The Scoop
DIRT LATE MODELS – WHERE’S THEIR PLACE AT THE TABLE IN WISCONSIN’S WEEKLY RACING?
Posted on: Wednesday October 26, 2022
Shawano’s Lukas Postl is one driver who made every show at Shawano Speedway in the late model class in 2022. Postl was also a regular on the Dirt Kings Tour. (danlewisphoto.net)
Where do dirt late models fit into the weekly racing scene in Wisconsin heading into 2023 and beyond?
When it comes to dirt track racing in eastern Wisconsin late models remain a popular fan draw whether it’s a weekly show at Shawano Speedway’s half-mile, Plymouth Dirt Track’s (PDTR) third-mile or the Dirt Kings Tour which hosts races at both tracks and other venues in Wisconsin and Illinois.
But what will it take to draw new blood to the division in 2023 and beyond? The argument could most certainly be made (at least at Shawano) that the late model “roster” if you will isn’t getting any younger anytime soon.
To look at the weekly dirt late models from another angle in Wisconsin. If a driver considers just expenses the argument could easily be made that a driver likely can spend as much on an IMCA modified and as of late even the costs of the IMCA stock cars have continued to soar with the abundance of high-dollar special events that have popped up in the region in recent years.
But even if the costs remain close enough in terms of a chassis, engines, motors, etc. the fact remains that an IMCA modified driver (at least locally) has many more options to run his or her machine closer to home than say a late model racer can. One could argue this is where the Dirt Kings Tour comes in.
Other tracks that hosted Dirt Kings series events in ’22 (in addition to Shawano and PDTR) include Outagamie Speedway (Seymour, WI), Mississippi Thunder Speedway (Fountain City, WI), Wilmot Speedway (Wilmot, WI), Red Cedar Speedway (Menominee, WI), Gravity Park USA (Chilton, WI), Angell Park Speedway (Sun Prairie, WI) and Sycamore Speedway (Maple Park, IL). Let’s break down the numbers to get a better look of where things stand after the 2022 season.
30 late model drivers earned points in weekly racing at Shawano Speedway in 2022. Of those 30 teams only four drivers made every single Saturday night show of the 11 programs that were run.
At PDTR a total of 19 teams tallied weekly points with seven drivers making all eight shows when late models were on the card. In short between Shawano and PDTR a total of 33 different late model teams participated in weekly racing (Dirt Kings races excluded).
When you look at the Dirt Kings tour, it does provide late model teams an “option” to compete in additional shows at tracks since the number of weekly opportunities on the eastern end of the state are limited. After the 2022 season Dirt Kings wrapped up its sixth season. A total of 62 different drivers earned points in the tour.
Of those 62 teams (which hailed from Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota) 30 of those drivers did not earn points during weekly racing at either Plymouth or Shawano.
So, what does the future truly hold for late models in eastern Wisconsin? One of the problems that exists is both Shawano and Plymouth have raced Saturday nights. Shawano hasn’t ever really given the late models a “night off” per se and even when Plymouth does have the late models “off” for a sprint car special or something else, Shawano might be lucky to draw one or two Plymouth regulars to travel up to compete for a weekly show.
In western Wisconsin Cedar Lake Speedway in Somerset and Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie are the only tracks to run late models (non-crate) weekly. To the north Superior Speedway runs WISSOTA sanctioned late models weekly. So in total there are just five tracks in Wisconsin still run dirt late models on a weekly basis.
“I truly believe opportunity to run more than once weekly is what keeps drivers from considering moving up (to late models),” said Shawano Speedway’s Brad Luepke. “With the price tag of a modified and in some cases a sport modified almost comparable to a good used Late Model, I feel if another track would pick them up weekly, or at least every other week, you may see more move up into that class.”
According to Luepke, Shawano drew between 16-21 weekly most nights, which he considered a ‘pretty solid car count’ in 2022. “Take a look at Farmer City, Illinois, in the heart of Late Model country,” Luepke explained. “They averaged 12 cars for their weekly shows last year, so in comparison, Shawano held their own I’d say.”
According to Luepke, he’s received a few messages from drivers who have expressed a genuine interest in moving up into the late model class at Shawano. “But in the end, I firmly believe that opportunity to race more locally is a big piece of what prevents drivers from jumping into a late model,” Luepke pointed out. “For guys who don’t have the budget to travel 3 hours or more and just want to race locally, I believe getting another track on board would really get some of those guys strongly considering it.”
Therein lies part of the problem. Truth is with the other northeast Wisconsin tracks like 141 Speedway, Outagamie Speedway in Seymour and The ‘Burg in Luxemburg already having stout car weekly car counts with their existing IMCA sanctioned-based programs – it makes it hard to justify the bringing in the division weekly which typically requires a much heftier driver payout than say a modified class.
Truth is in terms of weekly racing these tracks maybe don’t typically “need” to have the late models run weekly. However, the argument that I’ve always pointed out is that Shawano for example, by running late models have a division that is NOT able to be enjoyed at those other weekly tracks. Something different from the same old, grind-it-out divisions at the other local venues.
WOULD SANCTIONING MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
For a bit in the late ‘90s and into the 2000s the tracks at Shawano, Seymour Tri-Oval and Langlade County Speedway in Antigo ran under the WISSOTA sanctioning for their late models. That’s been gone for quite a while. While it didn’t foster a huge boost in the weekly car counts it did provide a common set of rules and the overall pool of cars between the three tracks was larger.
In addition, you’d get some heavy hitters from western Wisconsin pop in from time to time.
Ed Reichert has been an All The Dirt columnist and public relations man for Rice Lake Speedway, covering the western dirt track racing scene for many decades. “It is kind of funny. I was just talking to John Kaanta recently about the state of Late Model racing in Wisconsin and one of the things he mentioned was that he used to like to go to Shawano every so often and would look in that direction if Western tracks got rain on a Saturday but he said that since they have different rules relative to the open motors and apparently, the lineup procedure isn’t very friendly to “drop in ” drivers, they stopped considering heading East.
“I used to love those days in the past when there would be open races at Shawano, Seymour, Antigo and other tracks in that area and our drivers from the West would go there to race and it would be a good time. I’m even old enough to remember those crazy days at De Pere and the beer cans flying!
As far as weekly racing, many of our tracks in this area just can’t either pay what the Late Models need weekly or there just aren’t enough cars to go around for all the tracks. In Rice Lake’s case, they have several specials during year on nights when Cedar Lake isn’t running Late Models and they are well attended so there is still an appetite by the fans for Late Model racing.
Open motors to run weekly shows is insane as the numbers will never work out. The WISSOTA drivers feel that they have a good motor package, but it isn’t cheap anymore either, but still less than what an open motor would cost. The rub is when the Outlaws come into the area and the WISSOTA cars are turned into field fillers as they just can’t keep up with the open motor cars. But then if guys get open motors, there are suddenly less cars for the weekly shows and there have been nights when even Red Cedar was tight on car counts and that is the heart of MB county.”
Reichert added: “Tires and the related point funds produced by tire companies are a problem also, but I think we have to wait until the off season to see just how the tire thing shakes out with the announcement of standard tires and limited choices for all, there may be no more tire deals and it may turn into a “take it or leave it” kind of thing.
“In the case of Shawano and Plymouth, when the only two Late Model tracks on that whole side of the state race on the same night, some sanity needs to step in there and they need to coordinate schedules and have more back and forth, especially since Plymouth is so Sprint Car orientated anyway or so it seems.”
The Dirt Kings are OK, but they don’t run for much money and while I’m impressed how loyal most of those drivers are to that series, there is a huge disparity between the “haves” and the “have nots” and the vast majority of the drivers that run that series likely will never even see a top five finish.
Cutting costs within the dirt late models is a nice idea but a tough one to pull off. Even in things like shocks there are so many different opinions on what can or can’t be done and for something like that to work, it almost needs to be an across-the-board change and that’s tough to do. I do know that the interest by the fans in Late Models remains strong around here but for most tracks, a weekly show is just not realistic with traveling specials much more likely to be successful.”
Tomahawk’s Travis Friske, shown here in victory lane at Eagle River Speedway June 21, also races his USRA late model at Tomahawk Speedway on Saturday nights. (Chad Lederer photo)
THE GREAT “CRATE” DEBATE
The market for a “crate” type dirt late model has opened in certain pockets of Wisconsin and two tracks in northern Wisconsin – Eagle River Speedway and Tomahawk Speedway have run the division weekly. Tomahawk sanctioned the class with the United States Racing Association (USRA) while Eagle River runs essentially the same rules package but without any sanction.
Both tracks struggled with car counts in 2022. Eagle River had eight drivers earn points in ’22 while Tomahawk pulled ten different drivers in weekly racing action. Eagle River Speedway promoter Pat Zdroik remains committed to the division and confirmed that class will be back in 2023. Tomahawk promoter Andrew Bartelt has indicated he’s committed to running the USRA late models at Tomahawk at least through 2024.
The plus at tracks like ERS and Tomahawk though is the late models provide a different looking product on the track and many casual fans in the stands don’t know or care of the car has a GM 604 Chevy crate motor under the hood, a hard spec tire or affordable spec shocks bolted on.
The class does well with the USRA sanctioning at tracks like Mississippi Thunder, Eagle Valley Speedway in Jim Falls and Cedar Lake Speedway. At CLS 30 drivers earned USRA late model points while at EVS 18 different drivers earned weekly points in ’22. At MTS 26 different drivers earned points in the USRA lates.
Again, some food for thought – this “crate” late model class may be a better fit at tracks that don’t host the more powerful WISSOTA type late model or one that runs at Shawano or Plymouth.
Some folks feel that “weekly” dirt late models should be geared more towards a more economical “crate” late model rules type car while yet others strongly feel things should remain as is.
We’ll see what drivers opt to move into the dirt late model division in 2023 and beyond and see how the Dirt Kings Tour continues to fit into that proverbial puzzle when the series schedule is released.
(For the record the race committee of Plymouth Dirt Track declined to comment on this story when reached out. The car count numbers revealed in this story were pulled off of the respective race track pages through MyRacePass)