**The Plight of American Racetracks: A Self-Harming Cycle**

Racetracks often cost much more to build than they become worth, but it's not just finances that can bring a track down. Neighbors, specifically in the case of Laguna Seca in California, can also play a significant role.

Laguna Seca, one of the most famous racetracks in California, is home to the infamous Corkscrew, considered one of the best turns in the world. Despite its reputation since 1957, the track is facing numerous challenges. Homeowners have decided to build their dream homes right next to an active racetrack, leading to hundreds of complaints about the noise to the City Council.

The decibel limits on track days are a major issue. The 90-decibel limit imposed by the city is lower than California's new law, causing widespread discontent among racing enthusiasts. The infamous "Laguna Seca pipe" has become a laughingstock, with people installing ridiculous three-foot mufflers on their legitimate race cars.

The noise restrictions have severely limited the number of unrestricted track days, hampering the track's income. This has a ripple effect, making it difficult for smaller racetracks to function. Entry fees for drivers are also becoming increasingly high due to declining fan attendance. As fewer fans attend smaller tracks, promoters are forced to raise entry fees from drivers, creating a self-harming cycle.

If this trend continues, racing will eventually come to a grinding halt. The thought of amateur drivers giving up on their dreams is heartbreaking. Moreover, the streets will become the new racetrack as people opt for more thrilling experiences. This scenario plays out like baseball if high costs are placed on playing Little League.

So, what can be done? It's time to rally behind our beloved racetracks and support local events. The enthusiasm of fans is crucial in keeping these tracks alive. By attending small-track racing events and cheering them on, we can show our support for the sport.

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WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enmotor sports are in decline tracks across the country are closing facing financial strain or complaints from neighbors interest from fans is falling to last year's NASCAR TV ratings were down 20% from 2017 it's a tough reality but racing is on the ropes and I want to find out why most of us played baseball right lucky this is a car channel I know but I bring up baseball because auto racing is a sport like baseball if kids today don't participate in t-ball then in about 15 years the MLB is gonna be in some real trouble the same goes for racing leagues like NASCAR IndyCar and the NHRA without amateur drivers improving their skills and climbing the ranks we will eventually run out of Pro drivers when the current crop starts retiring so how do we foster healthy amateur drivers well to save racing we need to save racetracks like any other business racetracks closed because they run out of money so how does that happen say that we donut media bought a racetrack Antioch Speedway an off-road park in Cal well County North Carolina to be exact I found it for sale on racing junk for less than half a million dollars that kind of money can't even get you a house in LA but we can get a racetrack let's do it okay so we buy the track it's a half mile dirt oval with a six mile off-road course attached let's just focus on that oval we'll call it the donut dome our goal is to make a little bit of money with the facility and not just say that we own the track according to this article I found by Jonathan masters we're about to spend a ton of cash first we got to pay a sanctioning fee to a touring racing series this is gonna let us host a league race in the first place this will cost us about 3,500 bucks and pricing depends on the size of the lead next we got to do some marketing in a market like North Carolina ads on the radio newspaper posters and some social media are gonna run us about 2,100 bucks we've already spent over 5 grand and we haven't even opened the track yet speaking of the track we need people to work the event we need track officials people at the gate security at our crew announcers concessions support staff and an ambulance for one night of racing a small track like ours can spend about $4,000 on payroll we uh make sure racers can actually drive on our track we got to pay our guys to prep it there's a river flowing underneath this racetrack and it's gonna cost us nearly $400 in electricity to light our arena for one night last is our biggest expense the prize money big racers aren't gonna come to the donut dome if there isn't good money on the line how about say 10 large if you win if we have four classes running that night with second and third place winning cash two and five thousand and twenty five bucks then we're gonna need about 70 thousand dollars in prize money in total we need 79 thousand six hundred dollars for one night of racing at a podunk 1/2 mile oval in the middle of North Carolina sorry it's a podunk we love North Carolina here at donut we've been there great great state I actually really want to go to Asheville now it's time for a little math hashtag math boy if our tract has 3,000 seats then we need $26.53 per head to break even on one night of racing we round that up to 30 bucks for spectators then that comes out to $90,000 a little over 10 grand in profit not that but I personally think $30 is a little steep for our little dirt track in the middle of nowhere so if we add a thousand seats in the form of new bleachers on the other side of the track then we can drop ticket prices to a much more reasonable $20 but do that a single ten row bleacher set holding 184 fans will cost us about $7,000 and we need six of those to bring ticket prices down to attract more fans run away six times I don't have $42,000 to spend more seating so what am I supposed to do this is just one example of all the considerations track promoters have to make it is really really hard to make money with a race track and it doesn't get easier the bigger you get the circuit of the americas near Austin Texas is currently the only track in the US big enough to host Formula One racing my opinion it's a pretty sick trek but like the doughnut dome Cota or Circuit of the Americas has its own set of financial woes first the track costs nearly 300 million dollars to build general admission for the upcoming f1 race starts at $189 Kota as a seating capacity of 120,000 people so if they only sold general admission and sold out the f1 race a tough feat in its own right they make 22 million six hundred eighty thousand dollars at that rate they'd pay off the construction and a little over 13 years unfortunately though that might not be enough for Kota remember that $3,500 sanctioning fee we needed to pay the little touring league back at the doughnut dome to bring f1 Dakota the track depends on Texas paying Formula one around 25 million dollars for one weekend of racing goddamn so I guess the donut dome isn't gonna host f1 any time soon unfortunately for Kota investors the track is already losing value Cotto is valued at 271 million in 2014 losing 30 million in value just two years after opening I do the little cute little quote things because according to an article by The Statesman this shouldn't be a surprise because racetracks often cost much more to build then they become being worth but it's not just finances that can bring a track down it can also be neighbors Laguna Seca is possibly California's most famous racetrack it's home to the corkscrew one of the best turns in the entire world but despite being a huge destination since 1957 Laguna is in trouble even though Laguna has been a well-known racetrack since 1957 people still decided to build their dream homes right next to an active racetrack these homeowners have since lobbied hundreds of complaints about the noise to the City Council we're talking 90 decibel limits on track days that is lower than California's new law that everyone was all pissed off about you haven't seen our episode on that check it out it's pretty fun have you ever heard of the Laguna Seca pipe they look like this people put ridiculous 3-foot mufflers on the back of their legitimate race cars it's pretty stupid looking lucas Seca used to host big racing series from all over but now because of the noise restrictions the track only has a limited number of unrestricted noise days which limits how many big events they can put on and that really hampers the tracks income these people literally moved next to a race track are suddenly surprised that there is noise coming from a race track you're being selfish and I hate you seriously speaking of income there's one final aspect harming racing in the u.s. entry fees for drivers since less fans are attending small racetracks promoters are asking higher entry fees from drivers how is the amateur to pro pipeline gonna function now it's a self harming cycle if less people are racing less fans are gonna come out and if less fans come out then tracks are gonna make less money then they close and then you know fans aren't gonna want to drive further to other tracks that are still open so then those tracks close to now people don't watch racing at all and the big Pro Series they're gonna start losing a - so then what happens racing just stops it's not a sustainable ecosystem and another negative to thing about if these racetracks close they're gonna race and drive hard on the streets that's just what's gonna happen bringing it back to baseball what if it cost corny grand for your kid to play t-ball and there was only one baseball diamond and they couldn't cheer because the neighbors would complain and they had put little pads on the baseball bat so it didn't make noise but the cars driving by the field were louder than the game nobody would want to play but the reality is it's on us to save our racetracks it's April the racing season is in full swing go to your local tracks support the small events but not for let's go it won't be small for long hey guys thanks for watching this video I really hope you liked it I want to thank this week's sponsor Experian boosting your credit score can take months even if you really try believe me I know but now there's a fast and easy way to boost your credit score fo3 experienced boosts your credit score with payments you're already making like your utility bill and your cell phone bill that's right up until now those bills did not count towards your credit but now thanks to Experian boost they can experience is safe secure and 100% free with no credit card required most people who boost with Experian bust see an increase of 10 points or more on their credit score Experian boost can potentially help you establish or increase your access to credit boost your FICO score foe brief experience is only available at Experian comm slash donut that's expe our I am calm slash donut had to keep track of that in my head people all across America have already boosted their credit with Experian boost and you should too thanks for watching this episode of wheelhouse if you want to see more of this weird guy ranting hit that yellow subscribe button seriously go to a local race this weekend go get a hot dog it's awesome follow me on instagram @ nolan J Sykes follow donut at donut media go watch a race I'll see you next timemotor sports are in decline tracks across the country are closing facing financial strain or complaints from neighbors interest from fans is falling to last year's NASCAR TV ratings were down 20% from 2017 it's a tough reality but racing is on the ropes and I want to find out why most of us played baseball right lucky this is a car channel I know but I bring up baseball because auto racing is a sport like baseball if kids today don't participate in t-ball then in about 15 years the MLB is gonna be in some real trouble the same goes for racing leagues like NASCAR IndyCar and the NHRA without amateur drivers improving their skills and climbing the ranks we will eventually run out of Pro drivers when the current crop starts retiring so how do we foster healthy amateur drivers well to save racing we need to save racetracks like any other business racetracks closed because they run out of money so how does that happen say that we donut media bought a racetrack Antioch Speedway an off-road park in Cal well County North Carolina to be exact I found it for sale on racing junk for less than half a million dollars that kind of money can't even get you a house in LA but we can get a racetrack let's do it okay so we buy the track it's a half mile dirt oval with a six mile off-road course attached let's just focus on that oval we'll call it the donut dome our goal is to make a little bit of money with the facility and not just say that we own the track according to this article I found by Jonathan masters we're about to spend a ton of cash first we got to pay a sanctioning fee to a touring racing series this is gonna let us host a league race in the first place this will cost us about 3,500 bucks and pricing depends on the size of the lead next we got to do some marketing in a market like North Carolina ads on the radio newspaper posters and some social media are gonna run us about 2,100 bucks we've already spent over 5 grand and we haven't even opened the track yet speaking of the track we need people to work the event we need track officials people at the gate security at our crew announcers concessions support staff and an ambulance for one night of racing a small track like ours can spend about $4,000 on payroll we uh make sure racers can actually drive on our track we got to pay our guys to prep it there's a river flowing underneath this racetrack and it's gonna cost us nearly $400 in electricity to light our arena for one night last is our biggest expense the prize money big racers aren't gonna come to the donut dome if there isn't good money on the line how about say 10 large if you win if we have four classes running that night with second and third place winning cash two and five thousand and twenty five bucks then we're gonna need about 70 thousand dollars in prize money in total we need 79 thousand six hundred dollars for one night of racing at a podunk 1/2 mile oval in the middle of North Carolina sorry it's a podunk we love North Carolina here at donut we've been there great great state I actually really want to go to Asheville now it's time for a little math hashtag math boy if our tract has 3,000 seats then we need $26.53 per head to break even on one night of racing we round that up to 30 bucks for spectators then that comes out to $90,000 a little over 10 grand in profit not that but I personally think $30 is a little steep for our little dirt track in the middle of nowhere so if we add a thousand seats in the form of new bleachers on the other side of the track then we can drop ticket prices to a much more reasonable $20 but do that a single ten row bleacher set holding 184 fans will cost us about $7,000 and we need six of those to bring ticket prices down to attract more fans run away six times I don't have $42,000 to spend more seating so what am I supposed to do this is just one example of all the considerations track promoters have to make it is really really hard to make money with a race track and it doesn't get easier the bigger you get the circuit of the americas near Austin Texas is currently the only track in the US big enough to host Formula One racing my opinion it's a pretty sick trek but like the doughnut dome Cota or Circuit of the Americas has its own set of financial woes first the track costs nearly 300 million dollars to build general admission for the upcoming f1 race starts at $189 Kota as a seating capacity of 120,000 people so if they only sold general admission and sold out the f1 race a tough feat in its own right they make 22 million six hundred eighty thousand dollars at that rate they'd pay off the construction and a little over 13 years unfortunately though that might not be enough for Kota remember that $3,500 sanctioning fee we needed to pay the little touring league back at the doughnut dome to bring f1 Dakota the track depends on Texas paying Formula one around 25 million dollars for one weekend of racing goddamn so I guess the donut dome isn't gonna host f1 any time soon unfortunately for Kota investors the track is already losing value Cotto is valued at 271 million in 2014 losing 30 million in value just two years after opening I do the little cute little quote things because according to an article by The Statesman this shouldn't be a surprise because racetracks often cost much more to build then they become being worth but it's not just finances that can bring a track down it can also be neighbors Laguna Seca is possibly California's most famous racetrack it's home to the corkscrew one of the best turns in the entire world but despite being a huge destination since 1957 Laguna is in trouble even though Laguna has been a well-known racetrack since 1957 people still decided to build their dream homes right next to an active racetrack these homeowners have since lobbied hundreds of complaints about the noise to the City Council we're talking 90 decibel limits on track days that is lower than California's new law that everyone was all pissed off about you haven't seen our episode on that check it out it's pretty fun have you ever heard of the Laguna Seca pipe they look like this people put ridiculous 3-foot mufflers on the back of their legitimate race cars it's pretty stupid looking lucas Seca used to host big racing series from all over but now because of the noise restrictions the track only has a limited number of unrestricted noise days which limits how many big events they can put on and that really hampers the tracks income these people literally moved next to a race track are suddenly surprised that there is noise coming from a race track you're being selfish and I hate you seriously speaking of income there's one final aspect harming racing in the u.s. entry fees for drivers since less fans are attending small racetracks promoters are asking higher entry fees from drivers how is the amateur to pro pipeline gonna function now it's a self harming cycle if less people are racing less fans are gonna come out and if less fans come out then tracks are gonna make less money then they close and then you know fans aren't gonna want to drive further to other tracks that are still open so then those tracks close to now people don't watch racing at all and the big Pro Series they're gonna start losing a - so then what happens racing just stops it's not a sustainable ecosystem and another negative to thing about if these racetracks close they're gonna race and drive hard on the streets that's just what's gonna happen bringing it back to baseball what if it cost corny grand for your kid to play t-ball and there was only one baseball diamond and they couldn't cheer because the neighbors would complain and they had put little pads on the baseball bat so it didn't make noise but the cars driving by the field were louder than the game nobody would want to play but the reality is it's on us to save our racetracks it's April the racing season is in full swing go to your local tracks support the small events but not for let's go it won't be small for long hey guys thanks for watching this video I really hope you liked it I want to thank this week's sponsor Experian boosting your credit score can take months even if you really try believe me I know but now there's a fast and easy way to boost your credit score fo3 experienced boosts your credit score with payments you're already making like your utility bill and your cell phone bill that's right up until now those bills did not count towards your credit but now thanks to Experian boost they can experience is safe secure and 100% free with no credit card required most people who boost with Experian bust see an increase of 10 points or more on their credit score Experian boost can potentially help you establish or increase your access to credit boost your FICO score foe brief experience is only available at Experian comm slash donut that's expe our I am calm slash donut had to keep track of that in my head people all across America have already boosted their credit with Experian boost and you should too thanks for watching this episode of wheelhouse if you want to see more of this weird guy ranting hit that yellow subscribe button seriously go to a local race this weekend go get a hot dog it's awesome follow me on instagram @ nolan J Sykes follow donut at donut media go watch a race I'll see you next time