This is the Stattmann Baby!!  Time to Scatt a little bit.

Five years isn’t a long time if you’re talking about a college education.  But five years in broadcasting can be a lifetime.

In that time we’ve seen the cost of racing soar.  You know the line: Speed is money.  How fast do you want to go?

But we’re not talking about speed in overwhelming racing budgets.  We’re talking about paying for a driver and his companion and their pets to fly by Lear jet all over the nation in a style that you and I pay for as race fans.

We’re also paying for million dollar driver estates and team owner air forces and real estate developments, all of which we pay for in the cost of sponsor goods and services, race tickets, the cost of memorabilia and the cost of autographs.

In the last five years the cost of running at the front of the line has doubled. 

That far outdistances national inflation rates, a fact that challenges investor return on investment.  It’s why sponsors are so hard to find even in the major leagues of American racing.

Chris Economaki once said 100 cars showed up during the depression for a race at Langhorne, Pennsylvania.  During the depression!

Now if we get 20 to show up we think we have a full field.

And don’t get me started on this issue of racing as entertainment.  I can remember when the track competition was entertaining and the entertainment was in the sponsor tents.  Now the competition is in the sponsor tents and what appears to be scripted entertainment is on the race track.

That’s five years of growth and I can’t wait for the next five years!  How about you?

Peace.