grow the sport you need to have it on TV. I was at the Indy 500 this past weekend and wore sprint car shirts all weekend and was surprised all the people there that didn't know what it was.

[blaisemichael]

I know this is mostly sprints, but pete Britton just won tonight

[ARyan-lndb]

Great interview Toby.
The quality of the night thunder production is fantastic and great for the sport.

[Jimmcgregorphotography]

Deano’s production is super slick, he’s done an amazing job. But there isn’t enough money going around to do the job

[Shanes_Shed]

Speedway in general is an interesting one from a fan perspective. I think its a much better thing to watch live as you can practically see the entire track which many other forms of motorsport you can't so they lend themselves well to TV coverage. I fondly remember going to Claremont speedway as a kid and the crowds on the nights I recall being huge compared to what you now see at the motorplex. I think if people see an event on TV with big crowds in the audience it might gather their interest a bit more. Personally I think the spectator entry fees (I can only relate to Perth Motorplex) are a little on the high side to encourage regular attendance - I'll only really attend the bigger events because of the cost. Maybe venues could look at actually lowering prices to get more people in rather than having higher prices and less people. Surely even if the end revenue is the same or unaffected wouldn't it be better to have a bigger supporting crowd? And I 100% agree on the track presentation thing - I really like what the motorplex does in this regard. Just the simple thing of having all the push cars the same colour really brings an element of professionalism.

[raymond]

Some sports are just better offered as pay-per-view or closed circuit TV.
Title fights in boxing used to be on TV. With Howard Cosell announcing. Not anymore.
I don't watch every IRL race. But I watch Indy. I don't watch every F-1 race, but I watch Monico.
Unfortunately, I watch every NASCAR race (due to Larson & Bell). When the crowd looks like a weekly show at Knoxville, it hurts NASCAR's image.

[Steve-gmjl]

Always loved Dean when he was at Parra.

[mick]

One issue is the lack of professionalism with announcers and commentators…most have mullets and are carrying 20+ kilos over weight … not a good look for TV

[jimiquin]

Speedway needs more camera angles. 5 minimum, one on each straight, two on the infield at each end, a drone and onboards.With a producer that has actually raced telling the cameraman what to film and when if it is live. It's 2023 and there is 3-4 wide racing or big wrecks that are going completely un-noticed. Part of the reason too is that it would show all the v8supercar, f1 and nastard fans that they have been lied to their whole life and the people that they thought were great racercar drivers were really polo players compared to bull riders. Big business loves these people because they buy endless hsv and fpv apparel and sell out 50'000-100'000 seat venues. Always follow the money. Trust the science. The speed of science.

[storky]

The key thing advertisement. You look back in 80s . USA 🇺🇸 V AUS🇦🇺 LIVERPOOL Seedway was pack same as Newcastle . They Advertised on tv and radio . Divers become house whole names . People got come to the speedway and smell and feel what racing like then they will watch it on tv you got to sell it to make it work

[TheStav]

Living in the Nations Capital, I still Mourne the closer of Tralee Speedway. Sure we have Canberra Speedway but it has been hamstrung with EPA rules relating to noise and bloody curfews etc ( a chronic pain in the but for all motorsport. These days I get my Speedway fix from Floracing, World of Outlaws, Hunt The Front and Clay per View for AUS. I am a huge fan of Speedway since I was a little kid (and I'm over 60 now) and would love any Speedway shown from all over the country on free to air or even Foxtel/Kayo. It is such an intense, compact motorsport with shitloads of action. Hopefully it may change for Speedway starved fans like, but somehow I'm not convinced. That's why I've subscribed to your channel for a no bullshit commentary and your passion for such a great form of motorsport. BTW there is not much motorsport that I will not watch (except F1 as it's not a sport but a reality show largely)