By Jonathon Masters
As we say farewell to 2017 and look forward to 2018, we’ve been witness to announcements that have shaken the dirt racing industry.
The end of the year always causes reflection on the past, but this season seems to be even more striking in the cumulative effect — and due to the major changes in dirt racing over the past year, it seems like a good time to look back to the what has happened between now and the late 1990s to see how much change has in the past two decades.
Car Counts
Perhaps one of the biggest changes is the last 20 years is the car counts. We’ll use the big events at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, as our standard.
Twenty years ago we were still seeing counts in the low 200s. Today those same events are lucky to see 100 entries. That attrition doesn’t stop with Eldora. There was a time in the not too distant past when local car counts at places such as Brownstown (IN) Speedway regularly reached the high 30s and low 40s. It was like that at a lot of tracks across the country. Today those same local shows will often see low 20s and sometimes mid-teens in their top divisions. The regional Crown Jewels have also felt the impact. There was a time when a certain announcer at Brownstown promised to shave his head if the Jackson 100 car count reached more than 70.
The Jackson 100 car count in 2017 was 29. Why did this happen? There have been few big reasons in the past 20 years. One of them has been the rising cost of racing. It’s probably the biggest factor when it comes to falling car counts. The fuel price has spiked several times over the past 20 years and each time that happened, it took race teams off the roads. The cost of motors, components, chassis, tires, and everything having to do with fielding a car has increased substantially over the past 20 years. For many of the weekend warriors it became too much to handle for something they considered a hobby.
Crate Engines
The next big thing to impact car counts is something that was a direct result of rising costs: the birth of growth of the Crate Late Model class. One of the reasons for the dwindling counts for Late Models at a place such as Brownstown is that some of those teams have moved to the Crate class. With the introduction of the economical crate motor that's race ready at $10K, cash-strapped racers decided to go that direction. On the positive side, it has kept Dirt Late Model racing in many areas alive and has even given birth to a new generation of superstars. Racers that would have been stuck in support classes for years can now go get a crate motor and start their Dirt Late Model careers earlier.
Rise of The Modifieds
The last 20 years have been a golden era for Modifieds. UMP DIRTcar, IMCA, and USRA with their traveling USMTS division has turned the Modified into the premier class at many tracks around the country. As a result, the Modifieds have grown to the largest racing division in America.
Track Closings
We have seen many tracks close over the past 20 years with very few new tracks being open to fill the void. One of the hardest hit states has been Kentucky. The Bluegrass State was once a dirt track mecca but has seen the closure of tracks like Bluegrass Motor Speedway, Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway, and Galasco and Barren County Speedways in the past 20 years. The list from other states is just as impactful with tracks such as Atomic Speedway in Tennessee and Crown Point Speedway in Indiana forced to shutter their operations.
Rise of Mega Series
In the bygone years of Hav-A-Tampa and STARS, it was not unusual for racers to compete in these two series interchangeably. There were also a great deal more regional series that carried a lot of prestige and marquee events. A higher percentage of drivers ran a national Outlaw schedule. You never knew who would show up to a big event and many of the biggest races remained unsanctioned.
Today, two series dominate the landscape and sanction 80-90 percent of the marquee events in Dirt Late Model. Nearly every national driver commits to one of those series — and for good reason. They sanction all of the big money races. If you are racing nationally it simply doesn’t make sense to not run a major series any more. The one shining exception is The Summer Nationals Hell Tour, which remains one of the best reasons to keep a somewhat open schedule that allows you to compete in those events.
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