Special thanks to the Xcel Modified teams who contributed the great images of the kids!
On a random day heading to the races we happened to be alongside a race trailer doing the same things we were.
On the back of that trailer, the door was lettered in script:
“Inside this trailer is an affliction for which there is no cure.”
One of the best summaries of racing I have ever had the privilege of reading on my way to the track.
You and I would have to agree that racing is important to us on levels we typically take for granted. When I was a kid there were two things that changed the course of my life for better. The first was becoming a member of my volunteer ambulance squad and the other was racing.
I ended up being the top officer of that squad after climbing from a junior member as a tender youngster in my late teens. Along the way I had purpose, learned to speak to adults and how to take on adult responsibilities in some of the most challenging ways possible.. and if you read my previous article, as a bonus I met my wife of 32 years.
Every Saturday night I did standby with the ambulance at the Flemington Speedway sometimes cheering on my older brother as he raced in the late model division. As a kid, these things formed a good part of my foundation. This article is about forming that foundation for the next generation.
So much has changed about racing. If you grew up in the 1980’s, it is all but unrecognizable.
The race tracks of my youth – many of them are simply gone.
Last year we really thought that Grandview was going away, 5 Mile Point will be a warehouse site now, there were rumors of Orange County being in trouble along with New Egypt Speedway (thankfully being revitalized in a nice turn of events).
Scary stuff and evidence that times for racing are not in their prime.
There is a real struggle happening and the future generation of tracks/racing is being decided right now – right here – on the tracks that you are racing on this season.
So, what is the root of this evil? If you were to ask me, I would point the finger straight at technology.
Technology is the enemy. Not just racing either. Technology is challenging almost every physical activity, sport, hobby or treasured past time.
I happen to be a big early adapter and love technology when it comes to being able to do things like.. tell the Amazon device to light up my kitchen island or write an article and publish it online.
That doesn’t negate the fact that I understand what it means to the future of racing. The best we can hope for is that all of the podcasters, influencers, reporters and photographers are using technology in the war to promote racing and the kids are influenced by the exposure to get out the track.
In addition to Call of Duty Black Ops II, Netflix, TikTok and Instagram… social media has awakened a way for people to critically injure something simply because.
Big money to be able to race is a problem, but not as pressing as the need to get young people to show interest in our sport and want to become a part of it.
Many of us older folk can recall the scene in the movie Dirty Dancing where the resort owner is extolling that ‘kids don’t want to come up here anymore with their parents”..
In the not-so-distant past, I ran a youth wrestling league for a decade. Today, I still manage youth wrestling sites. I see more and more the struggle to get wrestlers away from the electronics and on the mat. Never has a wrestling team had so many forfeits because of short rosters.
Teams with proud traditions cannot compete with kids who won’t come out of their room.
The power of being ‘plugged in’ has sucked the wind out of almost everything and swallows up without prejudice.
While I am dismayed at the gloom and doom, I just spewed about the prospects of racing, I do feel there is one avenue of hope. One spark, that if kept lit, will suspend (or at the very least postpone for years to come) the declining popularity caused by the disease of technology..
In our case, the vaccination to slow or possibly cure it is SMALL CAR RACING
There, I said it, and I am not taking it back. Let’s go Brandon! Sorry, not sorry.
Why small car racing is the cure to the disease.
I love big modifieds. Sprint cars are beyond incredible to watch. For me, our race nights with the big cars are a win-win. There is plenty of room and respect for the top tier of racing.
BUT.. Small car racing has evolved to be the future backbone of Saturday night racing.
In my day, my dad took the old boat trailer and made it into my brother’s race car trailer. We literally threw a come along over the branch above our patio and pulled the motor.
Generations of young kids learned what a timing light did and how to use a red parts cleaner & that wood brush with the bristles on the end to wash the grit off a part.
The days of racing big cars and overcoming with ability and practically no budget sadly are past now.
Big cars are still amazing, but small cars slowly over the last decade have become the mainstay of the weekend dirt racing community.
Old trucks, heavy pump jacks and low budget racers are filling the small car race scene. The infield is vibrant, full and each class demonstrates a healthy car count. Walk around Lindas Speedway on a Friday night and you could easily think back to the feeling of the 70’s and 80’s.
Small car racing today very much resembles what good old fashion racing was in our youth.
Apples to apples, they are less expensive, more obtainable for the regular Joe and still offer the speed of the bigger cars.
Big car, big costs
The other night, I took in the Northeast Racing Happy Hour Podcast. Brett Hearn (well-known semi-retired NE dirt modified legend) was on it discussing events and the current state of racing. It was a discussion about small block vs big block and he mentioned that teams racing a big block were in for $100k just to get the car to the track.
Not suggesting to give up on the whole division in any way. Big car racing is amazing. A pack of modifieds three laps into a feature is an experience that I hope many generations of kids will be allowed to experience. Please support your local tracks and then some.
It is a great listen. If you want the specific section look around 19:50 in the podcast. I suggest you listen to the whole thing; it was well done and both guests this night were entertaining.
Incidentally, one of the hosts of the podcast, Andy Crane is expected to be competing in an Xcel Modified this season in addition to his regular modified racing.
Sure, some small cars have multi-thousand-dollar motors and factory teams, but 4-cylinder classes, Slingshots, Speedsters and Xcel Modifieds are still within the reach of the common person these days.
Q: No really, how much do you spend on racing?
A: An old truck with a basic trailer and you could go racing for amounts of money comparable to other adult hobbies.
My bricklayer buddies ask me all the time how much it costs to race for the season?
Quite a few of the are big into deer hunting. I tell them no more money than if I bought a quad, a deer feeder, trail cameras, a hunting licenses and a shotgun. By the time you take your deer to get tagged and pay the fee for the guy to cut it up and vacuum seal if for you – I probably got you beat.
I just went to the outdoor show in Harrisburg and the guy with me spent $50 dollars for 6 arrows (not including the broadhead). Just insane amount of ‘take my money’ opportunities presented there.
Besides, I joke, what is the purpose of getting up at 4:10am driving to the other side of the state every day to work if you can’t spend it on something.
Summary: In life, racing is what we do.
Racing gives us value for the money in experiences and life lessons. Your family circle is now richer with great relationships that are completely attributable to racing.
You have invested in your children’s future by showing them goals achieved, sportsmanship, pain and suffering as well as becoming a part of something worthwhile.
It is rich and rewarding to race for you, your crew and those who cheer you on.
Kids are sponges.
- Racing teaches planning, time management, research and a host of other things that make someone more valuable in the real world.
- Being a fly on the wall while you interact with your racing team and those at the track hopefully set an example they can follow on teamwork.
- Dreaming of a $60,000 race car and racing a used $7,500 race car teaches fiscal responsibility and reality.
- Passion about something is a skill.
- A wrecked race car three weeks in a row is a lesson that anyone can learn from
- Today’s youth sorely need to get greasy, dirty and eat a chicken nugget that has dust on it.
- How to put a band-aid on a cut is not something you are likely to experience messing around with your smart phone
- A race car is typically only shiny new at the beginning of the season. It is your job to shepherd that thing to the last race the best possible way. Now that is a life lesson you can apply to your life! Racers typically don’t replace something because it is dented, we pound out the dent because the rest of it still is fast!
The future of dirt tracks
Above I painted a fairly grim image of a future where dirt racing is in decline. To some degree, we are hypersensitive to it here in the Northeast simply because our way of life is in many ways being force fed change in the name of progress.
The story where city folk move next to the barn and complain of the smells has never been more apparent. Just like that, they arrive and declare nothing good is becoming of it. Here is a thought, if you open up a B&B next to the race track book some race fans and do not complain about the noise. The track has been racing every Saturday night since 1911.
Next thing you know we are putting concrete sidewalks on the county road.
I suspect those folks out in the middle of the country might have a slightly more optimistic view.
Most of us just want things to stay the way we like them.
Sorry, Keith memory: “good thing we are in a bowling alley” – quote from the movie Pleasantville
Old fan base – where are the youn’ins?
Maybe because most young people don’t do Facebook it seems like only 50 year olds are talking about racing on the day in and day out posts.
3:1, I see old racecars that I grew up with over current posts about what is happening in the here and now. Today more than ever, we need to curate new dirt racers who are our next legends.
If 80% of the racing is being reflected on by older adults, what happens when the nursing homes are full of them, and no one posts images of old race cars?
I have experienced the pure enjoyment of racing on the same track as my son. Being on the track and seeing my son go blowing by me is terrifying and satisfying at the same time!
I want to make a plea that you include your family in your racing. Teach your kids and let them experience and learn all of the wonderful things it has to offer both good and bad. They will be better for it.
Make sure you bring their friends. Your kids will be more likely to pursue if they have support. Those kids with them are the future if they are supporting your kids when they race.
Yeah, going to have to feed them and it will cost you money, but that money will be money well spent.
If you have a drivers suit on be a good role model. Stop and talk to kids. Show them via your actions.
You should never take for granted what it felt like when you were a kid and the driver who just won the heat race was talking right next to you!
Back when you were that kid, you were amazed to be in the presence of a driver who you just watched on the track and here you are now being that driver.
I got a little group that I call the “Pirate Posse” that come down to Victory Lane if luck has it to get the win…get their picture taken, sit in the cars in the pits after the races and take home the trophy.
Since we have been doing it…they soon will be joining the class out on the track in the near future.
Kids LOVE the class around here…it make everything worthwhile when you get to see the smiles on their faces.
Absolutely LOVE the Xcel 600 modified class!
C.M. Dugan #1 Xcel Modified | Waukon, IA
I firmly believe that if they get a taste of the traditions, we embrace they too will ‘catch the affliction from which there is no cure‘.
Right now, in a garage or a driveway a car is being prepped for the next race. The person doing that prep is committed to racing. It is all of the peripheral people and friends who need to be indoctrinated.
Someday maybe they can buy an old closed down shopping mall and put in a new racetrack! Plenty of parking spots. Paved pits. Win-Win!
I think if you put a track where a mall was it would be like a field of dreams.
I want to leave this article with a clip that was shared. It shows a special moment that occurred in our division in a race that was not only fun to watch, but a terrific summary of this article. Enjoy!
