A Week of Racing

[Nate Stevens]

Lately, I've been following the UMP Sumernationals on the Internet.  The nickname for that series is the Hell Tour, because they have 24 races scheduled in 30 day time span.  The series is extremely popular with the fans and seems to have a decent following with drivers.  It looks like about 15 super late model driver are following the series.

It got me wondering if we could do a mini version in this area.  I'm thinking 5 nights of racing at 5 different local dirt tracks.  All nights would have the same 3 classes (possibly Modifieds, Street Stocks and IMCAs) with all guaranteed better than weekly purses.  At the end of the week champions would be crowned and money would go to the top 10 in all 3 classes.  I know some people will think it is nuts, but if it was put together how many people would follow the series, either as fans or as drivers?  I know this would require people using vacation time or otherwise making big plans, but I think it would be great time.  It would almost be like a vacation without having to travel far.

If there is enough interest, I am going to try to make this happen.  I mentioned it to a few people tonight at Thunder and most thought I was nuts, but I'm not discouraged yet.  I think this could be awesome, and I'm hoping some other people can see my vision.

[24KC]

I would love to do a week of racing like that.  Early in the year before I hate going to the garage.  My big problem is that I need the schedule real early.  I need to schedule my vacations in early December.

[dustydarkwater]

From a fan's perspective it would be fun to watch, painful on the wallet, but fun to watch.  How would you schedule the week?   Would you race Sunday through Thursday (the worst option)?  Or Tuesday through Saturday?  Or Wednesday through Sunday (the best option)?  And, with the weather we've been having, how would the inevitable rain outs work?

It might be challenging to get enough fans and drivers to take vacations at the same time.  Some of us can't take vacations around the big three summer holidays, others plan their vacations for those days.  Many of the racers schedule their family vacations around racing and they wouldn't want to interupt family time to spend more time racing. 


I have a feeling that the field (and possibly the grandstand) would be quite thin by the time the final event rolls around.  Even if you made the last race the best paying, much of the equipment would be used up by then.  The last two years I've followed the Lucas Oil Late Model Mini Tour, the first year, when it was just Utica Rome there was a  good crowd, last year, when the Fonda date was added the Utica Rome crowd appeared to be off a bit from the first year, and that was after the BRP Late Models were dropped from the card and a Modified race was added.  Of course you're talking a pretty steep hit in the wallet with this tour when compared to what you could charge with your proposed series.

I hate being so negative about this, because in my heart, I would love to see it happen, but in my head I know that it would be a monumental challenge to pull it off. 

[Nate Stevens]

Thanks for your input guys.

KC, I'm glad you are interested.  I don't think this would work too early in the season, because I wouldn't want to do it while school was still in.  Just based upon that fact I think it would have to be in either July or August.  Also the schedule would be out well before December.  If I don't have solid leads on sponsors by the middle of September this won't happen in 2012.  I feel confident that with the plan that I am laying out if I have the money in place the tracks won't hesitate to participate.

Steve, I understand your hesitations.  This is one of those things that no one will know how exactly it will work until it happens.  Unfortunately, on some of your points I have to be oppositional.  To me, Sunday through Thursday makes the most sense.  None of the tracks I am targeting normally race on these days.  From prior conversations with promoters I wouldn't expect any tracks to participate in something that would take cars aways from one of their regularly scheduled events.  This would happen if I schedule a race on a Friday or Saturday against one of the other tracks in the series, and I doubt any track would cancel their regular weekly show for an unproven series.

As for rain outs, the tracks would allowed to reschedule as they please, but only races occurring during the week would count toward points for the series.

I've done a little research and found out that on any given weekend there are 60-65 different modifieds, 50-60 different street stocks 30-40 different IMCAs competing at the 5 targeted tracks on any given weekend.  This gives a pretty good pool to draw from.  I am only counting on around 15 cars per class to attempt the whole week, but I think most races would have full fields just based upon home track cars if show up points were rewarded.

To make the racing more interesting, I would handicap all week.  The first race would be based upon random draw.  The second would be based upon an inversion of the first.  The third, fourth and fifth would be based upon an inversion of the points.

I have a few more ideas, but I'm going to hold back on them.  Frankly, I've already broken a rule I have been trying to impose on myself by posting on here about one of my ideas before I have anything concrete.  So for now, I am perfectly willing to discuss any ideas on this post, but don't assume that if you don't hear anything about this series in the next few months that it is a dead one.

[emod03]

fastrak latemodels r doing it in ohio and pa this coming week. expo weds,mckean thursday,raceway 7, pittsburgh sat., eriez sunday. i think u will see something like that around here sometime

[dustydarkwater]

The issue with Sunday through Thursday would be that the drivers would be racing nine nights in a row, their regular Friday and Saturday night tracks, followed by your five night tour and then right back to their regular tracks.  That's a pretty grueling schedule for a weekend racer.  My thoughts with a Wednesday through Sunday schedule were based on the history of the five Southern Tier tracks.  Five Mile and Penn Can have run "off date" shows this year, Penn Can running their Tuesday show and Five Mile running a Sunday show  for Modifieds.  I-88 is locked into Friday nights with two exceptions.  So, if you ran Wednesday through Sunday you could do Penn Can on Wednesday, Five Mile on Thursday, I-88 on Friday, Skyline on Saturday and Thunder Mountain on Sunday. (Assuming those are the tracks you had in mind.)  That's just an example, you could switch the other tracks around, depending on what works best for them.  I understand your reluctance to ask the promoters to give up their regular night of racing, but as I mentioned,  under the right circumstances, the promoters at Penn Can and Five Mile seem willing to make adjustments to their schedule. 

[Nate Stevens]

Steve, you are exactly right.  That would probably be the best situation.  I guess this is where I'm being a little pessimistic.  As I said before, everything changes when the money is there.  The only other problem I see with this is that driver competing in the points at a non-participating tracks may be discouraging from competing in the series, but that might not be a bad thing.  As I said there is a decent pool to draw from and it may be better to support the locals.