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The topic has come up before in polls and discussion threads. The rumors are out there as of late and now this article appears. Apparently there is some semi-serious actual thought to making Shawano Speedway something like a 3/8 mile oval.
If this happens, it is long overdue. The actual "racing" at Shawano has not been great in a long while, especially in the SLM class. This is the closest dirt oval to my home and I barely ever go because of this. Until this summer I hadn't been there in years and my wife and I went once this season because we were tired of getting rained out everywhere else. It was not good. The SLM class is a fast car show with little or no passing. The IMCA stocks and mods actually put on better races but they also still run away and hide from front starting spots. A lot of the locals love the lore of the "Legendary Half Mile" as they call it, because it looks fast but that's all it is. Fast but no real racing.
Car counts are falling off at Shawano while places like nearby Outagamie and 141 are packing the pits and putting on much better shows. Racers in all classes who want to go back and forth between tracks have to change over stuff to run the big track and it gets to be a pain. The other thing about the big track is when you wreck, you wreck harder. Making the track smaller would not only be a better show for the fans, it would be better for the competitors.
The technology changes of the modern race cars does not fit well for this facility. A change like this is much needed and would be a benefit all around.