Modified Touring Series Organizers Announce Unique Championship Format

Editor’s Note: Four days after announcing their championship format, MTS organizers announced a restructuring of the plan. Check below for more details.

STAFFORD – When the Exit Realty Modified Touring Series hits the track in 2017 for its inaugural season drivers will be competing for a series title in a unique format for a Modified division.

During an informational meeting Saturday at Stafford Motor Speedway, Modified Touring Series officials announced their Sunoco Race Fuels Quest for the Cup championship format.

The series will run ten events during its inaugural season, including two at Stafford Motor Speedway.

The format will see a system where 12 drivers will advance to a Chase type system to decide the series champion.

The first five events will set the 12-teams that will advance to the four-race championship segment of the season. Drivers must compete in the first six events of the season to qualify for championship contention.

The season points will be based on a system of one point per position with two bonus points awarded to race winners. A win in the first five events will advance a team automatically to the championship segment. After race winners, the remainder of the 12-team championship segment will be set by series points.

At race six the points for the 12 teams in the championship segment will be reset to 300 with bonus points for wins transferring only to race six.

There will be no eliminations following race six. After race seven the two teams lowest in the standings will be eliminated with the race winner guaranteed to advance. There will then be four eliminations after race eight with the race winner again guaranteed advancement. There will be one elimination after race nine.

Race 10 of the season will be a championship event with five teams racing for the title. Points will be zeroed out for the five teams and the series championship will be decided by running order in the final event.

“Nobody pays attention to points anymore,” series founder Gary Knight said. “Jon McKennedy won six races last year [on the Valenti Modfied Racing Series] and did anybody care that he was going to win the championship? Here, these guys, like a Mike Holdridge or a Joe Doucette, they were a 15th or 12th place car under that old system of points. Now they can win or transfer to a championship race. [McKennedy] could get knocked out with a bad night in race seven and be gone. Anybody now in their shop working on their car can say they actually have a chance to win the championship here.”

The series title will pay a guaranteed champion’s purse of $10,000. Knight said series officials are hoping to pay a point fund of $40,000 over the top-15 teams in the standings.

“It’s pretty neat,” said driver Chris Pasteryak, who has committed to running full-time with the series. “I think it’s cool. It’s something different anyway. The idea is to actually have something that’s worth watching the last three or four races. Nobody is doing it for a living at this level so the chance of you being able to put your best foot forward, even for 10 races, if you don’t have anybody on your car fulltime, nobody here is a fulltime racer, it could be pretty neat. It’s going to hopefully allow somebody different to have a really good year.

“I hope it’s neat. I hope it’s a lot of fun. The purse is good. The point fund is good. There’s actually a point fund there. … Hopefully it goes along. It’s a nice schedule, it’s a nice series and there’s some people that really want to see it succeed. Gary has a lot of enthusiasm and he seems to really be working for it.”

Check the link for the new plan announced on March 8: Quest for the Cup Revision

Comments

  1. I think this might be cool… It may keep up the car counts.

  2. I think not having points and just pay more money per event would be better, back in the day everyone went to the special shows seeking money not points. JMO

  3. ruin it like Nascrap has done.

  4. Crazy in NY says

    The NASCUP gimmicks at this level? Nobody cares about points gimmicks. They want good racing,
    Who wins is who wins. How many people stayed home from races last year because McKennedy had
    some kind of a points lead. The MTS is trying too hard I think.

  5. Well that was confusing as hell…

  6. It was 9 wins not 6. Already having a hard time with numbers

  7. MTS doesn’t even know how many cars they will have yet. I bet a lot of guys are just running the CT events or just running select events. This is same issue with Tri Track. You set up good events that pay well and then you drive all this points nonsense down our throats. Nobody cares about gimmicks. Just put the money into each individual race. It’s funny how all these series talk about doing things the old way but end up running it just like NASCAR. Thumbs down on this idea.
    Meanwhile, the WMT has seen a rebirth this winter. Popularity is back on the rise. Cars are looking outstanding. Rumors of very high car counts on the 18th.

  8. Tyler Bonenfant says

    I don’t have high hopes for this, but we’ll see how it goes I guess. I await their visit to Seekonk Speedway.

  9. just wondering says

    Confusing, well that sure is the understatement of the year. After all the push back in print and online regarding NASCAR’s latest points scheme unveiled for 2017, I am surprised that anyone would try to come up with a more confusing system but congrats to the MTS for doing just that. What was wrong with the old points systems where consistency and race wins decided who gets the championship and lions share of the “hoping for” $40,000 points fund.

  10. Wonder how many teams are committed to all 10 races? I don’t see a roster posted of who pre paid the member fee. 1st race is coming up and if only 20 cars show, only those 20 cars will be eligible for this chase format. Of those 20 cars how many are going to make it to all events like Riverhead maybe 5-10. Seems to me it will not be the points battle they will hope it to be.

  11. Definitely different. Big incentive to win as it guarantees you into the next round however, I think like Steve said, pig purses draw cars. Let’s see what happens as it is still less expensive than running the WMT!

  12. Just an owner says

    As an owner, why would I want to commit to the entire series knowing I could be knocked out by a back runner just because he hit it right once in his lifetime. I love the underdog story but one bad day for me destroys my season and one good day for them give them a bucket of money. No thanks, I’ll stick to racing for big purses and consistency.

  13. This is an attempt to get the teams to run the full series.I predict it will not work.Put the best purse possible for each race and be done with it.The way to get a big New England turnout at Riverhead is to “show them the money”.That is a formula that will work for every event.The business plan shouldn’t be to make it harder for McKennedy and easier for someone else.Modified fans come out for big car counts and good racing not convoluted points chases.

  14. Liz Cherokee says

    Will there be a Most Popular Driver Award? Maybe that will be competitive if, and only if, Melissa chooses not to run this series…

  15. Richie O says

    As a follower of modifieds for over 45 years I agree with pay a great purse along with fair rules , good officiating and the cars and fans will come. No need for points gimics and NASCAR style foolish Chase formats that the average fans could care less about. Just “Show Me The Money.”

  16. Most popular driver award should be the only bonus paid out. It would have to be nightly voting using a program ballot that is attached to a a 50/50 raffle.

  17. Rebirth for the WMT in 2017, don’t see that. The only reason for the high car count at Myrtle Beach is the southern teams will be out in force since it is in their back yard just like Bristol. Let’s see what happens at the Ice Breaker, Sizzler and the rest of the season!

  18. Andrew B. says

    I can’t believe they’re mentioning how a team that wins half of the races can get eliminated from winning the championship due to one bad result….as if that’s a GOOD thing!

    They are bringing the WORST ideas from Brian France down to the Modified world. Bad move, IMO.

  19. What the hell has happened to Modified Racing.

  20. Stupid… just like Nascar at least they saved me 45 years of fandom before they ruined it.

  21. This is totally insane. Doesn’t anyone see the empty seats at NASCAR events on TV. Put up a big purse at EVERY event. Make it worthwhile to travel to an event. Pay a nice amount to start the main. If you are luck enough to have an extra large turnout of cars, go back to the old days. A “B” Main event for non qualified cars, and give the winner of that event an option. Take the money or start last in the “A” main and take your chances. If teams know they will go home with “something”, I think tehy will turn out.

  22. Agree with ken . This is grassroots racing anybody that goes through the trouble to bring a car to the track deserves a chance to race . Forget what nascar does there point system sucks . All this does is to keep race fans home on race day . Your still trying to build this race series and now your taken a step backwards . This series could be on borrowed time…… Listen to the fans we are the ones that you have to cater to not car owners or nascar ………

  23. You want people in the seats and cars counts on the track its as easy this. How about you track owners raise the purse – well you cant do that cause your GREEDY and you want every dime you can make even on tires and gas etc. YOU ALL SHOULD TAKE A LOOK AT LEBANON VALLEY YOU MIGHT LEARN SOMETHING. If one of the local tracks paid $3000 to win every week in the modified division the other tracks would be in trouble.

  24. i don’t see any racing series with there roster up

  25. D. Trickle says

    Modified racing all together should separate from the NASCAR series. NASCAR has to paint seats different colors to make people think there are people showing up. It’s pathetic

  26. And after all the comments MTS changed the format again today. Take two! Another ham and egg operation.

  27. Crazy in NY says

    A little harsh Mark don’t you think? Could you at least let them fail first before condemning them?
    I think it’s a positive that they (MTS) are being responsive to not only the drivers/owners but also the fans. Nice for a change don’t you think?. I don’t necessarily like every thing with this chase format
    but I’m willing to see how it goes anyway. How about the idea of having the five finalist in the last race start tail and actually have to race their way to the title?. That idea is coming from Jon McKennedy and I know Gary is considering it. You think Doug Coby would suggest such a thing?
    Give them a chance at least.

  28. I’m all for them taking suggestions and talking to teams. Just do it before the press release. They’ve had about nine months to draw this up. They basically just copied NASCAR here so I’m not sure how much work was really done here beforehand. Then they got killed on social media and had to retract the concept 24hrs later. I’m not giving credit for the hot mess they created. No way.

  29. Fast Eddie says

    Version two sounds easier and simpler than the original. I think Mr. Knight is trying to build some quality competition for all the events. If you want the points fund $$, you have to run the first five races. After that, the top 12 (about half the field for most events) will be almost guaranteed to be at the next four events. The final event will be a little “racing roulette” to see who gets the top end of the points $$. I would think that would help solidify the quality of the competition for all of the races. It may not be a conventional points system, but the format sounds pretty interesting to me.

  30. I just don’t understand this decision. I could go on and on but seriously, most short track enthusiasts don’t like the chase type points system. Series promoters might have this point system figured out in their head but I had a migraine trying to break down their explanation handout at the car show this weekend. How are your announcers going to connect this to the people in the grandstands during an event? Id like to support a new, youthful series but this is what you come up with?

  31. darealgoodfella says

    Points racing sucks. Put all the money up at each race, forget championship points funds, let each race be an all out battle for the win.

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