Guy Webb says the Renegades have had no effect on his 2015 All Star sprint car series Schedule
by Lenny Sammons
Focus on Speed – Page 4 – area auto racing news – Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014
Guy Webb released his 2015 All Star circuit of champions schedule this past week. Webb was in Indianapolis for the PRI show, beating the drums for his 410 sprint car series which will again be sponsored by University of Northeast Ohio.
Despite competition from the new renegade series started by former supporter/car owner Shane Helms in his base are of Ohio, Webb said he’s up from 40- events last year to 53 race dates. Only three of those dates carry TBA (to be announced) locations.
“We’ve got everything we had last year and then some,” said Webb, ”we’ve not lost anything”.
The anchor of the series, Ohio Speedweek, contains nine nights of racing at eight different tracks. Attica raceway park will again open Speedweek and Fremont (which has two events) will close it. Gone are Renegade committed tracks of Wayne County and Atomic. They’ve been replaced by races at 35 Raceway in Frankkfort and Moler in Williamsburg.
In Ohio/Western PA Webb has other dates on the schedule during the year at Attica, Fremont, Mercer, Sharon, Lenerville and Eldora. An added event on Sunday Sept. 6 is expected in that area after a two race weekend in Attica.
Tracks remaining loyal to Webb in Central PA are key speedways such as Williams Grove, Port Royal and Lincoln, with a TBA to follow the show at Lincoln on Sunday June 14.
“When this started,’” said Webb of the Renegade Series, “we kept going. We finished all the races and our car counts were just as good. We didn’t lose any sponsors, we’ve gained some. We didn’t lose any dates, we gained them. Nothing has changed.”
Webb was disappointed in fred Rahmer’s announcement last week in AARN that he was running a renegade series race on Sunday April 25. Webb said Rahmer is piggy-backing off two days of All Star series racing in the area at Williams Grove and Port Royal. He felt it unfair that he would follow the Bob Weikert Memorial at Port Royal, an event that has been growing in both purse and stature in recent years.
As was the case, last year, only one New York State event is planned at Canandaigua Speedway.
Webb has padded his schedule by adding co-sanctioned events that will offer point incentives to his racers at two WOO multi-day shows. His schedule shows the “Ironman” weekend in Pevely MO and the 3 day Williams Grove Natl Open in October on his schedule for the first time. He said he’ll “link” some points to those events to get his travelers to attend.
“The Open is now three days and we want to encourage all of our people to come and support it” said Webb, of adding the extra dates at Williams Grove. “Dale Blaney finished fourth there last year and we want a better presence than we’ve been doing. Ohio has never been represented big at hat event and it should be.”
Webb received bad publicity this season when car owner Mike Heffner went public regarding a lack of payment for driver Lance Dewease’s 2013 All Star’s Eastern regional championship. Heffner, who did return and won the same title this year with driver Greg Hodnett, had agreed to monthly payments but when they were not arriving as expected he began legal action. Webb said Heffner would have been paid by May, but will get his 2014 championship money before he gets the rest of his 2013 point fund now that the legal red tape is involved.
Webb said that 2014 Natl and Ohio regional champion dale blaney has already been paid for this season and other will get checks after the first of the year.
“We’re obligated to pay the first of January when our sponsorship money comes in” said Webb, “but I made a special deal with Dale so he’s already paid. I’ll pay the rest when some of the other 32 sponsorship contracts come back. It’s how I’ve done it the last 15 years.
He expects Blaney to defend his championship.
“Blaney is committed to us,” said Webb. “Always was.”
He didn’t, however, want to commit to who the other teams were in fear they would have pressure put on them by his competition to got with the renegades instead. He did say that one of the Haudenschilds (Jac or Sheldon) would race with him along with the Phoenix No 59 owned by Tom and Sherry Leidig that Danny Holtgraver drove at the end of the season.
“We’ll have five or six regulars with us,” said Webb. “I don’t want to the let the names out because they’ll start calling them, offering them idiotic stuff.”
The Shane Helms-organized Renegades group contains several former All Star champions, including Tim Shaffer.
“You cannot sell a series with B and C level talent,” said Webb of the Renegades. “if you look at Tim Shaffer, Chad Kemenah, Danny Smith and Greg Wilson they are all 45-50 yr old that are trying to hang on. There is a certain time that it is over and they have to move on in their career. They are just trying to prolong it.”
Webb will begin his 15th season in control of the All Stars by returning to one large point fund rather than dividing it into three sections. While the renegades have yet to post an official schedule, Webb said he expects to run the majority of their events at the same three speedways in Ohio. Interested tracks in the Central PA area have been Rahmer’s events at Path valley along with a possible show with Bob Miller’s Thunder on the Hill series at Grandview and at Jake Smulley’s Big Diamond Raceway.
“I’ve been checking on these dates they are talking about,” said Webb of the Renegades. “If you look at everything that has been put out about them you would crucify me if I put out press releases like they’ve been doing. There are no facts of when or where. All it says are names places they might be going to race.
