No spectator fees. There were food fees, but I don't think anyone followed that. I saw outside food being brought in by the arm load. You were supposed to have a "wrist band" if you paid for outside food rights. I saw one wrist band all weekend and lots of food. Honestly, I think the biggest thing to "hurt" the turnout, was the lack of a T5M truck. I know a bunch of people were banking on running it in 17.5 and 13.5, but most backed out after there was no truck. There was tons of racers and spectators. And everyone seemed to be having a good time. The only thing that "might" have made things better was a mister system. The owner said the "should" be a mister system in for Nats. IMO, the traction was fine and some people were being babies. I drive on the same track as everyone else and I liked it. When it was wet, it was very hard to drive on. People were afraid of the traction rolls and short course trucks looked miserable. Just flipping in every corner. IMO, the track was great for the last day of quals and Mains. The track crew did a great job. A few people were surprised by the lack of door prizes. For an event with TONS of sponsors. MIP was the only one with goodies and they handed out foam tape to everyone. At big race last year at the new SRS, there were so many door prizes that pretty much everyone got stuff. Not a big deal, but a few people were surprised. Also, I was told by the owner that practice days would have a fee, but that never happened. So that was a nice cost savings.
Also, I ran the same set of primes all Week. I tried a new set in practice Saturday morning to see how they felt. However, I decided to keep my broken in tires on the car. I ran the Avid 2.2 wheels, with clay primes and JC Dirt Tech inserts. The Avid wheels really held up well. I expected the ribbing to twist like all of my JC/AKA/proline wheels, but after 6 days and many many packs on them, they were straight as an arrow. The foams softened up a little, but that was fine, because traction was dropping off from the first day of practice. Most guys seemed really happy with the money saved on tires compared to the last few years of the sugars cactus races.