Valenti Modified Racing Series founder and owner Jack Bateman has had 10 years of success in creating a touring Modified racing division to rival NASCAR’s Whelen Modified Tour.
Granite State Pro Series 2013 champion Mike O’Sullivan in victory lane earlier this year at Hudson Speedway (Photo: Granite State Pro Stock Series)
But even Bateman knew, two touring Pro Stock divisions chasing the same pool of drivers and same tracks to compete at wasn’t going to work for either side.
And that was went into Bateman’s decision Sunday to sell the Granite State Pro Stock Series to the man who has overseen it the last two years, Mike Parks.
The Granite State Pro Stock Series recently completed its second season. It was a division envisioned by late Valenti Modified Racing Series race director John Hoyt and Parks.
Bateman said he met with Parks Monday and agree to sell him the series for $1. Parks is expected to take ownership of the series in January.
“Basically, I felt it was in the best interest of the Pro Stock guys for me step aside and hand it over to Mike,” Bateman said. “I’ve got enough on my plate. I didn’t want to argue. I’ll keep the tire program with the series and he’s going to own the series. I think that will work better for everybody. I didn’t want to see the thing split up.
“If you split them up and half go one way and half go another they’re both going to fail. It was in the best interest of Pro Stock racing to do this.”
Parks announced Sunday evening that he and Bateman had reached and agreement. It marked the conclusion of a contentious weekend between the two sides.
On Friday Bateman said a disagreement that stemmed from issues that arose at the season ending event at Thompson Speedway the weekend of Oct 18-20 led him to break his ties with Parks. Bateman said he told Parks last week that the two should go their separate ways.
Also on Friday, Parks put out a confusing press release stating essentially that he was taking over control of the Granite State Pro Stock Series. Later in the day Parks revealed that he was actually ready to start a new series called the New England Super Late Model Series.
Bateman said Monday he will serve as a consultant to Parks.
“The car owners and drivers are the most important part of the equation and here and they were the ones that were going to suffer if we split this up,” Bateman said. “I told Mike I will serves as a consultant. It’s a good thing what we’re doing, it’s a good thing for Pro Stock racing.”
Someone needs to be a media consultant for Parks, because clearly he has put his foot in his mouth too often doing his own releases.
Regardless of who said what, the end result is best for the teams. Jack is correct in saying 2 series wouldn’t work.
There are still two series – PASS and this start-up series.