Tuesday, January 27, 2015

A New Venue For WAR and More On Bloomfield and Tipton

Last August Troy Harrison wrote a great tribute to Sammy Swindell after he announced his retirement and the freelance writer out of Kansas has done it again with his summary of Jeff Gordon's impact on our sport. Take a few minutes and give it a read.

I sent another schedule update to the Webmistress today as the 2015 slate for the Wingless Auto Racing or WAR Sprint Cars was released and as I scanned through this one I came across a name of a track that I did not recognize. There are five race dates scheduled for the U.S. 50 Motorsports Park in Warrensburg, Missouri, and since they were each on a Saturday night I wondered if the Central Missouri Speedway in Warrensburg had changed its name. A check of the CMS website disproved that theory so I did a Google search on the U.S. 50 Motorsports Park and after funneling through their Facebook page I ended up here.

The History page states the following:

"Formerly known as Lasoski Speedway this track has been around for 15 years as a national level go kart facility. In 2015 the track is headed towards a huge expansion including widening the track and adding a catch fence. US 50 Motorsports Park will be home to Micro Sprint Racing and other forms of open wheel racing in 2015!! We will still offer karting events and 4 wheeler racing, including series races such as the MoKan series, MWEDT and other traveling tours."

Looking at the four pictures of the facility it looks like a nice go kart track that is going to require a LOT of upgrades, especially in regard to safety, in order to host full blown non-wing sprint cars! There is no guardrail or fence between the edge of the track and what appears to be the judges stand, only some tires to stop any stray karts headed for the building. There also does not appear to be any grandstand seating so it will be interesting to see if the planned expansion does yield a facility that is capable of hosting non-wing sprint cars in time for WAR's first appearance there on June 13th.

I am always intrigued by the attitudes of some whom, when a track shuts down its weekly operation, act like it should be a no-brainer for somebody else to just step right in and continue to make the "huge money" that comes with promoting a race track. And then, when nobody does, how they feel that it is the end of the world and a complete injustice for the drivers and fans who had supported that track for so long. Get over it people. As I noted yesterday, we live in the best area possible to be a short track race fan and our sport continues to have swings in its popularity. For many years life was good and we could have an overabundance of tracks operating in one region. Life is still pretty good, but there was not enough support to keep two tracks in our region operating weekly so they have scaled back for at least the 2015 campaign. Let's take a look at each.

In 2014 the Bloomfield Speedway ran weekly on Saturday nights and their average car counts by division were as follows:

Stock Cars: 16.7
Sport Mods: 13.9
Sport Compacts: 13.3
Hobby Stocks: 11.3

The track also had four nights where the Modifieds were also on the program and they averaged 7.0 cars in those appearances. These numbers along with the number of tickets sold were obviously not enough to have Chris Eggers signing on for a third year as a promoter and apparently the fair board did not have have a viable proposal for 2015. To their credit though, the board has scheduled four nights of racing at the facility to keep it active in the coming season and, if done right, I would guess that those shows will be quite successful.

So what is the effect on other tracks in the area? Yes, there will be some of those drivers that will sell out or park the car for the upcoming season, but the majority of them will continue to race. Look for some new faces at the Southern Iowa Speedway on Wednesday nights, the Lee County Speedway and CJ Raceway on Friday nights and on Saturday nights you will likely find some of those 2014 Bloomfield Speedway regulars at either Moberly, West Liberty or 34 Raceway. Yes, the tow will be longer, but if you want to race that is the hand that you have been dealt. At least the price of gasoline is nearly half of what it was last year!

We are still waiting to see if the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton schedules more than just the Sprint Invaders show at the 2015 county fair. It would stand to reason that the Friday nights when the Davenport Speedway is off for the Mississippi Valley Fair would be prime dates. Yes, they would still have Farley racing to the north and CJ Raceway to the south, but Tipton is closer to Davenport than either.

It is pretty easy to see why Tipton struggled on the P&L statement when you look at the average car counts from 2014. Their premier class, the one that paid the most money by position, the Modifieds had an impressive average of 18.5 cars per night. The support classes though struggled with 10.9 Sport Mods and 7.5 cars each in the Stock Cars and the Hobby Stocks. And the biggest problem with those kind of numbers is that you are paying out the most money at the top of the purse so it is likely that the last place Hobby Stock driver was taking home more money for his seventh-place finish than was the last place driver in the Modified division.

Once again, so what is the effect on area tracks? This one is perhaps easier to assume than Bloomfield as the Tipton regulars have Friday night options to the north in Farley, the east in Davenport and to the south in Columbus Junction. Heck, for some of the drivers it will be a closer drive to that new option than what they were making to race at Tipton, so again we are not talking about the end of the line for forty-five drivers and their fans!

In both cases the weekly programs at other tracks in the area will get a new shot in the arm and when (if) we get back to the point where the sport is on the upswing once again there will be an opportunity for these two fine tracks to get back in the business of weekly racing. In the meantime though, if you want that to happen, make sure that you mark those few race nights that they run in your 2015 calendar and be sure to attend. And oh yes, this time bring along a friend or two!

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