DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Drones are used for dirt racing broadcasts... So why not officiating? | Daily 10-29-2024

There is no High Limit or Outlaw shows this week, but there is sprint car intrigue elsewhere. We'll talk about your options, plus the future for CJ Leary, and one race track using an innovative approach to help with officiating. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, October 29th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

If I remember correctly, I believe this coming weekend will be our first since the July 4th break, where we have no scheduled World of Outlaws or High Limit races. Obviously High Limit is done for the season, and we are in a lull before the 2024 finale for the Outlaws at World Finals. I do want to point you towards a few other shows though coming up, as there are things to watch at some other 410 races in the coming days. The first is the Short Track Nationals at Texarkana 67. This one is an ASCS Elite winged 410 show now, and the early entry list is an interesting cast of characters. Some 360 guys, plus national tour drivers like Kasey Kahne and Chris Windom. Also Garet Williamson, Aaron Reutzel, and Austin McCarl pre-entered. This was also the show where we were supposed to get the Rudeen debut of Justin Peck, but their plans might be changing. There is some weather forecasted for this weekend around Texarkana, so that might make some of these drivers reconsider. If racing does happen though, I like the driver mix here, and it could be entertaining. Another option is the POWRi winged 410 finale at Lake Ozark. If they don't hit up Texarkana, this could be a landing spot for the Peck/Rudeen debut. Usual suspects here also, including Ayrton Gennetten who has already secured the championship, plus Blake Hahn, Gunner Ramey, Xavier Doney, and more. At Bridgeport in New Jersey on Saturday, you've got $10 grand to win for 410s, plus modifieds. This one will draw a lot of the Central PA crowd as one of the final races of the year in that area. We are likely going to get the debut of Daison Pursley in the Buch 13 at this one, and there had been some talk about CJB possibly running this one with their new driver, but that might not happen as we still haven't gotten an official announcement there. And out in California, the NARC finale happens Saturday at Stockton. We've got that tight points battle, and we'll see about others potentially in that field. We know Spencer Bayston made his debut with JMR last weekend, and Ryan Timms was again in the Roth car. Timms is listed as an entrant for Bridgeport, and JMR previously said we'd see Bayston at World Finals, so we'll see. But, I just wanted to spotlight some other options coming up later this week in case you wanted to make plans.

In some non-wing news from yesterday, CJ Leary will run the full Silver Crown schedule in 2025 in a joint deal between Team AZ, Petty, and Phil Rossi. Leary was fourth in the championship this year, with 10 top tens and six top fives in 14 races. I also think this is noteworthy, because the Team AZ sprint car is open for 2025 with Daison Pursley moving on to winged action with Buch and High Limit. Leary is scheduled to run the Team AZ sprint car during the Western World events at Mohave Valley this weekend, and I think this could be a preview for next year. Leary has been rumored to be an option for the full USAC sprint car season with Team AZ, replacing Pursley. Pursley was third in sprint car points this year, with Leary fifth, and we know that 21AZ car can win. We saw Jake Swanson have success in it, and Pursley won twice. The USAC sprint car side will be wide open for 2025 with Brady Bacon and Pursley moving on.

For my main topic today, I wanted to point you guys towards something interesting happening at Atomic Speedway in Ohio. Officiating races, always difficult, especially when you only have a handful of people to cover a lot of area and race cars. And that's even more true at the local level. But Atomic's race director Dave Andrews experimented towards the end of this season with some technology to help him out, and he'll likely use it regularly next year. We've had multiple scenarios in 2024 with jumped starts, and how they were getting called or not called, and how drivers get penalized or not penalized in those instances. There are usually a few a season that cause controversy, so 2024 was not different. Those race starts and how they are officiated is a judgement call in real time from the race director in the tower, but in the aftermath, we always get the Flo or DIRTVision screenshots with Photoshopped lines and frame by frame breakdowns by armchair officials on social media of who got penalized, who shouldn't have, and who should have. It's easy to see things in slow motion, but those race directors don't have that luxury. These are quick moving situations, and there are a lot of obstacles. Because of the bang-bang nature, certain drivers get favored supposedly, or not, and we've had jumped start penalties not levied until many laps later. It actually happened not long ago at Trophy Cup, where Colby Copeland didn't find out he was penalized for not lining up correctly until the cool down lap where he thought he'd won. At Atomic though, Andrews used a drone above turn 4, which sends an HD, 4K signal back to the tower so he can see those starts from a much better angle, and in real time. He told me that he hasn't used it yet to make live calls, but did use the drone footage to review starts post race, and potentially during the event if he had time. His plan is to use the drone for live calls in 2025 however. Having the drone flying above eliminates poor visibility, which is a problem at a lot of tracks, and makes it easier to see the entire field. Andrews is going to push the footage to a monitor in the tower so he can basically have on eye on the track and the other on the monitor to keep things fair. To me, this is no different than other sports using video replay to get calls right, and I'm kind of surprised I haven't seen this tried elsewhere. If I've missed it, let me know in the comments. With so much technology out there though, I do think we can see better officiating with some investment of resources and time. It will take Andrews some period to fine tune his process, and for the competitors to adjust to how things are called, but I really like this. Drones are becoming cheaper and cheaper to acquire, and many have features that allow for nearly autonomous use. Andrews, or a helper, can fly the drone up to the correct altitude, and those drones, using GPS, can hold their position without needing human interaction. We've already seen a ton of drone usage for broadcasts, so why not also use them for things like officiating.

Before we close out, hat tip to Winged Nation co-host Erin Evernham. It was 20 years ago today that she became the first and only woman to win a World of Outlaws sprint car feature with a victory at the Tulare Thunderbowl. October 29th, 2004, Erin led five laps, and topped a who's who of the best sprint car drivers to ever do it. The top ten behind Erin in that race were Paul McMahan, Jac Haudenschild, Steve Kinser, Brian Paulus, Donny Schatz, Brooke Tatnell, Tim Kaeding, Jason Solwold, and Craig Dollansky. Names like Daryn Pittman, Joey Saldana, Jason Meyers, and Danny Lasoski also in that race. Check out this week's episode of Winged Nation as they dive in.

That's the Daily show for today. If you want to find some more dirt racing videos, head over to youtube.com/dirtrackr, and scroll to the bottom. There you will find a full list of other dirt racing YouTube channels, including those for tracks, series, drivers and more. Discover something new, and hit the subscribe button for some of the other dirt racing creators out there.

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