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Goldy
09-30-2013, 12:26 PM
Okay - so a day after the Fall Final and nobody's talking again, go figure - or is there nothing to talk about? - After reading the results I'll ask, so, how was the Mod Tour "action" at Stafford?

Sicklajoie
09-30-2013, 05:29 PM
As far as I was concerned, the only action was anything that was going on around the 88.

CASHCAD45
10-01-2013, 10:04 AM
as far as i was concerned, the only action was anything that was going on around the 88.

whats that supposed to mean?

TMAC
10-01-2013, 12:37 PM
what you talking about?

DaFingz
10-01-2013, 01:23 PM
Coby and Szegedy made it somehwat interesting getting to the front in the early stages of the race but other than that it was a classic Stafford Tour race. 150 laps of watching paint dry.

Goldy
10-02-2013, 12:18 PM
Thanks Fingz and Lajoie…

.. like “watching paint dry” you say huh? Interesting.. yes, I’ve seen this there..

So, my next question (and it’s not a trick one) – aside from the “value adds” that are the outside driver intros and the pit stops/strategies - how was the tour racing action as opposed, to say, I don’t know… the SK race?

Anyone?

DaFingz
10-03-2013, 08:38 AM
Thanks Fingz and Lajoie…

.. like “watching paint dry” you say huh? Interesting.. yes, I’ve seen this there..

So, my next question (and it’s not a trick one) – aside from the “value adds” that are the outside driver intros and the pit stops/strategies - how was the tour racing action as opposed, to say, I don’t know… the SK race?

Anyone?

I may be biased because Stafford is my home track and we run there weekly but as a fan I would just assume pay the 35 bucks to watch the SKs race side by side than sit through the entire Tour race. For whatever reason The Mod Tour has gotten almost intolerable to watch at Stafford. When the SK mods run clean at Stafford they put on a fantastic show.

To answer your question the SK race was better than the Tour race on Sunday. The field is stacked with Tour drivers, all in good equipment and it was a fairly clean race. Almost the same amount of cars as well....

jbonez21
10-03-2013, 05:03 PM
I like the latest press release on the Stafford Speedway website. $100 fine to Woody Pitkat for performing donuts in the infield following the SK feature, LOL!

Goldy
10-07-2013, 08:10 PM
No bias detected here Fingz and I appreciate your view as a “fan” – this is precisely what I’m getting at.. thanks for playing along and your spot on input.

I’ve had the bulk of this drafted for days - and now and with the news of the Hillbilly operation potentially closing down, I’ll put it out there..

There’s an elephant in the room…

Modified racing – there’s an abundance of it; let’s start at the bottom, there’s…. SK Lights “Modifieds” and you guessed it - Lite Modifieds , SK Modified® and Sunoco Modifieds, Sportsman Modified, 2 Barrel Modified.. oh and there’s the NASCAR Modifieds (at your weekly NASCAR tracks) and Asphalt Modifieds at all those non NASCAR joints… and let’s not forget the tours - ROC Modifed Tour, VMS Modified Tour and low and behold the WMT.. oh, and let’s not forget our southern brethren, the SWMT .. that’s a shi*load of modifieds!!! Guess what, they all resemble a WMT car… crazy huh?

By my last account or as legend has it, the WMT is “mac-daddy” of modified racing – it’s where all the top names are, it’s the prestige, it’s shiny, it’s NASCAR, it’s “the tour” of all tours… and… it’s expensive, in fact so expensive there isn’t much left to this tour to hang a Hoosier hat on .. sure, we’ve all discussed this before, the ticket prices, the operating costs, the payouts, the losing proposition that is mostly any racecar / racing hobby. The costs far outweigh the purse or the end of year payouts. This is not exclusive to the WMT, but suffice it to say, the WMT presents the widest margin of financial loss incurred. Say the top 3 in points do better than break even on the year, and I figure, that’s being generous. The rest, well…. It’s actually hard to tell since NASCAR stopped publishing the payouts for each race – why not list them like they used to, could they be embarrassed? All this – for peanuts..

Okay, I’ll say it..

As a fan, I personally don’t see the value in the WMT and my guess is I’m not alone. Check the car counts, pretty sad if you ask me; 25 at the Fall Final, 26 at NHMS and 23 at Monadnock look like low points to me, I’m sure Jason can whip up the averages - Bristol and Riverhead look to be the exceptions where there were cars that actually didn’t qualify and went home.

Why are we doing this?

Just like in other business models, when things aren’t going well, and trends continue downward - why continue that operating model? Why continue with something, that when you look across the competitive landscape, doesn’t really offer anything that differentiates it’s product from the other similar options? Is the racing that much better or truly, that much different? Can it possibly justify the financial losses?

.. and for what? So one can say I race on the WMT? Translation, I lost more money on the WMT than I would have racing a Modified at my weekly short track? Is it pride, ego, tradition that car owners continue put money into this series? Does it make sense to hang onto this “Tour” as something of value and continue to participate in it when year over year everyone is just getting squeezed?

So what’s your point Goldy? – just another doom and gloom rant of late?
I thought you used to be one of those cheerleaders of the WMT, why so cynical man?
He’s probably going bring up the golden era of how things used to be.. again..

No – how about the way things could be?

How about Modified racing without all these labels and brands.. how about just modified racing? For example – Friday night show at Stafford, yes, their SK Modified® brand – see the names competing there regularly? Rocco, Preece, Pitkat, Pennink, Christopher, Coby, Berndt.. Santos was in the field at the Fall Final as well… and the others like Owen, Brainard, Avery, Bolles.. Waterford has their own shoreline names, who get around that oval just as fast as a modified tour regular.. On the Island – plenty of Saturday night racers there putting on a good show and throughout upstate NY and even PA, guys – several of whom that (key word here) USE to participate on the tour, are getting their fix sticking close to home and putting on a show.. down south, at the Stadium – great weekly racing and crowds, all at a reasonable cost.

Why do we need a tour?

This shouldn’t be too hard to imagine, but – what’s wrong with going to your local short track and seeing a fine sampling of “tour” drivers competing – racing in, you guess it, a modified. There are already special events/distances to break the normal weekly schedule, heat races to qualify, generally shorter distances where the hyped up “pit strategy” shouldn’t come into play – we don’t need to see the “over the wall” gang in action, all NASCAR’d out, just like we see on TV – in every race. We don’t need 2 day shows, time trails (ok, maybe for special events), $45 admission, the latest silly rule that the Cup cars must abide by, we don’t need to travel to Canada, Daytona, Bristol or go to a banquet down south… why? For what? Some glory?

Imagine modified racing where teams were actually enticed (financially, i.e., big purse) to participate elsewhere, without having to deal with fees or special licenses, without altering their modified at significant expense or effort to conform to sanctioning body or branded track rules - might be at another track in state, the next state over or 300 miles away.

Have I gone off the reservation? Have I totally lost it?

Would dissolving the WMT be such a bad thing? Would NASCAR lose sleep over it?

Would WMT owners, drivers, cars, collectively these “teams” be stuffed in the corner left to gather dust? Or would they adapt and still go racing and chase the checkers, following the beat of their own drum or perhaps the depth of their respective wallets.

Shawn has an excellent piece over at his place about the disconnect between NASCAR and short track racing and a couple of his points I’ll echo … even though its marketed and drilled into the TV viewer, tomorrow’s next great NASCAR cup star isn’t coming out of your local short track or regional tour – sure we have a few that are getting notoriety and well deserved – Preece, Rocco.. TC has, Lia.. Szegedy had a moment there with opportunities – but these chances, these opportunities can still occur by generating buzz at your local track – in the end, a lot of it has to do with networking and who you know. The tour isn’t acting as a launching pad to the next step in NASCAR’s prescribed ladder system.. it’s just not happening..

It doesn’t surprise me the Hillbilly shop is in danger of closing down – frankly I’m surprised there aren’t more teams folding up, rapidly. How long can someone lose money? How long are folks willing to throw their cash at something without getting something back (fans and owners). NASCAR hasn’t figured out that the Modified Tours they sanction are nothing but losing propositions – we’re all not sticking around because our beloved modifieds are marketed as their “oldest division” or because our guys in the booth at Bristol tout the drivers talents and have great stories or because of the nifty press releases and multimedia enhancements. We’re done sitting through time trails, competition cautions, officiating inconsistencies and freight train features. We’re done buying into the NASCAR thing – why? Because there are other options and money isn’t endless, it’s not replenished with the next set of sticker tires..

End of rant... I guess... thanks for reading along..

Gil
10-08-2013, 12:20 AM
When I was a kid the New London-Waterford Speedbowl had two classes - Fords & Non-Fords. I can't remember how many different classes they have now. TIS & SMS also have a high number of classes.

I've been reading Dr. Dick Berggren's Speedway Illustrated for a few years now and really surprised to find out how many modifieds they have in other parts of the USA. I wonder why?

Goldy Jr.
10-10-2013, 11:39 AM
So Dad – if I’m reading your thesis on dissolving the WMT’s correctly, it sounds like (to me anyway), your suggesting “the way things could be” is kinda like “the way things used to be”?? Is that right? Cause I thought you were saying you weren’t going to bring up the “golden era” and whatnot??…

Disclaimer: I’m too young to know what the “golden era” was like, but when my sister and I were little, on chilly fall nights, my Dad would get a fire going out back, he’d bring the gas can from the garage and open it so it smelt like gas out there and he’d bring this old modified tire he brought home from the track years ago, and he’d sit on it and peel off rubber and throw it into the fire (so it smelt like burnt rubber too) – and then he’d go on and on and tell us stories of how he and my uncle would go to like 3 or 4 races a week.. like we even cared? It was cold and we just wanted to go to bed, which we eventually did when he wasn’t looking.. but I could still hear him… through my window, talking still, hours later, as if we were there.. something about PitStopper programs for .50 and something called Speedway Scene??.. some evil racer named Geoff Bodine, a guy by the name of Dick Armstrong and all his big money, trick cars and winning too much..

I better go now, study hall is over..

Goldy
10-10-2013, 12:42 PM
I suppose your right son, by golly you’re a smart kid … (we can talk about you’re sarcasm and tone later this evening)..

I guess the “old” way isn’t that far out there is it?.. teams could pick and choose which races to go to, perhaps chase a local track championship OR if they wanted to and had the funding, go after one of them glitzy Whelen All American national championships like that Kid Rock does – now there’s an option to go chasin’ racin’ dreams and get yourself a ticket down south maybe – at least you get to go to that fancy banquet down south and all.. Hummmmm… Interesting thought here, WMT teams could filter into the SK’s (or similar weekly modified events) and some SK’s could either compete or filter into that Modified Lite class (where some might belong anyway).. sounds like a win, win, win…

After this revelation my mind is just spinning. I think it’s a perfect night for a fire, I’m thinking inside (I’ll leave the gas and the tire in the garage).