DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Outlaws cancel West Coast Swing, how wild is USAC midget racing? | DIRTRACKR Daily 2/18/21
It is Thursday, February 18th, two thousand and twenty one and you are tuned into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today on the show we've got details on the World of Outlaws cancelling their west coast swing, there's a new streaming provider jumping in, and then we talk about just how wild midget racing is, with numbers and stats of course. Let's jump in.
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series announced yesterday that their entire spring West Coast Swing has been cancelled due to ongoing restrictions from the pandemic. This includes March 4th at Las Vegas, March 12th and 13th at Arizona Speedway, March 20th at Perris, March 21st at Santa Maria, March 26th and 27th at Thunderbowl Raceway, April 2nd at Merced, April 3rd at Ocean, and April 9th and 10th at Vado Speedway Park. In response to the cancelled events, series officials have moved the previously postponed events at Magnolia Motor Speedway and The Rev to March 12th and 13th. They also plan on announcing new dates in place of many of these west coast events in the near future. The original schedule for 2021 will pick back up on April 16th at Lawton Speedway in Texas. The Outlaws are scheduled to return to racing February 26th and 27th at Cotton Bowl Speeway. If you had tickets to an upcoming west coast World of Outlaws event, you'll be given a credit on your account, or you can request a refund. For more information on the announcement, visit worldofoutlaws.com.
While this announcement from the Outlaws isn't surprising given the world we currently live in, I think a lot of us were hoping that 2021 wouldn't be a repeat of 2020. It certainly isn't starting off well. The fall west coast events remain on the schedule, so hopefully by then things are in a much better place to head west and go racing. I would imagine that this move has been in the works for a while to cancel these events, so I doubt it will be long before we have an idea of what the new March and April schedule will look like for the Outlaws. The event folks at World Racing Group have already been burning up the phones to get new dates scheduled, and they will want to get them announced as soon as possible so they can get tickets and sponsorships sold. We'll keep you posted as we know more.
We just talked yesterday on the show about the streaming platforms, and we found out late Wednesday about a new player jumping into the space. Jeremy Elliott, owner of SprintCarUnlimited.com is partnering with Mike Mallett and Dirt Track Digest to launch SprintCarUnlimited.TV. If you've used SpeedSport.TV or DirtTrackDigest.TV, you'll be familiar with the platform that Jeremy and his new venture will be using. According to the release, they have secured 18 events for the new service for 2021 and are looking to add more. The website is already live, and shows three events, two at BAPS Motor Speedway and one at Trailway Speedway, both in Pennsylvania. The trend in recent years has been for streaming platforms to move away from pay-per-view events and instead offer monthly and yearly subscriptions that include most or all events. It drops the per unit cost for fans, but also guarantees regular revenue for the provider. But Jeremy and Mike think that having fans pay for individual events, as they did in the past, is a model better suited for their organizations and track partners. In the release, they talked about stream prices being set slightly above a race day general admission ticket, and that there will be other perks for tracks to sign up. Stay tuned to DIRTRACKR today, as I'll have some more details on this new partnership soon.
As I build out the analytics section of dirtrackr.com, one of the cool things we've been able to do is share things like where feature winners and heat race winners start, and compare series and car types and how the numbers stack up. For example, I did this back on the January 28th daily show when we dove into winged racing vs. non wing racing to see if the numbers showed one providing better racing than the other. We were able to compare the Outlaws and All Stars with the USAC national sprint cars on that show. I had also planned to maybe use some of the USAC midget numbers in that discussion, as those cars are without wings even though it's not a 1 to 1 comparison. But when I starting look at the numbers, I realized that midgets are very much their own beast and that a look at their stats needed to be reserved for its own show.
As of this recording, I don't have a mountain of data for the midgets, but I do have 30 races, which includes the first two 2021 shows and all of the 2020 races. It's certainly enough for us to be able to maybe spot some trends and correlation. But the reason why I wanted to keep the midgets separate, is because as you start looking at the numbers, you'll start to see that there are actually very few trends and correlations. The midget numbers are all over the board. It seems to be a perfect illustration of just how wild midget racing can be. The first stat I have is lap leaders. In 30 races, we've had 20 different lap leaders. And that might not stand out, until you compare it to the other series in the database. In one less race, the USAC sprint cars have had 15 different lap leaders, which is obviously five less. But take a look at the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars. In 206 races in the database, they've had only 45 lap leaders. That's only a little more than twice the lap leaders, but in nearly seven times the races. If this trend held out over 206 races for the midgets, you'd expect there to be 137 different lap leaders! Now obviously that wouldn't necessarily be the case because there just aren't enough drivers, but you would expect there to be a heightened number versus the other series.
The other two stats that stand out for the midgets are feature wins by start position, and feature wins by qualifying spot. Most series, including the Outlaws, All Stars, and even the USAC sprint cars, see most wins in both categories coming from closer to the front. The first row, or first few rows provide a massive advantage in terms of who wins features. For example, in the previous three years, 56% of World of Outlaws winners have started on the front row. But not with the midgets. In the past 30 events, wins are fairly evenly sprinkled through the top 15 starting spots, with the sixth position holding the most wins with five. But the 14th and 15th starting spots have just as many wins as fourth does. And 8th and 9th have no wins, while 10th and 13th have a win each. Basically if you start within the first seven or eight rows, you have just about as good a chance to win as anyone else. And the same is true for qualifying spots. Even with the USAC sprint cars, most wins come from the first four cars in time trials. But again, not for the midgets. Winners in the past year have qualified as far back as 18th, with the most wins coming from the seventh and ninth starting positions, each with four. You have a better chance winning qualifying ninth than you do going quick time.
Now I know that some of this can be explained by format, with the midgets having some different race types through the season, but that is only true to a point. The standard USAC midget format is the same as the standard USAC sprint car format. Time trials, followed by heats with the top six inverted, followed by features with the top six inverted. You'd expect the numbers to be much more similar than they are. The difference can be equated to the racing on the track. Midget races are knock down, drag out fist fights. I've said this before, but there is more contact, and elbows, and big dirty sliders thrown in midget races than anywhere else. Drivers want to get to the front, and they want to get there now. A lot of the competitors are young and they are eager to make a name for themselves to hopefully rise through the ranks. Sprinkle in some talented veterans like Tanner Thorson, Chris Windom, and Tyler Courtney, and you've got a recipe for some wild racing. It's why these midget shows have become appointment watching. Drop me a comment on YouTube, social media, or on Facebook and let me know your thoughts on midget racing. Do you agree that they are fun to watch? Let me know. To see more stats like these, visit dirtrackr.com/analytics.
There is again nothing on the streaming schedule today except Flo 24/7 over at FloRacing. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Tomorrow on the show we'll look ahead to the weekend, and get you ready for all the racing including the Xtreme DIRTcar Series being back in action.
That's it for the show today, hope everyone has a good Thursday.
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