With car counts trending downward and some tracks making the decision to cut the class all together I feel that it is time to take a new approach when it comes to the four cylinder division. Whether your track refers to them as the Sport Compacts, Four Stocks, Tuners or my personal favorite the Murder Hornets as they are known at the The 'Burg Speedway in Wisconsin, this division is important to the success of a track's weekly show.
While some like to view it as a starter class for drivers to later make the move on up the ranks, from my point of view it is more importantly a division that, simply put, is a better fit for the budget of most competitors. Yes, we have seen some very successful "graduates" of the Four Cylinder ranks such as Justin Kay, Joe Zrostlik, Cody Thompson, Austen Becerra and one of 2023's top Stock Car competitors Dillon Richards to name a few, but if you look at the top of the All Iowa Points standings from year to year you will find many of the same names. Drivers who have found success and who are staying in the Four Cylinder division.
Now before you say, "why are you picking on this class Jeff? There are other divisions that have seen car counts slip over the years," it is because that I feel that each individual track can take some steps to rebuild the Four Cylinder division. For those other classes, it will require the cooperation of several tracks and a sanctioning body to make the change. So while you might not like what I have to propose here, perhaps it might be you that are contributing to the decline in the car count for the Four Cylinder class at your track.
Let's start out with a bit of history and some stats. One of the biggest complaints that I hear about the division is "the drama" that surrounds it. A few years ago Eagle Raceway was averaging well over 20 Sport Compacts a night, but after 2019 the track chose to replace them with the IMCA Stock Cars. The reason? I was told by a good source that they were just too much of a headache to deal with from drivers pointing fingers at one another in regard to the rules and the social media drama that went along with that. My archives are getting too extensive as I tried to go back and find the story that I wrote about Eagle's success at drawing strong car counts even though they did not pay much to win as I recall the picture of the Sport Compact winner one night holding one of those "big checks" in victory lane for a total of $60.00. If you find that entry, let me know and I will link it here.
Move ahead to 2023 and while chatting with Brenda Kay during our Sprint Invaders show at Davenport in June, she told me that they had turned over the tech inspection process to the Four Cylinder drivers themselves so that they could argue with each other over the rules rather than continually coming to the promoter. Then in August, with sliding car counts and the desire to get back to four weekly classes C.J. Raceway promoter Larry Richardson announced that the class would be cut from the roster for 2024. Perhaps the final motivating factor for me to introduce my ideas came during the IMCA Super Nationals when several of the top drivers from my neck of the woods failed to pass tech after running well in their heat races giving credence to one of the things that I have heard consistently over the years from former Four Cylinder drivers. Some are spending too much money in order to stretch the rules in a class that was meant to be enjoyed by racer's on a tight budget.
So let's take a look at the car counts for 2023 at the All Iowa Points paying tracks that use MyRacePass. For each track I will give you the number of nights that the division raced, the average car count, the single night high car count, the single night low car count, the opening night car count and the final night car count. And I will list them in order based upon the highest average car count for the season.
Independence
12 events with an average car count of 17.6
High car count of 24 twice, low car count of 13
First race count of 19, final race count of 24
Vinton
12 events with an average car count of 17.0
High car count of 23, low car count of 11
First race count of 23, final race count of 11
West Union
13 events with an average car count of 16.9
High car count of 21 three times, low car count of 10
First race count of 17, final race count of 14
Indianola
9 events with an average car count of 16.9
High car count of 20, low car count of 13
First race count of 16, final race count of 19
Corning
17 events with an average car count of 16.5
High car count of 24, low car count of 13
First race count of 13, final race count of 24
Tipton
3 events with an average car count of 16.3
High car count of 21, low car count of 14
First race count of 14, final race count of 14 (has events coming up this weekend)
Maquoketa
16 events with an average car count of 15.4
High car count of 26, low car count of 9 twice
First race count of 26, final race count of 11
East Moline
7 events with an average car count of 15.4
High car count of 20, low car count of 11 twice
First race count of 16, final race count of 18
Interstate Speedway
15 events with an average car count of 15.3
High car count of 29, low car count of 9
First race count of 29, final race count of 18 (still has races scheduled)
Marshalltown
12 events with an average car count of 14.2
High car count of 28, low car count of 8 twice
First race count of 28, final race count of 11
Decorah
11 events with an average car count of 14.0
High car count of 17, low car count of 10
First race count of 17, final race count of 13
Harlan
15 events with an average car count of 13.7
High car count of 22, low car count of 9
First race count of 22, final race count of 9
Dubuque
8 events with an average car count of 13.6
High car count of 19, low car count of 9 twice
First race count of 18, final race count of 9
Cresco
2 events with an average car count of 13.5
High car count of 15, low car count of 12
First race count of 15, final race count of 12
Quincy
17 events with an average car count of 13.1
High car count of 21, low car count of 9 four times
First race count of 21, final race count of 10 (still has events scheduled)
Donnellson
14 events with an average car count of 12.3
High car count of 16 twice, low car count of 7
First race count of 14, final race count of 7 (still has events scheduled)
Columbus Junction
15 events with an average car count of 11.8
High car count of 17 twice, low car count of 6
First race count of 17, final race count of 9 (still has an event scheduled)
Park Jefferson
15 events with an average car count of 11.7
High car count of 17, low car count of 8 twice
First race count of 15, final race count of 10 (still has events scheduled)
Davenport
12 events with an average car count of 11.6
High car count of 33, low car count of 6
First race count of 12, final race count of 33 (paid $2,000-to-win)
Denison
11 events with an average car count of 11.6
High car count of 17, low car count of 8
First race count of 14, final race count of 10
West Liberty
8 events with an average car count of 11.5
High car count of 21, low car count of 7
First race count of 21, final race count of 8
Brooklyn
11 events with an average car count of 11.5
High car count of 14, low car count of 9
First race count of 10, final race count of 12
Darlington
9 events with an average car count of 11.4
High car count of 14 twice, low car count of 9 twice
First race count of 13, final race count of 9
Worthington
12 events with an average car count of 11.1
High car count of 23, low car count of 8
First race count of 10, final race count of 9
Spencer
5 events with an average car count of 10.8
High car count of 15, low car count of 6
First race count of 13, final race count of 10
Stuart
10 events with an average car count of 10.5
High car count of 13, low car count of 8
First race count of 10, final race count of 8
Burlington
12 events with an average car count of 10.2
High car count of 13 twice, low car count of 7
First race count of 9, final race count of 11
Cedar Rapids
13 events with an average car count of 9.8
High car count of 13, low car count of 8
First race count of 8, final race count of 13
Alta
10 events with an average car count of 8.5
High car count of 11, low car count of 6
First race count of 9, final race count of 6
Algona
15 events with an average car count of 7.1
High car count of 22, low car count of 4
First race count of 6, final race count of 4
Webster City
11 events with an average car count of 6.8
High car count of 12, low car count of 2
First race count of 12, final race count of 9 (still has events scheduled)
Fairmont
13 events with an average car count of 6.7
High car count of 13, low car count of 3
First race count of 7, final race count of 7
Britt
14 events with an average car count of 5.0
High car count of 10, low car count of 3 three times
First race count of 4, final race count of 3
Mason City
8 events with an average car count of 4.9
High car count of 8, low car count of 2
First race count of 8, final race count of 2 (still has events scheduled)
Fort Dodge
7 events with an average car count of 3.9
High car count of 5 twice, low car count of 3 three times
First race count of 3, final race count of 5
That is an overall average car count of just 12.02 and as you can see, at most tracks, the car count started out higher than it ended with an average opening night car count of 14.54 and a closing night average of 11.8. Throw out the season ending special at Davenport and the average closing night car count is actually 11.2.
Obviously some tracks are doing much better than others, but in my mind a promoter would want his or her budget class to average more than twenty cars a night and would not like to see a 20% drop off in numbers as the season plays out. So how can an individual track make this happen?
I believe that you need to do two things: 1. Remove some of the incentive to spend more money to go faster and look for gray area in the rules, and 2. Make it where the drivers who are not running up front on a consistent basis can still afford to keep coming back each week. And to do that I would rob the concept that the famous Fairbury Speedway used, or still uses for their Hobby Mod class:
Every driver takes home the same amount of purse money each race night
If your current purse structure pays $150-to-win and $20-to-start and you are only averaging ten cars you are likely paying out around $700 in total purse money for the class. My suggestion would be to pay all drivers the same amount, in this example $65, and you would put another $5 per car into your track's point fund to be distributed at the end of the season. By going to this purse structure you reduce the incentive for drivers to spend more money to go fast, plus you keep those drivers who finish deeper in the field a little better paid so that they can come back next week.
Yes, as your car count grows, you will be paying out more in purse money than you would otherwise, but you will also be selling more pit passes and tickets, plus selling more concessions to those who will be there to follow their favorite driver.
In this example let's hope that your average car count grows from 10 to 16 and you have 15 events on the schedule. This would give you a track point fund of $1,200 to distribute at the end of the season with the breakdown as follows:
1st place: 50% of the fund or $600
2nd place: 20% of the fund or $240
3rd place: 15% of the fund or $180
4th place: 10% of the fund or $120
5th place: 5% of the fund or $60
But here is your kicker to even further take away the incentive to spend more money to go fast. If the points champion accepts the 50% cut of the fund, then that driver is not eligible to compete in the Four Cylinder division at your track the following season. If the championship driver wants to stay in the division then he or she will get 25% of the fund or $300 with the remaining 25% distributed equally to drivers placing 6th through 10th in the final standings.
This might not sound like much, but what if your car count grows to 20 or 25 a night on average? At an average car count of 25 over 15 nights your championship driver will have earned $1,625 in purse money and then have the option to take half of an $1,875 point fund, or $937.50 for a total earnings of $2,562.50 on the season.
Do you think that drivers and their friends and family will be pissing and moaning about the track on social media? If they do, they will only be cutting in to their earnings potential, but yes I know that some will not comprehend that. We can only hope though!
Is it possible that somebody might try to take advantage of this system by doing a "start and park" each week just to collect $65? This is racing, so yes that might happen, so the promoter reserves the right to withhold the purse check if they see a driver doing this on a regular basis.
I may be wrong, but I believe that this system can be in place even if your track is sanctioned as long as you continue to follow all rules and lineup procedures as set forth by the sanctioning body.
Will some drivers not like it? Of course, and it will probably be the driver that is consistently running in the top three each week, and they will likely be very vocal about it. But is it possible that this driver is a primary reason why you are only averaging 10 cars a week?
I believe that this will boost your car counts and, for the first All Iowa Points paying track that runs the division weekly that gives this system a try, Positively Racing will put an additional $200 into that track's point fund at the end of the season.
Let's rebuild this class, otherwise the Crown Vic's will be coming soon!
With a favorable weather forecast for the days ahead I hope to be in Tipton Wednesday night for the rescheduled Gary Reinhart Memorial, at the Lake Ozark Speedway on Thursday for the first of three nights of racing there this weekend and then at the Adams County Illinois Speedway in Quincy on Sunday night for the Chad McCoy Memorial. Hope to see you at the track!
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