Western Flat Track Season End Newsletter

2018-09-26 07:23
Big Time Speedway:
At the time we didn't know it, but our event was one of the last to be held on the fine DG surface at Prairie City. Thanks so much for the memories, Steves's. $1,500 purse.

Salinas Zaden Florez Memorial Event:
The special event of the year, leaving us all with very warm memories and lots of love shared amongst our tight-knit community. $8,410 purse.

Santa Rosa Chris Beck Arena:
This place never disappoints. Good crowd, great band and a rowdy & fun atmosphere, on-and-off the track. $2,000 purse.

Humboldt Half Mile
What a heart-breaker to have some out-of-towner legally threaten this event. As the Humboldt Fairgrounds Association CEO stated, "It's postponed until 2019". Advertised $2,500 purse. Humboldt County supervisors and the Fair are taking the necessary steps to ensure it's back again next year. The biggest cushion track in the Western U.S.

MotoBay
While not a WFT championship round, this was a heckuva cool experience. It proved that flat track can be run safely and competitively on an asphalt parking lot. There are infinitely more parking lots than dirt race tracks. Stay tuned for further developments in this vein.

Carson City Deuce's Wild
Once again, standing room only and the Deuce's Wild elimination tournament was a huge hit. $11,000+purse. It's coming back next year. Check out this impressive video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tPDDX8yxz53aaMBiz9dBkEYD6GtcoPFY/view

Hanford Kings Speedway Super Hooligans & WSL
The racing was damned fast on this new 4/10 mile sharply-banked blue groove car track. Not bad for the first time around, naysayers be damned. Once again, we had an kickass Argentine band and an excellent spectator turnout. $2,000 purse.

2018 Purse Payout

The total purse money paid in 2018 was our largest ever at $24,910. Our stated goal was to pay out an average purse of $2,000 or payout a lesser $1,500 per event and have an end-of-the year points fund (as explained at our Awards Banquet in February). As it turned out, events we paid out an average of $5,000 per event. Thanks to the spectators and sponsors who helped make this happen. For a small minority, it still wasn't enough.

Our Top Finishers in 2018
Honoring the top flat track talent in the Western United States

Pro Singles:
Michael Inderbitzin, #76n, 72 points
Andrew Luker #11, 49 points
Stevie Bonsey #80, 44 points
Josh Mott #59, 38 points
Chris McDougal #1, 34 points

Open Singles:
Matthew Yapelli #2, 81 points
Grant Holmes #1n, 74 points
Branden Weller #2y, 34 points

Veteran:
Bryan Berna #18, 62 points
Jimmy McAllister #50, 61 points
Anthony Urias #93, 47 points

Hooligan:
A.J. Kirkpatrick #12, 52 points
Jordan Graham #47, 40 points
Nick Leonetti #30, 20 points

Senior:
Anthony Urias #93, 76 points
Michael Vital #48, 72 points
Scott Reed #42y, 50 points

Super Senior:
Tim Doda #34b, 59 points
Tim Niles #76n, 49 points
Max Capps #35, 47 points

65cc- 85cc:
Dominic DeMario #10, 80 points
Kage Tadman #1n, 41 points
Kenny Holland #55h, 37 points

Vintage:
Michael Mannion #55c, 47 points
Jack Jones #11j, 37 points
Paul Herman #68, 24 points

250cc:
Grant Holmes #1n, 96 points
Branden Weller #2Y, 61 points
Jacob Cascio #21, 50 points

Framer Class:
Fred Bennett #12t, 20 points (tie)
Jim Cole #58g, 20 points (tie)
Michael Mannion #55c, 16 points

50cc Four Stroke:
Brody Taylor #17, 52 points
Ryder Raposo #94, 31 points
Jackson Brown #5, 20 points

50cc Two Stroke:
Paul Freeman #11, 49 points
Colton Shafer #45, 36 points
Jett Katarzy #27e, 23 points

Great Season Guys!
296 riders scored WFT points in 2018. Thanks to everyone who participated. You guys are all winners in our book.


2018 Championship Awards

At the start of the year, we recognized a challenge with our traditional awards ceremony and we posted a "to be announced" race date and Awards Banquet. Sorry, but this is going to take a bit to explain so bear with us, here.

Awards banquets are pricey affairs, racking up facility rental, food, beverage, video production, awards, travel, accommodations, marketing, costs, etc. Over the years we've absorbed those expenses (and have had sponsor help), priding ourselves on delivering quality events celebrating your accomplishments and our sport. It worked so well when we ran winter races at Chowchilla - practice and training on Saturday, celebrate on Saturday night and race on Sunday. The income from the races covered a large portion of the banquet's cost.

However, WFT moved on from Chowchilla and finding an indoor or covered race facility that would attract a good number of racers and fans has been an insurmountable challenge. We could have an Awards Banquet with no race, but the turnout would be substantially less and we'd lose big money as half the crowd is going to the banquet as there is a race the next day, and "what the heck, let's party the night before". So, that has left us in a quandary over the past two years. I know, we're whining.

Our solution is to tie in our awards presentation with the first race of the season next year. Yes, that's a helluva long time from now and it sucks to receive your awards many months later. But, if we had an Awards Banquet this fall with no accompanying race, the attendance would be weak and the financial losses in the thousands of dollars. That doesn't motivate us to keep promoting races and has a direct impact on future purse payouts... we all share the $$ burden.

We thought we had a solution last year to promote a large indoor event in Reno combined with the Awards Ceremony but the very real threat of it being cancelled due to bad weather and high rental costs made that idea a no-go. There is just no decent spectator-friendly indoor facility in California and this isn't a problem that we can fix.

Our plan is to make the celebration part of our first race of the year. For those of you who attended the Salinas Zaden Florez Memorial event last Spring, you'll recall we did the event trophy presentation that night and it really worked out nicely (in our opinion). The costs were in the hundreds, not thousands and it was a nice intimate atmosphere. That's what we want to emulate this next year. We sincerely thank you for reading this lengthy explanation and even more so for your understanding. We know that championship awards are very important to you. And it's no secret that our crew loves Awards Night!

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