|
February 11, 1999 -Jane Smith Getting to Know the NASCAR Tour Type and SK Mods
Being the curious person that I am, I decided I wanted to learn all I
could about the NASCAR Tour Type Mods and SK Mods at New
Smyrna Speedway right now. What was the difference in the two?
What kind of crowds did they race to back home? What was their
purses? Who was their favorites? Here is what I found.
The fans at New Smyrna are seeing the "tour type" and "limited"
mods racing together. The only visible difference between these
two classes is the "limited" mods run two barrel carbs and a few
other subtle differences. They race on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
back home depending on how much you want to travel and which
rules you want to use. See, their tracks differ in rules also which
makes racing very hard. But I was told that some tracks in NY state,
Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey (Flemington) have gotten
together and standardized their "limited" modified rules and have
created a whole series of races with a point fund and all. Fans are
hoping that this will boost the sport.
The purses vary a lot. To run just a normal night of racing, the "limited"
mods may have a purse of $600.00 to win and the "tour type" up to
$2,000.00 but the norm usually $l600.00. However, the tour event
purses seem to pay between $5,000 to $l0,000.00 to win and the
long distance races may pay up to $20,000.00.
At their tracks, they do not allow fans in the pits. Only drivers and
crew members are allowed unless a fan buys a license which seems
to vary from $50.00 to $l00.00 to get into the pits. And then he/she
must still pay pit entrance fees which are from $11.00 to $15.00.
However, after the races, the pits are open but by then all the bigger
name drivers and cars are gone. And depending on which track they
are racing, some nights may have full grandstands and others maybe
l/3 to l/2 full - a lot like Florida.
New Smyrna is lucky to have two of the most favorite drivers back home
racing with us - Jamie Tomaino and George Kent. Ted Christopher is
one of those drivers that you either love or hate - no in between. He is
very agressive, much like Dale Earnhardt or Ernie Irvan were early in
their careers. Ted started in "limited" mods and still runs in those at
Stafford Speedway. And Ted is also in the BGNN and is fairly successful.
Jamie is from New Jersey and it seems that his Monte Carlo bodied mod
is quite popular back home. He has a strong following at Flemington
and Wall stadium in New Jersey and is quite successful there. But his
popularity seems to drop off outside the state of New Jersey. They
expect big things out of Jamie.
George Kent, a popular driver here with the crowd, retired and came back.
George is a very smooth driver and won at many different tracks. For him
to come back, and come back as strong as he did, has made him somewhat
a legend in his time. And one of his crew members told me that they never
eat at the tracks but always cook and each crew member gets a turn at
the grill.
But the biggest name and most favorite driver in this series was Mike
Stefanik who has gone to the Busch Grand National series. Mike
holds many records in the tour mods and he won the modified and
BGNN titles both in the same year. And the most loved car owner is
Lenny Boehler who they call the last of the "backyard guys". Tony
Hirschman won two titles for Lenny.
All in all, this is a great group of guys that have fans just like our Florida
Stock Car drivers do. But just like our racers, it seems to get more
and more expensive for them to run and be competitive. Some have
$200,000.00 haulers and some just $5,000.00 haulers. Some have
$40,000.00 engines with a couple of spares and some only one and
no where near $40,000.00 invested. But they all have that same
love in them, the love of racing, and the fans love them. I wish them
all a very successful year and I hope they return again to visit us for
Speedweeks. |
|
