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Now with all that out of the way.....Let's make some laps!
Well June has arrived, time for me to celebrate my Birthday (not saying how many LOL), and time for another "Just My Thoughts". There is a bunch of things I would like to get into, so let's get going shall we.
1. Ted Christopher - I will be the first one to admit that I never cared for TC much IN THE PAST. I have to state in the past CLEARLY, because my opinion has changed. While he will NEVER be my favorite Modified driver, I must admit the man has incredible talent. He's won on both Whelen Modified Tours, in the SK Modifieds, the ROC Modified Tour, and took two big Indoor Midget wins so far this season. He also looks to be headed for a second Whelen Tour Title the way he is running. Not to too shabby for a 50 year-old in my opinion.
2. The State Of The Tour - You can say, type, write, or text whatever you please. In my opinion the Tour is fine. Granted there needs to be work done, but it could be WAY worse. I have been following all 4 of the Modified Tours closely this season and contrary to what ANYONE may be saying or printing, the Whelen Tours are still the strongest. Had Joe Hartman not withdrawn from the Stafford Motor Speedway event, there would have been 37 cars. This is for an event that saw a reduced purse and shortened distance. To the best of my knowledge, this is the most cars at ANY event for ALL the Modified Tours so far this season. And try this for a comparrison of health.
The NASCAR Camping World East Series has become a train your 16- year old driver for 2 years before the Truck or Nationwide division for Cup Series owners in my opinion. Another reason I was so happy to see Matt Kobyluck take the Championship. A division that could easily market themselves as "The training ground of future NASCAR stars". Everyone that loves the Tour complained of the 14 race schedule, well how about an 11 race schedule ??? People say car counts on the Tour are down, well there were only 23 cars at South Boston Speedway's Camping World East Series event. With the money being thrown around in that division, you would think it would be MUCH stronger than the Tour.
My point here is that NASCAR has pulled the plug on SEVERAL other divisions recently, but the Tour survived. I believe there was something like 12 or 13 NASCAR Touring Divisions not long ago. While the Tour definitely needs some reworking, it is definitely not dead. The records are in black and white, and there for ANYONE to read. With a little work by owners,drivers, tracks, and MOST IMPORTANTLY THE FANS, this division can get to where it should be. Everytime you or I write bad about the Tour, we are just helping it die when we need to use that time to help it grow.
Thanx for taking the time to read, agree or disagree I'd like to see what you think.
-WMT-
P.S. I forgot to mention the little meeting NASCAR had with their Taxi Cab Series. Maybe they should have one with their ORIGINAL DIVISION. Seems every good idea they get for the cabs came from here... double file restarts anyone?????
-- Edited by WhelenModifiedTour on Tuesday 2nd of June 2009 04:11:56 PM
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NASCAR MODIFIEDS...WHERE IT ALL BEGAN. LET'S REMIND NASCAR OF THEIR ROOTS.
NASCAR is the one that needs to come out and support the Tour. The fans and teams do a very respectable job of supporting the events. From appearances, Whelen is not pleased with what little is being done for their money. Phil Kurz was not at the 100 lapper at Stafford and apparently is rather upset. Sure, there are things some teams could do to make it better (since Kurz asked teams at the Sizzler to try to create team identities by looking uniform - even if it is just all wearing the same color shirt and pants), and the fans could always bring their friends and neighbors to help pack the stands, but NASCAR should be held most responsible.
Take $300,000 from the Cup, Nationwide, and Truck point funds and apply it to the WMT. That will give the WMT nearly a $2,000,000 point fund, which could help be applied to events that tracks can not get the full minimum purse to hold a Tour event. Think about it, the reason why most tracks that hosted WMT events in the past aren't holding them now is because the minimum purse is so high (relative to the TVMRS and RoC tours).
Ok. I am going to TRY to respond to both Annon posts here.
First, while I have heard NOTHING of the Truck Series ending I would not mind it happening. Personally I would rather see the Nationwide Series become the Cup Series and drop the Cup Series, but that is JUST MY OPINION. I really do not see a big difference other than LOT'S MORE MONEY SPENT between the two. Every Nationwide race (except for conflicting dates with Cup) comes down to a batlle of Cup Series drivers anyhow. Why not Bring the Cup cars down to this level??? Oh I know why.... it makes too much sense.
Second, I have not heard that the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour will end after this season. If this does happen, I would hope that tracks hosting the Southern Tour now would host the Northern Tour in the future. I am not sure what to make of this RUMOR Annon. NASCAR has made the Southern cars 100% equal to the Northern cars and added a second combination event, but has never indicated plans to end the Southern Tour. I would like to see someof the tracks that host the Southern Tour host a combo race though. I guess only time will tell on that RUMOR.
Fans - I really was not saying that fans do not support the Tours. I know first hand how much we do. I know what myself and OpenWheelRacer have done to chase the Tour in the past. I was only trying to say we can do more. If you LOVE the Tour show it ALL THE TIME. Do not wear that spiffy new Daytona 500 hat, get a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour hat. Don't buy that cool looking Dale Jr. jacket to wear to the track, get that Whelen Modified Tour jacket. Is there a Jeff Gordon sticker or a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour sticker on your car ? Do you wear a NASCAR whelen Modified Tour T-shirt or sweatshirt to the races ?
Whelen should have a FULL line of T-shirts, hats, stickers and everything else at the track BUT we need to be asking for them and wearing them. I used to love explaining to people what the NASCAR Modified Tour was while traveling to different races.
My second point with the fans is that I see a lot of people writng the Tour off as dead. Look at the Annon post of the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour being done after this season. That is NOT SUPPORT. Instead of posting that, I feel it should have said HELP SAVE THE NASCAR WHELEN SOUTHERN MODIFIED TOUR. A TRUE fan of the Tour would have done it that way. This is the point I was hoping to make - True fans will do anything they can to see the Tour survive. Negativity will only help the Tours die. So are we TRUE fans or pall bearers ????
I had to edit this post as I forgot this part of the Annon comments. NASCAR.
I like the idea of taking some money from the other Series purses. BUT, I get confused as to why it is so hard for tracks to generate money for the Tour events. Here in NY, there is a DIRT race at a local track coming up that pays over $17,000 to win. That's amazing enough, but the fact it is still less than $25 to attend is even more amazing to me. There are races that pay almost as much at the last Stafford Motor Speedway event paid to win on a nearly weekly basis. Yet these races are only $10-$15 to attend. How are these tracks affording it??? If NASCAR is really over charging tracks by that much, then the Tour really needs to say "we created you NASCAR, now we are leaving you". When I can pay less at Talladega to see the Cup Series Vs. going to see the Tour at Thompson Speedway something is seriously wrong. I am not trying to single out any person, track or sanctioning body, I am only trying to understand. How did the former Hooters Pro Cup Series race for $10K to win at ANY track, and the Tour races for like $4K. There are weekly NASCAR Tour Type Modified tracks paying around $3,500 to win some of their bigger events. How can they afford it and only charge less then $20 to attend ?????
I really do not think it is ALL NASCAR. BUT, maybe I am entirely wrong. Those more in the know should fill me in.
-- Edited by WhelenModifiedTour on Wednesday 3rd of June 2009 09:48:53 AM
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NASCAR MODIFIEDS...WHERE IT ALL BEGAN. LET'S REMIND NASCAR OF THEIR ROOTS.
the nationwide series is a joke i do agree, but if you get rid of the nationwide series.... the cup drivers will race in the trucks, so its a dead end street there,
2nd is when the cup series downsized there schedule in 1972, the late model sportsman< later the busch grand national and now nationwide> was born, i remember the day you had the likes of dale sr, DW, harry gant, among others that race in the series in the 80s, it was to spike the numbers in the stands and "give the bgn reg a chance to beat the cup regs"
now some 20 years later, independant teams/drivers have folded, cup driver invaded the series, i think 28 regs at last count, i dont think folding a series is the answer because the cup drivers will move to something else<nascar will apporve the move to spike the numbers on the truck races,
when i went ot the camping world east series i was both shocked and discusted at the view of which that series have turned out, once again you dont have the indepandant teams, now you have gibb DEI/ganassi RCR i think hendrick was invovled, in the series that had the likes of stub fadden, dick mcabe, among others, that series is becoming francised too and i see that series going nowhere fast, sure you can put a joey locasho opsss i mean logano in those cars, but where is the general though about having teams that stand alone? theres not many left and it sickens me.........
about the WMT, i know the history about the thompson 300, and this is a great example, i beleave the winner got somewhere in the neighbor of 12k to win when the wmt was 1st ran in 1985 as a touring series.......... some 27 years later in 2002 when the last thompson 300 was ran, the winners share was a 13k, you cant tell me that nascar could not help the little man out and fork over the extra $$$$$ like probally the DIRT series does and let them have a extra amout of dough...... if UNITED was still sactioning races i think they would have done better than what nascar is doing today and most people might laugh at that........ i am now.....
bottom line is this, mike helton is checking people out of the way to get 1st in the buffet line, brain france is on a boat somewhere near hatti getting fed grapes and getting fanned by underage workers..... i dont think they give a dang on what happens in the lower series..... the powers to be find that the cup series is the #1 prioty at this point and even that is failing, look what happened at dover? i saw at least 35k open seats...... they better be careful because before you know it, it will be back to the way it was back in 1985, 50k at dover all on the front stright
that will be it for now, i think i stired up the pot enuff For 1 day LOL
I would love to know the amount of the fee, NASCAR charges the local tracks for each WMT event. I have also scratched my head, trying to figure how Dirt and Outlaws' have good purses'. Yet, the gate fees for the Grandstands & Pits are alot less in PA & NY at those events. Note: Pit receits in CT are not TAXED!
Maybe one of our local New England Promoters could post the amount as a Annon. This is the 1st time I have visited your site since winter, when there was good give and take over similar issues. I know for sure a couple of the Annons' during the winter postings were "in the know".
Perhaps no more Trucks, and they put that money into the Modifieds instead. The sponsors for both the race teams and television time would pay MUCH less. Seems to me that there is MUCH more interest in the Modifieds. Look at how many Cup Series drivers are showing interest. Just my opinion.
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NASCAR MODIFIEDS...WHERE IT ALL BEGAN. LET'S REMIND NASCAR OF THEIR ROOTS.
