Event Coverage No More Charlotte GoodGuys?!?!

I got a FB notification last night stating that GoodGuys and Charlotte Motor Speedway have "mutually" decided to end their relationship.

GoodGuys goes on to mention that there are still 3 events within 400 miles of Charlotte (Raleigh, Nashville, Louisville), thus leaving only one within 8 hours of me (Raleigh).

Oh well...

 

Well loosing another venue isn't a good thing but I would already have to drive almost 200 miles to get to it in Charlotte. Nashville is 408 and Louisville is 473 miles per Google so looks like I'll only be doing the Raleigh event. Oh well...

 

One less track to get kicked out of
Dang it

 

Nashville = 621 miles
Louisville = 647 miles
Raleigh = 77 miles

AND CLT GG gave me a reason to get out to my hot rod brothers in the Charlotte/Concord area. Just have to find another reason (as if that'll be hard!)

 

...................Word is that they are coming to York, Pa. Fairgrounds in August. You should be able to make that in a tad over 8 hours.

 

'Wondered when this was going to happen. The last few years at Charlotte have been noticeably down and the number of legitimate car related vendors way down from what it used to be. I remember when you could barely find space to walk around because there were so many cars.

 

I'm not a good guy anyway. They had a show in KC, didn't want to compete with a local show I won't name here. Good Guys attempted to "buy" labor day weekend. They actually offered cash to have the locals move their show. When the locals declined, GG's bailed out of the KC show. Many HAMB type guys went to the KC GG show on day one, showed up at the local show the following day. The comments I heard were mostly related to street rod guys talking shit about the traditional rides. This post is not intended to offend, but what the hell, I sure didn't fit in at GG's.

 

Raleigh is a lot better than Charlotte “good guys” anyway. Better laid out, more going on it seems. Anyway, it’s all about the $$$$ with those guys. Open to ‘87? come on ! Let’s all go somewhere else ...


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I'm still hurt on losing the Indy GG show

 

On the bright side, maybe my car brothers can come my way for once?!?! Bwahaha!

(For those NOT in the know, Greenville, NC is not near anything...you can't get here from your house. You have to go somewhere else to start! IF you don't believe me, Google it!)

 

We went to Goodguys in Charlotte for years but I just got burnt out, I still enjoy the early cars and the attendance had really fallen off. HRP

 

I live 30 miles from 2 GG shows a year, and rarely attend.

 

Never been to a Good Guys event. I’m in or close to Nashville 5 days a week, I know how those folks drive. No way I’d take my car there.

 

we drive the bus there, even parallel parked it down town
love the show.
I like how folks complain about the new 87 cut off date
more chances for me to find stuff at the swap

 

I was able to attend a few Goodguys Indy shows years ago. For my money and tastes, they were the best shows going. The staging lanes looked like the National drags in the Sixties with rows of Gassers and Superstocks. The car show was huge, the flea market was big and full of cars and parts, and the manufacturers midway was packed. I feel the NHRA saw the interest and dollar signs and helped kill it off with the Bowling Green reunion. It was fun while it lasted.

 

Never been to Charlotte but after attending the Good Guys show in Loveland this year and seeing some of what they consider a top 25 or whatever I don't think I am much of a Good Guy either! Not hard to see why attendance declined.

 

It looks like with the changing demographics that we always reluctantly talk about, the two big players in the large venue car shows, notably NSRA and GG, are perhaps moving towards consolidation and elimination of the under-performing events. I'm sure it's just a "business" decision, but it bears witness to the fact that things are changing and not always for the good, especially for the car guy looking for an event reasonably close to home. Maybe it will result in a return to smaller, more intimate events with 3 or 4 hundred cars instead of 3 or 4 thousand. That might not be a bad thing as long as one can find an event within a sensible distance from home base. I'm just waxing philosophically here, but I see a future where many of the smaller "satellite" events may ultimately go away just so that one or two "major" shows will survive. Am I being pessimistic or realistic here?

 

Yea, used to be a big event, pre-Great Recession. It never really recovered from that IMO. It probably does have something to say about the state of the hobby, I don't know.

Here's Junior Johnson and Humpy Wheeler talking in 2006, throngs of folks:


And here's 2007, the last year of the big turnouts:

 

I'm sure it had a lot to do with the cost of Charlotte Motor Speedway. There were always lots more cars at Charlotte than Raleigh but the Raleigh venue is much less expensive, so it is still a viable event with fewer cars. I hate it because I enjoyed Charlotte more than Raleigh. I will likely go to Nashville instead of Raleigh, even though Raleigh is only an hour and a half from me. The quality and numbers of cars at Nashville is much better.

 

Glad Raleigh is still on. I would like to enter The Roadster once just to say I did.

 

Asked a group of 'goodguys' huddled around a '29 roadster what make the disc brakes were. All of 'em had club jackets on, with sewn-on 'Chevrolet Corvette', 'Mopar', and some H/M also.
One spoke up: "I don't know, I bought the car a coupla years back..."
The rest just shrugged. I wondered where the 'Goodguys' Friendly Garage' was...
Somebody had to be fixing those cars!

 

I think that it's a combination of dwindling attendance and rising speedway rent. I wonder what's going to happen when NSRA has to renegotiate the Kentucky Fairgrounds.

 

Sad reality.


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The subject of beating on GG’s event locations,attendance and year of accepticle cars allowed to register is never ending so it seems.
Until I hear anything different, as I’ve stated before, GG’s bases the success of an event/ location on the gate.
I learned this in a conversation with more than one GG’s official whenI questioned why the event at RT66 Chicagoland Speedway was eliminated.
Pretty sure we’ll never get a complete “corporate “ answer on this subject so everyone’s opinion is just that,an opinion.

For those of you that hate anything post 48, why not stretch your cars legs and head to Evansville Indiana in late August for the Frog Follies. One of the best events in the Midwest .
This year 4000+ pre 48, huge swap, plenty of vendors,car corral,cruising the grounds and inexpensive food and plenty of shade.......what’s to hate?

 

Part of the issue with holding an event at a speedway, like Charlotte and Chicagoland is that they are some distance from the city, so it isn't easy for walk in's. Even at Louisville walk in's are way down. At $17 bucks a pop losses add up quickly. Registration for all major events goes down every year. At $40 entry fee times a thousand cars is a 40 grand loss. NSRA and Goodguy's are both "for profit" business and each must look at the bottom line and sometimes it's just a mater of economics and you need to cut your losses.

 

ITS still on the schedule 2 day event 2019

 

Sad to here it's gone. I have a lot of great memories from their past shows. I really enjoyed driving the Hot Rods on the track at night. I've driven the Nomad, Delivery, and the U.F.O. on the track. I was looking foward to taking my two youngest grandkids rides in the future too. Ron.... .

 

I gotta admit the Frog Follies is about the best show around.
I'm burn't out on shows where you have to pay a fat membership fee and a entry fee. Spectator cost is $ 18 at GG's. Up until 2 years ago when they blew off my discount coupon( their coupon) I haven't been back. ( Cars are down sometimes)
I agree Indy was a good show, even when it rained. But it had racing to support it.

 

2019 October 18th and 19th

 

BUT your right it's gone that sucks for me