Published: Aug. 18, 2018
To travel or not to travel
Local short-track racing drivers, promoters
discuss what’s best
By Nicholas Dettmann
ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043
SLINGER — An 18-week grind for drivers at
Slinger Super Speedway is just that: a grind. It also often takes drivers away
from other important events in life, such as a graduation, a wedding, etc. To
address that — and maybe save some money in the process — drivers will often
ditch the weekly grind for occasional races with a traveling series. Those
traveling series’ race between six to 10 times per year.
But, expenses add up because of the longer
distances and sometimes the overnight stays.
So what’s better for the drivers, the
owners/co-promoters and racing in general?
“It’s case by case,” said Brad “JJ” Mueller, a
threetime champion at Slinger and a four-time champion at Plymouth Dirt Track.
Mueller, Ryan DeStefano, Steve Apel and Brad
Keith, all super late drivers at Slinger, said their desire to travel was
because they wanted to race different drivers, different tracks and mingle with
new fans, which also gives more exposure to their sponsors. “Racing weekly, you
get kind of burned out,” said Keith, who won a touring championship with the
Mid-American Stock Car Series. “We decided to travel for two years, had a lot
of fun. When you race weekly, you learn bad traits. When on the road, you get
away from the bad things you’ve learned. You learn some new stuff.”
Their intentions are admirable. But are they
coming at a weekly track’s expense? Thus, are traveling series’ such as the
ARCA Midwest Tour, the Big 8 Late Model Series or the TUNDRA Super Late Model
Series, doing more harm than good?
Drivers say that’s a tough call.
“I think it really comes down to the best fit
for the team, sponsors and the whole nine yards,” DeStefano said. “We feel like
we’ve run for so many years here at Slinger that we feel it’s going to be a
benefit if we start traveling, getting to other tracks and taking what we learn
there back to Slinger. I think as you experience different things at different
tracks, you gain new tricks.”
“I like traveling, but it does hurt the local
tracks, all the traveling deals there are,” Dennis Prunty said.
❑❑❑
Battling for car counts
On May 6, Slinger had its weekly show, while
slightly more than an hour away, the ARCA Midwest Tour hosted the Joe Shear
Classic at Madison International Speedway. The week before, Slinger had 25
super late models in attendance. During the Joe Shear Classic, there were 13
super lates at Slinger.
At the Joe Shear Classic, there were 30 super
late models.
“Unfortunately there’s probably too many
series, touring-type deals in this region,” said David Deery, director of the
Big 8 Late Model Series. “There’s guys competing against each other, series
competing against each other, which is not good for the health of the whole
sport.”
The Big 8 Series is for limited late models
that use different tires than super late models. Other travel series options in
Wisconsin include the ARCA Midwest Tour and the TUNDRA Series — each of those
support super late model stock cars.
“There’s so many things to do and that’s why
the car counts are down because of the way they conflict with the schedules,”
Prunty said. “There’s so many different things to do, you don’t know which
track to go to.”
But the Big 8 Series may have figured out a way
to utilize both options that are beneficial to drivers and the local tracks.
In order to compete in the Big 8 Series,
drivers must designate a home track and race at least 70 percent of the home
track’s schedule.
“Our goal is to provide an outlet for our
weekly racers to visit other facilities, other tracks,” Deery said. “Our
schedule allows for racers to run weekly show or tracks and not conflict.”
Deery admits it is difficult to set dates for
races, which the series does eight a season. But if it helps preserve the
future of the sport and not be harmful to drivers and/or tracks, it’s worth it.
“We don’t want professional touring racers; we
want to cater to the weekly racer,” Deery said. “We do allow them to come in if
they have a home track. But, we want you to be an active racer at your weekly
track, your weekly show.”
❑❑❑
Traveling in short-track racing
The concept of traveling is nothing new to
shorttrack racing, no matter the state.
Drivers always traveled from track to track a
couple times a week. In the heyday of short-track racing, such as the
1940s-1970s, it was common for someone such as local short-track legends and
Hall of Famers Willie Goeden or Al Schill Sr. to race one track Tuesday,
another track Wednesday, another Thursday and so forth. It wasn’t unusual for
drivers to race five, six or even seven nights a week.
And the concept of a travel series has been
around for several decades as well. One of the premier shorttrack series was
ARTGO Challenge Series, which was started in the 1970s.
“The goal was to get top drivers from around
the region at the same place whether it’s on dirt or on asphalt,” said Gregg
McKarns, son of John McKarns who was one of the founders of ARTGO and
owner/promoter of the ARCA Midwest Tour. He is also owner and promoter and
Madison International Speedway, and worked at Rockford Speedway in Illinois and
the Big 8 Series.
“It makes for a great program,” McKarns said.
“I think there’s always the group of drivers that have done well on the weekly
realm, and they want to spread their wings and see how they stack up.”
He added, “I think it’s a natural progression
for people to want to go up a ladder. Guys want to take a chance and see what
that is. It’s a natural progression to want to improve, take the next step.”
A prime example of recent memory is Seymour’s
Ty Majeski. He traveled throughout the state, then the country, to build as a
driver and has landed with NASCAR’s Roush Fenway Racing and its Xfinity
program.
It’s hard to not fault the drivers’ intentions
or goals. But what does that mean for the local tracks? That’s where some of
the dangers and challenges lie.
“If you get people fighting each other, you’re
just hurting each other,” Mueller said. “You’re taking cars from that guy; he’s
taking cars from you. There’s just too many things going on.”
❑❑❑
Travel vs. weekly
One of the concerns in regards to traveling and
weekly competition is crew availability. With just about every short-track
team, most, if not all, of the crew members are volunteers.
“This world isn’t built for a 22-week schedule
week-in and week-out with every other activity your crew has,” DeStefano said.
“If your crew is six people, to get six people to the track every week is
tough. Traveling allows for a week or two off for families to do what the main
thing is and that’s be a family.”
Cost is another factor. While it may seem
cheaper to race six to 10 races a year for a series, most drivers say it’s the
opposite. There is the cost of fuel for the race car and the transportation.
That transportation also includes travel for the crew members. There are added
expenses at the track and sometimes overnight accommodations, plus meals.
“Weekly is cheaper,” Mueller said.
DeStefano added, “Traveling is still more
expensive, but if you go weekly, it adds up.”
Not helping the matter is the car counts aren’t
where they used to be and likely never will be. Thus, the pool to pick cars
from is smaller
than it was, say, 20 years ago.
The traveling series in Wisconsin do what they
can to make the best option possible affordable, whether it’s travel
reimbursement or tire funds.
“We’ve got too much money involved in the
operation and building of these cars,” Deery said.
“It ebbs and flows,” said Matt Panure,
part-owner and marketing/public relations director for TUNDRA Series. “I’ve
noticed this over the last 10-15 years. There are times tracks are very
healthy. Guys settle in for a little while then they want to try something
different. It breaks down track by track. As long as the carrot is out there,
they’re going to take that into account. They’ve gotten a lot more conscious
about it.”
❑❑❑
So what are the fixes?
From track promoters and owners’ standpoint,
it’s universal rules. “It’d be nice to see rule packages align across the
state,” McKarns said.
Deery said, “We’ve got to keep the rules
consistent.”
Panure said, “We have too many different rules,
divisions.”
According to the driver’s, having more frequent
breaks throughout the season will make a difference.
“I think there is an easy fix to this,”
DeStefano said. “It needs to go back to the promoters and to the tracks. We’re
going to give a division, even the super lates, we all need time off once in a
while. We live in a fastpaced world. This world moves so much faster. To do
this week in and week out, we’re draining our bodies.
“What I see is if tracks go to every third week
off that division or don’t even operate that week, I think it will entice
racers to say I’m going to run that schedule because it’s not a weekly grind
for 20 weeks. It takes too much of a team effort to do it.”
Mueller and Prunty agreed.
“I suggested to (Slinger Super Speedway
co-promoter) Todd (Thelen) that we take a few weeks off next year, do every
other week, then I’d come all the time,” Prunty said. “It’s something I think
would help.”
So, for example, if Slinger were to take one
Sunday off a month, that could open a day for relaxation for a driver and crew
or give a touring series an opportunity to run on that day and not worry about
conflicting schedules. Then, it’d be on the drivers for taking time off or
challenging themselves with a touring series.
“I think they’d generate more cars,” Mueller
said. “It make us more prone to run a full season.”
Todd Thelen and Rodney Erickson from Slinger
Super Speedway couldn’t be reached for comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment