It’s Time For A Change In Local Dirt Racing, And I Have An Idea

Column By: TOBY LAGRANGE / RPW – GLOVERSVILLE, NY – It is time for a change…a drastic one. Those of you that have read my various columns over the past 16 years or know me outside of the Track of Champions know that I am a Fonda Speedway lifer. To be more specific I am a Dirt Modified lifer. I breathe Dirt Modified racing.

For someone like me, there is no better thing than seeing a field of ground pounding Dirt Modifieds crank their way through the short chute, past the Cow Palace in turn four and down the front stretch. I am sure the same thing goes for fans at other tracks that headline the Mighty Modifieds. Whether it is Orange County, Albany-Saratoga, Lebanon Valley, Fulton or Canandaigua lifers make up a chunk of the grandstands.

I strongly feel that if weekly Dirt Modified style racing is going to continue and thrive in Upstate New York and beyond the drastic change I eluded to needs to happen.

What is that drastic change you ask?

It is simple, yet barbaric in some eyes. We as a sport need to drop the current Big Block and Small Block engines and replace them with a Crate Engine.

No, I am not losing my marbles, I am serious. I feel that the time has come to replace the current engine package with the much more economical GM Crate Engine (as well as any comparable brand Crate Engine). The prices of a Big Block and Small Block engine are out of control and while there are some less expensive and competitive (crate) options, introducing another engine package to our sport will do more harm than good.

To the average fan and more importantly to the potential new fan, what is under the hood is irrelevant to their good-time at the track. After all, if we as a sport are to survive then we need new blood on both sides of the fence. They are not going to know the difference if Tim Fuller, Bobby Varin and Jeremy Wilder is driving a Big Block or a Crate Engine. To them, they (engines) are all the same.

The purses would remain the same (about $2,000-$2,500 to win and $150-$200 to start) in this scenario and the point funds would as well (or hopefully higher). The Sportsman division would follow the same engine package and rules. There would also be a rule that no driver can stay in the Sportsman division for more than three years. The only difference in divisions would be experience level. There would be a purse but it would be smaller than today’s Sportsman division. This would further entice drivers to move up.

This change would bolster car counts and make the once special races that have lost their luster seem special again. Those events that are still very successful like Super DIRT Week and the Outlaw 200 (to me it is still the Victoria 200) would see car counts return to what they once were. Can you imagine a Super DIRT Week at the Oswego Speedway with 150 entries for the Syracuse 200/300? That would be a show.

With touring series like the King of Dirt Series, GRIT Series and the DIRTcar Series gaining enthusiasm and bringing in higher car counts each year, this would make their events even more special. Instead of a 40-car field you may see a 60-car field as a norm. For those of us over the age of 30, this is what it used to be like when the Super DIRTcar Series or an unsanctioned special event came to town.

The change would also shorten the weekly programs. There would be one less division with roughly the same amount of entries – if not more. With the entries about the same, the back-gate revenue would be about the same, only with less purse money to pay out. Also, drivers with less of a budget who could never fund a Big Block or Small Block power plant would get the chance to race with the big names of the sport. After all, with many tracks using this rule package, the Brett Hearn, Stewart Friesen and Matt Sheppard’s of the world would be running a Crate powered machine on the weekends.

With more drivers being able to enter our sport, the exposure level for our sport would skyrocket. The Modified division with one, affordable rules package would appeal to the teenager more, since they now have a legitimate shot of getting on the track someday.

In the end, the above will never likely happen. The reason is twofold. First, promoters would be hesitant on making the change and second it would take most of the Dirt Modified world working together for it to work. Unfortunately, my son has a better chance of growing wings and flying than seeing the second reason happen.

We need to make this drastic change to ensure that the next generation and generations that have not been thought of yet have weekly racing to go to. As much as I am a diehard Big Block or Small Block fan it is more important for me to watch my great grandchildren have fun at the races than for me to see those roaring Big Blocks/Small Blocks scream their way into the history books. Make no mistake, history is exactly where our sport is headed without a change.