Tuesday, January 7, 2014

I'm Fast, Start Me Up Front!

Believe it or not the 2014 outdoor racing season got underway this past weekend with the annual running of the Ice Bowl at the Talladega Short Track with the checkered flag waving just before the Polar Vortex blasted Alabama. I love the Ice Bowl having attended four or five times in the past. I love the uniqueness of the off-season event and especially the folks that put it on as it was a great way for this “Yankee” to go see a lot of names that I usually only read about. And back then, about fifteen or twenty years ago, drivers from up this way would even make the trip down when IMCA Modifieds and Stock Cars were also on the card.
It has been ten years now since the last time I went to the Ice Bowl and after the watching the “highlights” online the past several years I hate to say it, but I am not very motivated to go back. Yes, it still draws more than 200 cars for the weekend including more than 150 across the three different Late Model divisions, Super, Limited and Crate. And yes, I believe that most of the same great people are involved in presenting the show, but in order for me to make the long trip once again I have to feel like I am going to see some actual “racing” and the format, at least in the Super Late Models, is just not conducive to that.

The field was split into four groups for qualifying and the drivers were then lined up straight up by time for the four heat races. Then the feature was lined up based upon where the drivers finished their heat races. So Eric Cooley set quick time in group one and then ran away with his heat race and William Thomas, the fastest qualifier in group two, won the second heat race and started on the outside of the front row in the feature. Cooley raced to the lead in the 50-lap main event with Thomas chasing until lap 44 when Tim Roszell drove Cooley into the wall protecting the infield on the front stretch rather than being lapped.

Officials allowed Cooley to repair his damaged nose piece as much as possible and then rightfully put him back at the point for the restart where he first pulled away from Thomas. But as the laps wound down Thomas closed the gap and on the final circuit Cooley pushed high exiting turn four and Thomas zipped by to steal the win. Some may walk away from this and say that it was a great race, but take away the last turn pass and it would have been another Super Late Model chase around a one-grooved dirt track. Yes, this may sound a little harsh to the Ice Bowl, but I am using this as only the latest example of how this type of format is going to continue to erode the fan base, especially when it is broadcast out over the internet for all to see.

A lot of fans want to blame this scenario on track conditions. Not me. Even on a perfectly prepared dirt track when you have qualifying nearly all of the drivers will use the same line around the race track. Then, when you start the fastest guys up front for the heat races, once again you have the majority of the drivers all running the same line. So what happens? You end up with a one-groove racetrack for the feature. What happens when you draw, or heaven forbid actually do some inverted starts for the heat races? Some of the faster guys have to use other lines around the track to make their way to the front resulting in a wider, more usable surface leading to two, three or maybe more grooves come feature time. Sounds simple doesn’t it? So why doesn’t every event qualify and invert, or just draw for starting positions? Because “the drivers don’t want to”, or at least that’s what a promoter or series organizer will tell you.

But let’s be smart about this, it is the fast drivers, the outspoken ones who feel this way. I have to believe that if given the opportunity to vote in a completely anonymous manner the majority would be for some kind of race procedure that includes some sort of handicapping of the lineups whether by actual (inversion) or random (by draw). In April of 2013 two tracks in our area hosted back-to-back nights of Open Late Model racing with one using a draw and passing points format and the other using the group qualifying method. I was told that one “star” driver actually called the promoters of each event to ask in advance of the qualifying format and that he told the track that was using the passing points system that he would not attend because of it. They used it anyway and the winning driver came from the twelfth starting position and at least three drivers advanced as many as ten positions during the main event that was run on a track that was wide and racy…..perhaps due to the fact that drivers had to use more than one line during the heat race?

The next night, the same driver that had won the night before, was the fastest qualifier in group one, started the first heat from the pole and won it to start on the pole of the main event that he then led flag-to-flag. The driver who started second finished second, the third starter finished third, the hard charger of the night came from ninth to fourth while the fifth-place driver finished where he had started. Was the track poorly prepared? No, and in fact the crew had done an amazing job of getting the place in shape to race after heavy rains earlier in the week. It’s just that preliminary competition, and how the track is used during it, plays such a big role in how the track will be come feature time and this format does not help that process at all.

So what can be done to make the racers (at least the outspoken fast guys) happy and produce a track surface that is going to allow for some two and three wide action at feature time? I would suggest using a modified version of the point system that is used at the Knoxville Late Model Nationals. Something that would reward drivers well for qualifying, but would still make them do some racing during the heat in order to widen out the race track and……oh yes, to give the fans a show! Go ahead and split the field into groups so that you don’t have the factor of a track slowing down in qualifying from the first car out until the last car out. Within each group the fastest qualifier earns 50 points, second earns 48, third 46, etc. Invert six in each heat race with the winner earning 20 points, 19 for second, 18 for third, etc. Then line up the top point earners from all groups straight up by points for the main event. This way your fastest qualifiers are still virtually guaranteed of making the A-Main unless they drop out of the heat, but now they have to race a bit to make sure that they start ahead of the fast qualifiers from the other groups in the main event. And, by only inverting six, it should take away the arrogant argument that drivers who can’t control their cars and cause problems are going to start in front of them, even though some of the “fast” guys who would make that argument are often involved in skirmishes of their own doing.

The benefit? Some actual passing during the heat races that will likely lead to a better racetrack and more passing during the feature! This way when your event is seen live, or even the next day on the computer screen of anybody who feels like pulling it up they might think “yah, I want to go to that show next year and fill one of those empty seats.” Seats that were not empty ten years ago.

So why harp on this again today? Perhaps to make this a personal plea to Jeff & Amy Laue at 34 Raceway and the folks behind the Slocum 50. The MARS/ALMS/CBC race at 34 drew 43 Late Models for $4,000-to-win using a passing point format last year and the racing was spectacular. This year it will be run as the Slocum 50 on April 19th paying $10,555-to-win and you can bet that there will be some “name” drivers checking in to see what the qualifying format will be and lobbying for the “I’m fast, start me up front” method.  Don’t let them sway you with threats of not appearing if you do not give in. The purse is solid and the event is being held in honor of a driver who loved competition. Brent was a Racer, not a Chaser……


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