Late Models DONE at Florence Speedway

[TS FAN]

There is a expanded purse every week at surrounding tracks to Florence. This is to be expected. Hate to see it, but the old days are over unfortunately. As was mentioned, Florence will run several LM shows next year, just not weekly.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

Florence is not a big half mile.

Indeed it's not. And, it can actually be budget friendly if the top isn't hammer down and you could run a rr tire that wasn't expensive and trash after a couple heat cycles.

[bgood14]

the problem started when latemodels had the word super added. the big touring series will be all that is around in a few years and even their numbers will dwindle down in car counts.

[chupp n bloomer fan]

CnB,

90 was only about a second off the pace in the feature. And at least he was out there racing. That's better than the guys with a new Longhorn and a new Durham who pull their car out 10 times a year to run a half second faster than him.

Man, I know you are no BS. So if you say a second off, ok, he got lapped twice in a 25 lap feature so…

I’d rather a guy not be out there whose very slow and all over the place, than him to be out there and junk a new car.

We both definitely agree that late models are outta control on bodies, motors, and most other things.

My brother raced Atomic Saturday and he was out motored in qualifying and his heat. He just has a 400, making around 600-620. Over this winter now that he’s traveling more, he’s going to bump it up quite a bit. It was his first trip to Atomic and he learned some stuff. He wasn’t quite experienced enough for the high banks of Atomic and ripping the cushion and having wheel spin.

[chupp n bloomer fan]

But he qualified in the top half, 3rd in Wisecarvers heat, and finished I think 14th. And car was in one piece. Right up there with the toughest field he’s ever competed with.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

It was 1.3 second. I just took a second look. I'm still baffled a guy would need much more than 600 HP in a mod with those tires and no spoiler.

We've run top 5 in SLM with no more than that.

[play4kps]

This has been a problem for a long time, sadly these are the end result of 2 top travel series with corporate sponsors who do more damage to the sport than good. shock packages, aero packages, wind tunnel tests, 50,000 plus dollar engines, racers buying new chassis every other week. When Overton won both Dreams, Davenports team went out and bought 2 brand new Longhorns, 99% of teams cant afford to do that. There are guys out there willing to spend a million to make a dime! Go to any track and you mainly see Davenport, Owens, Bloomer, Pierce and Tmac shirts, very seldom do you see local drivers shirts. Sadly people will spend 30 on a Bloomer shirt, but would'nt even think to buy a K-Rob or a Schlenk shirt for half that price. And only a fool thinks guys running crates would run super lates if they got rid of crates, those drivers are running street stocks or not running at all. Ive seen post for years from guys saying whats the big deal, my tracks count is still good completely oblivious to looming problems ahead. Lets be honest with the Aero packages/wind tunnel availability fewer and fewer drivers have a chance at tracks like Eldora. And lets be real, watching locals run good and win against top traveling series guys was the best thing about dirt late model racing, now the locals stay away when the top series come in! except for Florence, Jameson and Rice were always fun to watch against the high dollar spending touring series cars.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

This has been a problem for a long time, sadly these are the end result of 2 top travel series with corporate sponsors who do more damage to the sport than good. shock packages, aero packages, wind tunnel tests, 50,000 plus dollar engines, racers buying new chassis every other week. When Overton won both Dreams, Davenports team went out and bought 2 brand new Longhorns, 99% of teams cant afford to do that. There are guys out there willing to spend a million to make a dime! Go to any track and you mainly see Davenport, Owens, Bloomer, Pierce and Tmac shirts, very seldom do you see local drivers shirts. Sadly people will spend 30 on a Bloomer shirt, but would'nt even think to buy a K-Rob or a Schlenk shirt for half that price. And only a fool thinks guys running crates would run super lates if they got rid of crates, those drivers are running street stocks or not running at all. Ive seen post for years from guys saying whats the big deal, my tracks count is still good completely oblivious to looming problems ahead. Lets be honest with the Aero packages/wind tunnel availability fewer and fewer drivers have a chance at tracks like Eldora. And lets be real, watching locals run good and win against top traveling series guys was the best thing about dirt late model racing, now the locals stay away when the top series come in! except for Florence, Jameson and Rice were always fun to watch against the high dollar spending touring series cars.

I just laugh when guys spend untold dollars for a new brand of shock that's no better than what they just took off. Then you have guys putting their car in the wind tunnel straight, while it actually runs on the track with a bunch of yaw. Then guys spend $40k on an engine to run 40% throttle. You can't fix people who don't value their money. The sad part is they then quit because they think they couldn't spend enough. The fact is they failed to maximize what they had.

[NeedforLM$peed]

Why would I buy a shirt of a driver I don't like. That's the reason I'm not buying it.

[play4kps]

I understand NeedforLM. Im just trying to prove a point, people complain about local racing dying and wont even buy a shirt or 2 from a local driver to help fund his race team but has no problem buying a shirt at twice the cost of a big name driver, heck whats fun about that, having the same shirt 3,000 other people at the race are wearing!

[1dartman]

This year for regular shows, Florence was hammer down around the top with no bottom at all. That limited the amount of teams that could afford to be competitive. Bring back a racy track for 2000 and 3000 and cars would have stayed

[mcarter815]

Mastersbilt-racer seems to be fine with the idea of just being a backmarker but how many racers want to put in the hours every week to just end up being in the way?

[play4kps]

I agree Mcarter, a lot of people think its ok just showing up! You race to win or at least be competitive, its just about impossible to be competitive anymore without breaking the bank. Lucas and WOO could help a ton by tightening up on things, but you know that wont happen, the people destroying the sport are the corporate sponsors of both series. Sadly a good thing can only last so long.

[NeedforLM$peed]

Mastersbilt-racer seems to be fine with the idea of just being a backmarker but how many racers want to put in the hours every week to just end up being in the way?

I would say enough of them do.

[mcarter815]

I would say enough of them do.

If that were true, then tracks wouldn’t be dropping weekly supers and big shows wouldn’t be losing car counts.