The Impact of Streaming on Short Track Racing with Michael Rigsby

How important is the streaming world to the short track scene? FloRacing's Michael Rigsby discusses its impact and keeping in-person track visits fresh.

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Midwest Racing Central Today is hosted by Pete Pistone and produced by Mia Pistone

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hi everybody, welcome into Midwest Racing Central today. I'm Pete Pistoni. Short track racing, motorsports and streaming has been a big topic of conversation. Let's bring in someone who's got his pulse on the his finger on the pulse on that, as well as a lot of things in the world of short track racing. He's the general manager of Flow Racing, Michael Rigsby with us here on Midwest Racing Central today. Michael, how are you? I'm doing good, Pete. I appreciate you having me in. Thank you. I appreciate the the time. You're a busy guy. I know you do a lot of different things, and we'll get into a lot of that. But let's start with what I just mentioned streaming and short track racing and everything that flow racing does. A lot of times people will ask me about flow racing. How do I get it? How do I describe subscribe to it? What is it? Why don't you give a little flow racing 101 to our listeners?

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate that. Really, at its highest level, we are the largest uh streamer of short track racing and arguably motorsports in the United States right now, right? If you zoom out to the 20,000-foot level, that's who we are. Uh everything from the High Limit Sprint Car Series to the LucasO late model series to NASCAR weekly. Uh, we've got over 2,000 live events that we stream, basically 365 days a year. And uh we're we're everywhere that you can find uh streaming, right? We're on your we're at an iPhone app, we're on every smart TV you've got. If you've got a good old-fashioned computer, Pete, and you want to go to a browser and go to FlowRacing.tv or FlowRacing.com, you can find us there and subscribe as well. Uh it's just amazing how things have evolved since I was the first person to stream a dirt track race back in 2007. And it was you were hanging on by a thread with internet, and now every smart TV on the planet has a flow racing app, every phone has got a flow racing app. You can watch it anywhere, anytime, and almost anything in short track racing. It's wild how far it's come in 17, 18 years.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

It really is. And since you talk about the evolution evolution, let's jump sort of ahead because one of the things we're seeing this year, uh partnership with FS1, some of your races are winding up there. The NASCAR channel is part of my work with Sirius XM on the NASCAR channel there. We're seeing some of your events there. How did those two things sort of come about in terms of this evolution of where you started as kind of a one-man band and now where you are today as a company, Michael?

SPEAKER_01 2:11

So we've got you when you think about uh our offering, right? It's over 2,000 nights of live motorsports events that runs the gamut from uh mainly dirt track stuff, but a ton of pavement stuff as well, like you said, our partnership with NASCAR. And when you've got 2,000 live events, it's not, listen, we always want to capture more audience, right? And we obviously appreciate and want the people who are diehard dirt track fans or die-hard short track pavement fans. But when you've got 2,000, you realize, hey, we can take 75 or 100 of those 2,000 and put them somewhere else in front of an audience that likely doesn't know a lot about the everyday LucasOul late model dirt series or Bowman Gray every Saturday night. So we take a select 75 or 100 events, put them live on our partnership with FS1 with Fox, put them on the NASCAR Fast Channel. And we have a big partnership with Roku and Amazon Prime now, where we have a fast channel on those networks where we really put the take those events and put them on those networks, Pete, and throughout those events, say, hey, if you're watching on Amazon Prime tonight, don't forget there's over 2,000 live events that you can watch on Flow Racing throughout the course of the year. And it's nice because you can set those over here, attract the new audience, and really not hurt your subscriber base because your subscribers are still getting 1,850 exclusive events. So there's still plenty bang for their buck for them on both sides.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

So let's thread the needle too in terms of how you go about getting properties. You've got racing series, as you mentioned, Lucas Oil Dirt series, some of the other ones, USAC and those kinds of divisions. But then you also have some of the weekly shows as well. And those can be as elaborate as maybe a little bit more of a production, like maybe a Berlin raceway, then maybe one or two cameras at another short track or a dirt track. How does that process work with your company, Michael?

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Yeah, and obviously I'm very candid about that, right? A lot of that's viewership driven. We know that um the snowball derby or the BC39, the USAC race at Indy, those are just gonna draw immense high viewership. The Gateway Dirt Nationals, the Chili Bowl, right? So when you know that those are gonna have uh six-figure viewers, you certainly gear your production up towards that. A lot of people are gonna be watching. We want to make sure we put our best foot forward. That doesn't mean a weekly race at Berlin, and Berlin's probably a bad example because they have pretty good production. Uh, that doesn't mean a weekly NASCAR race somewhere or a weekly dirt track race somewhere. We don't care about those, but we have scaled down versions of those productions that are one camera or two cameras, producers sending the uh feedback here to our offices in Bloomington, Illinois. We overlay graphics on that, and we still feel like we put out a pretty high quality show. They're not all equal. The Chili Bowl production is not equal to the weekly race at Langley or wherever it is sometimes. Uh, but we we definitely I can tell you this on a Friday and Saturday night, I am combing through every single broadcast we've got, watching them, making sure that they're up to snuff. So I promise you that I care, Pete, as much about all of them.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

I know you do, but I'll tell you, as someone who started out his career as a PA announcer at Rockford Speedway, it's nice that some of those PA announcers are getting a little broadcast time in some of those productions you're talking about, Michael.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Yeah, and that's the one thing that we think has been cool that we've done is my vision when when Mark Floriani came and acquired my company and said, Hey, you're gonna run this motorsports division for me. My vision was always how do we make all these fans a fan of everything else, right? And we're doing that. Sprint car fans are watching late model racing, drag racing fans are watching sprint car racing. And to your point, that raises the audience stakes. So you may have a local announcer that at the Deary family's Rockford Speedway. I know the Deary family very well, uh, who all of a sudden is like, he's announcing for 20,000 people online, right? So it's been a way to create personalities and create uh more interest in these events that, hey, maybe no one was going to watch a Rockford or a Langley or Bowman Gray. I mean not Bowman Gray, everyone is, but before, but now, man, all of a sudden this guy out there in Washington State has become this celebrity because he has got 20 to 25,000 people watching him every Saturday night, and that's been a really cool development.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

So, obviously, another conversation we have when we talk about streaming, and we've had some track promoters on the podcast here that we started this year, is the difference about how do I get people to come to the racetrack, buy concessions, sit in my grandstands, and also offer what I'm offering on a weekly basis on flow racing. What are those conversations like with track operators?

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Honestly, it you it's it those will be ever present, right? Those conversations, particularly if the weather's iffy. It's it's it's most, I would say it's most uh top of mind if there's a 70% chance of rain on a Friday night and the race is being streamed. But let me back up for a second. Uh, I own a racetrack, right? I own uh Fairbury Speedway in Illinois. Um, we stream a ton of our events, if not all of our events. So I certainly don't, from my perspective, I certainly don't feel like streaming. If you have a great product to put out, if you're a promoter that's putting everything they've got into uh the event, the facility, entertaining fans. I think most great promoters know it does not hurt me. It really does not. Uh, but that's a conversation that we have pretty consistently consistently. And I think a misnomer is that we don't like tracks and or series are not compensated for what they do. Man, I could the we spend a millions and millions of dollars every year, Pete, in rights fees for uh tracks and series and everything else that we partner with. So the idea that maybe the racetracks are not partaking in the revenue uh isn't accurate, right? I think a lot of people think that. So one, that's inaccurate, but all I ever ask is if a promoter feels like, hey, I'm not exactly sure how this is going to work for us or how this can call me, talk to me, let's come up with a plan. Maybe we can help you with advertising, maybe we can help bring you advertising. There's a million things that we have done with promoters that I feel like have really developed over the years to make them feel good about us streaming an event that they've got.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Well, and I'll refer to, you know, about the should I go to the event or watch at home? Um, you know, I'm in Chicago. Everybody knows I'm a pretty big Cub fan, right? Well, I I love watching Cubs on the Marquee Network, but I also like going to Wrigley Field and it doesn't deter me from going to the ballpark because I can watch all the games at home. I kind of feel the same way with short track racing, Michael.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

I mean, there's nothing this what a what a cliched response, but the most exactly to sit in a grandstand and feel those cars blow by you. You cannot recreate that, right? You simply cannot recreate that by watching that on your phone or your computer or your smart TV. So I will always hang my hat on the in-person experience. Is oh well, that's what we're trying to do. That's part of the reason we use the PA announcers, right? Is we want them to feel what it's like at the racetrack. That's part I want to create the Eldora environment or the you know Port Royal environment or the Fairberry environment. That's what we're trying to do, is bring that to your TV or your phone. So you want to go and you want to attend. And I think we do a pretty good job of that.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Now, this isn't a job interview, but like what's your two, three, four, five-year vision for your company and where this can go, Michael? Do I do a typical job interview?

SPEAKER_01 8:49

No, P, you tell me what your two years. I think it's a job interview trick. Uh, we're gonna continue to grow, uh, we're gonna continue to grow uh outside our platform a little bit, I think, right? Our this relationship, we went from one event live on FS1 to seven events live on FS1. This year, we'd like that relationship to continue to grow. I think similarly, it's very important to me as I sit back and go, what do we need to do uh to make flow racing better? Is I want to continue this cross-pollination of these audiences, right? We did a bit earlier this year uh where the high limit series was in Phoenix the same week at NHRA was there. We took a bunch of those guys over to the NHRA race and got those people talking to each other. We put some of the high limit guys in NHRA cars or sort of dumbed down in HRA cars, and we created a bunch of content out of that. It is my goal to continue to crawl, I want these audiences talking to each other, right? I want Brad Sweet to run Bowman Gray on a Saturday night in the summer. I want to take Bubba Pollard and get him to come run a dirt late model event at Eldora. And that we've seen real transparency and real growth in all of those audiences when they all get to talking to each other. Um, so between the off-platform growth that we want to have on these Amazon Prime channels, Amazon Prime and 200 million homes, right? Or whatever it is, 180 million homes, uh, and the cross-pollination of these audiences, that's very, very forefront of mind. And one last thing I'll say is I want to create a road show. I did it when I had my company Dirt on Dirt back in the day. I want to be out on the road taking our message, you know, sort of like college game day. I want to take it around the country and I want to have big events and I want to have big parties at these chili bowl events of World 100s where people can really start to feel what flow racing is and touch it and taste it. So that's another big objective of mine the next couple of years.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Now, for flow racing to be successful, that means short track racing has to be successful. And obviously, there's a lot of different varying, varying degrees of that. You mentioned big events like the Chili Bowl and the Snowball Derby, but then there's also the weekly shows. Kind of big picture. Where do you think short track racing is generally right now these days, Michael?

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Yeah, I mean, I think it's it's no secret. I think most people would say the big shows are big, right? The big shows are bigger than they've ever been. Uh, we're great partners with Tony Stewart at Eldora. For the first time ever last year, Tony Stewart stopped selling tickets to an event because they were sold out at the World 100. So I think we we all know collectively the big races are fine. There's always work to be done. The Chili Bowl, the World 100, um, you know, High Limit at Out West or High Limit at Las Vegas, or they're not gonna struggle. We know they're gonna be fine. But I do think it's incumbent on us as ambassadors of the sport to figure out that regional racing and on down. How do we make sure that survives? I think it'd be easy for us at Flo to say, hey, we're only gonna cover Lucas and High Limit, but I don't like the Mars dirt racing series, which is Illinois-based, right? We make sure we have a rights partnership with them that allows that series to be sustainable and continue to go. Same thing with Ray Cook, this Southeastern Dirt Late Model series. We have to keep these regional series are feeders for the national series. And it's also important for these people who may not be able to go to a Lucas Oil or High Limit or NASCAR weekly race to have somewhere to go to attend a motorsports event. So where I'm very, very bullish, my my seat is the GM, we will continue to support weekly tracks. We will continue to support regional series. And it's, you know, if I I do worry if we pulled away or the fans pulled away, that would have a very negative impact on the upper levels of motorsports. If the basement of the house isn't there, the whole thing can fall in.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

So another obviously uh area of the sport you're involved in is at a racetrack there at Fairbury. And I promise I'm gonna make it down here from Chicago this summer to see you. I can't wait to do that. Let's talk about that and promoting a racetrack and kind of what you bring in there. The first thing I'll ask you now, you're a dirt track, so it's a little bit different, but we've been talking a lot here about unified rules and making sure that you can have a race car to go from one track or one series to another. I don't feel like you have that much of an issue with that on the dirt track side. Is that a fair assessment?

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Yeah, it is, and and that's credit to the leaders, the thought leaders in dirt track racing, the Rick Schwaleys, uh, who really has been the guy that's spearheaded so much of it, and the folks at World Racing Group with Steve Francis and those guys too. Those are competing sanctions in series, but they've spent the entire off-season, every offseason together going, we know we're better if we're unified. And then from the top, that trickles down to every weekly level. And yeah, when you show up at a dirt track for like a dirt late model event, you kind of know exactly what the rule book is, you know exactly what box you've got to be in. And you can take your car to Oregon and race it right now or Florida and race it right now. Tires are a little tricky, tires are always a little tricky. Uh, but that but by and large, those body rules, because of what Lucas and the Outlaws do, that's what we adopt at our weekly level at Fairberry Speedway. Those guys tell us what to do, they're competitors, but they know for the good of the sport they've come together and made this better. And you can take your dirt late model anywhere in the United States and race it, and that is a huge benefit. I know in pavement racing, it can be a little tricky. It can be tricky. Uh, and I maybe would love to see that more on the pavement side of things.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

For sure, for sure. Now, do you work in concert with other racetracks? Obviously, you're close to what farmer city. You mentioned that we have sycamore out here, Kankakee, Fairgrounds, LaSalle. Do those racetracks also sort of work together as well?

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Yeah, we do try to. You know, there's not as many, there's not as many weekly dirt tracks in Illinois as there used to be. We're still very strong nationally, but not as many as there used to be. But yeah, we have a big Lucas Oil event coming up in May at Fairberry. Uh, the night before is Farmer City, right? And we're talking Lance Speaker's the promoter there, talking to him, how you promote it, what you're doing. We'll open our camping gates a little later so your guys can stay there and do that. Same thing with Tony at LaSalle and the folks at Sycamore. Sycamore's great. Sycamore is a hidden gem, by the way. It's it's a throwback old school dirt track that I love going to when I used to go there. So yeah, we are we're in pretty constant communication. And that's that's Matt Curl. Matt Curl is my business partner at Fairberry. He's the best, for my bag, for the buck, the best promoter of the United States of America. Matt is phenomenal, and Matt spearheads all that and makes sure we're not stepping on anybody's toes. That's very important for us.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

So obviously, the product on the racetrack is is important, but so's the experience for the fan when they come onto the property. What sort of philosophy do you have at Fairberry, Michael?

SPEAKER_01 14:49

We want, I always say this about Fairberry. Like folks that I'm 44, so um, the folks that are a little a little my age or a little bit older, I'll say, Do you remember what dirt track racing was like in the late 80s and early 90s? And they they wax poetic Pete and they tell you how romantic they are about it. I said, That's what we're going for at Fairberry. We are trying to take you back a little bit to the yesteryear. We have modern amenities, our bathrooms are great. You know, it's very important for the, particularly the female audience. You want to make sure you have great bathrooms. Our racing product is excellent. But we have so many volunteers in our racetrack. Everybody greets you with a smile. Everyone says hello. You will not find a person that comes to Fairbury and doesn't say, that is the friendliest staff I've ever been around. They've been over backwards to make sure I found my seat. And boy, that's it's a that costs nothing. That literally costs nothing. And it sounds so simple, but that is a lost art in customer service. And Fairberry's Mayberry. Fairberry's got the diner uptown, Fairbury's got the beautiful little main street, Fairberry's got the cornfields rolling in. So we've got some built-in aesthetics that are great, but we are trying to create that throwback, man. I feel warm field of dreams feel when you come.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

So when I grew up as a kid, I'm dating myself here. My dirt track was Santa Fe Speedway in Holmesdale. Not there anymore. And Rockford, obviously, was my pavement track. The two things I remember about those places, you talk about nostalgia. When they said the race was going to start at 7.05, the trophy dash was on the track. And when it was 10 o'clock, the checker flag flew and it wasn't there starting hot laps at 10 o'clock at night with kids. I gotta imagine you kind of uh go with that kind of snappy program where you are 100%.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Like we we hot lap early, like uh we try to be done because we're right in the middle of town. I mean, we're dead center of town, we have no curfew, but we try to be respectful. So we're hot lapping by 5 30, right? We want to be done by 9 30 or 10 o'clock at the absolute latest. And that is the one pushback I will give promoters that that talk about streaming hurting them a little bit. I'll say, Hey, what time did you start hot laps tonight? I don't know, 8:30. What time did you get done? 2 a.m. I was like, what do you think is hurting the sport more? Us or you going until two o'clock in the morning? Yeah. So we we have to look in the mirror and say, how can we help me better? But I think a lot of other people do too, right? Like we can't be racing until two o'clock in the morning. And that is a a tenant we hang our hat on at Fairberry, quick, efficient, and damn, how do you make the racing as good as possible? I Santa Fe was great, by the way. I loved it. The Clay Track Championships, 200 Lappers. Great. I love that place.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

So it was really great. Uh well, I appreciate you giving me time. You're a busy guy, as I mentioned. Uh, I am a big flow fan for sure. Uh, watch pretty much everything I can on Fridays and Saturdays when I'm not traveling. And uh again, I I look forward to seeing you the summer somewhere. Certainly, I'll make the trip down to Fairbury.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Yeah, please. We will roll the red carpet out for you, Pete. You let me know when you're coming. I'll have every concession item ready for you to go. You let me know.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

I will have my people get in touch with your people. Thank you. That's Michael Rigsby. He is the general manager of Flow Racing, checking out everything pretty much under the sun, as Michael said, you can watch over the course of the summer. I'm Pete Bestoni. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next time on Midwest Racing Central today.