Are race fans in the south getting shafted??

[fastford]

I'm in Mississippi. As a fan, I actually liked to watch qualifying and be able to hear those throttles being worked. However, now as a rookie driver, trying to learn is tough with qualifying. You start in the back every week no where near any fast cars. It also cuts down on seat time. It's kinda disheartening to pay $35 a pop for a couple of pit passes, $50 for an entry fee (or more), fuel, food, etc to show up run hot laps, qualify, run a b-main and go to the house. $250+ for 15 laps.......

in your case, your rite.

[Aces&Eights]

It has been this way down here(Georgia) since sometime in the 80's. In the 70's and before, heats were common, but a cascade of events I think led to the current format, which in my area is practice, qualify, race, no second practice. The 70's were kinda the peak as far as Super Late involvement locally, sure they continued to be run but were in decline except for a brief time in the mid 90's. By the early 00's it was common to have 10 Supers be the FULL field. During the decline the teams with backing usually had brand new cars with professionally built, up to date engines. The bulk of the field ran cars several years old and self maintained and under revved the engines to increase the lifespan.

The "sponsored" teams liked qualifying in lieu of heats because when the track is tacky early, they had the HP advantage and could easily win the pole and not have to pass cars on increasingly one grove tracks. Simple and smart, but a stacked deck to everyone else including the fans. And so it continued, with Super shrinking and Limited growing somewhat.

Then came Crates, I don't hate crates, but I do think there were other options that might have been more exciting to watch. Once crate came along, offering pretty good payouts, all those field fillers in Super saw an opportunity to race within their means, at least for a minute. And they quickly sold all their Super left overs and joined the crate ranks. This was the death knell for local Super Late Model.

I personally prefer, "Draw & Run", but it requires the promoter actually prep the track and it helps to run fewer classes. JMO