The Modified Touring Series will host it’s inaugural event at Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H. on May 21, RaceDayCT has learned exclusively.
Gary Knight, founder of the Modified Touring Series, spoke exclusively to RaceDayCT Friday and confirmed that his management group will host a $15,000 to win Open Modified show at Monadnock that will include a showcase 200-green-flag-lap feature.
Knight had originally hoped to host up to four events in 2016 for the first year of the Modified Touring Series, but has decided to focus on coming out big with one major event.
“I’m putting all the chips on one race for this season that way I can show everybody that I can bring everybody together and we can do spectacular things and people can make money doing business with me,” Knight said. “That’s why I’m doing this instead of trying to do three or four little races here and there and having to work around the scheduling of everyone else.
“There’s no race out there that pays $15,000 to win and $7500 for second and keeps on going down the line and pays $1,000 to start with a $5,000 [purse] for a non-qualifiers race.”
Knight said the event will feature a $73,000 purse overall.
The event will feature a one-day format and heat races will be used for qualifying and to set the starting field.
Race organizers are urging drivers and teams interested in participating in the event to contact Knight and the Modified Tour Series and file entry forms early. Print a pre-race entry form from here.
Well, I give Knight credit – he’s got not much to work with schedule wis and he’s doing it in the VMRS’ back yard.
And it’s early in the season too .I would be this race draws more than 75 cars if the weather is favorable.
Very interesting. Not gonna get more than 40 cars JR, let alone 75. 15k to win is a statement, but I think some competitors will want to see how the inaugural event plays out. Same thing happened with the Tri-Track series- only got car counts in the 30s in NH those first couple years. Now they’ve grown to that massive 53 car entry list. And even then- it’s a haul to NH, I bet they’ll get 45 for their race up there.
Wow! This is pretty big money, even of these days.
This should draw many cars, and top teams.
Just think how great this would be if all the 4 series could get together, agree on rules and pool the money together. You wouldn’t just have 75 cars for One race you’d have 75 cars for every race paying 20 to 30 grand to win if not more.
Where is the money coming from? Better show teams that the money is ready for payout. Modified history is littered with first time promoters who didn’t pay up. That will be the biggest challenge I think.
When is the last time anyone paid $1,000.00 to start! This is real good stuff for the tour type mods with the money they should be racing for. Now the question becomes how many cars will take the green with a purse like this? My guess 24 especially with a non qualifier’s race that pays half way decent.
wonder if Tommy Barret has this penciled in? Has anyone offered Steffanik a ride? If Donald Trump couyld stop TC from showing up? Best of Luck MTS!!
$1,000 to start, well you wouldn’t have to look too far. Several of the past Tri-Track Series races offered that and two of this season’s races are offering that. Both the race at Star Speedway and the August race at the Waterford/NewLondon Speedbowl are $1,000 to start races. The average purse of the 5 Tri-Track Races is $55,000 which I find quite impressive and they do have 53 enteries!!
Thanks for enlightening me on that Sparky however, 55k is not 73k and isn’t the tri-track only 5k to win for 100 laps? We are talking triple that for 200 laps.
I liked the Beamers Big Show last year and their format. Potential for $8,500 if you won the qualifier and the feature; total of 100 laps. Plus if I remember correctly you could only go with 1 new tire from the qualifier to the feature.
Anyway this is a real shot in the arm for the tour type cars!
For perspective…
Richie Evans was interviewed at an Open Race, and was asked why he showed up to run open events. His answer was, “$15,000”. That was clearly a very long time ago.
Should be a spectacular failure (if it happens at all).
Given Knight’s track record (he wasn’t very successful bringing the tour type mods back to Claremont in 2015), I wouldn’t hold my breath on this event, after all, his original “grand plan” was to start a tour in 2016 (to fill what niche, I have no idea).
One race does not a tour make.
Short track racing needs less boneheads like this, not more.
Surrrrrrrre they are. Where is this “management group” coming up with $73 K? And only racedayct hears about it. It is not even on the speedway site. Where is the official announcement? Shawn, you have a great, informative, and usefull website here. But, be careful about these BS stories. You might want to find out a little bit about the principal in this case. Talk to some NH people.
That sure is a lot of money to come up with. How much will a ticket cost to offset that purse?
A lot of promotion will need to happen to pull this off. I hope Mr Knight has deep pockets to offset the almost certain loss from this endeavor.
To support that purse, there MUST be:
1. Massive sponsorship
2. Ticket sales like never before
TriTrack pulls in pretty good car counts with the decent purses they come up with. But that is a “publicly” funded series with all the lap sales and other creative means they do to raise the purse money.
MTS has made the splash, now it has to deliver. And that is a huge purse it has to come up with.
If NASCAR would get their heads out of there butts this stuff would not be necessary.
First of all a big event like this should be held when no other track is running in the northeast. Right off the bat TC and Rocco won’t be there. Why not have it mid week like Seekonk. Or a Sunday afternoon. I would think about taking the trip up on a Sunday.
Not a lot of seats at Monadnock. For $73k, either ticket prices will need to be through the roof, or Knight (or someone else) will be taking a huge bath.
Wow, we all complain about NASCAR and lack of care for MODS, we all complain about Bateman and his rules changes and DQ’S, we all WANT BIG PAYING MOD RACES, we have TRI TRACK which has done good job even being kinda ignored BY NASCAR TEAMS, now we have this guy, yes MAD DOG SMALL AND PURSE BIG, lets just see what happens!!!
wmass01013, that is a huge purse for this event. The stands are not big enough at MAD DOG to support all the seats that must be filled with high priced tickets to cover that purse. I doubt there will be many corporate sponsors willing to shell out big bucks to advertise at a track that has so few seats and hence so little exposure. MTS should have chosen Thompson to do this, and made it happen at Thompson. Thompson is THE track for modified racing. MAD DOG is off-off-off-broadway. With the kind of money being talked about, the MTS appears to be aiming for a top shelf image, and to do that, they need to run at the core modified tracks to attract the top teams, the top teams will attract the fans.
The WMT tour tickets at Monadnock are $30. I would expect the general admission ticket to be less than that for this, if it happens. The MTS has over promised and under delivered at every point thus far. I don’t think its unfair for anyone to question whether or not this can be pulled off. I’m more apt to sit home and wait to hear how it goes to be honest. I got a Tri Track event three short weeks later at Monadnock so I can get my Mad Dog fix then. Plus the WMT event in July of course.
DAREAL I agree with your points completely, BUT you know the prices that THOMPSON charges to attend WMT events that any attempt by someone to RENT OR PARTNER for an event would be HUGE PRICES to get in and Stafford is very picky on what they let happen at their place, MAD DOG is willing to allow the race to happen then so be it, I have many doubts about it but am willing to see what happens!
Why would you want an event like this at Thompson or Stafford? The only teams that would benefit are the guys with the NASCAR spec engines never mind the gate price. The perfect place for a race like this is a short track, Monadnock, Lee, Star, Seekonk or Waterford. The 23’s either steel or aluminum head, 18 degree’s and heck even a good strong SK with a 4 barrel can be competitive. Rather than limiting the car count lets fill the pits and make it interesting and a bull ring is the perfect venue.
Rather than picking on this guy for what he is trying to do lets give him a chance to prove what he can do.
Why have this race at Thompson? Because that is one of the few tracks in the Northeast that can draw enough fans and cars to pay off a $73,000 purse.
There is a reason why 3000 seat race tracks don’t have big purse races like that.
Think of it this way, Gary Knight has never promoted a race in his life, while Larry Cirillo has a few decades under his belt. If this is such a bright idea for Monadnock, don’t you think Larry would have tried it himself by now?
Monadnock puts on a heck of a modified show. I was there when the Whelen Mods went 200 laps non stop all green. Cars were sliding all over. It was intense. They seat a little over 3,000, so if weather is on their side, 3,000 times the $30 grandstand price is gonna make it tight, but do-able. Maybe, just maybe Larry is trying to be the good guy here and make a statement with a whale of a show. Back gate will pay for support divisions, and Larry still has the food concessions.
Personally, I applaud the effort. I’m gladly handing over my hard earned money to watch this, hope 2,999 more feel just the way I do.