A unique Pay Per Lap race was promoted and run this month. I drew forty-five late model cars and was a huge success. Here are some comments.
I attended a unique Pay-Per-Lap race this past June 28th. The race was run at Norway Speedway in Norway, Michigan. I had never been this far north in Michigan, but once visited Gene Coleman in Minominee to help him with his team way back in 1994.
Speaking of Gene, he was the brain behind the idea of a pay-per-lap format. He was assisted by Fran Presley of Five Star Bodies, Mike Bellisle of North Honda Motorsports, and Craig Van Enkevort, president of Union Station Motorsports. These four spend many hours refining the format and getting the thing promoted.
In this race, everyone who qualified (twenty started out of forty-five entries) for the feature was paid $7.50 per lap regardless of where they finished as a guarentee. The leader(s) of the race received bonuses of $100 for laps one, ten, twenty, thirty, etc. and $20 for every other lap. So, if you could lead and/or win, you could end up with more than the $750 you would earn by running all 100 laps.
The racers were very much in favor of this format because it helped everyone pay some of the cost to show up. We heard no complaints about this unique format from any of the teams. At the end of the night, we realized that the fans won by witnessing a great race, the teams won by going home with more $$$ than they would have and the team who put this together won because it worked.
What we need is your input. What do you think of this type of promotion. The pay per lap could be any amount that is fair to the track and promoters. But mostly, how could that fit in with todays racing environment? Write and let us know your thoughts.