RPW Exclusive: Brett Deyo Seems To Have Found The “Right Stuff” For The Weekend Racer

Column By: DYLAN FRIEBEL / RPW – BOYERTOWN, PA – When I wrote about Brett Deyo and his Short Track Super Series last year, even I wasn’t 100% convinced it would be sustainable. Starting something new and fresh with guys who have so much wrapped up in race cars, it can be hard to gain traction.

Even harder than that is once you have it, keeping it.

However, after his event, the Stampede at ‘Toga, at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway recently, I’m convinced.

That being said, I recently had the chance to chat with the promoter from small-town Upstate New York. When starting something as big as his series has gotten, you don’t just wake up over night and say ‘I’m going to do this.’ You have to baby steps, and Brett, originally from Cornwall NY, knew that.

“Honestly, I started small,” Deyo said. “I did a few races here or there like the Dirty Jersey and then more tracks wanted to be apart of it. Back then, I saw that the Race Of Champions was on its way out, and more and more tracks wanted me to come promote events, so we created a point fund. Our first event was in April of 2014 at Orange County, and now we are 56 events in and strong.”

Brett knew the crowd he wanted to appeal to and has had a lot of success doing just that.

“The backbone of our series are guys with regular weekly jobs,” he said. “We don’t have guys who do this for a living…for the most part. I think we run too much for those guys as it is now. I wish we could run less. However, I don’t see us expanding our schedule a lot in the upcoming years. We want to keep the working man coming to put on a show for the fans.”

When you start a touring series in today’s market, you have to think outside the box to keep the drivers happy. Deyo has found a way to do it, and do it well.

“A big reason why we are so successful is because we pay through the field,” he told me. “We pay $1,000 for 10th and $400 to start. There are not many series that do that. You only see good payback through the field in big-time 410 (Sprint Car) racing. We want to keep everyone happy. Just like at Malta a few weeks ago, we had a full-paying B-main and were able to put money into the pockets of the guys who normally wouldn’t have got any. That’s pretty cool to do.”

With the event at Malta, taking place the last two years, Brett took a gamble and went up deep into Hoosier’s territory. That’s something you just don’t see many do. You see? His series drivers run on American Racers.

“It’s hard to get guys to come to a race this far into Hoosier tire country,” he said. “However, the success of the event, I think, hinged on letting the guys run Hoosier tires. Some of the track regulars that maybe don’t have American Racers, or the money for a set or two, can now come and run with us at that race.”

The show was a success, even with the curve ball Mother Nature threw at them.

“It sucked we had to move the race back a day this year,” he said. “Again, it goes back to everyone having a job and taking the time off for the Tuesday date. However, it was some great racing, at a great track that’s perfect for the size of our series. The fans in the Capital Region are so passionate about Modified racing and that night proved it.”

Still, Deyo has to wonder how much better it could have been if he had been able to run on the original date.

“I think if we could have run the event on the original night, and have Mother Nature cooperate with us, it would of been bigger and better,” he said. “We’re still happy with the turn out and I think we found a crown-jewel event…a must-see race.”

Brett runs two different parts two his Short Track Super Series tours…yes I said two…the North and South Regions. If you’ve been to a race of either, you will notice that teams run sail panels up north while the south doesn’t. I asked Brett about this and his response was even a bit of a shock to me.

“We want to keep the speeds down in the south,” he said. “We run on such big tracks like Bridgeport, Georgetown and Delaware. I think they go too fast at Georgetown as is even without the sail panels. Running in the 18-second bracket around a half-mile is flying. These guys spend so much on their motors as is. Why tax them even more with more speed and create more costs.”

But, for his north region, the series doesn’t find their way to many “big” tracks.

“With the smaller bullring-style, tighter tracks in the north series, sail panels helps the racing,” he said. “Other than at Orange County, which is the biggest track in the north, they help, and that’s why there’s a difference.”

If you haven’t been paying attention to the boy from small-town NY, who is doing big things and putting out a great product, you should. As a fan, when you see the same old thing, just a different way, it gets monotonous. Seeing race cars on American Racers tires with sail panels come to my neck of woods, as Brett put it, deep in Hoosier tire country, was an event I was glad I got to see. It will be circled on my calendar again when his schedule comes out this winter. He’s found a gem in the ‘Stampede at Toga’.

Brett Deyo has found his niché in motorsports here in the northeast. The sky’s the limit for him and he isn’t to be taken lightly.

Hats off to you Mr. Deyo.