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April 17, 2009
The car show and practice day are
finally here. We have been working very hard on the facility
and our race program and now it is time to go green! Our car
show looks to be lots of fun if the weather will hold in good for us
and our practice day is something that many drivers are counting on
this weekend as well. Although many tracks have had a night or
two in before now there are many drivers that have not ventured out
to get any laps in and are getting the itch to burn some fuel and
test out their machines. Hope we have a nice weekend of
weather and we can get the season off to a great start.
The car show is set for Saturday
and will take place rain or shine. We have access to a large
building and shelter area that will house several cars if the
weather should be a problem. We will hold the car show, fish
fry, and kick off party regardless of the weather so come on out and
enjoy yourselves in Donnellson. We will have FREE hot dogs and
Pepsi all day and we will be giving away lots of prizes and
interviewing drivers for our podcast at the show as well.
Special thanks to KRNQ 96.3 and the Pepsi Inside Track Radio show
for broadcasting live as well from 1-3PM. If you can't make it
to the show tune us in and enjoy Dave Jones talking racing with some
of the competitors and fans.
Keeping it short this time around
as I am off to the track to finish up some last minute things to get
ready for the weekend. Look forward to seeing you there.
Remember, the grandstands are FREE on practice day so invite your
friends out to watch.
Until then, thanks for stopping by Promoter's Corner.
Terry Hoenig - Promoter
March 11, 2009
45 Five Days till RACE DAY!!!
Can you believe it? 2009 is going to be so much fun, I can't
wait to get started. Sponsorship sales are going GREAT and I
am so thankful. I truly believe we have the perfect product to
sell to our sponsors and fans this year. Great racing in a
safe, family atmosphere at an affordable price. We have put
together a fantastic schedule of events this season and we have
solid car counts with top notch drivers behind the wheels. The
newest additions to our schedule include the 2 nights of destruction
which we are still putting together are going to be a real change of
pace for us at LCS. The vintage cars have locked in a date to
run with our 360 sprint show on Wednesday night June 24th and we are
looking forward to that as well. We have made final plans for
our car show to be held on main street in Donnellson this year and
many people are excited. April 18th will be an entire day and
night of racing fun with the car show all afternoon, the fish fry in
the evening, and the kick off party with live entertainment that
night at the Stumble Inn.
Our track announcer, Dewain Hulett,
and I have been putting a lot of effort into the production of our
podcasts that we have been publishing twice a week.
Interviewing the drivers and talking with sponsors has been lots of
fun so far this season and we are going to do our best to keep it up
all summer long. We have some great ideas on different
elements we can add to the program as we go and we think our
listeners will enjoy it. If you have not had a chance to
listen to the podcast, you can check it out and listen for free by
clicking on the box at the top of this page. Click on "play it
now" and check it out. For those that may not know what a
podcast is...it is simply a short "radio show" that you can listen
to at your leisure. Follow the link above and give it a try.
GM Performance Parts and
Shottenkirk in Fort Madison have really stepped up to the plate to
promote the use of the GM Crate engine in the IMCA Sport Mod class
this season. The highest finishing sport mod each and every
week has the chance to win a bonus of up to $200 by running the
crate engine. I am very pleased to have put this program
together for our drivers and I am very thankful to GM Performance
Parts and especially the guys at Shottenkirk's Parts Express
division in Fort Madison. If you have the chance to stop in
and tell them "Thanks" it would mean a lot to me, to
Shottenkirk, and to the program we have put together for this year.
Especially if you are one of the drivers lucky enough to collect the
bonus. All of this on top of the bonuses paid out by IMCA and
GM Performance Parts at the end of the season based on the points
standings.
The Sport Mod division will also be
racing for some extra cash on the Steve Kirchner Memorial night.
Dave Sapp and his wife have generously put up $600 in prize money to
be paid out to the top 5 finishers in the Sport Mod Feature on July
31st. $200 to the winner and $100 for each place 2nd through
5th. The $600 being in honor of Steve's racing number, #6.
Thanks to Dave and Evonne for their generosity to the sport mod
division this year. Steve would be proud.
Speaking of Memorial Races, Jeremy
Townsend and his family just confirmed today that they are adding
prize money to the IMCA Modifieds on a night yet to be chosen this
season. In memory of Doug Townsend, Jeremy's father, the
family will be making the top prize total $1,000 for the IMCA
Modified winner. The date will be selected soon so watch for
more details. Doug Townsend raced all over the tri-states for
many years. He and Jeremy have many great memories racing here
at the Lee County Speedway and he will be missed this summer and
beyond. Again, thank you to the family and I hope we can make
this night special for everyone involved.
Work continues on track equipment
on the weekends and evenings when we can get "the guys" together in
the shop. I am thankful that I have been able to gather up 6-8
guys for the past 2 weekends to work in the shop. I really
appreciate them. Transfer case repairs to a packing truck,
continued work on the new water truck, and firing the replacement
engine up in the Suburban are all on the agenda this week. I
was able to snag onto a Chevy Suburban (minus the engine) with big,
wide ditch witch tires on it to use for packing the track.
This thing looks like one of those "stomper trucks" (you know the
ones we had in the 80's) on steroids. It should be fun to
drive and do a great job packing. My track packing crew will
be fighting over who gets to drive this baby! The question I
have is how muddy are they going to get driving it because this
truck is going to need 10" fender flares...
Well, those are the highlights for
now. I am looking forward to seeing you all very soon.
Until then, thanks for stopping by Promoter's Corner.
Terry Hoenig - Promoter
February 11, 2009
It's my last night in
Daytona Beach, Florida and Jenni and I have just finished our last day of
promoter's workshops. It is in the high 70's and the sound of the
waves crashing on the beach outside the hotel room will be missed tomorrow.
Although Jenni and I both miss our kids and our animals and are ready to go
home, I think I could be talked into hanging out for one more day pretty
easily.
There have been so many
great ideas talked about this year at the workshops that it gets a little
overwhelming when you start to think about all of it. I want to run
home and start implementing everything I took notes on over the past 3 days
but the reality is that I would be doing well to pick 5 ideas that I want to
focus on for 2009 and make sure I do them well.
Viral Marketing seems to
come up in every session we have had no matter what the session topic was.
Email blasts, text messaging, website updates, facebook, and myspace are
great tools to use to promote the races to our fans, drivers, crews, and
sponsors weather they are current or potential customers. We had great
speakers like Humpy Wheeler, former President of the Lowe's Motor Speedway,
Roger Slack, Lynn Phillips from the Talladega Short Track in Alabama, Robert
Laughton from Boone Speedway, Jack, Chuck, & Tom Deery, Ted Austed with
Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bill Martens from GM Performance Parts,
representatives from both K&K Insurance and Hoosier Tire and more.
Jenni & I gave the workshop session on 20 Ideas to use to turn your "Regular
Race Night" into a night of Special Activities. It went well and
people seemed to enjoy the presentation. I also sat in on a panel for
discussion on "36 Ways to Treat Our Customers Better Than Ever." At
the end of the last day we shared Ideas used to promote Group Ticket Sales.
That session went good as well and there were many great questions and ideas
exchanged with in the room.
With a 20 hour drive
home I hope to get out my note pad, prioritize my bucket list I have made of
things to do before opening night and hit the floor running when I get home.
Be on the lookout for our upcoming efforts to build a text messaging list.
We will send out messages to keep you informed, offer special discounts,
rain out cancellations, reminders of upcoming events and more. You
will be able to text in to join or visit our website to join very soon.
I hope you are as ready
for this season as I am. I can't wait till opening night and look
forward to seeing you soon.
As always, thanks for
taking a look at Promoter's Corner.
Terry Hoenig - Promoter
terry@leecountyspeedway.com
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