New Egypt Speedway decided to take streaming into its own hands. You can now view the races at the New Jersey dirt oval live on YouTube, for free.
“I felt the streaming was better under our control,” Chris Moore, New Egypt Speedway Executive Vice President of Operations, said. “I want New Egypt Speedway to be accessible to people who are not race fans. We love our fans, but we need to have people who don’t know about of us discover us. That is why it is free.”
New Egypt Speedway streamed its season opener last Saturday and it’s so far had 8,800 views.
“Dirt racing promoters will tell you more eyeballs watching is a bad thing,” said Moore. “Many don’t stream at all. They view streaming as a bad thing because people at home are not spending money at the track. They don’t see streaming for free as another avenue of profit. You have to turn eyeballs into dollars. When we bring in the big numbers, we show increased value to our current sponsors, and we also have the opportunity to get bigger sponsors.”
Moore cannot stress enough how streaming can also plant the seed for viewers to turn into spectators at the track.
“When you watch football or basketball, the excitement of the game makes just about everyone want to be there to experience the sport,” Moore said. “We will produce good shows, and people will want to be here.”
Many tracks stream their events through streaming services such as FloRacing. Moore had additional reasons for going on his own.
“I didn’t even talk with them,” said Moore of FloRacing. “I had previously did some work for them, and I love Flo, but it is crowded. With so many options of races to watch, it is unlikely for someone to find us or watch us on a Saturday night.
“I feel it is better in the long term to have streaming under our control. We keep everything. — we don’t have to share with anyone or rely on anyone to produce the stream. We control revenue, how we get it, and what we do with it.”
Moore hopes others adopt YouTube as their streaming platform for motorsports.
“If fans of racing support this idea, more and more racetracks will be on board,” Moore said. “All of racing will benefit.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
