2021 turned out to be a good rebound year for most race tracks and racing fans. While some tracks still had issues post Covid that they had to deal with, for most tracks it was back to normal and full speed ahead. Crowds seemed very good early in the season but leveled off some as Summer rolled on. Most special events did well but now it seems that tracks want to have as many special events as possible because that seems to be where they make their extra "gravy" and now weekly programs are starting to suffer because of all these specials, as fans have only so much disposable income to spend.
While I enjoy the special events, I also go to a lot of just regular old weekly shows and I see a trend that these weekly shows are starting to hurt with low car counts and small crowds. And I still believe that the weekly shows are critical to the overall health of the sport.
For me personally, 2021 was a record breakng year, one that I would never have guessed or expected. I never keep a running total of how many events I attend. I just wait until the final checkered flag and then add things up to see how many races I was lucky enough to attend and how many tracks I actually got to. When I did my final tally and discovered that I had been to two hundred and four races during the 2021 calendar year, I was quite stunned. I blew out of the water my old record of one hundred and eighty four, set back in 2016. It was funny because it never felt like I was that busy or going to anywhere near that many races.
When I broke things down however, I saw that the big gains were in January and February when I was able to attend more races out in Arizona and in Florida than ever before, likely a one time only occurrence. I've pretty much hit the limit of how many races I can attend during the Summer months of June, July and August many years ago so there is never much gain or loss there from year to year. The other thing that I was able to take advantage of in 2021 was that it was quite the dry year in the Midwest and my number of rainouts was down quite a bit from some years. Often getting rained out is just a matter of chance and sometimes rainouts can be avoided by switching venues and lots of things fell into place for me in 2021.
2021 marked the forty first consecutive racing season where I have attended at least one hundred races during the calendar year.
I visited sixty nine tracks(second best ever) in sixteen states and 2021 but for the second straight year, no Canadian tracks were a part of my journeys for obvious reasons.
I got to four new tracks for the very first time in 2021 and I have now been to three hundred and twenty six tracks(most active but many no longer racing) in twenty nine states and three Canadian provinces.
I have a lot of promoters, track managers, media folks and fans along the way to thank this season and I have benefited from the help of many people in this continuing fun journey.
With 2021 winding down rapidly, it is now time to plan for 2022 with plans in place to see racing in Arizona, New Mexico and Florida among other states before the snow melts in the Midwest.
As many race reports as possible will appear on this blog and for those WISSOTA races that I attend, you can find reports on them at ALL THE DIRT Racing News or ALL THE DIRT. com. They are also coming out with a all new new blog version with information that can't be found either on their website or in the paper too.
Thanks to those of you that read this blog or say hello at the track. Good luck and happy trails on your personal 2022 racing adventures.
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