DIALED IN
Business is Good
Missouri ’ s Mo-Kan Dragway sees massive attendance increases during COVID-19 crisis By Van Abernethy
While the unsettling events of
2020 are still fresh in our minds and many of the disruptions are still ongoing , Mo-Kan Dragway owner Carl Blanton is hopeful that 2021 will match the attendance levels of 2020 , which Blanton found baffling to say the least .
The unexpected uptick in volume occurred in just about every area of business , so much of an increase , in fact , Blanton humorously named it the “ COVID Bump ” since every event he held last year saw 50 %-100% increases in attendance .
But in order to reap those unexpected gains , Blanton first had to shut the place down , hardly having a clue as to what the future held .
Approximately one year ago in February 2020 , things were shaping up to be a completely normal year for this vintage , southwest Missouri facility . After a few preliminary test-and-tune events , Mo-Kan was gearing up to hold its first points bracket race on March 14-15 , but just two days prior Blanton began hearing rumblings that things were shutting down .
“ The weather was looking real iffy anyway and we honestly didn ’ t know what we should , or might be required to do , so we ended up shutting down that weekend and the following week was when the heavy restrictions came in ,” recalls Blanton , who ’ s owned and operated the facility for more than two decades .
TRACK OWNER CARL BLANTON
If having to shut down for several months due to a worldwide pandemic wasn ’ t surprising enough , Blanton was completely floored with what happened next .
“ By May 5th we were allowed to open up for test and tune and we did so on a Tuesday night , thinking we wouldn ’ t be overwhelmed the same way we would on a weekend . To our surprise , we had 180 cars and a thousand people , which is just crazy numbers for our track – about 100 % more than we were expecting !” says Blanton .
The following weekend ’ s race again produced solid numbers . “ I think initially people were looking for something to do because they hadn ’ t been able to get out of the house because nothing was going on ,” Blanton surmises .
But afterwards the numbers stayed strong , notably with Mo- Kan ’ s bracket points program .
“ We ’ ve always been known in this area for having a good bracket program , but we had tremendous car counts in 2020 ,” Blanton says . “ I think our Super Pro division has been roughly double what we thought it would be . In 22 years of owning the track , we ’ ve never made the kind of money from bracket racing we made in 2020 – and we ’ re even starting to get a few
PHOTOGRAPHS BY VAN ABERNETHY
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