A Question for ASCAR fans.

[Lee]

I have gone through the ASCAR website. It is well layed out, and quite informative. I notice that there are going to be 9 races and a 4 day test session prior to the start of the season. I hope that Speedvision, or some other U.S. network will televise some of the ASCAR races here in the States. I don't know the drivers yet, but being able to see some of the races would be helpful to learning them. I guess I really have two questions for you:

1. Do you think the series will attract enough attention, in it's first year, to merit adding additional races to the schedule? There are 9 scheduled races, and a 4 day, pre-season practice at present.

2. Do you think that any of the ASCAR drivers are looking to use this series as the first step in an eventual attempt to get a Winston Cup ride?

Let me know what you think.

[Joe Fan]

Great questions Lee, I am interested to hear what the replies will be.

[Sparky]

Those are very valid questions Lee, thoughts and concerns that I share.

A short history...

Britain has had an oval tradition for years. I'm not talking about Brooklands-type racing, rather the 'Short Oval' type - Hot Rods (NASCAR - spec saloons/sedans), Stock Cars (Full contact Modifieds) and Bangers (Demolition Derby type stuff).

Our tracks started to appear in the late forties and early fifties, as racetracks developed alongside greyhound racing!
The shale and dirt ovals lent themselves to 'jalopy' racing, and it has evolved from there.

Apart from the differences in name, the classes and entry systems are similar to the half-mile ovals that have existed all over the States for so long.

The British Short Oval scene has a loyal following, and many of its star drivers have gone on to drives in other formulae. In fact, Tick Steward, former World Hot Rod Champion, beat all others last year to become World Legends Champ - bringing coals to Newcastle if you like.

Many attempts have been made to emulate NASCAR style racing.
UK 'National' Hot Rods developed from modified saloons, along the same lines as US Grand National Stock Cars. Starting out as steel-bodied saloon cars with cages and hot engines, they have developed into tube framed specials, extremely lightweight and high-tech.
They do run in the rain, though. No pit-stops, and special two-speed gearboxes. A very specialised sport.

'Eurocars' was a blatant attempt at introducing identical bodied, tube-frame racecars. I was present at the first ever Eurocar race at Ipswich Stadium raceway, and it was quickly apparent that the cars were too big and powerful for a flat half mile oval. Since that day, all races were run on regular road courses.

I believe that was the point at which Rockingham UK was born. One of the leading drivers of Eurocars was another HotRod World Champion, Barry Lee.
I have a 1972 book entitled 'The Barry Lee Book of Hot Rod Racing'.
In the middle, there are a couple of photos of '71 Charger 500 Stock Cars, and Barry has added: "The American version of Hot Rod Racing, known over there confusingly as Stock Car racing, calls for long races over 200 or 500 miles, so that refuelling of these 5mpg monsters becomes a problem. Will this sort of racing ever come to Britain? Barry Lee hopes so."

This is 1972 remember, and Barry suggests elsewhere that "The spectacle of late model saloons thundering around a banked oval at 200mph is something that British Hot Rod fans would appreciate."

I guess what I’m trying to say is that there is a ready made band of very enthusiastic motorsport fans, that have followed British oval racing for years, hoping that someone would finance a large oval circuit of our own.

I realise that this would never have happened without the Cart connection. With most (all?) the IndyCar chassis being constructed in the UK, there is certainly an argument for bringing that particular brand of racing over here.

Your first question: “Do you think the series will attract enough attention, in it's first year, to merit adding additional races to the schedule?

As I described above, there is a ready-made fan base from which to draw, but not only that, there are sure to be a whole group of people that follow NASCAR on the tube that have never followed Short Oval stuff. And then there’s the ever enthusiastic British Motorsport fan, who will turn up in the cold to watch anything!
I’m not sure how they will take to the ‘No running in the rain’ rule. A revolt on the cards, I reckon.

I don’t think for one moment that there can be the number of races that there are in the States, simply because there isn’t the population base from which to draw that number of drivers or fans.
I mean, how many people attend NASCAR races? 200,000? I doubt we could fill a quarter of those seats, even if we did supply them!

Having said that, I don’t think 9 races will satisfy fans, drivers or sponsors.

I would like to think that eventually we will have fields of about 25 to 30 cars, racing in maybe 15 to 18 rounds per season, two-thirds of which will be on Ovals. (By that I mean, that I suspect that we will export a few rounds to the German oval, and perhaps attract a few entries from Europe too.) The remaining venues will, of course, be road courses.

The second question: ” Do you think that any of the ASCAR drivers are looking to use this series as the first step in an eventual attempt to get a Winston Cup ride?

I certainly think that British Short Oval drivers, given the budget and ability, would aspire to professional drives in the US.
I can’t see that ‘professional’ drivers, Cleland and the like, would want to abandon UK circuit racing for NASCAR alone. (Please don’t take that as in insult. I mean that the UK racing scene is a world unto itself!)

I think that the future for ASCAR in the UK is very good. I’ll admit that it probably wouldn’t be financially viable without IndyCar sharing the venue, but it will have strong following of its own.

I can’t wait.

[Lee]

Sparky,

Thank you the brief on British stock car racing. There was a very good documentry on the various classes of stock cars that run in the U.K. on one of the channels here, Speedvision I think, a year or two ago. Very intresting. There was also a young British driver that was trying to break into NASCAR a couple of years ago. I cannot remember his name, but he was driving in the Goody's Dash Series. It was always my hope that he would make it. Wish I could find out whatever became of him. Either Stock Car Racing, or Circle Track magazine did a good article on him. Also, back in the mid-70s, an English company sponsored Junie Donlevie's number 90 Ford, with Richard Brooks as the driver. I remember they made copiers. The car was over-all blue, with white and gold trim (Junie's traditional paint scheme) and had a hugh Union Jack on the hood, and smaller ones on the rear quarter pannels. The car really looked sharp!

I fully agree with you that 9 races will eventually not be enough to satisify the fans, As things develop, I think a realist goal might be for 20 races. This is the number of races that the ASA and many other series run here in the States. I know that at the moment, you only have Rockingham, and the German oval, but I've heard rumors that there might be a large banked oval constructed in France, and who knows, if this thing really catches on, maybe, eventually another one in England. If that ever happened, I would think a different shape and size might be in order. Cross your fingers and hope. What do you think?

[Heeltoe6]

Just since we touched upon English drivers in Nascar, David Hobbs tried his hand at the 76 Daytona 500, and perhaps a few others, but that one I am sure of.

[Lee]

Heeltoe6,

Yes, I remember that. It was 74 I think. He was a teammate to Benny Parsons, drove Chevys, and had Coca-Cola as a sponsor. As I recall, he didn't fare very well.

[Joe Fan]

Another English driver that raced in NASCAR was Quick Vic Elford. He raced in three Daytona 500s if I recall and in his third 500 in 1972, he got a top ten finish.

[Heeltoe6]

Did some looking and found that Hobbs finished 34th in the 76 500, in a car owned by LG DeWitt. Was actually in the lead group early on, lead for several laps, don't know if he crashed, blown engine, etc? Of course, it bears mentioning that Hobbs went to call about 10 500s for CBS, starting when they began broadcasting them in 1979. He

[Lee]

Your right Heeltoe6, it was 76. I was at both the 74 and the 76 races, Guess old age is causing my memory to fade.

[Larsen]

1) I do believe that the ASCAR series will attract racing going fans. For me, i know i will go to every race. Why i think it will succeed is that it's different to what we have seen in Britain. With Rockingham almost completing the track, it gives the series a good oppunitity to succeed.One thing for sure is that it is going to be highly exciting, at least you get to see the whole of the track.

2) Maybe, but this would be a great stepping stone for the young drivers.

[Crash Test]

I don't know if it is fair to compare ASCAR with Australian Nascar, which came into the world in 1987. One would imagine that one of the selling points of Australian Nascar was that it could be a stepping stone to America. Yes people did go over to the States, Allan Grice, Dick Johnson and other went over, and had varying amounts of success. They had the talent (as Jim Richards and others demonstrated in Japan at Suzuka several years ago) but they didn't have support from American sponsors. Grice was sponsored by Fosters, and Johnson was sponsored by his Australian team owner, under the banner of his American company.

Would American companies be interested in sponsoring foreigners? At the moment the answer is no, but do you think that ASCAR would change that?

[Lee]

Crash Test,

An intresting question, and one, unfortunatly, that I cannot answer. I wonder if instead it might be better to attempt to bring a sponsor from one's home country, possibly one that would like to do business here in the States, and break in that way?

[Crash Test]

But the problem for an Australian (I can't speek for the English) that there wouldn't be too many multi-national Australian companies out there that would be trying to break into the Amercian market, let alone ones that would be giving money to a Nascar effort.

It's a problem that a lot of drivers who have been trying to break into the American and European scene of late- the money just isn't there. They either have to find money from an international source, or they go home.

[Lee]

This is, once again, proof that the cost of racing has spiralled completely out of control. In the 60s and 70s, a team, and driver could compete in the Grand National Division for under a million dollars a season. They wouldn't win races, but they would be able to qualify and race, and make a decent showing. If, perchance, you could pick up a sponsor that would give you a million for a season, you were setting pretty. Your top teams had somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 to 5 million for an operating budget. Now, with sponsorships of 10 to 15 million, or more dollars per year, even some to the top teams/drivers can't find sponsors. It's really sad. I wish we could go back to those days. The racing was much more affordable, and better!

[Joe Fan]

The problems that foreigners have getting into NASCAR at the top end are the same that every other American driver has, finding an owner and sponsor who is willing to invest in your future.

However, I do think the problems foreigners have getting into NASCAR too are probably no different than the troubles American drivers have getting into F1. If you don't race near where the top owners can witness your talent, then you are just another wannabe driver to them. I think a foreign driver would have to do what Eddie Cheever (the last American to race in F1) had to do, that is go over to a different continent and race in the stepladder series there.

One has to understand that at the Winston Cup level, there are quite a few drivers who have raced in lower series stock car series for years and who are very talented that could do a good job at the Winston Cup level. So there is no shortage of capable driving talent here in the U.S. I know that I have seen some outstanding young drivers race in lower NASCAR series that I swear would be great drivers at the Winston Cup level. One was Toby Porter but he got injured in his Craftsman Truck series race his rookie year in that series and I have never heard from him since. It is a shame but this kid could drive the wheels off a stock car in the Slim Jim All Pro series.

So at the very minimum, a foreign driver would have to start out in lower stock car series here where costs are lower, produce and hope to be spotted. Or bring a willing sponsor from their own country. The problem is that most of the deep pocket sponosors in other countries are only interested in open wheel or sports car series abroad.

[Craig]

Wow! Thanks for such an enlightening post, Sparky

I guess what I’m trying to say is that there is a ready made band of very enthusiastic motorsport fans, that have followed British oval racing for years, hoping that someone would finance a large oval circuit of our own.

You would have though so, wouldn't you ? However, i've been speaking to a good number of people involved in short oval racing lately - which includes spectators, drivers and promoters - and the widely held view is that they really don't care for Rockingham one bit... Odd really as an association with a circuit of this magnitude can really do nothing but bring the image of short oval racing up. Once again it appears that the sport has shot itself in the foot...