It will be a busy weekend of racing coming up here in the upper Midwest with a full list of special events along with some Season Championship events as well. Hopefully the weather will cooperate as we are now at that point where if an event gets rained out it is nearly impossible to reschedule without having somebody irritated at you for "stepping on" some other previously scheduled show. I am also amused each year by how some people react when a track's Season Championship event gets rained out and is not rescheduled. Are other weekly points races made up on an off night? No. So why would you expect or demand that the weekly racing finale/Season Championship event should be made up? Oh right, because your favorite driver is eleven points back in the point standings and you want him to have a chance to erase that deficit in one night. So, as usual, we have people who look at things only how it affects them rather than considering the whole picture, something that is common across all of society, but somehow seems to be enhanced when it comes to racers and fans.
Don't be one of those people!
Speaking of points races, this brings me to something that has always driven me crazy when we get to this time of the year. I was listening to a radio show last Saturday where it was mentioned that Driver A had a 175 point lead over Driver B so "the race was still tight" heading into the final month of the season. Hey people, there is no one common point system in racing, so if you are going to talk about a points race you must also include some kind of discussion of how the points are tabulated. How many points does the race winner get? What is the increment from place to place and how many points do you get for just showing up? Going back to the example above where the Facebook fan was so mad about the driver who was eleven points behind not having one last chance to somehow pull out the title, it was at an IMCA track where the points are one-point increments per place. Therefore this person's favorite driver would have to finish eleven places better than the point leader in the feature in order to tie and twelve places better to win the championship. But here's the rub, it was in a division where the track had only had car counts of less than ten each of the past three weeks. So, umm, ......yeah......rage on Facebook fiend.
The discussion continues in the aftermath of the Quad City Speedway's announcement that they will not run the Mod Lite division in 2019. While it was not specifically stated, one would assume that a reason for this would be the low car counts all this season where the class seldom if ever cracked the double figure mark. While several people are suggesting replacing the class with something else (Trucks, 305 Sprints, Crate Late Models, etc.) I am glad to see that others are saying that there is no need to add anything else. Five divisions on a Sunday night at a track with a curfew is enough.
I do find it interesting though that the Crate Late Models will be on the card for this Sunday's Ron Marks Memorial at East Moline.
As I spent hours picking up storm debris yesterday the QCS situation was on my mind and I came up with how I would handle a situation if I were a promoter given a scenario where a group of people came to me and wanted to start a class of cars that would be unique to my track. We have seen this on several occasions over the past ten years where a very vocal and enthusiastic individual, or group, approaches a promoter and essentially says, "hey, if you run my new class of cars at your track next year we will have ten of them there on opening night and I know of as many as twenty guys right now who will build one once they know of your commitment." Let's face it, that is a pretty compelling pitch given the car counts these days in some of the already established divisions so there have been promoters who have signed on for the new class. The problem is though that outside of the 9:1 Late Models that now run at Darlington, Wisconsin, I am not aware of any of these recent startup classes that are delivering car counts that even give you two solid heat races.
When considering starting what I have been calling a "novelty class" as the promoter I would want to first think about whether it will be a division that general race fans will enjoy watching. I have never understood the infatuation we have had with putting undersized/under powered cars on full size race tracks where a driver doesn't even have to lift to go through the corners and, if you are going put something full size and slow out there, let them beat and bang on each other within reason to give the crowd a thrill. Friends and family will always come out to watch Bob drive his race machine, but will Bob's race machine sell tickets to general fans? Or worse yet will knowing that those race machines are running that night make general fans consider other options?
Do all of you remember how the current Four Cylinder class was introduced to the area? Promoter Terry Hoenig called them the "Wild Things" at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson and one of the rules was that you could not lead two consecutive laps, other than the white flag and the checkers, or you would be disqualified. Made for some very entertaining action and the car count grew quickly. It wasn't long though before some of the faster drivers lobbied to do away with that rule so that they could be real racers and, well here we are with over half of the tracks that now run the class struggling to pull ten or more cars each week. Perhaps it is time for some PROMOTER to try that rule again and see what happens! But I digress......
If somebody or a group came to me and wanted me to start running their novelty class I would say "sure, but under these conditions". To start the season, and until you have ten or more racing machines (better than saying cars or trucks!), the driver of each machine will get three free pit passes but there will be no purse money paid. Once you reach that ten machine threshold we will no longer do the free pit passes and you will be paid the purse that we agree upon, however if you fall back under a count of ten for two consecutive weeks, we go back to the free pit passes and no purse. This protects the promoter to committing to a purse structure that pays out too much money to a class that is short on counts and should provide enough incentive to the group to actually deliver on what they promise in the first place. And, before you think that it is not a reasonable deal for the drivers, this would be better than buying a $25 pit pass and then getting paid $125 in purse money. Heck, once the car counts get over ten the drivers finishing at the back would probably want to stick with the original deal!
At least in my mind, this is a win-win scenario for both parties allowing the promoter to give the class a try without taking on the risk. And the only reason the individual or group would not be satisfied is if they truly did not have the support that they claim to have. But before we start having tracks look at starting up their own novelty class, let's take heed of the word of my good friend Warren Busse who says "we already have too many classes!"
Okay, so enough "picking up branches" thoughts and on to other notes.....
The inaugural Dirt Million had to be considered a great success topped off by a fabulous race where Earl Pearson Jr. passed Bobby Pierce late to take the win. Pearson's car suffered damage in a pile up on lap nineteen and then drew a caution on lap twenty-nine with a flat tire. What looked like misfortune might have actually been the break that Pearson needed to get to the front with the fresher rubber. The race had to be red flagged on lap fifty-one when the flagman was hit in the face by a mud clog, but he gathered himself back up and finished out the event despite the swelling. Guess those Bell Helmets that Doug Clark and the flagging team wore at Knoxville for the first-time during the Nationals looks like a pretty good idea now!
At $405,967 the event came up well short of the goal of one million, but it was still the second highest paying race in Dirt Late Model history with Pearson taking the winner's share at $202,939.50 and all starters making at least $4,058.79. You can bet that they will have this event again in 2019 although given the results they might want to call it something other than the "Dirt Million". I also heard that some people were surprised that "only 77" drivers raced with some thinking that this would draw well over one hundred. Want to get that kind of a car count? Change the purse distribution in a manner where you guarantee all drivers who start a Last Chance race a minimum of $3,000. So what, that means that the winner only makes, for example, $147,000? "Only"?
A USAC record 118 entries have been received for the BC39 Midget race to be held on the newly constructed dirt track in the infield of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway next Wednesday and Thursday September 5th and 6th and if you are not attending you will be able to watch a one hour recap on NBC Sports on Friday the 7th.
Iowa's Todd Shute drove one of Oklahoman Jessie Hoskins' #71 cars to victory in the IMCA Modified main event at Dodge City Raceway Park in Kansas Saturday night.
With his regular track taking the weekend off Sam Halstead towed his #84 Crate Late Model from his southeast Iowa home of New London out to the US 30 Speedway in Columbus, Nebraska, on Thursday August 9th where he finished fifth in the Grand National Late Model main. Tad Pospisil was the winner.
Spending time with my grandson will keep me away from the track this weekend. He just turned one so it won't be long until I take him to his first race though! Next up for me will be a visit to one night of the IMCA Super Nationals in Boone. Perhaps I will see you there!
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