DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Lost Outlaw races and a Central PA track in trouble | Daily 9-10-2024

Things have gone sideways at a Central Pennsylvania dirt track, and now they've lost their World of Outlaws dates. We'll dive into the saga, plus talk some sprint car ride changes, including multiple current High Limit teams with changes coming, and more. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, September 10th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Plenty of topics to get into today, but before we get rolling, a quick message about today's show sponsor...

If you're wondering why today's show was posted so early, I have some activities today that are in need of my attention, so I figured I'd rather post super early, rather than super late.

Yesterday afternoon the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series posted a release about a schedule change coming to Central Pennsylvania in October. Originally, following the National Open at Williams Grove, Outlaw teams were going to stick around PA to run at Selinsgrove Speedway the following weekend for the Jim Nance Memorial. That was going to be a Friday and Saturday show. Now though, Selinsgrove is cancelled, and in it's place is a one day show, Saturday, at Lincoln Speedway for $20,000 to win and $1200 to start. This is a particularly interesting spot on the schedule, because in the past, this October weekend had been at Port Royal, but the event moved to Selinsgrove for 2024 after issues between Port and World Racing Group were created with the scheduling of High Limit shows. The Outlaws then decided to schedule Selinsgrove instead, where they hadn't raced since 1991. That 33 year streak away from the track though, will continue. All the release said was quote "Following discussions between Selinsgrove Speedway staff and World of Outlaws officials, it was deemed it would be in the best interest of both parties to cancel the Jim Nance Memorial at Selinsgrove. World of Outlaws officials will explore options on a potential return to Selinsgrove Speedway in 2025" unquote. That's obviously fairly ambiguous, but issues have been bubbling at Selinsgrove for quite some time. I had started hearing about problems at the track late last year, and rumors have been rampant all 2024 about issues with vendors, and drivers, and other folks getting paid by the promotion group. If you aren't aware, Selinsgrove is owned by the local fair board, and it's leased out for operation. The current promotion group is ERS Promotions run by Stephanie Baker. Problems at the track had grown a little more public recently, which included a monster truck tour cancelling their event at the track, moving it to another location, and posting on their Facebook page about it. The post appears to have since been deleted, but it mentioned the track not operating for the immediate future, that the operators hadn't been honest with them about the state of the track, and that the promoter owed the local quarry money. Then just a few days ago, a local newspaper, the Standard Journal, published a piece about how the race track owed thousands of dollars to various parties, with several lawsuits being filed, including one by Tony Stewart and the All Star Circuit of Champions. The All Stars raced at Selinsgrove last August, but were still owed nearly $11,000 from the $60,800 it had invoiced the track for. That amount would have included the All Stars' sanction fee and the night's purse. The series was obviously sold to Kyle Larson and Brad Sweet during the offseason in the deal to create the High Limit national tour, but All Star Enterprises LLC is still an active entity in Indiana, owned by Tony Stewart. ERS failed to appear or respond to the case brought about by the All Stars, with the court deeming the allegations admitted by the promotion group for that failure to address the case. Two other entities were awarded over $10,000 in recent judgements, and a third suit, for a local paving company, is slated for a hearing this week. There was no mention of whether or not these judgements have been paid. In response, the track has posted to Facebook several times claiming the rumors are not true, that the track itself is not closing, and that things are paused right now because of medical issues for Baker because of a serious car accident at the start of the season. With the Outlaws cancelling the event, the track says their season is now over, that will allow time for Baker to get healthy, and they will regroup and quote "get back to sorting out the business end of things." If you've been following along with this saga, you also know that the track stopped allowing comments on their Facebook posts weeks ago, and that's never a good sign. You hate to see situations like this happen, but it's clear that this group got in over their heads, and now they are finding it difficult to dig out. With all of the issues addressed by the newspaper story and the rumors, and you can see why now the Outlaws made the decision they did. This was likely a joint venture event from World Racing Group, as WRG was selling tickets, but it was probably becoming clear that the track would not be able to fulfill their part of the obligations. What this means for the future of the track, I don't know, but the months ahead will give the fairboard time to make decisions and decide their future plans.

In some sprint car news from yesterday, things are shifting around for potentially two drivers. First, High Limit announcer Chase Raudman broke news yesterday about Parker Price Miller changing rides for the final nine races in 2024. If you don't already, subscribe to Chase's YouTube channel. He posts new sprint car content all the time. PPM is currently eighth in the High Limit standings, and coming off of a weekend where he finished seventh in the Tuscarora 50 main event. Things weren't great though, as he had to borrow Zach Hampton's trailer to get his car to the track, and even Zach himself for crew help. Going forward, Raudman says that PPM will finish the High Limit season driving Brandon Ikenberry's 25 car. Ikenberry has had multiple drivers in his car this season, including Kerry Madsen, Hunter Schuerenberg, and Daison Pursley. Pursley won a weekly show at Huset's in that car. In 43 High Limit races this season, PPM has six top fives and 19 top tens, with a best finish of third. That happened twice, at Lawrenceburg in May and I-70 in June. PPM won't be in line for a potential charter after this season, but could potentially still get one after next year depending on if he can sort out his ride situation. Raudman also mentioned that Dylan Cisney is likely looking for a ride, after his car owner Scott Cowman pulled the plug in recent days. Cisney is actually the mayor of Port Royal, Pennsylvania, and appears at that track regularly. There are a couple of other sprint car ride situations to keep an eye on. I got an email yesterday from an industry friend that two current High Limit teams have made driver decisions for 2025, and I'm guessing we'll hear about them soon. One is the Jason Meyers owned 14, with that team deciding on their driver to replace Corey Day, who is headed for NASCAR next season. I had heard that this could potentially be a spot for Chase Randall, but I've been told it's a different driver taking that seat. Another full time team with High Limit has their deal done as well, and rumors there point to a swap to the Outlaws for 2024. It sounds like sprint car silly season should start ramping up here very shortly.

If you want some racing action tonight, the ASCS National Tour sprint cars will be at the Clay County Fair Speedway for $4000 to win. The last three winners with the ASCS at Clay County include Terry McCarl, Tim Crawley, and Matt Covington. Covington could use a good run, as he finds himself 185 points behind Seth Bergman for the championship. Bergman actually had issues his last time out at Electric City, and saw his sizeable lead over Sam Hafertepe slashed to just 40 points. With still quite a few races left, this should be an interesting title fight between Bergman and Hafertepe who have both won and run well all season. Tonight's show will also include the Tri-State Late Models and other divisions on the card. You can watch this one live on DIRTVision if you aren't near the track.

We'll call it good right there for today. Don't forget you can pickup DIRTRACKR merch, including shirts and stickers over at shop.dirtrackr.com. If you order something, I just might throw in a free sticker as well.

Hope you guys have a great Tuesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!