Mark the date, Friday December 1st, 2017 as the day that the landscape for Late Model racing here in the state of Iowa forever changed. Will the Farley Speedway Promotions group move to adopt rules similar to what have been successful out in southeast Nebraska be a good thing, or will it further fracture the division in this region? That story remains to be seen.
I have commented several times here over the past year or so that we actually had six different Late Model classes in the region with most of them having rules that would either exclude the other five from running with them, or making it where the "others" would not be competitive. At first glance the FSP's goal is to make a level playing field where all of these Late Model classes (opens, spec engine, steel block, crates, etc.) can all compete at one event with a rules package that in theory makes them all equal. I have a hard time finding any issue with that. But with the FSP tracks now pulling out of IMCA that takes a big bite out of the sanctioning body's lineup of weekly tracks, plus half of the completed Deery Brothers Summer Series in 2017 were run at those tracks.
In the FSP press release it says "there will be three tracks minimum in our area on these rules by the 1st of the year. 2 tracks have committed, the 3rd one will do their own press release" and the assumption it seems is that the three tracks will be Farley, Dubuque and West Liberty. Wrong! That third track might just surprise you and you might just see that announcement made later today.
So is this the end of the road for the IMCA Late Models? I can only assume that the reason why IMCA was not willing to accept this kind of change is because of their long term relationship with Brodix, but a driver who chooses to keep his Late Model IMCA legal will still be able to race competitively under the FSP rules package as well as at the remaining IMCA tracks. But that obviously doesn't go the other way, and what of the Summer Series? There are already dates on the schedules for both 34 Raceway and Marshalltown, but unless those tracks as well as others step up to take on two shows each it will be hard to make a schedule with ten or more events, even more difficult when you consider that traditional weekends such as the Yankee will still have a Late Model special scheduled, just under different rules.
And then there is one more important item to ponder. Will FSP and IMCA be able to work together to continue to sanction the other divisions at Farley and Dubuque? And what about the "track to be named later"? It would be a difficult relationship to maintain but for the sake of the Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Hobby Stock drivers at those tracks I hope that they do not become collateral damage in all of this.
Speaking of 34 Raceway, shortly after the FSP announcement was made last Friday, the new owners Brad and Jessi started promoting that a big announcement would be made on Saturday in regard to a new special event to be held in September. Knowing that the two of them are huge Late Model fans I assumed that they would announce that they were going to host a race for the new rules package, but instead they made it a good day for Sprint Car fans in the area with the inaugural "Fall Haul". As the home track for the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders 34 Raceway traditionally holds the Season Championship event on a Saturday night late in September. With the Fall Haul this now becomes a two night show paying $2,000-to-win and $300-to-start on Friday night and $3,400-to-win and $340-to-start on Saturday, both very healthy purses for the winged 360 Sprint Cars. A live band will play after the show on Friday and it should be a fun way to wrap up the season for both the Sprint Invaders and for 34 Raceway.
I wonder if a Late Model show using the FSP rules package might still be a possibility for 34 in 2018?
On to some other things....
About a month ago the Longdale Speedway in Oklahoma served notice that they were considering their options for 2018. The relatively new track was built shortly after the racing stopped in nearby Enid a few years back, but when Enid came roaring back this season with some very successful special events it put the hurt on Longdale. And this week, they made it official, Longdale will not open in 2018.
Silly season is hot and heavy in the world of big time Late Model racing as Bobby Pierce will pick up the ride in the Dunn Benson Motorsports car driven for many years by Earl Pearson Jr. The team has yet to declare which of the two national tours it will follow, perhaps making that announcement this coming weekend at the PRI show. It was also announced that Chris Madden will be driving the Barry Wright Racing house car in 2018. Look for more big announcements to come out of the PRI show this coming weekend.
Kyle Busch passed former Dirt Late Model driver Jeff Choquette in the closing laps to win his first Snowball Derby at the Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola on Sunday. It was reported that it was a "standing room only" crowd, but given how narrow their reserved seats are I would say that it is only standing room at all times at Five Flags.
A few weeks ago the Lake Ozark Speedway in Missouri announced that they would be racing two nights a week with the addition of the Racesaver 305 Sprint Car division. The track even put out a full schedule with more than forty race nights. But on Monday there was a message on Facebook asking the drivers for their opinions on what classes should run on what night. Originally the 305's and the A-Mods were to headline the Friday night action, but somebody must have told them that US 36 Raceway north of Kansas City had earlier announced that they too would be adding the Racesaver Sprints on Friday night and so now they were looking at things a bit differently. Good for them!
In my opinion, with the Callaway Raceway in Fulton no longer racing on Friday nights, it would make sense to run the A-Mods, B-Mods and the ULMA Late Models on Friday nights as you would then avoid the direct competition with the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland for those drivers and fans as they race weekly on Saturdays. You could then have both your 360 Sprints and your 305's on Saturday nights giving those drivers in Missouri who build a Racesaver the opportunity to race two nights a weekend if they choose. At last check there were more than 45 comments on the Facebook post and most express the same thoughts, so we will see how it plays out. Either way I do hope to return to LOS for at least one show in 2018.
What is our sport coming to? One of the big "news" items this week was that Tony Stewart cussed out two bickering drivers on iRacing. I am embarrassed to say that I clicked on the link to actually listen to it.
Most of the world knew him as Gomer Pyle, but I will always remember Jim Nabors in this way.
That's it for today, I am looking forward to seeing what kind of interesting news comes out of the PRI show so make sure to check back into the Back Stretch next week!
No comments:
Post a Comment