Race of Champions Asphalt Motorsports – Moving Forward…
A status update from Andrew Harpell –
Over the past several weeks the staff of the Race of Champions has been working on new business for 2012 while seeing the dirt series come to a conclusion on Halloween Weekend. With many rumors circulating and teams anxiously looking to the 2012 racing season we wanted to update everyone on where we are currently at.
We are presently working on the 2012 Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour schedule. We are hoping to secure between 9-12 events for next season. The 2012 tour season will see a few subtle yet positive changes to build on our already successful program. The 2011 season saw tremendous racing and a new tradition with the mid-summer running of the Sunoco Race of Champions.
If you weren’t at the 61st running of the Sunoco Race of Champions Weekend at Oswego Speedway you missed a fantastic weekend. The event was dedicated to the memory of the great Richie Evans and all of us associated with the event are proud of the outcome of the entire weekend. It was a change from the past as we went from cold weather to blistering hot temperatures. Zane Zeiner was an iron man over the weekend winning the RoC Modified 200 along with the Late Model 100 lap special. He also finished second in the RoC Sportsman 100 behind Bobby Holmes. All of the events over the weekend ran off in a timely fashion and the camping area was the place to be as friends were able to enjoy the summer time conditions throughout the weekend.
The change was a big one but it was certainly a positive outcome for all involved. New Oswego Speedway owners John and Eric Torrese and their entire staff were great to work with and helped us in any area we needed to make the weekend a success. Their continued upgrades and hard work at the facility throughout the season certainly created a renewed energy at the “Steel Palace”. With that in mind the 62nd Sunoco Race of Champions will take place at the Oswego Speedway this July 20th and 21st. Despite interest from other facilities to host the event we have already built a great relationship with the Torrese family and look forward to our return to Oswego Speedway. The Modified 200 will take place on Saturday, July 21st along with the weekly Super Modifieds in another important point race. Sunday, July 22nd will serve as our rain date if needed. The remainder of the weekend schedule will be put in place shortly. We need to release this date now as Oswego Speedway has been outstanding to help work around the date with their weekly schedule.
The Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour schedule will remain fairly consistent to recent years. After talking with friend Mike Perrotte at Airborne Speedway we will not be returning there this season. Track management is going to focus on their weekly program while cutting back on touring divisions for 2012. This does not rule out our possible return in the years to come.
Currently we are working with the Bennett family at Holland Speedway to make our return to the popular western, New York facility. Our past events at Holland have been outstanding races and we look forward to the possibility of returning in 2012. At present time we are trying to establish a date that will provide the best event that we can. We cannot release too much information on our 2012 tour dates as with all of the tracks we are patiently looking for the best dates to allow the most competitors to be part of the program. The Decker Memorial event for the Sportsman has also been moved earlier to avoid conflict with the RoC weekend. A couple of our traditional events will remain with our return to Oswego Speedway on Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend along with the annual “U.S. Open” at Dunn Tire Raceway Park.
We are hoping to expand our commitment with the Shangri La II Speedway as well as both Spencer and the Chemung Speedrome. All three facilities have led to some great RoC Tour events in years past. When the full schedule is released we do anticipate the 9-12 events that I referred to above.
With regards to rule changes and adaptations to the cars for 2012, any changes will be subtle but effective. After listening to our teams we will remain on 13 inch Modified tires for next season. We have yet to establish which compound or manufacturer at this time. That announcement will come shortly after the first of the year. We did take part in a tire test at Oswego Speedway back in early October to test the American Racer Tire. We did test both the 13 inch and 10 inch tire. Interestingly the 10 inch tire provided identical lap times as the 13 inch tires. We did learn a lot from that particular test day and it will certainly help us in further development down the road. We did try to set up a test date at both Dunn Tire Raceway Park and Shangri La Speedway’s but we were rained out.
Back in June we held our pre-race drivers meeting at Spencer Speedway. I asked our teams to provide us some feedback what they would like to see for our direction in years to come. At that meeting we discussed that anything was on the table and that we wanted to have some discussions on how to further improve the division and our product. Unfortunately we had little feedback during the summer months for whatever reason. At the season finale at the Dunn Tire Raceway Park we had another discussion at our drivers meeting regarding our direction for 2012 and beyond. Unfortunately the meeting led to some misinformation, speculation and rumor. However, the fortunate outcome of the meeting was that the majority of the northeast’s Modified teams have shared their input and opinions this fall and the future looks very positive. As a group our current teams and a number of new teams are looking ahead to an exciting 2012. The idea exchange that has taken place this fall has been very, very positive.
We will not be making major changes for 2012 and every team that competed with us this past season will be able to again without major change or cost for the upcoming season. We will though be opening the door up to some of the Sportsman teams that currently run with 2 barrel carburetor motors. At the Race of Champions Weekend last summer the Sportsman on 10 inch tires and 2 barrel carburetors were less than a second slower than the full blown Modifieds. We are certain that with a change in weight we can further close that gap between the two styles of cars to simply allow a few more teams to compete. Many people are unaware that at the RoC Tour finale at the Dunn Tire Raceway Park Tony Hanbury ran his 2 barrel carburetor car with the RoC Mods without any weight or motor adaptations. He did run the bigger 13 inch tires in the 100 lap event. Hanbury had made his way up to fourth place during the race. No one knew the difference in cars. As a matter of fact in a victory lane conversation I shared with Tony Hirschman he too had assumed Hanbury had put on a bigger carburetor. My point is that with subtle weight changes we will allow some teams to come compete at some of our events in 2012. The current Gater Racing News $500 bonus will be awarded at each event in 2012 to the top finishing driver competing with a 2 barrel carburetor.
In addition in 2012 we will crown an overall Modified Tour Champion as we have in year’s past but will also crown a 2 barrel “Sportsman Champion” within the point standings. Simply put, the top finishing Sportsman team will receive a championship title, trophy and point money bonus at season’s end. We are not looking to and are not going to change our current Modified program we are just looking to encourage more participation while paying a bonus to those teams running with the 2 barrel carburetor program. With changes in overall and left side weight percentages we will be able to encourage some new teams in 2012.
Currently our Race of Champions Dirt Modified program runs Big Block Modifieds against Small Block Modifieds and we balance the two motor programs with weight. We have had great success with that balance and know that we can do the same with our current Asphalt Modified program. There will be some growing pains as we learn which tracks will lead to a level playing field versus those that may need a greater weight gap. This upcoming season will be exciting to put those changes in effect and learn a bit as we go.
Regardless of what tire manufacturer or compound that we ultimately decide on there will be changes in our handling and procedures regarding our race tires. The RoC Asphalt Modified Tour will have a tire truck at every tour event next season like most other touring groups presently do. Tires will be distributed to the teams on the day of the event off of the French’s Auto Parts Tire Truck. This will further help eliminate any tire softening or any comprising of the tires being used. We also plan on impounding left front tires at the conclusion of each tour race to be utilized at the following event in an effort to help some of the spending cost.
We will allow quick change rear ends in 2012 and will again level the playing field by weight distribution. Quick changes will not be mandatory but will provide teams a much better opportunity to compete at more than one facility on a weekend without the long process of changing an entire rear end setup. Teams that run a Tri Y Header setup will be required to add weight in 2012.
Our annual Awards Dinner will be held once again during the first weekend of March with conjunction with our area racing mall show. We are again working with the show organizers to accommodate their efforts on that weekend as well. We will establish whether the banquet will be on Friday or Saturday in the weeks to come.
In the day and age of social media and internet race forums there is sometimes a negative stance taken on many levels of short track racing. We will continue to emphasize the positives of our level of racing and present a high quality for our programs. The 2011 season saw some very good racing on the RoC Modified Tour. We congratulate Chuck Hossfeld on an outstanding season. Looking back on 2011 we saw the Oswego Speedway go through a transformation with many improvements and a level of excitement that will certainly continue in the future. After initial conversations Shangri La II Speedway is likely to run several weekly Modified events in 2012 in addition to their RoC Tour events. We will work closely with them to help present a schedule that will enable teams to run more often if they desire.
The changes that we are putting forward for 2012 will be positive for the Modified race teams, the track operators and our fans. Without major changes all of our 2011 teams will be able to return without a major cost increase. We acknowledge that further change may be necessitated in the year’s to come but do not want to make a huge immediate change that will force all of our existing teams to spend thousands of dollars to compete next year.
As always feedback can be directed to us via email at rocpavement@aol.com. We are looking forward to a strong 2012 season and in the meantime wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season.