Will the economy have an effect on the WMT?

[Bobby1717]

I was wondering if the economy will play a large role on the tour this year. We can see what it is doing with the Sprint Cup. Has there been discussions on how to cut costs for the WMT? Maybe one day shows to limit overnight costs?, four tires a race?, shorter distances?

Nascar stepped and limited testing for the Sprint series so it justs makes sense they would help out the little guy.

I'm wondering if we will have the same amount of cars in the field this year as last or will teams combine their efforts and split a season to cut costs.

[limodmaniac]

I know that the True Value Series is trying to cut back some of the two day shows into one day shows.. Makes sense to me.

[MXCHAMP04]

They should run it like the TVMRS. In the TVMRS, you can only buy 3 tires per event. Can only change a tire in case of a flat. That's a huge savings. I follow Les Hinckley around because the car owner Chuck Montville is my ex-brother-in-law (was married to my sister), and he says that he does not race the WMT because of the cost of tires, fees, and the crew all has to have fire suits and helmets and all this other crap to be on pit lane. It's just way too much money for the average racer.

[kja819]

It makes sense to me to try and cut costs also but NASCAR has never understood that most of us who worked on these teams also have full time jobs that we take our vacation on those mid week shows like Bristol. Don't get me wrong I think its great that we are going to Bristol. That is a race track I always thought would be a great fit with the Mods. How many teams are that well funded to be able to do all the travel that the Mods have to this and every year. I think we will see over the course of the year the same amount of cars atempting to quailify they will just not make as many races. The teams will pick and choose which tracks they go to.

[worm]

there is only 14 races,used to race that many in a month

[MJProcko]

The economy will always dictate to an extent what will happen to a series.
There are less WMT races but that may help in this economy and adding the Bristol race is huge. Just expanding for the sake of expanding is not good for anyone. If you expand make sure it's quality events like Bristol. A combined series final race at Richmond would be a nice one, heck toss in the CWEast cars as well. The TVMods added dates last year to any track that would pay Jack to bring 'em in and they over expanded what the series realistically could support to the point of where they had less than full fields by midseason. They smartly cut back this year but it'll be interesting how the Mods at Monadnock and All Star effect them.

Eliminate all flash races is another good idea!

The main problem I think is that Nascar has pushed profit to the hilt for the big 3 and took the fans for granted and now are scambling to keep those series afloat so finding sponsors will never trickle down to the WMT. However the WMT is not in as bad a shape as some of the other series. The WMT must atleast be paying for itself for the folks down in Daytona or they would have dropped them. As a fall back a WMT car can be turned around and run locally or in the ROC, TV, ASA series. While the WMT may be the best Mod series they have more options than say the CWE. Thats also another reason you'll never see the Nascar sanction fees drop for the series. I believe they'll drop the series first. Late model racing has survived pretty well since Nascar dropped them.

The CWEast series this year could be even worse off. that series was revamped to make it a Southern series so the cup teams could develop the 14year olds. Alot of those cup teams can't afford that anymore and they forced out most of the old Busch North teams. And like the WMT, Nascar don't really care about them with the problems their other series have.

Cup is going to have many filler cars this season, as well as many more empty seats. Their pipe dreams of thousand dollar seat licensing fees ala the NY giants and jets are down the tube. I haven't checked in a while but I'm sure being forced to by the truck and GN race along with the cup seats are close to history too.

If they want the truck and grand national series to survive one of them may need to be dropped - probably the trucks, losing Craftsmen was huge. Truck teams could fall back into the GN series. both series will be very down this season. If it wasn't for the "Busch Wackers" some of the races will look like heat races.

The Roc series should be ok depending on the draw of Shangra la 2.

The WSMT has a nice schedule this year and could see more cars. the ASA mods have new promotions so they could do better also but to good would hurt the WSMT.

The TV's will probably stay the same as last season unless Maddog does real well. Also a Waterford forclosure will hurt they big too. However a Thomson race that does well could be a springboard to bigger things.

Curious, if you are a first time racer at a TVMod event and can only buy 3 tires do you not run a left front? If you only have 3 spares what happens when you blow the tire you don't have a spare for?

Speaking of Waterford if they don't reup with Nascar and the Whelem All American Series will those chasing the National points like Keith Rocco still race there?

[mikel 3]

I am really concerned for the wmt dealing with this economy.any time Isay anything about this as Ihave posted in the past the response I get is load ten people in a geo and support your local tracks.I really think that the purses haven"t kept up with the costs over the years for one thing.Nascar makes sure it gets its cut first then the tracks get their cut what is left is the the race teams.We need to get more tv coverage which in turn would help us attract more sponsors which would definately help.Just look around at how many teams in the wmt that have top line sponsors they are few and far between.that means that the owners and drivers and supporting their own teams .This isn"t going to last too long the way things are going.I think the tracks have to be a little more creative with the ticket prices for the fans and crew members.they should make some type of family packages to keep the loyal fans coming.The economy is going to dictate what the priorities are.Unfortunatley racing may become just to expensive.

[Fat Albert]

Curious, if you are a first time racer at a TVMod event and can only buy 3 tires do you not run a left front? If you only have 3 spares what happens when you blow the tire you don't have a spare for?

No they don't make anyone race on three tires! First time racers can purchase up to seven tires, 4 for practice, 3 for the race. Top NASCAR WMT teams buy 3 to 4 sets of tires per race.

[Jaws]

"Eliminate all flash races is another good idea!"


So that would trim off 3 more races, that would leave you with 11.

[MXCHAMP04]

No they don't make anyone race on three tires! First time racers can purchase up to seven tires, 4 for practice, 3 for the race. Top NASCAR WMT teams buy 3 to 4 sets of tires per race.
This is true. The first race of the year, or a teams first race, they can buy 7 tires. After this, they can only purchase 3 tires per event, and must be run the entire event, unless a flat. I'm not sure how many you can have in your inventory, but I believe only four tires can be in your inventory.

[LiquidBread]

I am really concerned for the wmt dealing with this economy.any time Isay anything about this as Ihave posted in the past the response I get is load ten people in a geo and support your local tracks.I really think that the purses haven"t kept up with the costs over the years for one thing.Nascar makes sure it gets its cut first then the tracks get their cut what is left is the the race teams.We need to get more tv coverage which in turn would help us attract more sponsors which would definately help.Just look around at how many teams in the wmt that have top line sponsors they are few and far between.that means that the owners and drivers and supporting their own teams .This isn"t going to last too long the way things are going.I think the tracks have to be a little more creative with the ticket prices for the fans and crew members.they should make some type of family packages to keep the loyal fans coming.The economy is going to dictate what the priorities are.Unfortunatley racing may become just to expensive.

I offer up another perspective. Has anyone considered that in adversity opportunity might be found? The fact that the economy is in the tank has probably allowed Wall and Waterford to open next year and not become condos.

Which begs another question; why not finally unify the mods and dump NASCAR once and for all? Common specs among WMT, ROC and TVMRS; an independent tour (like DIRT), without the track owners having to take on the NASCAR sanction. That would open up a ton of tracks in NE, NY, PA, NJ, OH and maybe more. Teams could run weekly home tracks, as well as tour for points. The race calendar would explode, per race expenses would drop, track overhead would drop and purses would increase to the point of allowing folks to maybe do this for a living again.

You'd most likely lose Whelen sponsorship (and others), but I'd bet that True Value and Sunoco might step up. You could replace Martinsville with Oswego (for example), and add a bunch of new venues (Lake Erie for example). You might lose a couple of teams, but I also have to believe that the hot shoes looking to move on would still get NASCAR's notice. Talent and ambition is still talent and ambition.

TV contracts albiet regional might be more doable, sponsorship increases, and the whole thing gets healthier. It's pretty much the same core people involved.

This might be the ramblings of a fan yearning for the old days, but hey, who'd have thought that we'd have gone to the moon or elected an African-American president?

[bud]

I have to agree with that idea. I remember Tomaino winning the mad dog race the year he won the championship.........what a race! It is to bad nascar has priced itself out of the average man and tracks price range. Look at the twinstate race........what an awesome show that was!

[uticamike]

Liquid Bread, If I didn't know better I could have written that myself. I agree
with your post outside the Lake Erie thing. I don't think that "non" Modified tracks have any interest regardless of sanction. The faithful won't like the
no Martinsville idea but I would trade that place for Richmond in a heart beat.
All Mods under the same rules is a great idea.:applause: