Geographic center of Late Model Racing?

[Rocky]

Okay guys, I was talking to a friend about this and trying to figure out where the very heart of Late model racing is? Were would be the best geographic location for say a new racing team to be? It can't, can't really be very far west because Late Models aren't really a thing way out west or very far East because of the dang ocean. Is it near Cincinnati? Louisville? Paducah? I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in Kentucky or is that too far North and it's in Tennessee? You want to be able to pull to most of the major races and run one of the National tours or run outlaw on both of them but you can't have too far of a one way trip. There's really no Charlotte, North Carolina type hub for DLM racing (the WRG office in Charlotte doesn't count). If there was, where would it be?

[Pennsboro32]

I would say Tennessee. Easily hit big races in the south and semi close to Kentucky, WV, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois.

[Barbecueboy]

Illinois.....and everything radiates out from there.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

I will say if your state doesn't even have weekly supers, you are not the center.

[Rocky]

I've lived in a Super Late Model backwater for years, most of my life actually with growing up in Michigan then joining the Navy when I was 23. I'll say though a lot of what they call Supers at some tracks are still well, not as super as is allowed under the rules.

To me, Illinois seems like the too far west end of it there's a lot of late model racing there, no doubt but I think of like Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota etc as being modified country. Maybe it is Illinois. I don't know.

[ride height]

I’d say the flag pole on the infield of Eldora

[JayD]

Illinois.....and everything radiates out from there.I agree, this isn’t even debatable.

[NeedforLMspeed]

Florence Kentucky

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

Illinois has good racing, but it's at the western edge of the LM world.

[Josh Bayko]

If we’re talking geographic, I’d say PRP.

[SDLM Rankings]

I actually did the math on this a few years back. The criteria was based on access to purse money, distance from late model tracks. The best possible place to be a that time was in the Charleston, WV area. I can't remember exactly how i did it, but i do remember that local racing was not considered as much as touring (big money) racing.

[fryefan]

Illinois has good racing, but it's at the western edge of the LM world.

That is incorrect. There are a lot of good Late Model teams in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, etc. which are all west of Illinois.

[t3r3e3]

Florence Kentucky

This. I think Shelton and/or Rigsby’s said as much before. We’re not talking where the best overall racing is (Illinois). Kinda like Kansas is the geographic center of the US, Florence Speedway is the geographic center of late model racing.

[Pennsboro32]

That is incorrect. There are a lot of good Late Model teams in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, etc. which are all west of Illinois.They're are good teams out that way but there's not a ton of them. The majority of DLM racing is East of Illinois. If you're talking centrally located, I'm thinking Tennessee or Kentucky.

[ftfiowa]

tracks/track conditions make the race in my opinion, racers always do their best no matter what type of track they were given to race on. i suppose someone should crunch the numbers and figure which state has the most lm drivers and that state should be given this honor you are asking about. i think the better question is which state has the most tracks you would like to see late models race on. Or which tracks produce the best lm races is another way to look at it and which track facilities best support the racers and the fans.

[dirtSLMracing]

As far as a place for a team to be based in I'd say along I-81 in eastern Tennessee around Bulls Gap. I havent added them up but probably 25 tracks with in 6 hours from that area that run Supers.

[Pennsboro32]

I think some are misinterpreting the question.

[BloomerWon]

Why do you think Bloomer located himself in northeastern Tennessee?

[PushinTheLimit]

If you are located between Knoxville, Chattanooga and Bristol, TN... you have tons of tracks within a 4 hour drive to race supers at. Maybe not as much weekly super racing, but regional super racing galore.

[hardracer32]

If you look at the North East corner of Georgia, where Tennessee, Ga, and N.C. all come together, I belive you would find yourself geographically located to cover pretty much all the Dirt Late Model racing you can handle. From that area you can be almost anywhere there is racing going on in 8 hours or less. A huge portion of that is less than 6 hours, and there are plenty of good solid regional shows within 2 hours or less. When I was racing Supers I used to dream about being able to go out and run the roads on a regional level and I thought about where I would live if I could pick based on that. I figured I couldn't do any better that where I'm at right now. Even if you wanted to race on a National level, the farthest races would be tracks like Lernerville and up in the North East, or the races that go past the midwest region. Maybe I'm biased. If I had to pick somewhere other than that, I would say middle to northern Tennessee would be your best bet to be right smack in the middle of everything. That puts you within a reasonable commute to do the Hell Tour, you could still cover a lot of SAS, Schaeffer's, even the Carolina's, and you would be a little closer to some of the action that happens up in the North East.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

That is incorrect. There are a lot of good Late Model teams in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, etc. which are all west of Illinois.

There are a few national teams. Some other decent regional teams. Is it near what there is from the coast thru Indiana? No way.

[fryefan]

Off topic, but the best racing is in Iowa and Missouri where they have formats that produce good racing. The freight-train format that UMP uses leads to a lot of snoozers (I am aware that there are some exceptions).

[Taboo62]

Why do you think Bloomer located himself in northeastern Tennessee?

Because his dad owned land there and Kingsport was paying $2K a week for weekly racing back then(Early/Mid 80's). Just a fact.

[BloomerWon]

Because his dad owned land there and Kingsport was paying $2K a week for weekly racing back then(Early/Mid 80's). Just a fact.

True that. Geographically the center point of dlm racing. Still is...

[Highside Hustler25]

Tennessee/Kentucky area would be my guess as well.

If you said Illinois, I don't think you understood the question.

[Bloomerdirtking]

Definitely it is Brooks Road, Mooresburg Tennessee 👍🏼

[flagone]

When you are talking GEOGRAPHICALLY based on where the highest concentration of DLM races happen it is absolutely closest to Florence Speedway. It is one of the reasons that the NDLMHoF remains there and not at Eldora or anywhere else.

[JimmyOinthe20fan]

Scott Bloomquist, Jimmy Owens, Mike Marlar, Shannon Buckingham, John Blankenship, Vic Hill, Donald McIntosh race team all racing out of 50 mile radius. I'd say some where around the I 40 and 1 81 split.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

Scott Bloomquist, Jimmy Owens, Mike Marlar, Shannon Buckingham, John Blankenship, Vic Hill, Donald McIntosh race team all racing out of 50 mile radius. I'd say some where around the I 40 and 1 81 split.

That's how many Conley's we have. 🤣

[Barbecueboy]

Tennessee/Kentucky area would be my guess as well.

If you said Illinois, I don't think you understood the question.
Didn't take it literal.....took it more as which state is the toughest to win in if you don't live there....the most talent and Slm racing per sq. mile I guess?

[Clayton_Wetters]

That's how many Conley's we have. 藍

Delmas is going to get out of shape not driving his race car!!!

[TUTY]

Wheatland draws the most cars for the least amount of money. But it’s not geographically in the center.

[Clayton_Wetters]

Kentucky by location.

[Waldo]

I agree with Clayton. If you have a Latemodel team and are gonna race all over the country, your best bet is to be either located in Eastern Kentucky or North Eastern Tennesse. It just makes sense geographically.

[Waldo]

Drivers like, Mccredie out of New York, Earl Pearson out of Florida, and Jungans out of Kansas, etc, are at a huge disadvantage just based off location.

[NeedforLMspeed]

Drivers like, Mccredie out of New York, Earl Pearson out of Florida, and Jungans out of Kansas, etc, are at a huge disadvantage just based off location.

And Bronson. Weiss to but he's based out of Bloomers for most the time. Eckert when on a national tour. Probably another one or two also

[Rocky]

What I was talking about was the middle of the map geographically speaking, the bulls eye if you will. Living in Virginia Beach, it's an hour and 30 minutes just to get to I-95. So there's gotta be highway access figured in also. Plus it's in Steel block country, not crates so much but not Supers either. It's not even on the Dirt Super Late Model Road Map. I guess I could have just found the middle of the USA east of the Mississippi river and used that. but I felt like reading something that wasn't about the other thing, that every other thread is about right now.

Florence or Portsmouth? That looks pretty central to me.

[jr29]

I've thought a lot about this and I think it is Louisville, Kentucky.

[Rocky]

Could be Louisville. Big town, lots of infrastructure be a good place for a shop it seems like. My line of thought on this was, If somebody in my home area was to go to, say Missouri for 2 shows Friday and Saturday, you can't go home if there's 2 shows in lets say Tennessee the next weekend, you'd spend 2x as much on fuel minimum so basically you're forced to stay on the road. If you need parts you either borrow them or have somebody get in a truck and run them to you. The closer that you are to the center of that wheel the better. When you consider that races are won in the shop more time at the shop is better.

[Rocky]

Could be Louisville. Big town, lots of infrastructure be a good place for a shop it seems like. My line of thought on this was, If somebody in my home area was to go to, say Missouri for 2 shows Friday and Saturday, you can't go home if there's 2 shows in lets say Tennessee the next weekend, you'd spend 2x as much on fuel minimum so basically you're forced to stay on the road. If you need parts you either borrow them or have somebody get in a truck and run them to you. The closer that you are to the center of that wheel the better. When you consider that races are won in the shop more time at the shop is better.


In reverse if you're in Illinois and have 2 races on the East Coast and then the next 2 are in Georgia... See where I'm going with this.

[Jet Jockey]

If I were starting a team and could put it anywhere I think it would be close to Terre Haute, Indiana. Close to Illinois (but not in Illinois which is a plus), cost of living in southern Indiana is very reasonable and easy drive to Kentucky, Tennessee and Eldora.

[formercrewguy]

My opinion is East Tenn.