What LM racing is going to boil down to....

[ride height]

I dont know about the rest of the country....but from my view, weekly LM racing for the local and even regional level is just about dead. You dont have to be a math major to see why. Who can run a LM for 1000.00 - 2000 to win? I suppose the answer to that is...extremely wealthy people? We dont even have LM around here any more....the closest big city to me that does is St Louis, and weekly ...might get 12--14 cars. How can you fill stands like that? I see LM's boiling down to 25-30 teams...kinda like major league sports. This will be the big boy late model racing of the future. They travel around and put on a show, and carry big name sponsors. I bet even LOLMDS AND WOO become one entity ...and I bet it aint far off. Go ahead and laugh. Its going to be like NASCAR. Started out quite a few gear heads and good ol boys could build a car, and have a team. Now....its all big time corporate money and engineers with lab coats and wind tunnels.

[MI Dirt Fan]

You can go to tracks in MI or OH and they have 20+ cars, with multiple tracks running Fridays or Saturdays. Could they run with the bigger regional guys or the National guys? No, probably not but they are still considered open motor full blown LM's and have a slight chance against them.

[Shiny Side Up 18]

The only WoO and Lucas become one series is if WoO absorbs Lucas. I don't think Forrest Lucas is going to go for that. But I'm afraid you are correct about the state of weekly SLM racing in Illinois. The FALS/FC crowd is getting smaller and smaller, the STL crowd is somewhat OK, but not great, Quincy is done with weekly LM racing, and Peoria is...well...Peoria. I can't say for Sycamore, since I've only been there once.

[fryefan]

I dont know about the rest of the country....but from my view, weekly LM racing for the local and even regional level is just about dead. You dont have to be a math major to see why. Who can run a LM for 1000.00 - 2000 to win? I suppose the answer to that is...extremely wealthy people? We dont even have LM around here any more....the closest big city to me that does is St Louis, and weekly ...might get 12--14 cars. How can you fill stands like that? I see LM's boiling down to 25-30 teams...kinda like major league sports. This will be the big boy late model racing of the future. They travel around and put on a show, and carry big name sponsors. I bet even LOLMDS AND WOO become one entity ...and I bet it aint far off. Go ahead and laugh. Its going to be like NASCAR. Started out quite a few gear heads and good ol boys could build a car, and have a team. Now....its all big time corporate money and engineers with lab coats and wind tunnels.

Late Model racing on a local basis is going to be limited/crate late models (already in the process of happening). Open late model racing will be mainly the regional and national touring series.

With that being said, there are some local areas that will still have open late model racing on a weekly basis for the near future.

[Illtsate32]

Its evoled so much...not one single part is made by the racer anymore everything bought to bolt on...hate to say it but the weekly racing the few cars that do show up the one local rich guy smokes everybody because they can afford to buy the technology...are the they best driver on the track? Not by a long shot...and people get turned off by it and stop showing up to watch...

[golddirt]

That is so true, they don't make cars anymore they just assemble them

[cgrace]

".and people get turned off by it and stop showing up to watch..." I hate going to weekly races when there are too many classes and the shows run very late. I'd be happy with only 3 classes. Racing has always been a money sport, but it has gotten worse.

[Kwd1253]

Some states and regional series not hurting as much as others. For the state's and regional series that are hurting. You can see over the years they havnt raised the winnings up, much less back of the field. How I see it the regional series that are hurting should do cross promotions, raise the winning, specially back of the field, until car counts brought back up.

If look at the supr series they really should work with comp cams, stlm, mccs at few tracks. There are few tracks that they have on there schedule, that can draw more teams and spectators. They got start putting money up, ark, Ms, la and tx have good enough name drivers to pull spectators to good known tracks like ark-la-tex, the mag, lone star, Batesville, ect. If them tracks can get Lucas or WoO there is no reason for this other series have bad car counts at times. The other tracks that are the schedule that are hurting need look at what this big payout tracks and series are doing right.

[dirtcrazy4u]

The cost to run a SLM has been going in the wrong direction for years. Weekly racing at your local bullring is nowhere near what it used to be. The cars today, tires, shocks, spring packages, motors. All have taken the cost for the weekly racer out of reach for many. If you look at the following in the last 10 yrs alone it's no wonder why . Car costs, doubled. Motor costs, ridiculous. Shocks, you used to be able to build a car for what teams are spending on shocks alone. From the fans perspective ticket prices, concession prices, few tracks let people camp for free anymore, and don't forget if you bring your golf kart or 4 wheeler. My question. Why are the purses the same today as 10 yrs ago ? Promotors have raised pricing 15 to 60% yet the racer is seeing the same ?

[Dougan1640]

As much as I agree cost has gotten way out of control. There are so many more choices for racers nowadays, you can find a 5k plus to win race almost any weekend within an affordable driving range. During the prime time year there are 10k plus shows all over. There never used to be this many bigger paying shows in the past so your bigger races drew a lot more cars as that was the only place paying 10k plus to win. The other problem now is promoters are trying to take advantage of the increase in attendance at all theses big shows and are having more. Your weekly tracks can’t compete with all there’s regional series that are paying 3k plus to win and they run every weekend during the prime time of the season.

Late models will live on, at some point the economy will get a lot better and more sponsor money will be thrown around. Lucas and WRG will never merge one would fold before they merged, they are both very healthy right now with Lucas having a pretty deciding edge in big paying shows.

(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word) I just love dirt late models lol.

[Barbecueboy]

Hate to be a pooper on the party, and I enjoy supers as much as everyone else........but racing is racing fellas, whether it's full blown supers or garage built camaros.

I would be sad if the supers went away, but I would still go to races anywhere I could..........if the slm class just canibiliizes itself into extinction they have only themselves to blame......racers gonna race.

[allbrandauto]

depends on area I can go to port royal on a regular sat. night and see 26 slm. and 26 410 sprints on the same program for 15 dollars or I can go to Virginia motor speedway and see 22 slm. for 20,000 to win for 30 dollars