Monadnock Speedway owner Larry Cirillo isn’t quite sure what types of changes fans will see on the schedule for his track next season.
But there is one thing Cirillo said he’s sure fans will not see at the Winchester, N.H. facility in 2017.
Cirillo confirmed to RaceDayCT Thursday that his track will not bring the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour back in 2017.
Monadnock Speedway has hosted the Whelen Modified for one date each year since 2010. The series returned to track in 2010 after a 20-year hiatus.
Cirillo said he has already informed NASCAR that he will not host an event for the series next season. It was announced Wednesday that the Whelen Modified Tour and Whelen Southern Modified Tour will merge for the 2017 season.
Cirillo said he’s not happy with the direction the Whelen Modified Tour is headed.
“The Whelen [Modified] Tour is in serious trouble,” Cirillo said. “… They’re planning on taking the North to the South. That’s not going to work. And they’re going to try to make the guys from the South to the North and that’s not going to work. Those are Saturday night racers down there. Those aren’t people that can take three days off from work.”
In addition to hosting the Whelen Modified tour in 2016, Cirillo had three Valenti Modified Racing Series events on his 2016 schedule. His track also hosted the Winchester 200 in May. That $15,000 to win event was sanctioned by the Modified Touring Series, the brainchild of promoter Gary Knight.
Cirillo said rumors that his track will not host Valenti Modified Racing Series events in 2017 are only rumors at this point. He said he has not spoken with Valenti Modified Racing Series founder and president Jack Bateman about next year.
“My plans aren’t cleared up yet,” Cirillo said. They are still in the works. All things are still in the works. Nothing is solid and I can’t really give any information because I don’t really have any. … There’s a lot of rumors out there. There’s a lot of stuff that’s probably going to happen.”
Well that stinks. I supported all those tour events at Monadnock. Great track for modifieds. That’s really too bad. Fans always packed the place. Hopefully we will see the tour return there in the near future. Prime race date right there though. Seekonk would be wise to jump on it if they decided September wasn’t ideal for them.
Drip…..drip…….drip……..drip……..
The tour is a complete waste of money for car owners.the mod tour should revamp its efforts into something else.sk mods are really the way to go today.the mod tour will not last another two years. Even track owners are disappointed with car counts and fan base…..drivers are dropping out, all rich kids run up front and the 20 or so cars are there to fill the field…yes there a lot faster than sk mods but so what! Each sk race their is at least 15 different drivers that can win on any given nite…
Bob, the same thing will happen with the Sk cars if they were to become the tour. The problem is Nascar drives up costs until things are unmanageable and then they shut it down.
Seekonk??? I wouldn’t be surprised to see other tracks fall by the wayside (Seekonk & Waterford being two of them).
For those who think everything is all unicorns & blue skies on the tour, continue to keep your head in the sand. The chances that there is still a NASCAR Modified series in four years is pretty small.
Interesting about the rumors of no MRS at Monadnock in 2017. I wonder what Larry has up his sleeve for special events – monthly GSPSS races?
Lord help us if that is the case.
Please Mr. Cirillo, continue with some kind of tour type modified events, VMRS, TTOMS,and or MTS. It takes me usually 2.5 -3 hours to get to your track, and 2 hours to get home. Why? Because it’s well worth the trip! It’s a very racy track and every event I’ve been to has been very enjoyable. The weekly racers have some very competitive races as well.
Why did the ’80s have to end?
That rack is a low life place
No wine or cheese
Im to rich to go there
DAM !!! That was my favorite track on the tour.LOVE that little bullring !! Hope VMRS & MTS return in 2017
Lets see NASCAR mod tour postponed by nonexistent rain to Sunday in 100 degree heat, Tri track rainout with no reschedule and a complete crap show with no turnout from the other “tour”. Guy took a major boning from pretty much all directions this past season. Maybe sick of supporting mods?
Larry Cirillo is the real loser in this ordeal. Good riddance, Larry. You won’t be missed.
Like Bob, I prefer SK these days… Far better racing from a spectator standpoint.
An SK tour would still stick to the SK formula, cost-wise, and the same car could still run any of the SK events. I driver could choose to try to make a tour show at his or her home track(s) without actually joining the tour.
Waterford already took the summer Date from Monadnock.
I also hope to see the WMT back at Monadnock some day, but that will never happen under the Larry watch.
Larry is to much of a tight ass to up a descent purse for any Modified Tour let alone the WMT.
With all WMT races now paying a minimum purse of over $70,000 is the real reason Monadnock is out.
Larry can spin it anyway he likes, but MONEY is the real reason the WMT will not be back.
Larry is to cheap. That’s the truth.
If tracks are going to survive, I believe more should be looking at their bottom line and not be scheduling events that eat into their profit margins. In the end, the “prestige” is just not worth it.
Now is as good a time as any for car owners and tracks who support the tour to revolt against NASCAR and do there own thing. I am sure tour type mods could thrive under the right leadership. The cost is nuts even with the SK’s. The north south combined tour will not work. Maybe for the very wealthy but not most. Time for a modified revolution! The next few months should be interesting for sure!
So he should just loose money and be happy about it? Running a racetrack is a business. The key to running a business is to offer a product or service that is in demand and at the end of the day make a profit on it.
I race weekly at Monadnock and love watching the WMT there. It’s nice watching them perform on a short track that they don’t have a billion laps on like at Stafford, Thompson or even Riverhead and Waterford for some… With that being said I am definitely not going to miss everyone getting all uptight just because the WMT is in town. The track has to get all worried about stepping on the Tours toes when they are here, you would think we were sharing the track with cup cars. That’s just me seeing it as a competitor, I can’t imagine the nonsense that Larry has to put up with. I doubt he is losing any sleep over not having the Tour come in. He is the one who cancelled it… not NASCAR
If Monadnock was losing money on the WMT he would have stopped having them yrs ago. Outside of this year, he was packing the place at $30 a head. Smallest purse on tour. Selling out of concessions on more than one occassion. Larry did just fine. I’m sad to see them go but we move on to bigger and better. If Waterford jumped on the date as mentioned then that is a positive already.
For all the ” tour is dead” folks, where are they going? They had 12 yrs to jump to the VMRS. Never happened. VMRS is on life support more than anybody else now. Tri Track is a cute series that is funded by fans and local sponsors. Neither has a point fund that touches NASCAR though. Only a few races there too. There are no weekly tour type divisions outside of Riverhead NY. A majority of the tour is based out of NY now. So one or two trips to Virginia won’t involve the travel people think. It is a tour by the way. That’s what tours do. People complained when the tour never left New England a few seasons ago. Can’t have it both ways.
Oswego is a hellava lot closer to Long Guyland than Virginny. Best you could do was scare up 22 teams
for that. A non-NASCAR track with deep pockets but will they be back in 17′? Holland, Spencer, Lake Erie
Chemung and Adirondack are all former Tour stops in NY State. ( not LE) Something is wrong here.
A high priced crate class they want? Well..have fun with that. Mark will you be attending the 5th addition of TTOMS at Waterford with their “cute” little 45 count entry list?
For all you people on here that think the tour is so good why don’t you go out and get your selfs a car and try it ? You people on here ( most of you not all ) have no clue about running a racetrack , car , or ownership of one . And if you actually think that this thing called the WMT is good you have never seen the real tour when we actually went to different tracks and had real race competition with more than 5 teams that could win . The greatness of the WMT is so long gone what you have now is a total discrace to what it was. Dig a hole and bury it with its spec motor and all !
Rite on 100%
Good Riddance to a POS race. VMRS, TriTrack, and even the legitimacy-suspect MTS had far better races than any WMT show has ever produced.
And Mark, you must have a financial interest in the WMT for you to continue, post after post after post, to promote this farce as any form of a true racing competition. Or you’re just a fool.
And right on “-100%”.
I am merely a race fan, not going to make any comments i have no concrete knowlegde of. But this does not surprise me at all ,manadknock is is just the latest of many to drop the tour,and there will no doubt be more to come. There are so many issues with this series there is no simple fix it will take a serious group effort to not only come up with ides but to actualy see them threw and it just will not happen. Why?? Simple its all about money,everyone wants it yet no one wants to spend it. Every year the cost to race these cars gets higher and higher thus teams shut down and say see ya. Ticket prices go up and the race quality goes down thus fans stop going and say see ya. The only way and i mean the only way to even attempt to bring this dying series back is for nascar to somehow creat an affordale package,this includes the required investment for a track to even get a race(wont happen) tracks have to make the payouts alot closer the realistic costs,and seeing as the actual cost of tires,fuel race parts etc…are pretty much out of there control it falls on tracks and sponsors to step up and pay these guys to bring the 100K plus race cars to the track(wont happen) Every one wants the cake yet no one wants to pay for the frosting. Another problem is too many modified touring series,while its nice that there are people that support modifieds but each series takes away from the other so all you get teams bouncing around. The big sk race at stafford payed out more to the winner than most wmt races maybe even all of them not possitive but darn close…that is just sad. There are many tracks in the north east so just go take a look at the schedule and remove the big 3 stafford,thompson and new hampshire and then look at what you have for a schedule. if not for those 3 tracks alone this series would have been long gone by now. FACT not opinion. Personaly i would not shed a tear if all the touring series go bye bye and we go back old school modifieds on a weekly basis regular division saturday night racing. no ridiculous pit and ticket prices,teams dont have to buy 12 flipping tires a race fuel for al the long distance races. Practice,heats,handicap and race to the front. Who cares about a 150 lap race really? More times than none all you get is 130 laps of pillow time with 1 or 2 cars dominating leaving you praying for that late race caution to give it a chance of being worth watching…….JMO
Larry is making the right choice here nobody wants to watch the WMT at Monadnock the locals like green flag laps and people who pass this is not the Whelen tour! I have been a critic of the speedway from time to time as I’ve been a big critic of the way Bateman runs the MRS. I’ve paid good money to watch racing all over the Northeast and there is 2 tracks i’ve been to that I’ve never left feeling like I didn’t get my moneys worth Oxford and Monadnock. So i’m going to use this forum to give credit to Larry and Monadnock Speedway for trying to put out race programs that the fans want to see If he has non whelen tour types there every week we will come. Get Bateman out of there and more will come! Here is a fact RACING is not cheap it isn’t cheap for the fans it isn’t cheap for the drivers the crews or the car owners so I doubt it’s all roses for Larry either but the fans are getting a good show and he if nothing else delivers on what he is selling! Say what you want say it’s the drivers that make the show or the track is good for mod racing but at the end of the day he is the owner and his name is all over it! Larry’s track puts on a better race than Thompson, Stafford and New Hampshire think about that all that money all those brand new race cars at all those over hyped race tracks and what do you get for your 40-50 bucks a million bucks worth of metal following each other around unless TC is in the show then he tries to pass. NO Thanks I’d rather watch people actually race!