It has been nearly three years since I first tried to encourage a discussion of the issues that face our beloved Tour. I ask those who choose to read this to use it as food for thought as we head towards the future. Perhaps there are those who will read this that have thoughts and ideas of their own. Should anyone be interested, if those thoughts and ideas are forwarded to me, I will include sound suggestions in a future article, as I have here.

One of the things that showed tremendous promise at the dawn of this season was a crop of rookie drivers the likes of which we have not seen for many years, if ever. Unfortunately, with qualifying procedures the way they have been, many of these potential future stars of the Whelen Modified Tour have gained very little Modified racing experience. About two thirds of the competitors that have had to load up and go home so far this season have been rookies, including all seven that were sent packing from Jennerstown.

Regardless of how some might feel about consolation, hooligan or non-qualifier races, we need to add something. Many of these teams tow in from a distance and if we do not give them at least an opportunity to race, the tremendous car counts that the WMT has recently enjoyed will wither and die like a neglected house plant. How about this idea?

The sanctioning body could mandate on the entry form for each event that there be a last-chance race whenever the car count exceeds that of a full field. Make that last-chance race ten percent of the scheduled distance of the feature event with a twenty-minute time limit. It could be done without adding anything to the purse. Simply reduce the amount of competitors that would qualify through time trials by two. Subsequently the top two finishers in the last-chance race would transfer into the feature event. Those two positions would revert to time trial speed were there no more than a full field of cars.

By doing this, whether the teams involved are campaigning a rookie driver, are interlopers who just want to try to get in the show or long-time supporters of the Tour, they would have another opportunity to earn their way into the show. More importantly however, this establishes a chance for some of these competitors to gain valuable seat time. This seat time will make for better racing in the long run as these drivers, many of whom are rookies, who often haven’t been able to run a competitive lap at certain venues, would be better prepared to race in the future when they do qualify. That is because they had a chance to run under race conditions, even if that chance is brief.

I found something interesting when listening to a RoC race from Oswego on the Internet. Apparently, competitors on the RoC Tour have opportunities to “Buy-in” to an event. As I understand it, teams that have failed to qualify for a race can buy in by writing a check to cover the last place purse.

The Buy-in rule only allows for two competitors to do this per event and each competitor is only allowed to buy in twice per season. I believe that the RoC Buy-in option is offered in order of driver points, but I could be wrong. Were this instituted for the Whelen Modified Tour the order could be determined by owner points, driver points or the next in qualifying speed. It should be noted that the Buy-in rule is the only form of provisional spot on the RoC Tour. I think that is a creative idea that probably should be investigated.

One of the subjects that invariably come to the forefront when any discussion of this nature is made is television. I would think that the folks who want television exposure more than anyone else would be our sponsors, especially Whelen Engineering. I believe that the current networks that have been broadcasting NASCAR’s national series have had little interest in having anything to do with broadcasting Modified racing. Things can change.

I certainly feel with ESPN coming into the fold next season, the opportunity to see the Whelen Modified Tour on the tube certainly increases. In the past the ESPN networks have demonstrated that they have been most apt to provide the best television coverage the Tour has enjoyed. It certainly doesn’t hurt that ESPN is a Connecticut based company that may have grass roots support for Modified racing among their employ.

Even still, everything comes at a cost. One of the challenges in the past has been sponsorship of in-car cameras. The TV people don’t want to run a race without in-car cameras. The use of these cameras is expensive. How many team sponsors are willing to pony up a few thousand dollars to sponsor an in-car camera? We would probably need three sponsors per event. That’s the kind of money that could pay the tire bill for several races. The last time we did get TV coverage, other than Loudon and Martinsville, sponsorship of the in-car cameras was a particularly sticky subject.

Although some look at television coverage as the ultimate recognition that the Tour needs and deserves, I feel differently. I would love to see the WMT get television coverage. In particular it is important to get the kind of exposure that our title sponsor would like to enjoy.

However, I don’t believe that television would make the racing any better on the track. In order for television to really benefit the teams and the facilities, a schedule of those televised races has to be released early enough for the car and track owners to have time to pursue additional sponsorships. Then all we have to do is behave…and behave well I might add.

Television could be good as far as bringing some additional venues back into the fray. Would we be going back to places like Lake Erie, Beech Ridge or Seekonk were our races to be televised from those facilities? Track owners have to weigh which is more important, television exposure or how many fans will travel a distance to attend a race that they will be able see on TV in a couple of days.

One thing that is brought up from time to time is electronic scoring. At this point, every facility where the Whelen Modified Tour competes is equipped with an electronic scoring loop, with the exception of Riverhead Raceway. Several of these loops were installed for use by the Busch East Series. NASCAR has transponders for our teams to use and a RF signal would allow teams to monitor practice times and scoring over a laptop computer, right?

Like I said earlier, everything comes at a cost. My understanding is that when NASCAR uses this system, they require three additional officials to monitor, maintain and operate the system. That is on top of the responsibilities added for distributing and collecting the transponders. The sanctioning body does not provide officials for free and that goes double or more for those who are skilled.

I am sure that if our races are broadcast for television in the future that we will use the electronic scoring system. That is because television producers find electronic scoring as one of the easiest ways to provide on-screen graphics for those broadcasts. As far as the sanctioning body setting up the RF signal or allowing our teams’ access to the monitoring software, I don’t see that happening any time soon.

An issue that was raised by a couple of the WMT car owners over the past year or two was asking NASCAR to provide additional sponsorships for teams, tracks and television through the sanctioning body’s naming rights & licensing program. In other words, when a company becomes “The Official ______ of NASCAR”, a small percentage of the mega dollars that the sanctioning body receives to allow the use of the NASCAR name could be diverted to the Regional Tour Series level. It is an interesting thought.

Some might view this as welfare for the tracks and teams that are concerned. If it were managed properly, these sponsors would get a tremendous value added from participants and fans at the regional level and NASCAR could ask for even larger naming fees in the future. However this looks on the surface, it could be a smart business decision where everybody wins in the long run.

I count forty-four companies that are the “Official something” of NASCAR according to the nascar.com website. However, the Official website of NASCAR is not controlled by NASCAR and that could be inaccurate. That number doesn’t include companies that are only official partners.

At present we would have to knock Goodyear out of the mix, as I don’t think that would work well with the brand we currently use on the Tour. I have heard stranger things though. My understanding is that Goodyear actually did manufacture the “Hoosier” branded street radial for the Indiana based company that vends racing tires to our competitors.

The funds could be distributed to drivers, team owners and track owners who sign a contract. Let’s just say we took the top-twenty car owners and drivers from one season and the sanctioning body could offer them an opportunity for the next. Teams that participate would be required to enter and attempt every race on the schedule. Driver participation in each week’s autograph session would be mandatory. Each of the teams that participate would be required to make a number of appearances with the car and driver at the behest of the sanctioning body.

Participation in the program would be optional. If a team is happy with the sponsorship that they have, or if the contract is breeched, the support from the NASCAR licensing agreement could trickle down to teams that are further down in the previous season’s standings. The paint scheme and lettering of each team/driver’s car that participates in this would have to be approved by the sanctioning body. It does open a can of worms as far as which drivers might represent which sponsors.

Dispersal of funds could be handled by the sanctioning body separate from purses on a race-by-race basis. The IRS allows a certain percentage of any income to be written off for advertising. There is little doubt this is part of the reason they generate so much interest in their licensing program. I could see no better use of NASCAR’s advertising dollar than to invest it in to the stars of their future and racing under their banner at the regional level.

The track owners could benefit from this as well. Perhaps some of these trickle-down dollars would offset part of the purse in exchange for the naming rights to events. The funds could also be used to pay for some of the insurance costs of which that the track owners bear the brunt. These insurance costs are staggering. Above all reasons that the tracks where we compete enroll in a NASCAR sanctioning agreement, insurance is probably the biggest one: and that insurance is the best reason to compete at a NASCAR sanctioned track.

Although the thought is interesting, I won’t be holding my breath to see if that happens. I still haven’t generated any interest in naming rights for The Cup. And my travel expenses aren’t exactly declining either.

Speaking of travel expenses: that is arguably the toughest nut to crack for many of the competitors. Some teams stay at hotels, others camp with RVs or trailers. Sometimes it depends on the venue.

A team for which I previously worked was able to work out a deal with a different hotel for nearly every event we entered. They reserved the taillight panel exclusively for hotel exposure. We didn’t even make appearances for those deals. The same could be done for an RV center as well. I’m no rocket scientist, that’s just an idea that worked.

Another challenge is fuel. Most of the haulers on the WMT aren’t exactly sipping fuel like a hybrid. I’ve heard of at more than one team that made arrangements with a filling station. One of them made a deal with the owners of the station that they would unload their racecar and do a one-hour driver appearance in exchange for filling their diesel fuel tank. At the prices we pay today, that could work out to be a pretty good deal.

Those who watched the Chris Economaki special “Eyewitness to American Racing History” on Wind Tunnel probably took note of the comments that Chris made about the downfall of Midget racing from its’ heyday and understand the relevance of that to Modified racing today. Economaki explained, “The car owner’s investment in his car was time and effort and a few bucks for some parts.” “Every car was homemade. And some guy that just had a toolbox could walk up and admire some of the craftsmanship. Some guy made this thing and it’s beautiful. And then in the late forties, Curtis Craft, a company in California, started making production model Midgets that were infinitely adjustable, they were superb machines, they were faster than the homemade Midgets, too fast, in fact so fast that you couldn’t pass anybody. Secondly the cars all looked alike. So the races turned into high-speed dress parades and people stopped buying tickets.”

Obviously from a standpoint of safety, our current Modifieds, which are largely production made, needed to be standardized. It is clear that some teams have a better grasp of what it takes to win with the particular brand of car they campaign. We have however lost some of the allure and intrigue that came when most of the cars were fabricated from scratch by the teams that raced them.

Even still, as much as the sanctioning body wants to insure that no one has an unfair competitive advantage over another and work keep the cars safe, we have to be mindful that the Tour is a product. If the Modified Tour ever turns into a high-speed dress parade like Economaki mentioned the Midgets did, we better make some changes quickly or we will be gone faster than an infield RV pass at Loudon.

Even if our Modifieds were suddenly found in a predicament where they couldn’t pass anywhere, whom would we ask for help? Subsequent to the departure of Don Hawk, we have heard very little as far as what kind of direction the sanctioning body intends to take as far as racing on the regional level, much less our Modifieds. There had been rumors that NASCAR’s regional racing will be managed by a number of different people working together. I was taught that anything with more than one head is a monster.

When I have experienced situations where more than one person’s approval was required to move or make a change through a level of management, it has been difficult to get an honest answer out of anyone or to effect a change. In that kind of management structure, people within that structure get confused. When people are confused, they fail to act. When people fail to act they tend to stagnate. When people are stagnant they fail to grow. Whether we talk about people, a tree, a team, a company or our Tour there are only two ways of progression. Things are either in a process of growth or a process of death. Which way are we going?

The biggest issue is probably communication. One of our gentleman car owners placed a call to a big wig in Daytona who told this car owner that he’d be “looking out for us”. “A month and counting”, he said, “It costs me $425 just to go through the gate at any track. It’s just common courtesy to return a phone call. And apparently he won’t do it.”

The car owners have the biggest risk versus reward of all concerned. They have cars, engines and components specifically designed to compete in a NASCAR division. Their investment is at a rate that arguably averages well in excess of $100,000 per team for cars, engines and components that have little use but as museum pieces outside of Tour Modified racing.

Has anyone from the sanctioning body taken the time to explain to the car owners what is going on since the departure of the Director of Regional Racing Development? No. They had to find out the same way we did, by reading about it in a newspaper…and officially, nothing has been said. Not a press release, not a letter, not a phone call and apparently not even an email to the owners.

But behold, I found out about the promotions of George Silbermann to the position of Managing Director of Racing Operations, with a focus on the weekly and regional racing levels and Richard Buck to the position of Director of Touring Series from a post on our Message Forum. Fitchburg Fan, our flag bearer of old time Modified racing, had found the information on the nascar.com website. I had actually put myself into a bad situation by using information garnered from the nascar.com site in the past. Like I said earlier, despite the fact that www.nascar.com is the “Official website of NASCAR”, it is operated by Turner Sports Interactive. I was told by a member of the NASCAR PR staff that they do not accept responsibility for the website’s content.

There are those who might not like what they hear when Ed Cox speaks. The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Director may not say what people would like to hear but he is arguably the most honest official that I have met in the sport. His word is golden and anytime I have called him he has either answered or returned my call right away. Those higher in the sanctioning body’s pecking order have been far more difficult to access much less get a response from.

Another owner told me that he had called this same person the aforementioned owner did in Daytona several times with nary a returned call. He said, “It’s the same old, same old. You try to get an answer and they just make us wait.” This owner did say that when he asked Ed Cox, at least he got some answers. But alas not a press release, not a letter, not a phone call and not an email to even explain that Don Hawk had left the company, much less the sanctioning body’s plans for the future.

Lines of communication have to be opened. It can’t be that difficult. If a hack like me can get car owners on the phone, what’s the big problem? All I did was look the number up and dial it. These same people don’t have a problem asking for donations to the NASCAR Foundation. Heck, they have all of the phone numbers.

We need to work together on this. I know that NASCAR really doesn’t make any money when it comes to the regional touring series. We have to find ways to add value to the Modified Tour as a product to make it more attractive for promoters and track owners. Most of all, we have to keep Modified racing exciting for the fans and affordable for the competitors. If we happen to get a little exposure for our sponsors, like Whelen Engineering, along the way: that wouldn’t hurt either.

I feel that the Tour is at a crossroads. I’d love our Modifieds to experience great success in the future. Perhaps someone who has been stagnant because they have been confused will suddenly discover a moment of clarity. A moment of clarity could lead to a thought, which could lead to an action, which could lead to the growth of our beloved Tour. I’m heading to the pharmacy to see if I can find some thought clarifying wipes to put in the mail. What do you think?