PROMOTER'S LETTER # 7 02/25/2010
Hello Everyone!
Hope the winter is treating everyone well! I have a few things that needed updating to all those in the CCR family mailing list. First, we will be having the 3rd annual kart & slingshot show at the pyramid mall in Johnstown NY from 1-6PM on Saturday, March 27th. I would encourage everyone that can to attend and set up their racers for display. If you are interested in displaying a kart(s) or slingshot(s) please email the website or call me at
516-287-0812 to let me know you are coming so we can alot the room for all that want to be there. CCR will also have a table with the NEW 2010 schedules on it at the Rotterdam mall during the Fonda Speedway car show on March 19,20 & 21st...come by grab some schedules and say hi!!! We would love to see you all!! I was just up to the track plowing yesterday and we will continue to keep it cleared out, so the minute we can get to work for
2010...we will be working night and day to get CCR in racing shape for opening nite!!! Remember this year our first 3 non pts shows will have a Saturday night raindate so those that want to shake down their racers before points start have as much time as possible to do so! IF you or a busines is interested in sponsoring CCR in 2010, please contact us no later than next Friday 3/5 in order to get all the sponsor names on the schedule for 2010
(516)287-0812 for more info. Lets hope the snow goes away soon and the weather cooperates so we can kick off 2010 on time and with good weather conditions!! See you all SOON!!!
Sincerely,
Eric Miller, Tom Hall
CCR
PROMOTER'S LETTER # 6 12/29/2009
Happy Holidays to all our racing fans, families and racers. I hope that you had a WONDERFUL Christmas surrounded by family and friends. The New Year is just around the corner and as I’m typing this letter there are less than 4 months left till we race again!
On December 8th 2009, over 40 drivers and crewmembers attended an informational drivers meeting at the Winners Circle. The following were discussed and addressed:We will have the kart show at the pyramid mall in Johnstown again this year as planned.The stock novice class has some rule changes…any clutch is allowed, regular pipe like the other classes instead of the straight pipe and the gear and fuel rule will remain the same. Age is 5-7.There will be only one JR1 Flathead class…the rookie class will be dropped. The age for JR 1 is 8-10. The medium class will be dropped and the lites will be 335 and the heavies will be 375 as before.We will be offering a JR 1 & JR 2 Animal class for 2010 as well as a JR 2 Gold flathead class. If you are interested in racing these classes, we want to hear from you…Please see the web poll and vote for the class you are interested in. POLL CLICK HEREIn 2010 we will go back to 2 throwaways and no bonus pts. With the economy the way it is I know that most are struggling with day-to-day life as well as the fact that this is supposed to be a family sport! You reading this as well as I, like to do things with our families such as camping, sports etc… The 2 throwaways give families a chance to do those things with their kids. It also gives people an opportunity to still follow points even if they miss a week due to unforeseen circumstances. We are hoping by doing this, that it allows all a little more flex in their schedule.We will do a fall series again in 2010…It was voted that it be on a Saturday night instead of Sunday as most like running night racing more than day shows. The rain date for each Fall Series race will be that Sunday.EVENTS:
This year it was decided that the last points race would be the 3rd annual Clash at The Creek Event! The past 2 years, it has been held after points are over, but some aren’t able to return for the event and we want all that can to be involved. The Clash Cups we give out are second to none and I have spoken to Tobias and the 100 lapper for that night for the Slingers will be a Tobias Qualifier…The winner earns a guaranteed starting spot in one of their big races in the fall of 2010!!!
Double Features Night will be back on the schedule for 2010! I thought the twist with the $100 bonus in the hat was a good thing and we will do that again for those races in 2010. We will not do any double pts races until at least 5 races past the beginning of the points season so as to give all a chance to shake their karts and Slingshots down.This year we have added a new twist for all the JR classes at CCR. We are going to have a “Clash Race” event for each JR class thru the year. The races will be 35 laps and the winner will receive his or her choice of a new bike or a gift card from FYE, Target or Wal-Mart. Get your equipment tuned up and good luck to all!PRO CLASS
There will be a PRO Class at CCR in 2010…for anyone that travels around big races and events they know what I’m talking about. The pro class will have a 375lb weight, flathead motors. In order to race the pro class you must register for one other class that night. THIS WILL BE A CLASS FOR POINTS AND THE POINTS CHAMPION WILL RECEIVE $1000.00 CASH AT THE BANQUET!!!! This class will run every week for a MINIMUM of $100.00 to win, with 4 karts running and payout increases as kart count goes up. We hope this brings out some good competition for all the pro racers each week. The entry fee is the same as all the other adult classes each week.
BANQUET
In 2010, we will start our banquet earlier. The tentative start time will be 3pm. As anyone that has ever been to a CCR banquet knows, the awards, prizes and the food are second to none in the area. We want to start earlier so that we can give out EVEN MORE prizes and awards without keeping everyone so late! Every year we try to make our spread bigger and better that the year before and 2010 will be NO exception I promise you that!!!VIDEO
We will be having video done by videotographer Al Smith from Smith Media Productions. We encourage each and every family that can, to purchase a copy of the weeks events. Al also does commercials, so any sponsors that want their commercial put on the DVD also can contact us and we will get you in touch with Al Smith.WEBSITE
As the cold winter drags on, please check out the different pages of our website…Clancy is posting the poll for the Animal Classes. Also please send us your families’ name and email address to the website so when we do press releases, or group informational mailings you and your family is included. Third, please check out the driver profile link, fill one out and we will be doing a program in 2010 with all the driver profile info we receive.
SCHEDULE
The tentative 2010 CCR schedule should be posted in a day or two. For anyone looking for the tour schedule, we should be ready with it in 2 weeks, as I am expecting to make some MAJOR schedule announcements for that and will know for sure in a week or so.There are many other things in the works for 2010 as far as $$ shows for the adult classes and slingshots, and as we finalize them those who have registered your emails with us will be the first to know!!! Please take advantage of all that CCR has to offer on the website as well as at the track on Friday nights! We care about racing and are doing everything possible to make the racing experience the best for our families and racers.
Sincerely,
Eric Miller
Tom Hall
Caroga Creek Raceway
PROMOTER'S LETTER # 5 10/22/2009
I wanted to take a moment and thank the racers and families that came and raced at CCR this season. We appreciate having each and every one of you at the track! One thing none of us appreciated this year was mother nature!! Over the entire season, we lost 10+ events to the weather! It seemed like we were looking at the radar every week…I hope next year is better weather wise. Its that time again to crown our champions for the year and reward the families and crews for all their hard work in getting their drivers up front. The CCR banquet is Saturday, November 7th at 5pm and if you haven’t got your tickets yet, give Tom or I a call and we’ll take care of that for you…the deadline is October 31st! If you haven’t ever been to the CCR banquet, you should make it a point to attend…Our banquet is huge! If you ask around of people that have been there, they will tell you that its second to none when it comes to trophies, awards, prizes and giveaways…oh and the food is great too!!! We hope to see you there!
Tour racers, that banquet is Sunday, November 15th at the Winners Circle. If you need tickets to that banquet, give Tom or I a call and we’ll take care of it for you. The deadline for tickets is November 6th. We want to thank all the tour racers for coming out this year and running all the different venues we tried to offer. We are currently working to get a few more tracks in the area involved and will have them finalized in the next month or so. The tour banquet will be a great time at the Winners Circle, just as it was last year. If you didn’t run the tour in its entirety this year, I would encourage you to give it a try next year. We will have more info on new classes and tracks as well as a meeting for anyone interested in offering advice or getting info on the tour and that date will be posted soon as well.
Congratulations and thanks go out to all the racers that participated in our Fall Series this year! I know a lot of families weren’t able to race due to school sports, vacations etc…but we did have a fun time and I hope to build off of that for next year.
We are doing some changes to the track for 2010 and as always, we will post pics and info when the changes are completed. We will have a meeting in December and would like all involved with CCR to attend if you can. This is a time for the rules and changes to be discussed as well as the 2010 schedule etc… We hope to see you there!
Once again thanks to all that came to CCR in 2009! We look forward to 2010 and hope to see you there!
Regards,
Eric Miller
PROMOTERS LETTER # 4 4/06/09
Spring is in the air and the snow is gone and it’s almost time to go racing again! I would like to thank everyone that attended the kart show and also the racers and families we saw at the Fonda car show in Rotterdam. It’s exciting to see our racing friends and families again and talk about the upcoming season. We have been busy at the track and construction of the food pavilion is in full swing and will be complete in time for opening night. We would like to thank some key sponsors that helped in this project…they are Edgar Roofing and Band Sawn Lumber. Please try and support the sponsors that support our track. I would also like to thank the helpers we had at the track during the rain, SNOW and the good weather…your help is greatly appreciated!!!
The track has been ready for weeks and all we need now is for the weather to cooperate so we can dry out a bit! The weather for our first week doesn’t look promising but we will keep you all posted when we make a decision for 4/10.
I have sent some pics for Clancy to post on the site of the most recent improvements at the track as well as the pics from the Kart & Slingshot show in Johnstown. They should be posted by Tuesday afternoon. You can also see some pics of that show on Dirt Track Digests’ website in the photo gallery.
See You Soon!!!
Eric Miller / Tom Hall
PROMOTERS LETTER # 3 1/30/09
Sit back and fasten your seatbelts!!! Spring is just around the corner! Happy New Year to all our racing families & friends. We have not been sitting idle all winter as many tracks do. We have been working hard to get new improvements done at the track as well as meeting with the owners and drivers of the slingshots & karts to go over changes and rules and / or proposed rules for the 2009 season. We want to thank all the people that took time to come to the meetings and voice their opinions. I wanted to take this opportunity to fill all of you in on the items that have been discussed and changed or added for '09.
There have been 15 or so pit stalls added to the pit area as the concession stand and the bathrooms have been moved to the other side of the pit road. The pit entry process will be made faster by taking pit pass money at the gate and having a separate area for driver registration after you have parked and gotten settled. There will be more room in the pits as ONLY vehicles carrying or towing a kart and/or slingshot will be allowed in the pit area. We want the entire racing night to move faster. The grid area will be doublewide this year so two classes will be lined up at once. When one class comes off the track, the next class goes on right away. We have moved the slingshot scales so there is more room for the karts coming off the track to get off the track and through the scale house. With this we will be pushing the drivers coming off the track to get through the scales fast so the exit from the track is clear.
Some of the other things we did to make things more efficient are as follows. The points system has been altered a little. The points that are currently given out for the finishing orders are the same with the exception of the participation points.they have been deleted for '09. This will make our points program more efficient and take the scorers less time over the weekend to figure them all out. There will be one throwaway for 2009 and if you race all the points races you will receive 100 bonus points. If you scroll to the link on our Web-site that says "08 Final Points" you can see that there were only a couple of racers in the top five of all 14 of our classes that even used one of their throwaways as a '0' so the decision was made to do one for '09 and give those with perfect points race attendance 100 points.
I have spoken much about the tech in our meetings and in past letters. There are a few changes and we need to go over them. Same as last year but needs to be enforced on ALL KARTS for '09: are the bolts holding the exhaust pipe to the motor must be wired. This is for safety and it guarantees you won't be DQ'd by your pipe falling off! We firmly believe that everyone deserves an equal playing field.that's why we are doing the vigorous tech and tech rules. If you want to cheat. GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!! Cause when we find the illegal parts they are ours. You don't get them back! If you are found with illegal parts you will receive no points, be DQ'd and won't be able to throw that race away. The protest rules have been clarified also: only the driver can protest another kart unless in a Jr class where the parent may protest. I don't want to have a crewmember or spectator come up and complain they want to protest a kart. The driver must do it! If you protest someone's kart, know that your kart comes in with us first and gets teched for whatever is being protested. Slingshots have some changes in their tech procedures as well. All the above mentioned applies to ALL racers, slingshot & karts. All engines that run at CCR must have the new red seals from Tobias to compete at the track. Tom and I have heard and saw enough of the nonsense of guys popping the seals and working the motors into big blocks. You guys that did it know who you are and you should be ashamed of yourselves. You not only screwed the other competitors but you screwed yourselves and what that tells us is that you can't win heads up against the ones that want to race fair. We are doing the red seals so that we know that Tobias has seen every motor that we see and he asserts that it is legal. We will be inspecting the seals and checking the numbers based on what Tobias has for that motor. If we inspect the seals and feel they are tampered with, you will be DQ'd and that will be the end of discussion. We made the long trip to Tobias on January 24th and went over tech issues and got a real clear picture of what we need to do and look for and we are prepared to do it 100%. Fuel will be checked by water and hydrometer. We are going to do everything we can to insure the most fair racing possible for ALL! The handicapping will be the same as last year.it will be based on the last 3 weeks finishes.
The spin rule we instituted last year was upheld again for 2009. Basically if you get together with another kart and spin them out, you go to the back with them. This deterred a lot of driver mistakes last year and it was a fair across the board rule.
Starts will be made coming out of turn 4 like last year at the green cones. We will start the race double file before the halfway point. After two tries at a double file start, the third time will be single file.
If your kart or slingshot becomes disabled and you know you're unable to continue, pull to the infield so we can finish the race. We will as always, try and allow you to restart, but if the problem continues or it can't be started, we will park the racer on the infield until the conclusion of the race. One of the WKA rules that we are going to try and use also is the time limit rule. CCR has taken that rule and put a 1 minute per lap rule in place.if the heat is 6 laps it should take no more than 6 minutes to run.if the feature is 20 laps it should take no more than 20 minutes to run. Clancy will have the stopwatch and will be clicking it at the start of each race and he will let us know when the time has expired. If the race is running when the time is expired we will finish the race. If the caution comes out again before the end of the race the yellow/checkered will be thrown and the race will be over.
We have done some class restructuring for '09 as well. If you look on our classes page you can see what's been changed so far. We have added a JR Slingshot class, which will run a 6-lap heat and 15-lap feature. The age is 8-13. All motors are to be WKA legal. There was some discussion about the IKF motors but we have decided with the racers and committee to allow WKA only.
The rulebooks will be printed soon and the rulebook on the web will also be updated soon. We have not put all of these rules in our rulebook as some are already in either the slingshot or WKA rulebook and don't need to be repeated. As a kart racer you should own your racetracks rulebook as well as the WKA rulebook as we follow their standards as well. As a slingshot racer you should own ours as well as Tobias' rulebook as we use both for that division.
The schedule has been mostly complete with the exception of some SATURDAY SHOWS!!! We will be running at least 2 shows on Saturday nights for those that want to run two nights. The Tobias Slingshot tour will be coming to CCR on a Saturday night as well as a normal card for all the karts. These will not be for points but we will throw some extra $$ in there for the Mediums one Saturday and another class the next Saturday. The Tobias Race will feature a minimum $750 total payout and will be part of their tour. If you're happy about the tour coming back to CCR, you can thank the Hackels.they pressed for its return! If you're not.blame Bobby!!
I think I've covered everything we spoke about at the meetings. If there's something else that I don't have on here and you were at the meetings feel free to email us at the Web-site and we'll add it and check our notes. Once again we want to thank all the racers that got involved with the meetings and encourage the ones that didn't to get involved next year when we meet in the off season. We have the car show scheduled for Saturday March 28th from 1-6 PM. If you are a CCR regular and are interested call me and reserve a spot. (516)287-0812 or (518)922-8774 after 6 PM. There's limited space and no entries will be accepted at the door. Thanks for your time and we'll see you very soon!
Regards,
Eric Miller, Tom Hall & Staff
Caroga Creek Raceway
PROMOTERS LETTER
This page was last updated: February 25, 2010
