The Scoop
IS CHASING A WEEKLY POINTS TITLE BECOMING A THING OF THE PAST?
Posted on: Wednesday October 6, 2021
Have big dollar shows wiped out the prestige or allure of a driver chasing a weekly points championship?
The trends in short track racing – at least on some Wisconsin dirt tracks appear to have changed over the years.
De Pere, Wisconsin native Johnny Whitman is in victory lane with his father Mike after winning the 2021 $10,000 Clash At The Creek. Like many drivers Whitman opted to chase bigger paying specials in ’21 than chase a weekly points title. (Johnny Whitman FB page)
And the answer can be both simple and complicated – depending upon if you’re talking dirt or asphalt. Many factors play into this equation – the division, the track schedule, location, etc.
I recall for many years in the 2000s at Luxemburg Speedway, for example. The Friday night program had a very regular core of teams in all the weekly classes. So much that at the year-end banquet you could look at the final point standings in all the divisions and you’ve sometimes had to go 14 or 15 positions deep in the standings to find a driver who may have missed a night. A far cry from when De Pere native Johnny Whitman won a pair of IMCA modified track championship at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek, Wisconsin (2015 & 2016) after missing a night of racing in each of those championship years. (According to Whitman one night was missed for a Brewer game and the other for a wedding).
At least in northeastern Wisconsin there was no shortage of big paying specials in 2021 on the dirt tracks. Have drivers (and fans for that matter) become ‘specialed out’ so to speak?
In this story we’ll showcase a few different tracks and break down their respective car counts, while also keeping in mind their season schedule. Many variables factor into these equations and things are obviously different on asphalt.
“I believe regular weekly points chasers are a thing of the past,” said John Tienor. Tienor is a board member of Eastern Wisconsin Stock Car (EWSC), the club that runs the weekly Friday night program at Outagamie Speedway in Seymour, Wisconsin. It’s a third-mile, clay oval just 15 minutes from Green Bay and not far from the heart of the Fox Valley either.
While the number of drivers who committed to racing every single week at Seymour has dwindled as it has pretty much everywhere else, there certainly was no shortage of drivers popping in from week to week. “The numbers of cars that passed through the pits this year in each division was insane,” Tienor pointed out. “In the five weekly divisions we had 353 cars take to the track this year. IMCA northern sport mods led the way with 84 different drivers racing at least one night. We are going to sit down as a board and look at the special show thing too, and maybe not run so many of them. Stick to more shows for the guys that support us all the time. Maybe one or two shows per year for each division with increased payout making them eligible for the IMCA All-Star race at Boone. Maybe move the special shows off our weekly racing night to make it easier for people to attend.”
While getting enough cars to put on a show wasn’t usually a problem most nights, filling the grandstands was at times.
“We had a total of 21 nights of racing scheduled,” Tienor explained. “That total included 11 nights of regular racing with five divisions and a weekly 127 plus car average.”
What was tough for Seymour’s bottom line however were the special events they ran. They totaled one night of Midwest Sprint Association (MSA) 360 sprints, A pair of IRA Outlaw 410 sprint car shows, three Dirt Kings late model specials and the riskiest venture of all from the financial standpoint was the World of Outlaw late model series which ran in early August. “On the 410 sprint car nights we were only allowed two support classes per the series promoter Steve Sinclair,” Tienor explained. “Same thing applied for our World of Outlaw late model show with two support classes.”
These special events command an obvious increase in ticket prices to offset the heftier driver payouts and series sanction fees. “Even though we are so close to Green Bay and the Valley, it’s a hard draw fans when you increase admission prices unless it is a national touring series,” Tienor said. “And with WoO asking us to run in front of the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway that following weekend that put us on the same night as the Dixieland race at WIR (less than 20 minutes away), definitely not a good thing. To bring that special back in 2022 is going to be a hard sell with our board to be honest.”
According to Tienor Outagamie’s IRA sprint show in September went head-to-head against the popular Eve of Destruction at nearby WIR. The wildly popular event has been a sellout for decades, and the special at Outagamie paid the price that Friday night with a significant hit taken in the grandstand ticket sales. “I guess people would rather see stuff get wrecked,” Tienor pointed out. “But honestly we try to keep the prices of admission and concessions reasonable so that it still is an economical family night out. We’ve had fans tell us we’ve got great concession food and that keeps them coming back.”
One track that is having success, at least enough cars in the pits and fans in the stands to keep the lights on is The Hill Raceway in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. And the key to their success is they don’t run every single week. In theory, one could argue the car counts would be stronger without teams having to ‘be there’ or fix something to make the next show.
And as far as fans in the stands having an abbreviated schedule (The Hill race a non-traditional seven date schedule) you could also argue that keeps the fans wanting more, and fatigue and burnout really couldn’t set in with only having seven races.
According to The Hill’s John Sternard, 51 drivers attended races every single night at the third-mile, clay oval located at John Miles Park. Among those numbers were 16 street stock drivers achieved perfect attendance in the division.
Another factor to consider – The Hill runs just four classes weekly, not five or six like most other weekly dirt tracks do.
Are the folks in Sturgeon Bay up to something? According to Sternard, weekly attendance rose and the group promoting the show, PKS3 Promotion, signed a two-year extension to keep the racing going in Door County.
It’s easier to chase a point title when you’ve only got to commit to seven nights versus 16 or 18.
The ‘Burg Speedway in Luxemburg, Wisconsin followed suit as Sturgeon Bay did although they did have more nights scheduled. “When we put our schedule together at The ‘Burg we had a couple spots where we had two weeks off back to back and we feel that hurt us, especially when we had back to back rainouts followed by back-to-back nights off,” said Luxemburg track announcer Joe Orsini. “We are already putting together a different plan for next year with no more than one week off at a time. In terms of trying to make Luxemburg the place where people want to go every Sunday night, we think that will help.”
With three, $10,000-to-win races for IMCA modifieds, northern sportmods and stock cars running Tuesday thru Thursdays at nearby 141 Speedway throughout the summer, 141 took those Saturdays off (141’s regular night of racing) after those mid-week specials. “From my standpoint I think the drivers appreciated those nights off,” Orsini pointed out. “I didn’t see Shawano’s car counts swell on those Saturday nights (Saturdays has been Shawano Speedway’s regular race night for decades) as I think most of the drivers took advantage of those Saturdays off. I do know on the Sunday nights at Luxemburg we saw a good amount of driver and fan fatigue after the big shows on Saturday nights at 141 though. Another example of this was our own HOF night that fell a week after the huge Eric Van Iten Memorial race. We saw only 98 cars sign in for that night in the five divisions and the crowd count seemed small, in my opinion, for HOF night. Over the season we averaged just over 122 cars per night which was down 10 cars from our 132 average last season.”
Case in point – there is only so much money and vacation days to go around for both drivers and race fans alike. And all track promoters all need a piece of that proverbial pie to survive.
“The Eric Van Iten Memorial Race in itself made our season a success but replicating that is not likely,” Orsini admitted. “Having a big show like that with four divisions was biting off a lot but it went pretty smoothly and from a public relations standpoint was amazing.”
To compare, the Mod Mania special the track ran to celebrate 35 years of IMCA Mod racing in Luxemburg did not draw nearly as many cars as the folks running The ‘Burg had hoped for the $3500 top prize.
“I think we’d like to have a mix of a couple larger shows next year but mainly focus on our weekly points racing program,” Orsini said. “Unfortunately, times have changed and guys chasing track, state, or national points is past its heyday, or at least so it seems. Watching the points battles the last couple years at 141, Outagamie, The Hill, and The ‘Burg it sure seems rare that anyone outside the top five having 100% attendance and chasing a title.”
Orsini points out a night at Luxemburg a few years back when IMCA modified racer Shawn Kilgore of New Franken took a weekend off to go camping despite leading the division points, ending his shot at the title. “I remember it was pretty late in the season and I think the track championships have lost their luster,” Orsini admitted. “I don’t know how to bring back that weekly drama of hotly contested points battles with lots of weekly regulars.”
According to Orsini there were enough different drivers coming to race on Sunday nights – just a smaller core of regular, weekly drivers. “It felt like there were a good 30 drivers a week that bounced in and out some running only one or two weeks with us but always enough showing up to have a full show,” Orsini said. “I think that is more a byproduct of running Sunday nights though as we’ll get guys that might not have fully scratched their itch for the week or maybe didn’t tear anything up on Friday or Saturday and want to get another night in. By the same token we seem to lose guys that tear stuff up Friday and Saturday for a couple of weeks, too.”
Things are a little different on the pavement, though. At least in the Fox Valley.
At Wisconsin International Raceway, for example, the track’s top division, super late models, had 15 drivers make every single Thursday night show in ’21. That out of 37 drivers that competed with nearly 41 percent of drivers making all the shows. WIR schedules races weekly on Thursday nights from late May through the Thursday leading into Labor Day weekend.
Pavement racing in 2021 is vastly different than the dirt tracks. Most WIR regulars race those specific cars on Thursday nights with a few exceptions. “Racing on Thursdays is always very appealing to both the teams and the race fans,” said Appleton’s Andy Monday. Monday is the 2017 Fox River Racing Club super late model champion at WIR. He was one of those 15 drivers who achieved perfect attendance during ‘Thursday Night Thunder’ action in ’21. “It keeps everyone’s weekends open, and we’ve established the best weekly attendance in the state, which results in having a solid payout structure that remains consistent weekly including an annual points fund.”
To the north just over the Wisconsin/Michigan border Norway (MI) things were much different with regards to the track’s top class – late models. Just six of the 34 drivers that earned points made every single show – 18 percent of the late model field.
On nights when there were slim fields of 10 or 11 late models, the DCRA juggled their program and scrapped the fast dash and heat race and ran a pair of feature races. The second feature was a full invert from the first race.
Hometown driver Joey Pontbriand was one of six super stock drivers out of 29 who attended every race at Norway (MI) Speedway in 2021. Pontbriand won the division title at his home track.
The weekly, Friday night program has been promoted by the Dickinson County Racing Association (DCRA) for decades. “Actually, we have had some people who’ve suggested maybe we should take off one night a month,” said DCRA club president John Ostermann. “The problem I have with that is it does break up the rhythm of the fact that we host races every single Friday night except for fair weekend (Labor Day weekend). To me I think it would be difficult for some fans to figure out when we are racing and when we are off.”
Norway Speedway is a unique venue in that it permits fans to bring carry ins – both food and drink. While that lost revenue at the concessions can be a tough pill to swallow it makes it more affordable for families to attend the races. “We actually had a fairly good season financially,” Ostermann said. “The fact that we allow carry ins very much separates us from the rest of the racetracks. We averaged 1,000 fans a night. We get a lot of folks up this way who have cabins and it’s very affordable to bring the entire family out to our track and enjoy the show. At least here in Michigan with Covid locking everyone down a year ago fans were itching to get back out to do something. We had more advertisers jump on board this year than we had nights available. What we offer I feel is reasonable priced and folks want to be a part of what we do.”
I’ve always described the sport of short track racing as a three-legged table. Each leg represents one-third of the short track racing program equations. Race teams, racetrack promoters and the fan base itself. When one of those legs gets broken or falls off, the show suffers.
On the dirt tracks car counts (for the most part) appear healthy yet. With a common set of IMCA rules to follow with a couple of exceptions in northeast Wisconsin (The Hill and Gravity Park USA in Chilton, Wisconsin are not IMCA sanctioned compared to other northeastern Wisconsin ovals but do follow the same rules packages for their classes) that helps keep the pool of available cars strong.
Car counts are not as strong on the pavement in general and one can quickly point to a lack of a common set of rules and multiple engine/carb/tire/weight packages in the top divisions as one factor. One can also point out the multiple divisions (at pretty much every track on dirt and asphalt) has sort of diluted the product everywhere.
Without a semi-feature/consolation race/B main/last chance qualifier or whatever you want to call it, the drama and excitement of a driver ‘making the show’ so to speak is gone. The days of a 110-120 car show in three classes, with last chance races in those classes, are mostly over (again with a few exceptions like 141 and Outagamie Speedways just as two examples).
Looking at the big picture as we proceed into 2022 and beyond, it’s obvious track promoters may continue to take a serious look at taking some nights off during the year. It’s not just drivers and fans that get burnt out. Many tracks are having trouble keeping a consistent staff to show up week-after-week to compete.
One thing though is for certain. It’s an undeniable fact the base of the hardcore short track racing fan – one who used to travel to races three nights a week or more has shrunken significantly. Looking down the road the successful promoters who can keep the lights on in 2022 and beyond will do a great job creating new fans.
In this day of multiple entertainment options and mobile devices and apps such as My Race Pass or Race Monitor (and this writer has them also and I use them often for what I do) this modern-day technology makes it really easy to stay home in your air-conditioned home on a hot, humid 90-degree day in July.
But like Lowell Bennett once told me (and I agree with him 100 percent) “NOTHING beats live entertainment.” Race promoters who make their shows a must-see experience will remain successful down the road.
With that said make plans to attend the races in 2022 IN PERSON and make a genuine effort to create some new race fans. Our sport has become incredibly “back-gate driven” whereas the promoters are mostly relying upon enough race cars and pit crew members in attendance each night to offset a smaller-than-normal grandstands full of fans compared to 20 or 30 years ago. From the business side of this sport there is a ton of overhead that goes along with putting on a weekly show. Profit margins, if they are to be seen at all, are often slim compared to the ungodly amount of hours it takes.