Daily Archives: October 28, 2015

Our first general fall meeting for 2015 at Papio’s Food & Spirits is now it the books as one of the best we have had in a while. Both the Hilliker brothers told us of how they got started in racing and that Steven has amassed 18 championships through the years while David is at 12 total championships. They have the next generation of Hillikers on the way but neither has the thought of retiring anytime soon. Both Leo “The Chef” Pego & “Shut Up” Roger Williams informed us of how they got started in racing. Roger was raised in racing and credited Leo for helping in his start of announcing. Leo stated that he had no plans on becoming a track announcer he started with driving but lettering the race cars was his first passion and announcing was just pushed on him and he has done a great job throughout the years He and Roger are a great tag team. (Top Left: Steven Hilliker Top Center: David Hilliker Top Right: Roger Williams Bottom: Leo Pego)

On October 22, 2015 the Michigan Speedways Promoters Association held its annual fall meeting at the Michigan International Speedways media center. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss various topics like: How to get more fans to attend, to overall costs in running their facilities, what kinds of advertising is the most beneficial to their tracks, how to give the fans the best bang for their buck. They even had a promoter from a national series who was there to say they are trying to form an association like the MSPA down south to help benefit their state also. They talked about the younger kids coming into the sport and the cost of making sure everyone is safe by installing more safety equipment for the racers and the track crews. How to use social media better to get more people involved in our sport! Also the rising costs of insurance for all who race and attend races. Many discussions take place on what venders they have at the different tracks and how to keep prices down and still make it financially. All the associate members each get the opportunity to talk about their organizations. There are many different ones on hand, racing series, tire distributors, insurance companies, safety venders, fan clubs and racing fuel companies. We here talk all the time about how the promoters are making big money off the fans and racers! I personally would say to anyone who would like to try to trade places with a promoter for a week or two to see if they could get the job done I’d say go try it sometime. They battle with Mother Nature, local stick & ball sports, bad economy in some areas, the rising fuel cost for racers, fans & track vehicles, and the cost of running a special show and bringing in a large racing series these are just a few things we as racers and fans don’t realize what the promoters have to go through to put on a weekly show for about 16 to 18 weeks a year and still have taxes, utilities, and maintain their facilities for the rest of the year. So with many race tracks loosing fans and racers because of the economy we are slowly seeing them fold and shut down and never to reopen again. I say take the time to say thank you to the promoters for giving us fans and racers a place for us to come and enjoy the sport we all know and love.