DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Understanding the nuanced world of dirt racing is tough, especially with standalone races | Daily 10-31-2022
Coming up we'll talk standalone dirt races and where exactly they fit in a season, plus the weekend's results. Let's go!
It's Monday, October 31st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
We'll definitely get into the results and action from this past weekend of dirt racing in a bit, but I wanted to talk first about the idea of standalone dirt races. Two of the main shows from this past weekend were the National 100 at East Alabama for late models, and the SprintOberfest at Bridgeport Motorsports Park for sprint cars, which were both unsanctioned. The events were really able to take center stage because none of the main touring series were in action, which brought in more eyeballs and better competition. But in the grand scheme of dirt racing, where do races like this actually fit in? What do they really mean as part of the 2022 racing season? I believe that one of the big issues facing dirt racing for the future is continuing to attract new fans, and one of the roadblocks for doing that is that the sport is insanely nuanced. It takes quite a bit of knowledge and experience to understand that Brandon Overton winning $30,000 in the National 100 on FloRacing has absolutely nothing to do with Tim McCreadie's Lucas championship that also got watched on Flo, or the FloRacing Night in America Series that Brandon Sheppard is set to control. It's a heavy lift to ask new fans to know the difference between the 410 races we saw at Bridgeport over the weekend, versus the Outlaw race that happened there back on May 17th and the All Star show that was there on August 25th. Especially when a lot of the same guys raced in all three weekends. I know that the sport was really built off big shows happening at various tracks that were not really related, and some of those getting organized and put into racing series, which is why we have things like the World of Outlaws today. And when you talk about the benefits of racing series, we can mention things like points funds, and rules consolidation, and insurance, and tow money. But one of the main benefits of them, at least from the fans' perspective, is they simplify and the lower that barrier to entry. You're going to for sure see these 12 drivers. They race this schedule. Here's the basic format. You don't need to grasp the concept of pick and choose drivers. You don't need to guess on who might show up. Wait, how did they line these heat races up again? Who transfers? Those are questions that don't need to be asked. The series also provide us storylines and context for each race. That's why I like championships. It makes the story of a single race night much more layered and deep. This thing just happened in the dash, and here's why that's important going forward. The stakes are greater than just a check at the payout window at the end of the night. I've often thought about how we need some sort of ranking system for the drivers and the events. Think about like tennis or golf rankings. If you could really attack the daunting issue of ranking all 410 sprint car drivers and all super late model drivers, you could assign difficulty levels to races. And that would better help us understand where a race like the National 100 or SprintOberfest really fit into the season and how they compare to other races. As a race fan, are you okay with a race being just about a big check for a driver at the end of a feature and something to do on a Saturday night? Because as we look forward to a week like this one with World Finals on tap, this championship battle between Brad Sweet and David Gravel is going to make these three nights of World of Outlaws racing a little more special. As I continue to try and improve what I'm doing with these shows, I keep thinking about story telling. And how do we as a community of dirt racing keep finding and telling good stories with the racing. Series and championships make that easier with some of it already built in, but standalone events are much more difficult, with a much less clear connection to the rest of a racing season. Drop your thoughts below in the comments.
Since it's Halloween, let's do a little merch flash sale. If you use code "GHOST" at checkout over at shop.dirtrackr.com you'll get 25% off your entire order. The code will expire at midnight eastern tonight though, so move fast.
On to the weekend's racing.
I mentioned the National 100 and Bridgeport, and we'll start there. At East Alabama, Brandon Overton got by his brother Cody just past half way and drove on to the $30,000 win, which was his second straight victory in the event. He went to the rear after an early flat tire, and bounced back for the win. Tyler Erb ended up second, and Joseph Joiner was third in his first big show with their new Longhorn chassis. Even with not a lot of competition on the weekend, the car count of 23 felt a little light.
At Bridgeport on Saturday, Cory Eliason outdueled Justin Peck for the opening night win. He was again driving the Indy Race Parts 71. On Sunday, things were looking very similar, with Eliason out front and Peck second, but near half way Eliason slowed to a stop after losing power, and under that same caution, we also lost second running Peck to mechanical woes. So on the restart, Gio Scelzi was promoted to the lead from third, and he was untouched the rest of the way to score the $15,000 win. We should see a good number of the drivers and teams that competed at Bridgeport travel to Charlotte this week for World Finals.
At Georgetown Speedway, we got the final Short Track Super Series event of the year for the south region and Elite Series. Mat Williamson picked up the $25,000 victory, holding off Matt Sheppard late in that one. As expected, Sheppard clinched the south and elite championships after already previously locking up the north region. He'll now go to World Finals this week, with the Super DIRTcar Series title just a formality at this point. In an interview with FloRacing, Sheppard said they've been so busy as of late racing and working on the cars, that they haven't even had a chance to celebrate any of this success yet. Following Saturday's show, they were headed home to work Sunday and Monday to get their equipment ready for Charlotte, and then they'd be back on the road again.
Out west, the USAC sprint car competitors were at Cocopah Speedway in Arizona for the Western World. Friday night it was domination from Emerson Axsom who led all 30 laps and scored his first victory since the opening weekend at Bubba Raceway Park way back in February. Jake Swanson and Matt Westfall completed the podium. Brady Bacon gave up ground to Justin Grant for the championship, because of a flat tire after making contact with the wall. Bacon was able to race back to 10th, but Grant ended up with a top five. On Saturday night, sixth starting Jake Swanson got by Robert Ballou with 13 to go and drove off to his first national win in nearly a year. Headed to Perris in California next, he will definitely be one to watch for race wins. Bacon's fifth along with Grant's ninth, means the points gap is now 83 with just three race nights left. Barring any issues for JG, this thing looks like it's pretty well wrapped up for the NOS team.
One other USAC note for you, Logan Seavey and Daniel Whitley will pilot Abacus Racing entries for the USAC midget west coast swing coming up. This comes after Maria Cofer announced her retirement and departure from Abacus citing her long-term health.
In California on Saturday night, the second to last NARC sprint car event of the season went down at Kern County. Dominic Scelzi is trying to wrap up the NARC title for the second straight year, but he was out early with mechanical issues, finising 18th. Willie Croft couldn't capitalize though, as he went out early as well after a crash. Headed to the finale, Dom has a 65 point lead and just needs to make a qualifying lap to clinch the championship. The night's feature at Kern County was dominated by Shane Golobic, who topped Corey Day and Justin Sanders. That show also included Carson and Cole Macedo, and Ryan Timms. The NARC season ends Saturday night at Stockton.
With Millbridge's micro show getting rained out today, the streaming schedule is pretty quiet with just FloRacing 24/7 happening. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, have a good Monday. Please hit that like button, and subscribe to the show if you don't already.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!