Petty, TX (6/16/19) by DarinShort.com. The young Sprint Car
Bandits series is not without its faults, yet the goals of its
founders nearly four years after its inception continue to
prove that its rules are helping teams to save money on
consumables racing – all without diminishing the quality of
racing or requiring teams to buy something added to compete
in it.
At the inception of the series nearly four years ago, one
veteran DFW sprint driver commented after reading the Sprint
Car Bandits series launch press release by commenting, and I
quote: “This will never work. You can’t run these cars with the
same two rear tires all night long. I’ll never support this series.”
Well, not only has the Sprint Car Bandits proven that you can
run the same rear tires all night long (saving drivers that
support the series literally $1,000’s of dollars, each, a
season), but you can be competitive while doing so.
Last night at the ¼ mile high-banked new 82 Speedway in
Petty, Texas, Will Eggimann would choose to mount a right
rear tire that already had over 100 laps of Sprint Car Bandits
racing on it – then logged another 33 laps of racing on that
tire last night. And when the night was over, the tire proved
strong enough to help the team land in victory lane and
collecting $2,000.
At this point, if this press release sounds more like a Sunday
sermon, well, maybe it is. And maybe it’s time for other short
track racing series to take note that maybe you can affect
change and take a stab at closing the obvious economic gap
that was created nearly 18 years ago.
Everything changed for a lot of people after the events of
9/11. It was at that exact same point that it had a huge effect
on short track racing – yet the industry didn’t respond to it
directly, and for the most part still hasn’t.
The key, pivotal thing that changed after 9/11 was the cost of
race teams and fans traveling to events due to their cost of
fuel tripling.
That trickle-down effect has changed the sport permanently,
as that change in the nightly ‘budget’ for racers and fans
forced everyone to make choices – whether they are
consciously aware of them, or not. Suddenly, the cost of fuel
for traveling to events surpassed several other of the weekly
‘consumable’ expenses fans and teams experienced that were
going to races.
As a result, this has put an added squeeze on area tracks
and their operators in the meantime, as generally smaller
crowds and fields of race teams makes it nearly impossible for
tracks to ‘pay more’ to help cover the racers new increased
fuel budget.
And repeating what was previously stated in this press
release, that change to the ‘formula’ or budget went without
any correction by the tracks or industry, and the result was a
lot of fans and teams ended up not being able to afford racing’
s new reality.
What does this have to do with the Sprint Car Bandits ‘same
rear tire all night long’ rule? Well, this rule forces drivers to
not be able to have the option of spending more on this
specific consumable, which directly reduces the budget in that
area and helps to offset the added expense of fuel traveling
to events: if a driver saves $200-300 in one area, it helps to
cover this added fuel expense…all while not requiring the
race track operator to cough up more purse money.
This is not rocket science. It is our hope in the Sprint Car
Bandits series by making occasional reference to its goals (as
in the case of this press release) that maybe it will help other
series and track operators out there to take action
themselves to find a way to affect change in their own
situation, like we have done with our group in the DFW
Metroplex and surrounding area.
After being involved in this sport and industry now 40 years in
2019, it is this writers, and SCB series co-founders hope, that
those who are in a position to affect change take one moment
to pause and ask themselves: what can I do to help fix a
problem none of us started a long time ago, on September
11th 2001, by looking hard at their current rules and local
economics that are affecting their track/and or series. Clearly,
we have found a way in the Sprint Car Bandits to help bridge
the gap some. It’s a step in the right direction anyway – and
all without diminishing the fan experience or quality of racing.
By no means is this a finger-pointing statement towards tire
manufacturers. It’s quite the exact opposite, as it shows these
are high quality tires, that can, and will, handle more racing
laps with the slightest rule changes. Our series rules have
proven by taking some of the downforce off the car (with our
20° maximum top wing angle rule) and by requiring certain
track prep steps be taken by Series tracks, it can significantly
increase the lifespan of a common consumable: a racing tire.
Thank you in advance to those that took the time to read this
press release to this point. Now, let’s resume with the racing
highlights from another exciting visit to the beautiful and state-
of-the-art 82 Speedway located about 15 miles west of Paris,
Texas:
82 Speedway is located on the ‘fringe’ area of the core of the
DFW Metroplex area, which houses several hundred racers in
a multitude of racing divisions. It is approximately 80 minutes
from NE suburbs of Dallas. As with any new business, the
track has experienced baby-step growth along the way, but
last night the track really caught its potential stride as 94 race
teams would converge on this special night featuring the
Sprint Car Bandits series, along with the Open Comp
Modifieds, Factory Stocks, Limited Modifieds, Eco Mods and
Texas Stocks.
The Sprint Car Bandits feature would roll out third in running
order with several racing lines available to the 18-car field as
they came down for the start by flagman Kevin Fry. At the last
SCB event at 82 Speedway in May, Minnesota transplant Will
Eggimann would find the top line around the wide expanses of
’82 to his liking, coming from his 10th place starting spot to
take an eventual win. Eggimann would again choose the high
line to establish the early feature lead. With two- and three-
wide racing throughout the pack taking place, 11th place
starter Casey Burkham would continue his strong string of 82
Speedway SCB performances by picking off car after car.
In the meantime, several great battles near the front of the
pack would ensue with drivers such as Colby Estes, Scott
Evans, Chad Wilson and Michael Day. Later in the event, with
Eggimann still ripping the high line of the smooth, slick
surface, Burkham would emerge through the pack in second
place.
A caution flag waved on lap 17 (of 25), with the final eight
rounds going caution-free with Eggimann pulling away to a
sizable margin at the checkers, collecting his second 82
Speedway SCB win in a row, along with $2,000 – of which I
would venture to guess he will use to purchase some fresh
Hoosier Racing Tire rubber for the next Series event, which
will be held this coming Saturday, June 22nd at 105
Speedway near Cleveland Texas.
This event also ended the second ‘Smiley’s Racing 4-Pack
Bonus’ of the season for SCB Fierce 15 drivers that
completed in the past four Series events. Each of those
drivers will collect an added bonus of $100 simply for being a
part of our driver rewards program and by supporting the
Series events. The www.KoolTrikes.com heat races were won
by Series rookie Cody Freeman, 2018 SCB series champion
Colby Estes and Will Eggimann.
The largest crowd in the short history of the new 82
Speedway witnessed the event during a hot early summer
night. Track owner Tracy Peters would help keep multiple
racing lines available to the sprint teams throughout the event
by conducting track prep when the track needed it, which led
to another night of great racing.
Thank you once again to the race teams and fans that
continue to support the Series this season. We know that
race teams, tracks, sponsors and fans have choices and we’
re excited of where we are collectively, as Season 4 of the
Sprint Car Bandits series rolls on.
Here are the feature results from 82 Speedway in Petty Texas
from the June 15th Sprint Car Bandits series event. Click www.
82Speedway.com for full results from the track divisions.
A-feature 25 laps:
77w – Will Eggimann (top qualifier)
45b – Casey Burkham (started 11th)
2 – Michael Day (started 6th)
71 – Colby Estes (started 2nd)
47 – Chipper Wood (started 10th)
74e – Claud Estes III (started 7th)
12w – Dale Wester (started 9th)
99b – Blake Mallory (started 13th)
9tx – Brad Wesp (started 12th)
2h – Tommy Hall (started 17th)
02 – Cody Freeman (started 4th)
20 – Chad Wilson (started 17th)
118 – Scott Evans (started 3rd)
74 – DJ Estes (started 8th)
23 – Junior Jenkins (started 5th)
41m – Steve McMackin (started 14th)
72 – Daniel Estes (started 18th)
55 – Brad Queen (DNS)
Again, next up is a big $2,000 to win and $300 to start SCB
series event on Saturday June 22nd at 105 Speedway near
Cleveland Texas, we hope to see you all there! In the
meantime, click www.SprintCarBandits.com for the latest in
Series news!