The Scoop
PRI SHOW NOTEBOOK – LOOKING AHEAD TO 2023
Posted on: Monday December 12, 2022
Modified standout Benji LaCrosse of Casco, Wisconsin displayed his car at the Gandrud Performance Parts booth at the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show in Indianapolis, Indiana Dec. 8-10.
If you are a hardcore race fan in the Midwest you owe it to yourself to attend the annual Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show – at least once.
This year’s show was held at Lucas Oils stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana December 8-10. The show is beyond massive and at times overwhelming. I was a first-time attendee and with over 1,000 vendors, it provides manufacturers and promoters in the motorsports industry on all levels a chance to showcase their products and services.
In the weeks leading up to the show I was almost amused at some of the comments (mainly on Facebook) regarding PRI charging a $40 “membership fee.” The show is designed for those directly involved in the industry and as such wants to weed out folks who are just there to scoop up all the “freebies” at the different booths.
Those “in the know” told me the $40 “membership” fee may in fact done exactly what it was intended for. Regardless it was elbow-to-elbow all three days, attended by several thousand people. “For us it’s a no brainer to be here,” said Dick Coleman of Coleman Racing Products. “It’s mostly a social thing for us but we unload a lot of our catalogs here and it’s a great opportunity to meet some of the people we have done business with over the years.”
For a motorsports journalist like myself I enjoyed chatting with people from the west coast from California and Idaho and from the east coast. It was a pleasure to meet the fine folks at the Speedway Illustrated booth (you can listen to our “On The Record” interview with SI’s Karl Frederickson at this website) as well as many others.)
To further illustrate just how big this show is Tony Stewart was the featured speaker at the opening day breakfast which was attended by 5,000 people!
In talking with promoters from different parts of the country one challenge remains the same – staffing at events. Especially for weekly racing. Some insiders have even hinted that weekly racing as we’ve traditionally known it in our industry may be a thing of the past within ten or fifteen years. Special events, if properly promoted tend to be more profitable in some cases.
One of the big announcements on the pavement side of things was the new ASA STARS National Series with the respective regional series taking the ASA branding. Ten dates dot the new series schedule with three Wisconsin dates on the card: The Joe Shear Classic at Madison International Speedway May 7, the Slinger Nationals at Slinger Super Speedway July 11 and the popular “Traditional Tuesday Biggie” at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna August 1.
The series, which begins at Pensacola, Florida March 11, also hosts dates in North Wilkesboro Speedway, Hickory Speedway, Anderson Indiana, Toledo, Ohio, Winchester, Indiana and the season finale in Nashville, Tennessee November 5.
Back in its heyday in the ‘80’s and into the ‘90’s ASA allowed a number of folks to race pavement late models for a living.
Compared to the dirt tracks which have a pair of national touring late model options with World of Outlaws and Lucas Oils series, many industry insiders say a tour of this nature for pavement late models is long overdue. A $100,000 point fund is setup with the champion receiving $25,000. The plan includes three regional series (Midwest Tour, Champion Racing Association and the Southern Super Series) to be sort of the backbone of sorts to act as the true “feeders” of teams into this series.
It will be interesting to say the least how this plays out for a couple of reasons. With a ten-date series, it will be difficult for someone to really become a professional short track late model racer. Can a standout like Casey Johnson, for example, afford to take off enough time from work to make all ten races?
The other thing to keep in mind is the name recognition of the pavement late model “stars” of this modern era don’t really have that “star power” that the old ASA had when you had Dick Trickle, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Senneker, Eddy, Reffner. Sure, folks know Ty Majeski but other than he and Toby Nuttleman, how many other Wisconsin teams can afford to make all ten of the shows? I think that will be the challenge this will face. Will there be enough butts in the stands at these shows? Will online streaming revenue offset or possibly even surpass making a buck on the front gate alone?
The good thing is the three Wisconsin shows on the ten-race schedule are already well-established venues. Time will tell to see how things develop. The Midwest Tour isn’t going anywhere according to their Facebook page and they hope to have their schedule released soon. A website starsnationalseries.com is where you can learn more about this series. We wish them well!
In other recent news Plymouth Dirt Track (PDTR) recently announced it was scaling back their weekly late model class participation. In a letter sent out to drivers PDTR announced it would trim the division back to six nights at the third-mile clay oval located in Plymouth and those nights do include a Dirt Kings Tour event.
It obviously was a tough call on behalf of the PDTR leadership but with running six nights the chances of drawing any newer blood on the Lakeshore in the late model class will be very slim. Options still abound with Shawano Speedway on Saturday nights as well as Dirt Kings Tour.
Plymouth has always had winged cars (supermodifieds and in more recent years Midwest Sprint Association (MSA) 360 sprint cars) as a headliner. Late models began to run weekly in the mid 2000’s at PDTR after Hales Corners Speedway shut down. Many of those Milwaukee area teams made Plymouth their home track. Prior to that Plymouth had run a “sportsman” or more of a true “limited late model.” But entering 2023 there are very few of those late model teams remaining that once ran Hales Corners.
Running both a late model class weekly and a 360 sprinter payout alone commands a pretty hefty payout for a weekly show. I suspect at the end of the day, the numbers just didn’t add up with many more local 360 teams supporting the deal weekly.
DIRT KINGS – Dirt Kings Tour drivers were informed that Langlade County Speedway in Antigo will likely be on the schedule – most likely referring to the annual fair race that has been promoted by Steve Sinclair in recent years. And Green Bay’s Chris Engels will be returning behind the wheel after taking ’22 off. Engels will have a steady diet of Dirt Kings and Shawano Speedway it sounds like.
With Beaver Dam Raceway’s recent move to Tuesday nights and IMCA sanctioning things should be interesting. Mid-week gigs have their pros and cons. I do think they’ll draw many different cars that will pop in from time-to-time when they can with the Tuesday night schedule. Tougher to get beer sales on a mid-week gig (unless it’s a decades-long built in tradition like WIR’s “Thursday Night Thunder”). I noticed just one IRA sprint car show on BDR’s schedule which I thought there would be more than that.
THE HILL – The Hill Raceway in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin recently hosted it’s 2022 banquet and honored the track’s champions. The 2023 schedule was released with their planned opener set for Saturday, May 20. Highlighting the track’s schedule is their popular Hall of Fame night, which will be held Saturday August 5. The ’23 inductees include longtime track promoter Bryan “Woody” Wodack and family including Mary, Brady and Carly.
Also “Mad Matt” Junio of Casco will be inducted along with Aaron “The Hammer” Thornton of Sturgeon Bay. You can check the track’s Facebook page for further information during the off season.
NORWAY – To the north on the pavement Wallace, Michigan’s Matt Charlebois will return to action Friday nights at Norway (MI) Speedway. Charlebois did some “horse trading” with ’22 super stock champion Anthony Schiefelbein of Pembine, Wisconsin. Charlebois parted with his late model and Schiefelbein gave up his championship super stock. Charlebois will return to the super stock class, a division which may see as many as five new rookies in ’23.
Thanks for reading! We’ve been busy taking care of some things on the home front and as such, columns such as this chock full of nuggets of racing information haven’t been on here a whole lot the past few months. We are looking to amp things up a bit as we turn the page and welcome the 2023 season.
If you’re looking for a Christmas gift for the race fan in your life through December 17 we’re running a deal through joeverdegan.com where you can snag a FREE COPY of the 2021 Amazon No. 1 best seller “5-10-32 McBride, Parker & Anvelink.” You can get that free book simply by purchasing anyone of our other books through the website. No added shipping costs either.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!