(Press release from Stafford Speedway)
Tickets for the 49th running of the NAPA Auto Parts Fall Final scheduled for Saturday, September 24th are now on sale. New for 2022, the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series will compete in an 80-lap, $15,000 to win feature. With 40+ teams expected to compete, just qualifying for the event will be a challenge. Expected drivers include 50th Spring Sizzler® winner Matt Hirschman, 2022 Open Modified winners Woody Pitkat and Ronnie Williams, 2014 NAPA Fall Final winner Ryan Preece, 2017 NAPA Fall Final winner Eric Goodale, and more.
Order NAPA Auto Parts Fall Final Tickets
Also on the card for Saturday, September 24th will be a 40-lap SK Modified® race with big points implications, the Vintage All-Stars, and the newly added SK Light Invitational non-points race. Invited to the SK Light Invitational will be any driver who has not won an SK Light Modified race at Stafford in 2022. All 5 of Stafford’s weekly divisions are also scheduled to run the night prior, Friday, September 23rd, under the lights to kick off NAPA Fall Final Weekend. The previously scheduled Open Street Stock race has been removed from the schedule.
“There are so many storylines heading into the NAPA Fall Final,” explained Stafford Speedway CEO Mark Arute. “$15,000 to win Modified race, two SK Modified® championship point races in two days, and a unique twist for some of our SK Light Modified competitors. We’re looking forward to a great weekend.”
Tickets are now available online at staffordspeedway.com/tickets. Visit the event page for more information, full event schedule, and up to date NAPA Fall Final entry-list to be released in the coming weeks.
Order NAPA Auto Parts Fall Final Tickets
For more information, visit www.staffordspeedway.com, checkout Stafford Speedway on Facebook or Twitter, or contact the track office at 860-684-2783.
big field of sk-lights ,, nice to see they are doing more with them…
Any chance they are bringing back the “track party” before the event? That was a great addition to the day.
The Street Stock open race cancellation a huge disappointment for the old man but not surprising. You can blame Stafford’s success in creating and supporting their own version of Street Stocks along with the barriers to making common rules cost prohibitive for both Stafford competitors and outsiders. Which got me to thinking………
What exactly is the point of racing anyway? At the start there were very few divisions, the Danbury RaceArena had just the one. There were the modifieds, midgets and maybe a full bodied division to choose from at other tracks I’ve heard. At Danbury getting a trophy was daunting. Heats, consi’s, semi mains and main events was a gauntlet you had to pass through every Saturday night in the summer. Now-a-days the sport seems to be about keeping the trophy makers busy. In regard to short track racing somewhere the sport lost it’s way. Fragmentation just snuck up on it. More divisions and more types of cars and now if you look at the Northeast racing landscape the variety of ways to race a car is mind boggling compared to the basic idea when it all started. Is that part of the problem the sport faces in the current era? Car counts merely a problem because of the ridiculous amount of ways they’ve found to differential race cars and split up people that race them.
The Boston Louie is supposed to be a big deal isn’t it? 25 Nema Lites was good. 12 Nema midgets, the intervals for the podium finishers over a second. 11 NESS Supers, only 4 finish on the lead lap and McKennedy, who has won virtually every big block Super event he’s been in over several years, wins by over 2 seconds. If the idea is competition it sure didn’t look like there was much of going on at Seekonk for this big event.
Exactly what is the market for Supers in New England anyway? Popular up north at Star but Star is dormant. ISMA was the big dog for a long time, now they can barely muster a dozen cars and New England pretty much has lost interest. If you have to have Supers SMAC may be going in the right direction with a more affordable car that goes a lot fast then a tour modified if speed alone is what interests you. Unlimited big block Supers ala ISMA too expensive the problem you say. Enter NESS with their crate big block. Not that great a market for Supers in New England but sure add another sanctioning group to water it down further because why?
Like Late Models lets see what we have. GSPSS, ACT and PASS. Each sharing the same teams in many cases and each struggling often to come up with a full field with some events cancelled for lack on interest. Plus tracks with their own version of Late Model. Within PASS they also offer their version of modifieds.
Waterford has a hard time generating a good field in any division on Saturday night but still thinks diverting some racers to mid week in XCars and Super XCars is a good idea. Between the two events how many trophies is that anyway?
Stafford had 3 divisions in it’s hay day. Mods, Sportsmans and Streets then it all went haywire mainly due to the costs of modifieds, attendance sure wasn’t an issue. SK’s make their debut as the second division, then the premier division plus only the Streets. Then pro stocks are in then out and with the drop off in fan interest over decades for some reason there’s more divisions. SK’s and Lights thriving. Late models down then up then down again. Limited Late Models and Streets are essentially the same competitive class if the rear wheels in the Streets were locked up but it’s more choice for teams and three more people on the podium that seems to be a big deal these days. That, back gate I suppose and selling tires and fuel.
SK modifieds in Connecticut, up north they have their own version of a more “affordable” modified the NHSTRA Modifieds where they have a hard time getting to 10 cars on a regular basis.
So who are the good promoters vs self destructive ones? Often they’re the same person. Michaud has that wonderful track Thunder Road then joins forces with Mayberry to promote events at Thompson. That’s not enough for him apparently, he loves big blocks so sure lets start yet another Super Modified tour. The Racing Guys fan favorites for starting Tri Track, exit the series for whatever reason and end up bored so they start promoting the exact same type of event butting heads with the series they started but left.
So what is New Hampshire’s problem anyway. I surely don’t know but it may have something to do with this. 602 Dirt Modifieds, Mini Stocks, New England Dwarf Cars, Legends, NHSTRA Modifieds, Pure Stocks, Six Shooters, Street Stocks, 350 SMAC Supers, Ness Supers, Nelcar, NEMA, NEMA Lites, Late Models, Super Late Models, Late Model Sportsman, Sling Shots, Exit Realty Pro Trucks, ACT type Late Models, GSPSS Late Models, PASS Late Models, PASS modifieds, Bandolaros, Ridge Runners. Can you honestly say that all those classes of race cars share a completely unique competitive space in short track racing?
Are you looking forward to three consecutive days of tour mods at the World Series I know I am? Not to mention SK’s and Lites. Can you honestly say it makes any sense? All three classes of tour mods but each with different promoters and each with their own unique twists.
Sean Foster mentioned the need for common rules for local racing in his recent appearance on Unmuffled. Makes sense in view of the Speedbowls predicament but the evidence says that is the opposite of what tracks should be doing. In New Hampshire they unified rules and racing is struggling to say the least up there. The biggest winners are Thunder Road and Stafford as far as car counts go. The lesson is have your own divisions, isolate them with unique rules, support the hell out of the teams, promote the hell out of your events and to hell with everyone else.
What Sean Foster should be looking at is not hoping other tracks unify rules to help his main interest but for the Speedbowl to stop competing with itself. End the mid week shows and announce it now. Then figure out a set lineup for Saturday nights next year taking your best 5 or whatever divisions, support them starting now and promote them all through the winter. Sprinkle in some touring events next year for whatever groups are willing to hold their noses dealing with Bemer and most of all stick to it. Or is this more about back gate, selling tires and fuel, podium visits and trophies?
So what are fans most interested in now before and after big events. It sure isn’t anything about the races it seems reading first reactions in this forum. Usually the first reactions are about car counts. That’s the extent of the sport now counting cars first, then what happened in the race maybe down the line. We all say there are all kinds of reasons for why the car counts are low for races where that’s the case but I’ve never heard the notion of fragmentation being an issue. Too many types of race cars classes splitting up a robust number of racers but in the end it’s a finite group. Not inflation, not tire shortages, not a generational problem there’s just too many series and divisions.
I did the tour mod schedule at the beginning of the season and it was pretty impressive seeing all those events, some butting up against each other. In the end it’s too many with no room to maneuver when weather or exigent circumstances come up. I say the pandemic year might be a good example of why it’s good to use better judgement in scheduling. As demand got pent up the response for events that got put up on short notice sometimes was eye popping.
A question: can you really say there is a good reason to have SK’s and tour mods as distinct classes of race cars from an affordability point of view? When SK’s were created mods all had super expensive built engines. At this point the crate engine could easily replace and unify the SK and tour mod classes of cars and save money in the process. Is that a correct statement? Right now there is a 600 HP crate engine that could do it all and is cheaper then even and SK engine……..I’m pretty sure.
Of course you aren’t going to even think about changing anything because each promoter has their own financial stake and some are doing quite well.
There’s plenty of people racing they’re just spread too thin and I haven’t even mentioned the road racers.
If you’re not happy with the numbers in the division you’re interested in the problem is not a fundamental problem with the sport in a lot of cases. It’s too many choices of entrees and too many cooks putting their own special spices into the same entree.
Seriously, in the long run how many people will want to see McKennedy beat another 10 cars for the thirtieth something time in a row regardless of the price to get in or the track?