Drag Illustrated Issue 178, September / October 2022 | Page 129

AS RACERS THEMSELVES , TRACK OWNERS LIKE FRANKLIN , BARTUNEK , AND KORETSKY KNOW WHAT IT TAKES TO GET RACERS THROUGH THE GATES AND INTO THE STAGING LANES . us ex-racers that have facilities . We have a little bit of a jump start on what a racer would like . If you had a guy that really didn ’ t race and really doesn ’ t understand what it ’ s all about , I think he ’ s at a little bit of a disadvantage to a guy that actually raced . KORETSKY : It helped a lot because I know what people like and I know what we like . You ’ ve gotta have good bathrooms . It ’ s very important . Then for the camping facilities , you need good showers . Of course , no one likes to park on grass , so we tried to do as much paving work as we could with the little bit of time that we had . We ’ re pretty much done with everything we were going to do right now for the Nationals . We redid the suites and timing tower , all new air conditioners , put all new AC in the snack bars , had to repaint everything , put new flooring in , all new seating , all new tables , all new TVs . We wanted the place to be first-class because all the suites are sold out . Since we took over , people came on board with the suites and hospitality .
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What have you learned about track ownership that you didn ’ t know as a racer ? FRANKLIN : I think the biggest thing is the hidden costs , the overhead costs . In our region , you ’ re basically racing for six months a year , two or three days a week , and you have to make all your money in that time frame , but you have to be able to keep a staff on all year round to be able to plan events . Plus , when you get good staff , you want to keep them .
Just all your normal overhead costs like the power bill and the utilities . It ’ s a lot to operate , especially in our case with what I feel like is a large facility , and we don ’ t just put on large races . We have to try to keep the facility busy all the time to try to generate the money for that .
From a spectator standpoint , which is where you want to make your revenue , you can ’ t have the same thing every week . You want something different because there ’ s so many options today that they can do with their time . You can ’ t rely on the same customer every weekend . BARTUNEK : Definitely all the preparation and work that goes into it . We have 13-14 employees on the ground on race day . Like I said before , when you pull into a facility , you don ’ t think about what the guy that runs the place is actually going
September / October 2022 DragIllustrated . com | Drag Illustrated | 129