51 Commentary: Two Big SLM on One
Weekend Can't Be Good For the Sport
Do SpeedFest and WinterFest Really Need to Conflict?
By Mike Twist, Speed51.com Editor
Let's say for a minute that you were either good enough or lucky enough to predict what six little balls would come up as in a Powerball drawing. Let's say that you also had purchased a ticket and the right time and loved asphalt Late Model racing. If all of those factors came together just right, you could find yourself sitting on a pile of lottery winnings and in the position to own a really nice short track team.
So let's also say that you went out and ordered up some new racecars and engines, hired a top flight crew chief/team manger and got a talented wheelman for your race team. You could have also bought a spacious toterhome and trailer with the goal of hitting the road each and every weekend to enter the biggest and best Super Late Model shows in the pursuit of big trophies.
If you truly wanted to be a big-race hunter, you would have found yourself out of luck last weekend and sitting at home watching football. However, this coming weekend, you'd have to be in two places at once to hit the really big shows.
That's because after a pair of weekends where there were no big Super Late Model or Pro Late Model races taking place anywhere, we enter into one where two big shows are being held at tracks in neighboring states - leaving several teams who have nowhere near a lottery bankroll having to decide just where to go.
On Saturday, the PASS South teams will start out their regular season at New Smyrna Speedway in coastal Florida. The first running of WInterFest is the first of four PASS National races in 2010, so if you want to contend for the championship there, you'll have to be in attendance.
Meanwhile, this weekend is also the date of SpeedFest 2010 up the road and to the west at Lanier National Speedway (GA). In less than a decade, this event has evolved into one of the biggest SLM shows in all of the land and SLM fans from all over have the final weekend of January circled on their calendars as a result.
So teams have to choose which event to enter, splitting a finite amount of good teams between both races and watering down the entry list of both. How this is good for the struggling sport of short track racing escapes me.
I know that a lot of factors go into scheduling events and there are only so many “good” dates out there. But why couldn't these two big races have taken place on back-to-back weekends? This could have only helped both events score a larger car count as surely a few Northern-based teams might have stayed down south for back-to-back events. Lonnie Sommerville's team is staying down between the New Smyrna race to also run the 44th World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing as well - and that event doesn't start for another week.
Sadly, while it might be helping to kill our sport, it is all too typical these days.
While a number of scheduling conflicts are unavoidable, after all there are only 52 weekends in a year and a good chunk of those aren't suitable for racing on in many tracks north of the Deep South, there are simply just some bad decisions being made on booking race dates. Whether though a lack of communication, the need to grind an axe and stick it to a competing sanctioning body or just due to lack of forethought, too many dates conflict and force teams to decide where to go.
Need some examples? Here are a few:
- Last fall, the Mason-Dixon Meltdown at South Boston Speedway (VA) and the Winchester 400 were on the same weekend. Both races should be considered two of the biggest events on the Super Late Model calendar, but teams had to choose which one to go to this past time around.
- On the date of last year's CRA-sanctioned Super Late Model race as part of the North vs. South Shootout at Concord Speedway (NC), the PASS North banquet took place. If you were Ben Rowe, Johnny Clark, Adam Bates or several other drivers, you would have to be at the banquet personally to collect your points fund check for the 2009 season, no excuses allowed, so to head south to the Shootout would be a very expensive trip.
- A few years ago, a second “SpeedFest” was scheduled on the same weekend of the SpeedFest that we all know and love. It was at a track down in Florida and never really got off the ground. I honestly, can't even remember if the race even took place or not - but it did steal away plenty of attention from the SpeedFest that is still going on.
Things are going to get worse before they get better too, I'm afraid. The recent announcement that Montgomery Motor Speedway has trademarked the name of the All-American 400 and plans to run a big September race titled that was great on the surface. But when you consider that CRA officials, who helped save the race from dead up in Nashville a few years back, are still trying to put together a race that would carry on in their tradition, you have one big old mess. Add to it that the CRA Super Series is in action that same weekend in September at a track up in Indiana, and things get even worse.
If we had 100+ car entry lists at each event and the sport was healthy, this would be excusable. But we're far from that point and one only needs to look back over the past decade in a half to see what has happened in Indycar racing to see just how stupid this course is.
On the other hand, there are a few promoters who do communicate and do it right. After single Friday night Blizzard Series race at Five Flags Speedway (FL) this season will be held on the same weekend as a Saturday night Miller Lite Super Late Model series race at Mobile International Speedway (AL) - weather permitting of course. Not only did these two tracks work together on their schedules, they also put together a Gulf Coast Championship to reward the driver who does the best between the two tracks all season. Not coincidently, those two Super Late Model mini-series are among the strongest in the country right now.
So the choice is there for promoters and series officials to make. Do you want to keep fighting over who can stand the highest on a sinking ship or do you all want to share the wheel and steer into calmer waters together? The future prosperity of Super Late Model racing might hang in the balance.
New Smyrna or Lanier this weekend? If you have a SLM team, you'll have to decide.
