Lucas Oil MLRA being Disolving to focus on the National Tour.

[HoosierDirtFan]

"Lucas Oil today announced it will be dissolving the Midwest Late Model Racing Association (MLRA) series to focus its attention on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and continued investment in the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri."

Full release at the link below.

https://www.lucasoil.com/lucas-oil-ends-midwest-late-model-racing-association-series/

[Morgs153]

Definitely leaves a hole in a region of the country where a good regional tour is probably needed. It's too bad really. It was the MLRA guys who could really help fill the fields when Lucas Oil (national tour) ventured west. Yeah, a bunch of those cars/teams will still be there but not quite the same. I always enjoyed watching their races on Flo as they often put on better races than the predictable national tour races.

Hopefully someone or some entity (sponsorship) with some love of the sport sees some value in trying to fill the void in some way. MARS is a very good regional but they are Illinois-centric and what they have seems to be working well for them. Maybe MARS and UMP SN picks up a few more runners. I'm very glad that in my area I have Dirt Kings. It is a very well run regional that produces good shows at affordable prices for the fans.

I dunno. I just don't see the ending of a 35 year tour as any kind of good news. This news of focusing on the main tour probably means much money in that tour but it will further separate the haves and have nots.

[reid boys]

"Lucas Oil is making this change as part of its long-term vision and commitment to continue nurturing the growth of dirt racing at the grassroots level and to provide a sustainable and exciting future for racers, fans and the entire Midwest motorsports community." (Press Release). What a slap to the face this is. Say what you want about WRG and the WOO but with ump and the national points they write a lot of checks to the regional and weekly racers. Something Lucas can no longer claim.

[MRM]

I have been thinking the last few years that Lucas should buy more regional series to give them feeder programs to the national tour. Before Ray Cook bought SAS, I thought Lucas should have bought that series and grow racers and tracks in the South.

[jog49]

More SLM racing I won't get to see on Flo!

[Henry Every]

I have been thinking the last few years that Lucas should buy more regional series to give them feeder programs to the national tour. Before Ray Cook bought SAS, I thought Lucas should have bought that series and grow racers and tracks in the South.

We definitely don't need more consolidation/centralization in DLM. Makes no sense to me for them to shutter MLRA, why not sell it off if they don't want the bother. We already have to much focus on the national tours, with rules that further disregard the regional/weekly teams. Whether your talking government or business, central planning or monopolistic operations, it never goes well for the consumer(racer). JMO

[Tireguy17]

FWIW....Only the 2 Simpson's ran the entire schedule (19), 5 more than 17 nights. 11th in points ran 7 shows. So while it svcks to lose a long standing regional open motor series, it wasn't strongly supported.

[ftfiowa]

MARS i doubt picks up many of the tracks, maybe east moline, davenport,quincy. SLMR hopefully will expand but their purses are lower than MLRA.. i dont see Revival out of Kansas picking up much other than Lakeside maybe and springfield. Lucas Oil Spdwy gets poor crowds for most shows nowadays. I think maybe the Show Me 100 is the only show you needed a reserved seat for in order to have a good view. Maybe the off road track and drag boat strip at LOS will get bigger crowds but the dirt track is a ghost town most weeks. the issue is that wheatland is a town of less than 300 and there are no efforts made that i have seen to advertise the track in the area on a local level(Maybe Ernie L will change this.) Hickory county is a poor county to boot so that hurts too. I dont think Comp Cams will expand any so the only hope imo is SLMR. Maybe Revival or the Sooner series will pick up slack but i doubt it. I live 45 minutes from Springfield and have no interest in any of the weekly shows in the area. I do most of my spectating on Flo & DV nowadays and lm's,midgets, sprints are what piques my interest. I do watch Marshalltown weekly shows on Flo to get my stock car fix.

[billetbirdcage]

FWIW....Only the 2 Simpson's ran the entire schedule (19), 5 more than 17 nights. 11th in points ran 7 shows. So while it svcks to lose a long standing regional open motor series, it wasn't strongly supported.

I assume your going off the features listed on each competitors points to say how many shows they went to, but that isn't the case. Those are races they made the A main, NOT how many showed they attended.

[84wedge]

More SLM racing I won't get to see on Flo!

Exactly. I'd love to see them expand their FLO racing series. MLRA had some wicked cars.

[84wedge]

Definitely leaves a hole in a region of the country where a good regional tour is probably needed. It's too bad really. It was the MLRA guys who could really help fill the fields when Lucas Oil (national tour) ventured west. Yeah, a bunch of those cars/teams will still be there but not quite the same. I always enjoyed watching their races on Flo as they often put on better races than the predictable national tour races.

Hopefully someone or some entity (sponsorship) with some love of the sport sees some value in trying to fill the void in some way. MARS is a very good regional but they are Illinois-centric and what they have seems to be working well for them. Maybe MARS and UMP SN picks up a few more runners. I'm very glad that in my area I have Dirt Kings. It is a very well run regional that produces good shows at affordable prices for the fans.

I dunno. I just don't see the ending of a 35 year tour as any kind of good news. This news of focusing on the main tour probably means much money in that tour but it will further separate the haves and have nots.

I don't know much about who owns Lucas Oil, but I'm willing to bet he's old and possibly might know that whoever gets everything when he's gone would rather have the money than pour it into racing. I'd like to be wrong though. EDIT: Just looked him up, he's 82 years old and has 7 children.

[fryefan]

MARS i doubt picks up many of the tracks, maybe east moline, davenport,quincy. SLMR hopefully will expand but their purses are lower than MLRA.. i dont see Revival out of Kansas picking up much other than Lakeside maybe and springfield. Lucas Oil Spdwy gets poor crowds for most shows nowadays. I think maybe the Show Me 100 is the only show you needed a reserved seat for in order to have a good view. Maybe the off road track and drag boat strip at LOS will get bigger crowds but the dirt track is a ghost town most weeks. the issue is that wheatland is a town of less than 300 and there are no efforts made that i have seen to advertise the track in the area on a local level(Maybe Ernie L will change this.) Hickory county is a poor county to boot so that hurts too. I dont think Comp Cams will expand any so the only hope imo is SLMR. Maybe Revival or the Sooner series will pick up slack but i doubt it. I live 45 minutes from Springfield and have no interest in any of the weekly shows in the area. I do most of my spectating on Flo & DV nowadays and lm's,midgets, sprints are what piques my interest. I do watch Marshalltown weekly shows on Flo to get my stock car fix.

The High Limit sprint car races and the Jesse Hockett Memorial races draw big crowds there also.

[MRM]

I don't know much about who owns Lucas Oil, but I'm willing to bet he's old and possibly might know that whoever gets everything when he's gone would rather have the money than pour it into racing. I'd like to be wrong though. EDIT: Just looked him up, he's 82 years old and has 7 children.

Correct. The children don't seem to be very interested in racing.

[Josh Bayko]

Lucas is slowly but surely starting to withdraw money from motorsports because the kids don’t love motorsports as much as their dad.

[reid boys]

Why do we assume they don't? Morgan the CEO of lucas oil as of feb. 2024 is a former NHRA driver. There brand ambassador page has 2 younger kids with the last name Lucas. Can't find any information at the moment on if they are related to Forrest or not.