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2001
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| July 26th 2001, Remember that Date | KARNAC.com Gets Track Owners Together
By Rick Anges
KARNAC.com has come along way in just a few short years not only in racing coverage but changes on the face of Florida Stock Car Racing. We helped make safety a bigger and more paid attention to issue than it has been in the history of racing in this state. We answered when a track called and said they needed help because their racing family was being torn apart by an outsider, we not only helped but we gathered enough information that if this individual rears his ugly head in racing here again it will be chopped off in a hurry, and we never hesitated.
Jack Smith and I (Rick Anges) have spent countless hours traveling to racetracks watching not only the racing or the fans in the stands but watching the inner workings on how these machines called racetracks actually run. What we saw and heard amazed us. It was like all these tracks were islands in a big sea, not only competing against the high and mighty NASCAR but also each other. Gone were the days of the non-professional racers traveling to different racetracks and also gone were the traveling fans that supported these drivers.
Gene Lasker who started racing in 1988 in what was called a street stock (back then a basic street car with a roll cage) raced the same car on not only dirt but also asphalt. If you go to the history section of KARNAC.com and look at the pictures archives you will see drivers pictures taken at many different racetracks but in the same car. Then the fans and the car counts started thinning and tracks felt they needed to protect their interests, so rules were changed enough that to race at another track it would cost more then it was worth to load up the ol racecar and travel a couple of hundred miles to race. With this intertrack interests faded, the Auburndale fans and drivers no longer knew or cared what was going on at Sunshine. Series evolved into the only link between the tracks but the actual Saturday night race news and gossip never left the venues they were run at.
Then along came KARNAC.com.
What started out as one guy who toyed with the idea of reporting on his new found sport of choice, stock car racing (Jack Smith) and a guy who had been around racing his whole life and figured he had read enough racing programs that he could probably write a race report and answered that little ad asking for help(Rick Anges), to being one the foremost news and information sources on the all around racing scene in the State of Florida on the Internet.
With the advent of KARNACs message boards communication began trickling through again, race reports, which were once only in the program on Saturday night were posted on the Internet for all to see. The fans in the stands and the drivers in the pits problems were finally being heard and a lot of them addressed. New and old friendships were being found through the message boards. The whole racing community came together to support each other in times of tragedy, and much more, and there was one common link, KARNAC.com.
There were many times over the last 3 years that Jack and I were ready to give it all up, we got to a point many times when we thought that no matter how hard we tried we were just banging our fenders against the turn four wall and the finish line was just to damn far away. But then we would hop in Jacks old Rivera and travel 300 miles to watch a fifty-lap late model race in Hialeah because, well, just because!
People came and went who at first thought this was easy and started their own web site deal to make theirs the new and improved version only to find out how much work it took to actually do all this and abandoned them. We also had tons of people who wanted to be part of KARNAC in some way or another fall by the wayside because of how much dedication it took. We did get lucky when Hans and Luann Nieborg and Robin Meiser joined our staff, they are three of the hardest working under paid people that any organization could ever ask for, they love what they do and I thank my lucky stars that not only do I get work with them but that I have gotten to know them. Also Jane Smith (has written hundreds of essays and news articles)and John Matthews who have been major contributors to our efforts and stood by us through all the good and bad times.
We finally caught the attention of a certain track owner who saw us beyond our message board fodder: Stan Kolan. He sat Jack and I down and gave us a two-day motivational speech that left us with our heads spinning. But he believed in us, he understood the potentials we had, the goals we wanted to achieve and helped us see some things in a different lights. He showed us the deep inner workings of the trials and tribulations that each track has to endure no matter how big or small. And he also showed us a fragmented industry that was so far apart from each other it was absurd. And the most dangerous thing he did was make us think.
On July 26th KARNAC.com brought together the owners of four different racetracks, Stan Kolan of East Bay Raceway, John and Camille Sarpricone of DeSoto Speedway, J.T. and Debi Beard of Auburndale Speedway and Peter Drinkwater and his partners Christian and Victoria Felden of Charlotte County Speedway. They all sat down and had dinner and talked. They shared common problems that they all thought were only happening at their own tracks. They shared ideas and took notes on things that would be beneficial to everyone.
 Listen to the whole owners meeting show. (2 hours)
Scott Hawkins, Rick Anges with Hans on the soundboard interviewed them all later on the KARNAC.com Real RacinTalk Radio Show, they all agreed that this was something that was a long time coming, it opened a line of communication that has been closed for so many years it is not even believable. They all hoped that other owners would hear about was done this night and feel a little left out and want to join in on the next meeting. They also thanked KARNAC for bringing them all to one place to finally do this. And they all shook our hands; it was an awesome feeling to know that we were part of something that hopefully in years down the road will be part of the History of Florida Stock Car Racing.
Debi and J.T Beard Comment on the meeting (1min 45 sec.)
East Bay owner Stan Kolan summarizes the meeting.(10 min).
And we are not through; we have already contacted several other tracks that have the same interest in meeting and working together, instead of against each other. The horizon of racing in Florida has just gotten a little clearer and KARNAC.com will be there every step of the way.
KARNAC.com.....Its Time to Race.
-Rick Anges
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