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.