I was at Thompson T and T-ing earlier this year. Ken looked me up. He wants us back badly he says. He listed all the things he would do for us. I said "how about a barbecued chicken dinner?", he said we could talk about that too. Just for your info. I remember there were some that took a hard stand----but I don't know if they even race with us. Mark
Mark, All,
I was one of those who took a hard stand with the track management at Thompson. We were able to clearly document that the track realized a profit of over $4,000 from our group being there without any effort on their (track managements) part. The uproar on the internet was unbelievable when we didn't show up. More on that later.
Our first request was that the track allow guys with cars that were "Show Only" to park with the rest of the 409 cars. Their response was, they have to pay the rate to bring their cars into the pits just like anyone else pulling into the pits.
Our second request was for the track to provide a small payout to the winners of the HR1 and HR2 classes. Their response was, your guys can enter the bracket race just like everyone else.
Our third request was, Well, h0w about just giving the winners of those two classes their entry fee back. Their response was, no, we can't do that.
That was when we began to look closely at how much revenue our group brought to Thompson Raceway Park with NO effort on their part. When we left that last year we told them we would be looking for another track that was willing to work with us. The following year when they promoted the Gasser Magazine reunion that promoted the 348/409 races as well. We had told them we weren't coming back. The SH!T hit the fan from spectators who showed up expecting us to be there. The track management threw us under the bus and said we abandoned them at the last minute and they weren't able to change the promotional material. I responded on every racing site I found their lies and in fact Bob Wentzelburger ( One of the highly published Photographers ) came to my defense when ever he saw their post and my follow up.
All that being said here is what it would take to get me to endorse Thompson as the venue for the Fred Totten Memorial again.
HR1 class
$200 to the winner
$100 to the runner up
$50 to each of the quarter finalists
HR2 class
$200 to the winner
$100 to the runner up
$50 to each of the quarter finalists
Lastly and equally important in my opinion is a public apology to the racers of this forum on all racing forums where they maligned us for the lies they told trying to make our group out to be the bad guys when they fully knew we were not coming back due to their GREED!