(Press Release from NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications)
What was old has become new again as the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour 2016 schedules have been revealed.
Upstate New York’s Oswego Speedway and Massachusetts’ Seekonk Speedway have returned to the Whelen Modified Tour schedule for the coming season, reuniting the northeast-based circuit with two venues that have played an integral part of the tour’s history. Likewise, North Carolina speedplant Concord Speedway has also rejoined the Whelen Southern Modified Tour calendar for next year while East Carolina Motor Speedway is a newcomer to the southern circuit.
The 32nd season for the Whelen Modified Tour will feature nine different facilities and 17 championship races, the most for the tour since 2005. Here is a breakdown of the 2016 calendar:
- Connecticut’s Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park will once again hold the season opening and season closing events as well as two midseason races. Each of Stafford Motor Speedway’s four traditional dates also return to the famed Nutmeg State oval.
- The Whelen Modified Tour will remain a fixture on the racing card for both New Hampshire Motor Speedway NASCAR national series weekends.
- The Whelen Modified and Whelen Southern Modified Tours will return to Bristol Motor Speedway for the eighth edition of the annual combination event during the popular August NASCAR race week.
Long Island New York’s Riverhead Raceway once again will return with events while Monadnock Speedway and New London-Waterford Speedbowl will feature one race each. - The late spring run of consecutive Connecticut events at New London-Waterford, Stafford and Thompson returns for the second year, but is spaced out over the course of a month this time around.
- Oswego, a .625-mile oval near the shore of Lake Ontario, contested four Whelen Modified Tour races in both 1988 and 1989. Seekonk, bordering Rhode Island and its capital city Providence, held its first Whelen Modified Tour race in 1987. The .333-mile oval welcomed the tour back for five races between 2000 and 2005.
The 12th season of Whelen Southern Modified Tour competition will feature 11 points races at seven different southeastern tracks. Here’s how the 2016 schedule shakes out for the southern tour:
- North Carolina’s Caraway Speedway will once again play host to the season opener. The venerable oval will have three subsequent dates, one more than a year ago.
- A champion will once again be crowned at Charlotte Motor Speedway, marking the seventh consecutive year the tour has visited the frontstretch quarter-mile at the legendary North Carolina facility.
- Virginia’s South Boston Speedway will return with two events while famed Bowman Gray Stadium has its traditional summer showcase.
- Concord, a high-speed, half-mile tri-oval located in the heart of North Carolina’s NASCAR industry, held one previous Whelen Southern Modified Tour event in 2009.
- East Carolina’s high banks are set to play host to the first Whelen Southern Modified Tour event in its history. The D-shaped, .375-mile oval is located in Robersonville, North Carolina.
The All-Star Shootout will also return for a third season as part of the July NASCAR race weekend at New Hampshire. The non-points event features champions, race winners and Sunoco Rookies of the Year from both the Whelen Modified and Whelen Southern Modified Tours.
The 2015 Whelen Modified and Whelen Southern Modified Tour seasons concluded in mid-October with Doug Coby and Andy Seuss the respective titlists.
Next year’s NASCAR Pinty’s Series schedule was released earlier this week by NASCAR while the 2016 NASCAR K&N Pro Series calendars are nearing completion. The 2016 television broadcast schedules for each of NASCAR’s regional touring series will be announced at a later date.
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NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour 2016 Schedule
4/10: Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, Thompson, Conn.
4/24: Stafford Motor Speedway, Stafford, Conn.
5/14: New London-Waterford Speedbowl, Waterford, Conn.
6/3: Stafford Motor Speedway, Stafford, Conn.
6/15: Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, Thompson, Conn.
6/25: Riverhead Raceway, Riverhead, N.Y.
7/15: New Hampshire Motor Speedway (All-Star Shootout), Loudon, N.H.
7/16: New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, N.H.
7/23: Monadnock Speedway, Winchester, N.H.
8/5: Stafford Motor Speedway, Stafford, Conn.
8/10: Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, Thompson, Conn.
8/17: Bristol Motor Speedway (combination with NWSMT), Bristol, Tenn.
8/27: Riverhead Raceway, Riverhead, N.Y.
9/3: Oswego Speedway, Oswego, N.Y.
9/10: Seekonk Speedway, Seekonk, Mass.
9/24: New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, N.H.
10/2: Stafford Motor Speedway, Stafford, Conn.
10/16: Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, Thompson, Conn.
NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour 2016 Schedule
3/12: Caraway Speedway, Sophia, N.C.
3/19: Concord Speedway, Concord, N.C.
4/9: South Boston Speedway, South Boston, Va.
4/16: Caraway Speedway, Sophia, N.C.
7/1: Caraway Speedway, Sophia, N.C.
8/6: Bowman Gray Stadium, Winston-Salem, N.C.
8/17: Bristol Motor Speedway (combination with NWMT), Bristol, Tenn.
9/3: East Carolina Motor Speedway, Robersonville, N.C.
9/17: South Boston Speedway, South Boston, Va.
9/24: Caraway Speedway, Sophia, N.C.
10/6: Charlotte Motor Speedway (.25-mile), Concord, N.C.
Statement from East Carolina Motor Speedway owner Wayne M. Perry:
“East Carolina Speedway is proud to have the opportunity to host the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour for the first time. We really enjoy being a part of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series and this will be a great opportunity to bring a popular NASCAR Touring Series to our track for the fans. It’s going to be a great show.”
Statement from Concord Speedway race promoter Darren Hackett:
“We’re very happy to help get a race at Concord Speedway back on the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour schedule. We decided to take one of our races that we would have held at Caraway Speedway and move it there, and the competitors are excited to get to go back to an ultra-fast track.”
Statement from Oswego Speedway co-owner John Torresse:
“Budweiser International Classic Weekend is a staple event in open-wheel pavement racing and it should be treated as such. As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of this amazing racing weekend we felt the time was right to work together with NASCAR to bring back one of the traditions of this great weekend. A long distance, Saturday night special, featuring some of the best Modified drivers anywhere in the country – fighting for the distinguished right to be called a Classic champion at Oswego.”
Statement from Seekonk Speedway Director of Business Development Ed St Germain:
“Seekonk Speedway is excited to add another top flight open wheel race to its 2016 schedule. Our fans have spoken to us and we have listened. We strive to give our fans the best touring series and weekly racing that we can put on the track every Saturday night. We feel that the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour embodies the best of open wheel racing that the country has to offer. We look forward to seeing the top notch drivers of the NWMT test their skills on the 1/3 mile bull ring at Seekonk.”
the big question how much are they racing for ? tri-track already has three 10,000 to win races ….will nascar step up ….will they get rid of the rules and there people that drove so many of the top teams out of the sport or will it be back to 15 to 20 car fields ?
A very solid schedule. The most events in several years. Can’t wait for 2016!!
Now I will sit back and wait for Goodfella to tell us everything that is wrong with it.
HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN!!!!!!!!
Good schedule and glad to see Oswego in September. Now if we could just get Martinsville back instead of Bristol that would be a home run.
OMG NH Mark, Dareal has something positive to say. But wait is isn’t over yet!
Half the races are still at Thompson & Stafford. Anyone notice how many teams have already dropped off the series?
I think Goodfella broke into grandpa’s spiked eggnog. Thankfully, we have Andy to try and bring us all down.
Doesn’t matter who won’t be back.The tour is in good shape.We have valenti and tritrack,The new tour seems to be rounding out with American racer on board.A few more months and all the gripping will be on to something else.I wonder if Shawn has heard anything more than rumor that Ed Partridge sold the 6 to a local guy on Long Island.No Ryan and TS Haulers on the tour?
Let’s be glad the schedule did not get smaller. It’s the same as last year, with the addition of Seekonk and Oswego. The Tour still needs top quality teams, especially to replace the teams that have already announced they are done.
Re: 2016 WMT rules (from an article which included an interview with Jimmy Wilson) –
“Some teams were hoping that the practice of coil-binding would be either banned or altered to keep them from having to try and find more speed to win races, but it appears that at least for the foreseeable future, that will not be the case”.
So, it appears that coil-binding is legal???
Seekonk is certainly a positive .One of the best Mod tracks around. Oswego will be a yawner as that place is a one groove follow the leader freight train show. ( at least for Mods) The race being late season may help as Spring and Summer shows there su ck. Bristol plate race with the southern boys another snoozer
on tap? South Boston or Martinville would be better I think. Holland, Lake Erie, Adirondack, Spencer or even Lancaster ( I ask Santa every year for these but I keep getting coal instead). Oh well.
Looks like Rafter fan is catching up with a very old subject from a very different thread… or he got into grampa’s spiked egg nog. Jimmy Wilson needs to read the rule book or have someone explain it to him. And then have a mechanical engineer explain to him why it is very bad and dangerous when a spring goes solid.
But back on topic… There’s the NWMT, VMRS, ROC, TTOMS, and now another startup modified series.
It will be interesting to see what cars show up to what events. Can the modified fan base support another series and meaningfully support that series with decent attendance? There are plenty of cars that have been in mothballs… let’s see what happens this Spring.
Engine builders must be busy assembling all those SPEC motors.
I told you it isn’t over yet Mark, the eggnog hang over is kicking in. Now we are on the coil bind kick again, just hope someone doesn’t bring up carburetors. Stand by this may get interesting……….
humphry… you brought up carburetors. Many want to believe that the SPEC carburetor is used out-of-the-box, unmodified, untouched, as built by the manufacturer. Yeah, right. Numerous SPEC carbs were confiscated last year. And then the carburetors are colorized for no reason.
You can bet the farm that SPEC motor carburetors are getting worked over this winter. If you are going to run the SPEC motor, get the fancy new LFR or Troyer chassis, and lose a ton of money on those now worthless built motors… you are going to massage the SPEC motor carburetor. Massaging the carburetor is the easy way to get more horsepower. The SPEC motor and SPEC motor carburetor problem is all on NASCAR, they created it. They have let this continue out of control.
Should we be excited about Seekonk and Oswego? meh. I would prefer the Tour went up to Maine, and some other beloved tracks like Richmond. But the long distance tracks have to make it worthwhile. But at least the schedule did not contract. Let’s hope that more competitive cars can afford to run the full schedule. Hopefully NASCAR talked to the owners before they added the new dates to see if the owners were up for two more dates that won’t have Loudon type purses. Adding two more races is just two more races for the owners to lose more money. First place at these two new events will barely cover the cost to run the event.
Any NWMT news should be all about what NASCAR is doing to promote the modified class and get more big corporate sponsors, local corporate sponsors, associate the mod tour with the Cup, Xfinity and trucks to get exposure and visibility, and their sponsorship, all to get more people in the stands and purses that pay to get more cars in the event. The NWMT needs exposure to get more people in the stands. People can’t get to the Cup, Xfinity and Truck events, but they can get to the local, weekly and regional racing, and that is where the Modifieds, from weekly to touring, come in.
No egg nog problem here, I’m just trying to understand if coil-binding is legal, or not. I didn’t want to take to time to find the older thread, and knew that all interested (and knowledgeable?) parties would see the post here.
Rafter, get the rule book online an read it. It’s in there. The. Rule. Book.
Rafter, please don’t try to match wits or knowledge with dareal when it comes to coil binding or carburetors, there is nothing he does not know about the subject or so he believes.
All this carburetor talk just means more votes for Melissa next year!
How does indoor TQ races attract 80 entries but mods only draw 25? Is it that much cheaper? Same drivers and owners, if u can’t afford to run all the tour races how can u afford another division?
Steve – Yes it IS that much cheaper. You can buy a championship caliber TQ for less than the cost of a Spec WMT motor. Probably with enough spares to build a second car as well.