(Press Release from American-Canadian Tour)
Bonus Awards Offered for Sunoco Mods that Run with Outlaw Open Modifieds
American-Canadian Tour (ACT) and Pro All Stars Series (PASS) officials announced today that they have made the difficult decision to remove the standalone Sunoco Modified feature from the July 7 program at Connecticut’s Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park. The decision is the result of an SK Modified® tire shortage, which has left an extremely limited number of tires available for teams in the region.
Instead of a separate feature, Sunoco Modified drivers now have the option to compete in the Samuel Adams Wicked Hazy IPA Spirit of 76 for the Outlaw Open Modified Series. ACT and PASS are offering bonus awards to the top-five finishers in the $5,000-to-win main event who are running a legal Sunoco Modified car. These cars can use any carburetor when running with the Outlaw Open Modifieds.
The top Sunoco Modified finisher will receive a $400 bonus in addition to the regular purse, which includes a guaranteed $600 to start. There is also a $300 bonus for the second-highest SK Modified finisher, $200 for the third-highest SK Modified, and $100 each for the fourth- and fifth-highest finishers. Sunoco Modified points will not be awarded since several drivers in the division were already planning to compete using separate Tour-type Modified cars.
The nationwide tire shortage has already caused several other tracks in the region to alter their schedules, including New York’s Riverhead Raceway and Massachusetts’ Seekonk Speedway. With Thompson Speedway not racing weekly, officials determined that leaving the Sunoco Modified feature off the upcoming program — although disappointing to teams and fans — would be in the division’s best interests. SK Modified competitors at Stafford Motor Speedway and New London-Waterford Speedbowl can now use the tires that would have been used at Thompson, reducing the impact of the shortage on their weekly programs.
The next shipment of SK Modified tires for Northeast teams is expected to arrive in August. The Sunoco Modifieds will return to the Thompson schedule as soon as the tire situation is resolved.
“We hope to see Sunoco Modified teams run with the Outlaw Open Modifieds on July 7 and take advantage of the bonuses offered,” ACT managing partner Cris Michaud said. “We think it’s the best temporary solution we can offer until the tire situation is sorted out. As soon as the tire shortage is resolved, the Sunoco Mods will be back on the regular card. We’d also love to put on some sort of special event for the Sunoco Modifieds and their fans as a thank-you.”
“It’s a tough situation,” Michaud went on. “The Sunoco Modifieds have put on a fantastic show in their two events this year. Removing their feature from the July 7 schedule certainly was not something we did lightly or that we wanted to do at all. However, there simply are not enough SK Modified tires to go around right now. We think leaving the remaining tires for the tracks that race these cars weekly is best for the division overall.”
In other news, ACT and PASS officials announced on Tuesday that the Mini Stocks have returned to the July 7 program. Teams got together independently and were able to find enough commitments to promise a solid field, which led to them getting back on the schedule.
This keeps the program at a six-division card highlighted by the Samuel Adams Wicked Hazy IPA Spirit of 76. NASCAR’s Ryan Preece, June 16 Open Modified winner Keith Rocco, Matt Swanson, Jon McKennedy, Dave Sapienza, and Chris Pasteryak are just some of the racers confirmed for the $5,000-to-win event. It’s the third of six Open Modified events this year at Thompson, which culminates with the $20,000-to-win Thompson 300 on October 9-10 as part of the World Series of Speedway Racing.
The Thompson Speedway oval thunders again on Wednesday, July 7 at 6:00pm with the Sam Adams Wicked Hazy IPA Spirit of 76. The Outlaw Open Modified Series chase a $5,000 top prize as part of a six-division program with the Late Models, Vandi Auto Supply Limited Sportsmen, SK Light Modifieds, Mini Stocks, and a $1,000-to-win Street Stock Open.
General admission is $30 for adults, $10 for kids ages 6-12, and free for kids ages 5 and under. and under. Speed51.TV will also have a live pay-per-view broadcast for those who can’t make it to the track. Sign up at www.speed51.tv/products/ppv-outlaw-open-modified-series-at-thompson.
For more information about the American-Canadian Tour, contact the ACT offices at (802) 244-6963, [email protected], or visit www.acttour.com. You can also get updates on Facebook and Twitter at @ACTTour.
For technical information concerning all PASS divisions, and for media or marketing questions, please contact [email protected] or visit www.proallstarsseries.com. Don’t forget to “Like” the Pro All Stars Series on Facebook or follow on Twitter @PASSSLM14 to keep up with breaking news as it happens.
For general Thompson Speedway inquiries, call (860) 923-2280, email [email protected], or visit www.thompsonspeedway.com. You can follow Thompson Speedway on Facebook and Instagram at @ThompsonSpeedway or on Twitter at @ThompsonSpdwy.
To be clear… the COVID-19 pandemic 😷 is causing this tire shortage.
For those of you that still believe the COVID-19 pandemic 😷 is a hoax.
Boo.. It would have been nice gesture to drop the price a few bucks for the fans considering the SK’s are a big attraction of Thompson’s weekly program. Bring back the mini’s, doesnt really do anything for me. They are much better on smaller tracks in my opinion. Has Stafford started limiting tires for weekly competition. Limit new tire purchases to 1 per week. Perhaps allow another manufacturer in if the current provider cant provide enough tires. Most contracts have a standard non performance termination clause if they cant provide the product in a timely manner. I know it isnt their fault as a lot of the dirt track cars are running into a similar problem. Stinks to lose the second best division on the card though. Also we lost a good portion of the season last year. Now this year, we may lose some racing to a tire shortage. Racers and tracks cant catch a break. Have they started raising tire prices yet citing the shortage?
To be clear… the government response to COVID is responsible for this tire shortage. Between shutting down links in the supply chain for most of last year, to enhanced unemployment benefits that (still) make it more lucrative to sit home and collect rather than work, the blame lies solely at the feet of government, nowhere else.
Make everyone run on used tires. it CAN be done, and is proven effective.
I don’t know about you, but i sure could go for 1/4 priced lumber, 1/2 price gas, low crime rates, a Hoosier Tire surplus and a nasty tweet right now!
“Has Stafford started limiting tires for weekly competition. Limit new tire purchases to 1 per week.”
For SKL, I’ve heard one new tire every other week and the left side compound has changed. No word on other divisions.
I’m sure the us government staged a blockage of the Suez Canal to disrupt shipping certain raw materials from and to southeast Asia, and subjected vast areas of natural rubber forests five years ago to prevent planting of replacement crop, caused the issues with Enbridge #5 line across straights of Michigan to disrupt flow of particular crude products used for certain synthetic elastomers plastics and nylon, forced a global surge in original equipment and aftermarket tires over the last few years, made auto manufacturers put larger diameter wheels and tires on vehicles to consume more base materials, made producers of wound wire cable for bead and belt production go international, and of course the government forced Continental to take over Hoosier, and Goodyear to buy Cooper which produces Avon and MT tires provides components for rubber consumer manufacturers and provides speciality tires of America with support. Yes, the US government did all this just to shutdown SK type modifieds at Thompson next week.
Get used to shortages and high prices on these types of tires for years to come, they are at the bottom of the food chain as far as Conti and GDY are concerned. Covid effects on these really won’t hit till next year or the following as natural rubber stock dries up (disrupting replacement planting last year and this year) and race tires are redeveloped with even more synthetic content. And better stop wrecking race cars since steel prices are going up at a hyperbolic rate.
Wait till you see the price of liquid asphalt next year, it’ll make this year’s paving jobs look cheap.
Just a reminder… some 80% of the world population is still under some sort of COVID-19 safety protocol such as shelter in home, social distancing, essential services only, masks 😷, etc. That’s quite a few people, and certainly those that work the manufacturing facilities to make all the goods we like to consume.
Don’t take things for granted. It’s going to take a very long time to get the rest of the world population vaccinated and safe to return to an unencumbered work place. Like years. Especially since some world leaders of large populations seem to still refuse the pandemic exists and making like all those sick and dying people aren’t really happening, which just goes to spreading the disease and fueling mutations and variants. Or they are just despots that want to keep the economy going as much as they can regardless of how many millions of people die along the way.
To Be Clear like GP stated we should never have shut down anything and let millions die, we should not give any $$$ TO ANYONE UNLESS THEY are REPUBLICAN OR VERY RICH AND CAN HIDE all their $$$ OFFSHORE TO prevent paying any taxes, let allll hold a mask burning party and attack the Capitol again
It just never fails. Some issue comes up that significantly affects our lives and a contingent with a specific agenda interprets it all through the prism of their own myopic beliefs. No the tire shortage is not strictly pandemic related and no it is not a government conspiracy.
Luckily when misinformation is being bandied about there is an internet to research the topic although you’d never know reading some of the nonsense here. If you want to get some understanding of the reasons for the shortage all you have to do is read what the executives of Hoosier and American Racer are saying.
https://www.shorttrackscene.com/late-model-stock-cars/hoosier-american-racer-urging-caution-with-tires/
https://outsidegroove.com/2021/05/tire-supply-manufacturers-offer-their-perspective/
While it is true there have been supply chain issues as well as labor shortages neither has been the major cause of the tight supply.
“Forty years in this place, and I’ve never seen it like this,” said Saunders (Hoosier Trie). “We’re producing more tires than we ever have in the history of this company. I don’t see where it’s all going. Car counts aren’t escalating. I talk to tracks across the country all the time. [The tracks told me] guys come up and [ask] for 16 tires.”
Racing tires in 2021 are in many respects in the same boat as toilet paper was in 2020. Race teams, tracks and distributors gobbling up tires like crazy. The result being a supply that might have been tight but adequate now a situation where there are spot shortages. Raw materials and labor issues but mostly from the perspective of not being able to satisfy the exploding demand.
In many respects this is just like toilet paper. Word gets out of supply issues and the immediate reaction of teams, tracks and distributers is to get as many as possible as soon as possible. There’s wall to wall racing now with packed schedules, teams have money in their pockets from pent up demand and government stimulus checks and here we are.
Now we’ll see rationing, races dropped and more racing on older tires and just like toilet paper the end consumers are the one that have made a challenging situation into a full blown shortage. Just like toilet paper there will always be a contingent that gets their news from some talking head with a partisan agenda trying to make their own special enemy the sum of the reasons for the shortfall.
Chicken Coop. I Agree, Run on OLD TIRES, Yes everyone will drop off .4 .5 on the Lap times, But the tires will stick enough to be able to race the 30 or 40 laps, You could also drop the laps down to 25 Laps. The fast guys will still get to the FRONT in 25 Laps at Thompson. The tires are already in their Inventory from previous races, They all have ID # Numbers on each tire that are read into the Computer System each week you bought tires, So there is way to keep other tires from being used , Everyone has to Use tires from their Inventory. One negative is if you have a new competitor show up to race , they wouldn’t have an Inventory to select from & couldn’t race…… These tires can go many many laps and still get hot, Yes the lap times would fall. But they would all fall off together, You could swap fronts and rears to help out too. LF to LR for more bite…
Rob, COVID-19 is still impacting racing and other facets of life, and will continue to do so for years. Might even get worse in the coming months. What the civil leaders do and don’t do will impact racing and other facets of life, and as long as it impacts racing, it can not be ignored.
Racing tire shortage directly caused by COVID-19 and the failure of people to do what they could have done to contain the pandemic. 😷 All those spreader events did not have to happen, even Trump’s rallies were super spreaders. From what I have read, the cord is presently the limiting resource, and that comes from overseas. Supply chains have many weak links now, or are broken.
I never used the word “conspiracy” and I never specifically mentioned the US government. I just said “government”, meant in the general sense. There are many governments throughout the country and the world guilty of all sorts of vile transgressions against their citizens in the name of “protecting” them. Point is, the virus didn’t shut anything down, governments did.
It’s true that no government caused the Suez canal fiasco, the US gov’t (specifically the Army Corp of Engineers) is in fact responsible for the issues with Enbridge #5. Whether you agree with the decision or not, it’s still an arm of the gov’t causing the issue. And it was the actions of many governments that shut down entire industries.
Lockdowns were never part of WHO pandemic guidance prior to March of last year. That policy originated with the CCP and was eagerly duplicated by despots around the world (real despots, not dareal’s flipped definition of the word). There is no scientific evidence that lockdowns provided any benefit at all throughout the last year and a half.
Rob, politics at all levels affects the sport we love. If we ignore it, the powers that be will drive our favorite pastime out of existence.
I got a good laugh out of wmass01013 thinking I’m a repiblican. Nothing could be further from the truth. But I’m used to people on the left and right who suffer from binary brain thinking I’m a member of the opposite camp.
GEE GP i have read my comment a dozen times and never did i say YOU were a Republican, hmmmmmmmmm ok, i just love the constant nothing should have been shut down theory, Many People died or got very sick, what was your answer?????????? Now you complain people are being paid NOT to work when the past Republican President and congress gave BIG TAX breaks to the Rich and Companies who make millions in profit BUT anytime the middle or low class get something, ITS WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, let me start with, GP, you’re an idiot.
GP wrote, “Point is, the virus didn’t shut anything down, governments did.”
That’s idiotic. Of course the virus can’t shut down anything, it doesn’t have arms, opposing thumbs, etc. But governments did indeed shut things down because of the threat posed by the virus 🦠. The virus has shown incredible intelligence ini the way it has morphed and mutated to adapt to attempts to end it. In doing so, it has demonstrated more intelligence that GP.
Keep in mind that industries were not shut down just to shut things down… they were shut down to contain the spread of a deadly pathogen. That is a concept that still escapes you. You and millions like you still do not understand what that means. When the workers in the meat packing industry were falling ill, was it correct to shut it down to prevent the spread of the pathogen to the food supply and protect the workers? GP?
GP wrote, “Lockdowns were never part of WHO pandemic guidance prior to March of last year.“ This is true, and an egregiously misleading statement. But after March of 2020, lockdowns, social distancing, masks, extra careful hygiene were part of the guidance.
GP wrote this gem, “There is no scientific evidence that lockdowns provided any benefit at all throughout the last year and a half.”
This seals the conclusion that you are an idiot. There is no choice but to conclude you are an idiot. Look at Taiwan, S. Korea and New Zealand. All three countries had very strict lockdown protocols, and all three have been barely nicked by the pandemic. There is massive evidence that the lockdowns worked. The lockdowns can only work when all work together, and petulant idiots like yourself that refuse to cooperate ruin it for everyone else.
GP conspired, “Rob, politics at all levels affects the sport we love. If we ignore it, the powers that be will drive our favorite pastime out of existence.”
Please do tell how the powers that be are doing this.
GP concluded with this gem, “I got a good laugh out of wmass01013 thinking I’m a repiblican. Nothing could be further from the truth. But I’m used to people on the left and right who suffer from binary brain thinking I’m a member of the opposite camp.”
So you are a member of the opposite camp. Opposite of what? If you are opposite of the republicans, you are a democrat. That’s not possible. So you are simultaneously opposite the right and left. You are a member of the QAnon camp, idiots one and all. Petulant contrarians.
You are not a complete idiot since you did not use your real name to discuss this.
You didn’t say it outright, but you sure implied it (“we should not give any $$$ TO ANYONE UNLESS THEY are REPUBLICAN OR VERY RICH AND CAN HIDE all their $$$ OFFSHORE TO prevent paying any taxes”).
Tangent since you mentioned taxes: income tax will always be rigged in favor of the rich. No matter what Bernie says, there’s no way around that. The only way to truly make them pay their fair share is to tax their money when they spend it (no one bathes in cash like Scrooge McDuck. The rich invest their money or spend it on goods & services for their personal benefit). See https://fairtax.org/ for a better way.
I didn’t say “nothing” should have been done, I just said LOCKDOWNS shouldn’t have been done. I favored the strategy of Focused Protection put forth by actual competent scientists that don’t work for the government. (see https://gbdeclaration.org/).
Never said people shouldn’t get anything, but these enhanced unemployment benefits that pay people more than they would make at a job is disastrous to the economy as we’re seeing now. Any competent economist will tell you that.
I’m not a fan of any president we’ve had this century. I’m certainly not a fan of all the corporate welfare that was part of the trillion dollar “stimulus” and infrastructure bills that were passed by Trump and Biden.
I look forward to the day when folks who support(ed) the Tea Party and folks who support(ed) Occupy Wall Street realize they have the same enemy.
Dafella happily locked himself in his basement for a year and is looking forward to locking himself back up in the near future.
Dareal, come on dude, the whole Covid 19 thing was a big hoax. Yeah right. Had we not gone into a shutdown, and remained mostly shut down for the last year the death toll would have been in the millions.
Allot of the natural rubber comes from rubber trees grown in india, and the surrounding countries. Look at what’s happening in india. Then add in the Suez Canal being blocked for nearly 3 weeks, add in that pipeline incident, and a few other factors, and you get the perfect storm. Then take into consideration that racing tires fall at the bottom of the tire chain. Then you have the Tire giants Goodyear, Continental and firestone who get first dibs due to their size in comparison to Hoosier and mc dreary, as be you get what we have here, a shortage of racing tires, mainly used by weekly racers.
Steps have already been taken to limit tires being purchased.
Someone mentioned about teams having a tire inventory, but the inventory is not infinate, and teams are forced to remove tires from their inventory eventually. Plus it’s not like back in March the teams were told “hey, come July there’s gonna be a tire shortage so hang onto your tires” plus given the size of the tires, storage becomes a problem because you can’t leave them sitting outside in the elements, they, the tires, don’t like that, and become am n to a hockey puck. But it could come down to limiting tire purchases to 2 every 3 weeks, I think a team should be able to get 3 weeks out of a set of tires.
Not yet a peep about the benefits of treating tires with ‘foreign substances’ to improve grip and/or extending usage. 😬
It’s all a conspiracy to control the masses. Right, GP?
“So you are a member of the opposite camp. Opposite of what? If you are opposite of the republicans, you are a democrat. That’s not possible. So you are simultaneously opposite the right and left.”
Dareal has offered up proof that he suffers from binary brain – the inability to see more than 2 options in any given situation. He’s in good company including a former president (remember the line, “If you’re not with us, you’re with the terrorists.”?). Maybe we can start a charitable foundation to work towards a cure.
“Had we not gone into a shutdown, and remained mostly shut down for the last year the death toll would have been in the millions.”
There is absolutely ZERO scientific evidence to support that statement. All you have is the ramblings of fear mongers in the government and media.
Cheers, most of these foreign substances are used to soften the tires, and actually makes the tire wear more. Once a tire goes through enough heat cycles it too becomes useless. It’s gonna become a matter of rationing tires until this pandemic passes and the world returns to some degree of normal
Wait till the shortage becomes bad enough that a new tire ends up costing hundreds of dollars
Shaun
Please remove all postings political in nature. I am here to read and discuss racing not political BS spouted by fools
Rich O- I feel you but all you gotta do is scrollllll past ’em and it’s like they’re not even there. Nice feeling tbh.
Rob P- thanks for clearing that up for me. Thinking about it now it makes sense.
@RichO
Couldn’t agree more!!! So tired of the political nonsense.
Rich and Tom,
For as long as this forum has been around I’ve had some very relaxed rules as to how things go which allows people the freedom to have discussions that can run the gamut. I’m not about to set ground rules that people can ONLY talk about racing and I’m not about to set ground rules where I pick and choose what subjects are acceptable and what aren’t. I don’t particularly enjoy seeing the political nonsense here myself, but at the same time I’m not going to have selective censoring of topics. All that said, is it really that much of a chore to scroll on past when you see the first sentence of a comment is something you’re not interested in reading? Everybody wants a forum where they’re not handcuffed by overbearing moderation until it’s a subject they personally don’t want to see, then they want overbearing moderation solely on that subject that they don’t like.
Shawn Courchesne wrote, “Everybody wants a forum where they’re not handcuffed by overbearing moderation until it’s a subject they personally don’t want to see, then they want overbearing moderation solely on that subject that they don’t like.”
Wonderful.
Extremely well said.
Perfect.
Even when the racing discussion is not what they want to see, they whine and cry. To a large degree, I tend to think these forums have been somewhat self moderated in that when someone posts idiocy, political or racing, they get well deserved feedback. That seems to temper the idiocy, regardless of topic. But then, I don’t see Shawn’s email inbox, which I can only imagine is overflowing with cry babies doing what cry babies do.
The simple fact today is that the COVID-19 pandemic is controlling many facets of our everyday lives. It is impacting racing, no matter how much you try to evade and ignore that fact. Today it’s a racing tire shortage. Give it a couple weeks or months, it will be something else. It’s brewing.
The COVID-19 pandemic is being managed by our ELECTED officials, hence it is political. That management is responsible for the degree of if, which, when, what, and where we can resume normalcy. That management protected us from hydroxychloquine, Lysol and bleach injections, and bright light colonoscopies. The tribes will line up accordingly, regardless of the facts. If you belong to the tribe run by a particular elected official and that official screwed up, be prepared to endure the flames. 🔥 Or go cry in the corner with the rest of your ilk. And when a political comment is made, don’t think you are above reproach… be prepared for return fire. 🔥
And remember, idiocy is not exclusively a political topic.
It is a setback for all the SK teams that are Thompson specific to lose a race when they have so few races in the first place. It’s their home track and a huge deal.
For the casual Thompson fan such as myself this is not bad news at all. The SK race generally comes down to Rocco and Christopher with Rocco winning. He win’s most every SK race at Thompson it gets tedious.
I’m hoping the SK guys do opt to join the open race. Bolt on a four barrel or not it creates and new wrinkle to the open race. And make no mistake about the open race is what the event is all about. This makes it even better watching a race within a race that Rocco and Christopher will not be a part of being otherwise occupied in the tour type modified field.
So there’s no SK race. That will give the rest of the divisions that generally put on a better show then the SK’s in the first place more attention. The Mini’s race as well and that’s a good deal.
Depending on how many SK’s take the challenge and how many Mini’s show up in the end there could actually be more cars in the paddock as the result of the audible they called.
Finally yet another heaping portion of praise for Michaud and Mayberry. They made lemonade out of lemons at the Icebreaker with the one day affair adjusting to circumstance beyond their control. Here the initial reaction like then may be negative but in the end this could turn into something just as successful once all the checkers fall.
Shawn
My response was not directed at you, I know in my response I agreed with RichO but it was more to do with tired of the political nonsense. I in no way meant for you to remove comments, I’m sure scrolling through all the responses is a big enough chore. It’s just sad that others can’t leave politics out of something that should be an enjoyable pastime.
As for the other comment from another respondent, I did do what I typically do and scroll pass it as I always did well before your suggestion.
Really appreciate all your work on the local and national racing series reporting. Without Raceday CT I wouldn’t be able to follow all the local racing circuits.
Thanks again Shawn.
Whenever I write something that I know is risking going over the line I always check for the dreaded Shawn Courchesne that may soon follow. Then how it’s interpreted by the comments that follow.
” I don’t particularly enjoy seeing the political nonsense here myself, but at the same time I’m not going to have selective censoring of topics.”
That seems pretty unequivocal. The guy that has dedicated himself to nurturing and growing this site over 9 plus years won’t censor political chat but thinks in the context of this site it’s nonsense. You can chose to respect that or not.
Let’s face it this is talk radio and cable news era and everyone has an opinion on everything. The more time you have to waste watching and listening to porn news the more outsized it becomes in your life and spills out over to every facet of your existence. The spillage here is palpable and will is likely to continue unabated for the indefinite future.
It takes a certain discipline and respect to stay in the lane of this site and respect the publisher. Anonymous comment sections are a fertile ground for all kinds of meanderings and gobbledygook that usually get outsized attention. Sprinkled in between all the ridiculous commentary on completely unrelated topics from undisciplined characters are the people whose comments always ring true as on point and civil. Like cable news stories designed to get people all wound up it’s hard to scroll past the dumpster fires here without getting the urge to poor more gas on it.
Thing is the best among us stay on point scrupulously. It takes more knowledge, work and discipline to stay on point but the same guys and gals seem to never waiver. They are the most respected and disciplined and we all pay more attention and remember what they say as opposed to those of us constantly setting dumpster fires.
The use of screen names in the end makes little difference. If the person is one of substance their true nature and respect for the publisher and the mission of the site rings true. They are clearly people to be respected and need not make one personal claim of accomplishment since it’s evident in their conduct anonymous or otherwise.
The tracks should now allow tire soaking for all tires in your inventory. Lets just race!