THOMPSON – The theme in the garage at Thompson Speedway Thursday for drivers of the Outlaw Modified division was that there was plenty of room to spread out and get comfortable.
Six teams were on hand for Thursday’s $5,000 to win Thompson Outlaw Modified feature.
We talked with four of the six drivers in the field about the lack of cars on site and the issues being faced at Thompson Speedway.
“A saying that I’ve heard a lot lately is that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone,” Matt Swanson said. “And I hope we don’t get to that point here with the oval because I love racing here. I grew up right over the hill racing at the Little T and the Big T is somewhere that has a very special place heart. Luckily Tom [Mayberry] and Cris [Michaud] stick with us here because there are people that want to support this place. It’s sad.”
Said Ronnie Williams: “I love this place to death. … I don’t want this place to go. That’s why we’re here.”
Said Jacob Perry: “Coming up here today I expected around 15 cars. … When we rolled in and saw five [cars] it was a little disheartening. It definitely makes you a little bit sick to your stomach because you know everything is on edge, especially in today’s economy and market. It’s definitely a little bit disheartening. I love this place”
Click here for full interviews with Matt Swanson, Ronnie Williams, Jacob Perry and RJ Marcotte at the RaceDayCT Insider page
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“It’s the economy, stupid”
DAMN!! McKennedy, Nocella, Robie, Goodale, Pasteryak, Owen, Rocco, Kopcik, Meservey, Hodgedon, … Is $5K to win not enough? Most of the above names were here for the Opens in the past.
It’s the economy, but it’s also June being chock full of modified races that will probably have much higher payouts. Before this week there was already the WMT race at Seekonk, the rain-out Stafford open, and the Monadnock open. Next week is the Loudon WMT race and the Riverside MRS race on the same day, then the week after that is Seekonk MMTTS and another Thompson race. With so little money up for grabs I can understand why teams might be less interested in Thompson, especially if they do want to race that track they’ll have plenty of higher-paying opportunities to do so later on, with two more WMT races and World Series weekend in the future. Of course I think back to the offseason where the Thompson planners said the teams were hoping for a bigger Thompson schedule so they’d actually have a good reason to keep a Thompson car… Was it only 6 teams that said that?
I’m sure Stafford rescheduling their Open 80 for the following day, then waiting until after the Thompson pits had opened to postpone it again, had an effect on car counts. That’s not necessarily anyone’s fault — with the havoc Mother Nature has wreaked on Northeast racing over the last two years, you have to try and make up races when you can. But it inevitably creates some tough situations along the way.
Was a sad state of affairs with car counts. Feel bad for promoter to say the least. Never seen anything this bad when it came to car counts.
Over the course of this season just in new england alone i count 56 tour or tour type races. When is keeping it to a certain number enough?
@Capt. Mike Qbvious I know rain had been forecast basically all week, but I doubt that anyone would have changed their minds to run Thompson if the Stafford make-up date had been called off earlier in the week. I’m thinking that maybe more teams had Thompson on their schedule until Stafford got rained out, then the Thompson trip had to be sacrificed for them to travel for the make-up race. It’s a busy month and the teams can only afford so much travel. I also wonder about the teams that planned to go for the Memorial Day event that never got rescheduled, and the teams that went for the Icebreaker and got nothing out of that trip.
How long are Modified fans going to continue to make excuses about the economy? Man you guys have been saying the same thing for 10-15 years now. Why can a dirt show for $7500 draw almost 60 cars of a Tuesday night in NY? I guess everyone will find out if a big paying show will draw the cars at Seekonk. If you dont have 40 plus cars for that event then there are no more excuses. I mean all I heard for the Sizzler was who wants to go and compete with Silk and his engine. The excuses never end.
I’d be just as concerned about the car counts for all divisions. Three divisions with twenty one combined cars? $30 to get in the stands? I’m not blaming them for the ticket price, I know they have to do what they have to do. But I’m not sure how many people will be coming back to watch three seven car features and an average of fourteen cars over the other three divisions. Managing just over ten cars per division isn’t going to cut it.
6 cars is sad. Thursday night shows don’t help. Hopefully they can do something to attract more cars