Q&A With Devil’s Bowl’s Mike Bruno & Justin St. Louis

Column By: DYLAN FRIEBEL / RPW – RUTLAND, VT – This weekend at the Devil’s Bowl Car Show, I got the chance to catch up Devil’s Bowl Speedway promoter Mike Bruno and Public Relations Director Justin St. Louis where we talked about the track and what to expect in 2017.

Question: What are the expectations for the 2017 season at Devils Bowl Speedway?
Answer: 70 degrees and sunshine. You never expect eleven rain outs, nine of them were on the dirt track, only two on the asphalt last year. We just want to grow the place and get more cars. We believe we will on both the pavement and the dirt track with the new series that are coming to Devil’s Bowl.

Q: What event do you believe the fans will look forward to the most?
A: On the asphalt anytime American Canadian Tour is there the fans love it, and on the dirt side the King Of Dirt series, we believe there 358 [KOD] show will be good.

Q:You guys are the only one around that own both an asphalt and dirt track in one, what are the difficulties with that?
A: It’s a lot of work. When you race dirt on Sunday nights you have to time it with the weather, and if it rain or it’s going to, you have start that work right after the races Sunday night. Sweeping the paved track, and if not Sunday then Monday immediately. We do hope for rain Monday and between the weekend, and if it does not we go out in the water truck, we water the paved track to get the dirt off it. We want to give the best surface to the pavement guys just like we do the paved guys.

Q:In the past you have ran a partial schedule on the dirt track, was the plan to run a full season only three seasons in?
A: Yes, just don’t put the cart before the horse. We did it this way so that we could understand the people, the rules, and with the track being the biggest thing, we feel the track is your product. You can have all these cars and all these people but if you do not have a good surface you have nothing in dirt racing. The first year we ran three races, second year was five, last year was thirteen, and then this year we are every week on Sunday’s. We were not ready before to be honest, we wanted to do it the right way, we had to learn how to work with the asphalt and dirt track together.

Q:What if any learning curve was there on dirt side?
A: We have been around it all our life so it was not that big of an adjustment. The biggest adjustment was because we start so early on a Sunday we had to figure out the timing on when to prep the track if it was hot day versus a cloudy day.

Q:The event I am most excited for is the weekend the trucks race on both the pavement and the dirt, what are your thoughts on that?
A: That’s a whole different crowd. Most of the teams in that series are from Connecticut and Long Island and they have never been to this part of the country or seen Devil’s Bowl before. On the asphalt track they are going to be fine, everybody it’s a lot like Stafford [Motor Speedway]. Sunday is going to be whole different ball of wax. Our biggest thing is going to be to make sure they do not allow special trucks on the dirt track. We want them to run the same truck they run Saturday night on Sunday night with just a different tire and maybe a gear change. We want to keep the playing field neutral and them not to spend money.

Q:You have big names at the track in sportsman competition such as Bobby Hackel and Kenny Tremont. What has that brought to the dirt track do you think?
A: Vince Quenneville and Tim Laduc are big names in this area. Names like Bobby [Hackel] and Kenny [Tremont] add to your show. Kenny enjoys being there, they like coming in on Sundays, it’s relaxing, come and have a good time, not as much pressure we strive for a hometown atmosphere at Devil’s Bowl. It also adds that our local fans show up to see those guys lose, they want to see the track regulars beat the outsiders,it creates a rivalry and it’s fun to have that, it also attracts fans from the capital district of New York who have watch Kenny race for 50 years.

Q:I know in the past you’ve brought 358/big blocks to the dirt track with little success, however this year you are adding on a KOD 358 race, thoughts on that?
A: The big block race we had was right at the start of the dirt track and the weather did not go in our favor, we had a very rough track and looking back on it today we would have not ran that race and we learned from it. By bringing in the 358 deal we are bringing in a whole group of people who have never been to Devil’s Bowl since 2009. They are going to get a chance to see and we are going to get a chance to showcase our facility and that’s something that excites us.

Q:What do you think NASCAR Sanctioning has over other sanctioning bodies
A: Everything. The point money NASCAR gives out, our points champions last year each got a minimum of $5,000. Dirt only gives $500,00 dollars insurance versus NASCAR with $1,050,000 and that’s a big difference. Nobody plans on getting hurt but when you get hurt you need that money. They do so much for the tracks, NASCAR paid to build our sign at the road, lettered our pace cars, garbage can wraps, brochures, sign in sheets, pit bracelets, and we do not have to buy that stuff and we can reinvest the money we would spend back into the track. They give you money to make your facilities better and unfortunately with the other sanctioning bodies out there it is just not there. We were given a $10,000 dollar grant to make improvements such as pavement in around the facilities and tech building. It is a good platform to build your brand and when you feel you belong to something and everyone is on board it goes much smoother.

Q:Where do you see the track in five years?
A: Ask us in five years. We believe you will see Devil’s Bowl as one of the leading tracks people want to go, to, whether we are dirt or pavement people are going to have the feeling off i want to go back there.