London Ontario - The 2008 Drag racing season at Grand Bend Motorplex opened this past weekend with a new approach designed to help the racer save time and money while still enjoying plenty of racing. “For the past 11 years, GBM has opened in April and run every weekend until October, we, along with many of our customers, felt it was time for a change” says Paul Spriet, GBM’s owner. “ What are the two things we never seem to have enough of – time and money. So when Ron Biekx (GBM’s Gen mgr) and myself got together to design the 2008 season, we took into consideration many of the comments we had received from racers during the 2007 season. Many of our racers were looking for a program that didn’t require them to come every weekend; just enough to stay competitive in the Thunder Series points program, or chase a Summit Super Series title (GBM has had 2 SSS World Champions). They love racing but they also wanted the ability to do other things with their families on some weekends. Secondly, with the cost of traveling to and from the track being one of the their biggest expenses, they were looking to maximize the amount of racing they could get while at the track.”
“With these and other factors in mind, we sat down and came up with a program that we feel will accomplish this”, says Ron, “it provides the racers with a full slate of 20 race weekends, plus weekends off for those who want them. In fact, for those just interested in chasing the Thunder Series Points Championship and the IHRA Summit Super Series title, it only requires a commitment of 12 weekends out of the 20 we are open.” For example, we just ran our opening weekend; this weekend (Sat & Sun) is a Thunder Series points weekend with Free Top Sportsman/Top Dragster and Pro testing. Then it’s our big “Jet Warz/Concert” Victoria Day weekend show, followed by a weekend off. The entire 2008 season is setup on this approximately 3 weeks on, 1 week off format.
In addition to providing weekends off, we tried to maximize the opportunity for our racers to get the most racing when at the track by making most of our weekend’s double headers. The racer can come in on Friday, run our Test & Tune program, then run Points races both Saturday and Sunday. We also added a non points “Footbrake” race class on many of our weekends which allows racers in our Top, Mod and Street classes the opportunity to double enter into a fun, old fashioned race class, thereby spreading their travel costs over 4 races on a weekend vs driving in for a one day/one race deal. Many of our racers also take advantage of our seasonal pit spots, which allows them the opportunity to leave their trailer at GBM, thereby lowering their travel costs while still having a home away from home.
“We think this format will be a win/win for everyone” says Paul, “it should increase our overall attendance on the weekends we are open which benefits the track. More race classes with bigger race class attendance means more/bigger payouts for the racers, which they benefit from as well. Now all we need is for Mother Nature to be on our side and it should be a great 2008 season”
www.grandbendmotorplex.com
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