<----- tired of the oval comparisons.
I love oval, that said, the reason come oval racing has seen a drop in numbers has to do with the track. Not taking into account, heat, wind, and minor differences in traction, once a track has a good solid record in a class, there are people that finally realize that even there best is NEVER going to hit that number, and they try, week after week, after week. Finally they look for something else to do.
Also, most local guys kill folks that travel to thier oval track. Same layout, you have 50,000 laps and haven't made a pinion change in a year... I just got here, never seen the place before, hmm, wonder how this is gonna work out. Some of the funnest racing we do is oval, but you need to be realistic about it and who it appeals to.
I didn't say oval was easy, because it's not. Easy to do, difficult to master.
Most good offroad tracks are constantly evolving the layout and jumps, and most club road racing sees a different track every single week, keeping interest high. Lack of variety hurt oval, not this cell, that motor, blah... blah... blah...