Weekly Racing Has A New Approach at Some Midwest Tracks

As promoters search to find the best formula to present a profitable "weekly" racing program a change in how some tracks put together their schedule has become evident as we head into the 2017 season. Some tracks are starting later, some are finishing earlier, and some are doing both. Others are taking a week off here and there while a couple more have even built in what is a mid-season break to create what is essentially two different seasons.

We all know that the now defunct Iowa State Fair Speedway always had to end their weekly racing season early in order to accommodate the Iowa State Fair, but for the past few years now the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City has structured its schedule in the same manner. The fair board operated track starts in mid-April and will hold its Season Championship once again on the final Saturday in July. Three special events including the Harris Clash and an appearance by the USMTS fills out the rest of the season.

A track with an even shorter season in 2017 is the Callaway Raceway in Fulton, Missouri. Friday night racing will get underway on April 7th, but the season will close out on July 14th, perhaps the earliest "scheduled" end to a weekly racing season that I have seen in recent years.

With its traditional Wednesday race night and the school schedule likely the determining factor, the Buena Vista Raceway in Alta will not open this season until after Memorial Day on May 31st, and will wrap up the season on August 16th. It is a pretty safe bet that a look at the nightly P & L sheet shows that it doesn't make sense to start earlier, or go later in the season at the northwest Iowa facility. Hopefully the tight twelve race schedule produces good car counts and full grandstands.

Experience and looking at the bottom line for race nights over the past two years is why promoter Kenny Dobson has built in several "off nights" at the Quincy Raceways in 2017. The Sunday night program has traditionally started in early April and runs weekly through September, but this year drivers and fans will want to confirm the dates before making the trip to the "Bullring on Broadway". The first "off night" is Easter Sunday April 16th and the track will take a break on Mother's Day as well. Dobson has found that both car counts and attendance drop off during the heat of the season and that is why the track will be dark for two Sunday nights in both July and August. Quincy's schedule is chock full of special events again though and they will start racing on April 2nd with September 24th being the final race night as of now. Dobson has shown that he will continue to run races into the Fall if the weather is good and the support is there.

The Randolph County Raceway in Moberly, Missouri, has scaled back its weekly program so much that it might actually now be considered a "specials only" facility. The high banked, high speed facility will start the season on Sunday March 26th with the ASCS National Tour and will then run two events in April, two in June, three in July, one in August, three in September and one in October.

It is always good to see a former weekly racing facility come back to life and that is the case at The Hill Raceway in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. They will ease back into things by running eights events during a sixteen week period beginning May 21st and ending September 2nd.

A couple of years ago while I was attending the Wild West Shootout in Tucson I was intrigued by the track's weekly schedule that was split into two different seasons in order to allow racers and fans to sit out the hot Arizona summer. Two tracks to our south are taking a similar approach with their 2017 schedules and it will be interesting to see how it works having such an extended break within the weekly schedule.

The Lebanon Midway Speedway in southwest Missouri will start racing the final day in March and will run Fridays weekly through August 4th. They then take a one month break returning on September 9th and running each and every Saturday until November 4th. The track tried this last year moving to Saturdays after the local pavement track ends its season and it was definitely noticeable how the car counts grew during the Fall schedule.

After purchasing the dirt track in Meeker, Oklahoma, back in December Cody and Ken Brewer came up with a unique schedule for their first season at Red Dirt Raceway. The track will open on March 31st running weekly through the month of June. They will then be closed for the entire months of July and August before returning to action September 1st when they will again race weekly through October 20th.

You can bet that other promoters will be paying attention to how each of these scheduling strategies play out in 2017 and, if one or more are successful, don't be surprised if we see more tracks shake things up when it comes to "weekly" racing in 2018. After all, we do not want to see any more tracks in the same situation as the St. Croix Raceway in Wisconsin that is up for sell and is currently not scheduled to open this season.

It has warmed up nicely on this sunny Friday so you have plenty of time to make it to the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, for night one of the Spring Nationals tonight. And, if you are like me and will be attending on Saturday night, throw in an extra coat or two as it will again cool off a bit, but nothing like it was last week!

See you on the Back Stretch.