BRISTOL, Tenn. – The race is on to get tickets to Saturday’s Sharpie 500, and it seems fans will do just about anything to get their hands on them.
“Believe it or not, people do will their tickets to their family members, and they fight over them in divorces,” said Evelyn Hicks, Bristol Motor Speedway ticketing vice president.
Hicks said fans on nascar.com and other racing Web sites have rated tickets for the August night race No. 1 in demand.
“We get phone calls and e-mails every day wanting to know if we have tickets,” she added.
While you can’t walk up to the ticket office to purchase Sharpie 500 tickets, you can still get them. Sellers have set up colorful signs and banners at gas stations and various sites along Volunteer Parkway and other routes to the speedway. Local store owners have also hopped on the ticket bandwagon, selling them in their shops.
“They’re wanting to buy them as much as we’re wanting to sell them,” said Danny Hartsock, owner of Abe’s Antiques on Commonwealth Avenue in Bristol, Va.
Fans can also find Sharpie 500 tickets in local classified ads and on the Internet. Sites like eBay.com, StubHub.com and Craigslist.com have become popular for race ticket purchases.
While eBay listed more than 200 postings for tickets, some forgo the competitive buying spirit of the auction with other online options.
“You gotta sit there and bid and bid and bid and [at] Craigslist you just find somebody and work out a deal and that’s that,” said Eric Byers, adding he recently purchased tickets through Craigslist.com for $30 below face value. “We got ourselves a deal.”
Not everyone will be so lucky as ticket prices were listed as high as $800 on eBay.
However, buyer beware. Bristol Motor Speedway has a high-tech way to catch counterfeits.
“We use a bar code, and we scan the bar code for entry into the gates, which has prevented a lot of scams because people are stopped before they ever get through the gate,” said Hicks.
The bar code replaced tear off stubs in March 2007 and track officials say the change has completely eliminated counterfeits.
EMAIL: kcales@wjhl.com.
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