Posted by

u/DIY_Creative

8 months ago

NO World of Outlaws at Lernerville in 2022

I realize this is very niche, but if you're into dirt track racing, the World of Outlaws (sprint cars) are NOT coming to Lernerville next year per the schedule they just released. The Silver Cup has been run for 30+ years straight and is the highest-paying weeknight race of the year on the schedule. Lernerville was one of the longest-tenured tracks on the schedule and one of the original supporters of the WoO in 1978 when Ted Johnson started the series. All of that to say this is a huge deal. Rumors are that, no surprise, the WoO was ticked off Lernerville scheduled Lucas Oil for the Late Model Firecracker next year instead of WoO late models. Also the Tomsom family is rumored to have been a thorn for WRG for years since they took over ownership of Lernerville (not surprising if you've ever dealt with the Tomsom family in the slightest capacity).

Let's go Sprint Car Racing!

Knoxville - Best Track In the USA!
Eldora - 2nd Best Track in the USA!

Lernerville went with Lucas Oil for their big LM race and didn't tell the WoO until they announced it via press release (or something to that effect) and WoO dropped them altogether replacing them with a new date for Port and Sharon. The big LM race now pays $50k to win and was helped substantially by the Lucas regulars while the sprint car race which pays less than it did 15-20 years ago ran in front of a less than full house with a very mediocre (for a $25k to win show) field. 

It looks like Lernerville hit a home run crowd wise with the move of The Firecracker 100 to a LOLMS sanction over the WOOLMS (good weather certainly helped) However, last night's crowd looked WAY down with the All Star sanction vs the long standing World of Outlaws sanction.

So, a business decision.  Got it.  At least we can take emotions out of it now.  

Ports paying $20k to win, so it'll be a nice week of bigger than usual purses with the Doty (15k) Port and Grove (20k) bookended the Royal and HBO. 

Keep in mind, with the WoO dropping Lernerville for 2022, the track had to scramble their plans to get this race scheduled. Thankfully, the All Stars stepped in. It didn't help that the  weather forecast was terrible for Wednesday night, though it never rained for the event, and the show was enjoyable and ran off very well. I think the key to making this a more successful event in the future is to get it off its midweek date, and perhaps even become a 2 day show as well, something that was largely impossible with WoO sanctioning as it was sandwitched between the Kings Royal and Grove Summer Nationals.  I think there's a lot of potential with this race in the coming years with the All Stars on board. 

When in doubt, gas it!!

But hasn't The Silver Cup been a midweek race since the beginning? That was the beauty of it. Drew fans from all around the country, but especially from Ohio and most of Pennsylvania who would not attend otherwise if their regular tracks were running on the weekend.

I have always thought the Silver Cup was a very underrated race that people did not talk about enough. Compared to regular Outlaw payouts and even payouts throughout the year $25K to win with I believe $2500 - $3000 to start the feature is a pretty solid purse. For as long as I remember it has been a midweek show typically on a Tuesday. The stars aligned 4 times for me to attend and it was worth taking a day off work and the 4hr drive from my house to Lernerville. I have yet to see a bad race there and like how the facility is setup.

I know it was not the best on equipment and for making a show move but I actually liked the way they use to have the race. Do the heats and run 1 feature then invert based on how many lead lap cars there were and run another feature. If anyone ever has the opportunity I couldn't recommend the race or track enough. I would say that it might be either 3rd or 4th on my list of favorite tracks behind Knoxville Eldora and maybe Lawerenceburg.

The race pays $1200 to start. It's a decent purse but Lernerville should have been paying far more to keep it in crown jewel status, but they never seemed particularly interested as long as they got the Outlaw crowd. Keep in mind this race paid $35k to win in 2002. 

Tracks have no incentive to raise the purses.  I  found an article that showed the winners purse for 2002 Sharon WoO sprint race was $10000 to win.  The WoO sprints just raced at Sharon a month ago and it was $10000 to win.  19 years later and no raise to win.  And people can't race enough .  Why would a track raise the purse?   In my opinion  a lot  of the big announced to win numbers are to get the fans all excited to come and pay $40 and $50 ticket prices.  Because racers show that they will show for stagnant 19 year old rates.

A very fascinating and informative FB page is Sprintcarstats by Kevin Eckert.  It is amazing to see what races paid in the past and what they pay now.   Just look at the cost of racing now compared with the past and we dumb racers are running for the same money.  But as we all know racing could be a lot cheaper and that topic would fill 100 pages on HH.  

And yet we have coming up a $175k to win race, a $150k to win race, a $100k to win race and next year a $250k to win race. Lernerville with it's grandstands, parking, proxmity to real towns with lots of people should be having elite races, but at least with sprint cars, they didn't keep up. 

Yeah but western PA was never that much of a hotbed for sprint cars. Look at how little they pay for weekly shows. 25K/1200 to start is still good money and I'm surprised more teams from central PA didn't go out. I'm also suprised no teams ventured north to NY this weekend, 12K to win tonight.

A

Whew!!!  So many things to look at with this race.  Let's first look at the change in sanctioning body for this race.  No knock on the All Stars , but this is one thing that influenced the smaller crowd.  The Outlaws have a following that the All Stars just cannot compete with at this moment and maybe never.  Not to mention there was rain just south of the speedway and it was not a light rain.  At one point it came down in buckets.  I almost turned around and went home on my way to the track.  Also, the speedway just hosted a huge event (firecracker) a week and a half ago.  Money could be an issue for some folks.

As far as prestige of the race and car count, it may be the highest paying mid week sprint payout of the year so I do not buy the thought process of not enough money, especially for a mid-week show.  If there is another mid-week single stand alone show that pays as much or more, it does not come to mind.  The Doty Classic does not come close in winners share yet there will probably be anywhere from 45-60 cars at Attica and a sellout crowd. Why the difference in car counts and attendance?  The drivers and fans want to support a great former driver and an unbelievable ambassador for the sport and that I support totally.  I will be there for the race.  

The position of the race just before the big paying races at Eldora also help to attract the high car counts and fans.  I also feel that some of the racers may be experiencing fatigue physically and monetarily from Western Pa Sprint Speedweek, Ohio Sprint Speedweek, and Central Pa Speedweek which were almost back to back.  

As far as the facility, I grew up attending Lernerville and I am biased so keep that in mind with my opinion, but Lernerville gives you so much with not only seeing the racing around the entire facility, but also lapped traffic makes the racing even more exciting.  The track prep is usually pretty consistent and for this race the track was in great shape.  For the record, Kyle Larson was just amazing!!!  

History of drivers, while Lernerville falls short in quality and history like Central Pa., California, and Knoxville, we can boast some pretty outstanding drivers in the history of the track like: Lou Blaney, Dale Blaney, Dave Blaney, Tim Shaffer, Johnny Beaber, Ed Lynch Jr. and of course Brad Doty.  And I could list more but I think that is a pretty good start!  Currently there are quite a few up and coming drivers like Aj Flick and Sye Lynch who should carry the flag for Lernerville pretty well in the coming years.