The All Stars are gone (or at least on a hiatus for now). High Limit is going national. The Outlaws are still the Outlaws. Local drivers and teams in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and more have expressed their concerns about the potential damage that High Limit could do by moving away from the All Stars schedule, but the message has been left on read for now.
Earlier in the week, we learned that High Limit would be contracting Ohio Sprint Speedweek out to the FAST Series. The good news is that Speedweek is in good hands. The bad news is that it will no longer be sanctioned by a national series and that other tracks and promoters may be looking to selfishly fill the void. If you missed our piece on the FAST Series and what it is, be sure to check it out here.
The questions are endless: Who can fill the regional void in sprint car racing? Does an existing series have the capability to do so? Can some of these series work together for the health of the sport and to the benefit of teams and drivers? Or will it remain a messy situation that no one feels responsible for?
It simply cannot be ignored that Ohio and Pennsylvania have the highest concentration of 410 sprint car teams in the country at a regional level. Most of these teams are doing this as a hobby and have no plans or goals of traveling long distances to race. This is still true “grassroots” racing. While Pennsylvania does not have a regional series, they are still a priority on the World of Outlaws tour and will likely be a target of the High Limit series as well. The PA Posse gets to race for respectable purses on a fairly consistent basis, with tracks like Lincoln, Williams Grove, BAPS, and Port Royal holding plenty of events to fill a full schedule. Pennsylvania will probably be in good health without a regional series, but I would still like to see all of the promoters work together for once to come up with something.
If you missed my article about the state of sprint car racing in Ohio and what the All Stars truly meant to the local teams and drivers, check it out here. I am unfamiliar with the politics of Ohio sprint car tracks and promoters, but I have heard rumblings that there is an unwillingness to work together and that tracks have handshake agreements about running 410 sprint cars. TJSlideways reported that he has spoken to at least one promoter at an Ohio track that was historically part of the All Star schedule that has not been contacted by High Limit to schedule an event.
We know that the AFCS (Attica Fremont Championship Series) has been successful in their venture as a mini-regional series. The series held 12 races in 2023, and averaged 24.7 cars at each event. Cap Henry was the series champion and he battled with the likes of Travis Philo, Stuart Brubaker and Byron Reed. AFCS obviously only operates at two tracks, but could they join forces with the FAST Series to make a much larger regional series? It seems like the most beneficial option for Ohio teams at the moment. Some prominent Ohio sprint car voices are already lobbying for tracks and promoters to work together.
My next thought was about Kevin Newton’s “Maverick Winged Sprint Car Series” and what his plans were for 2024. After listening to his interview with Sprint Car Unlimited, it was clear that Newton had no plans of expanding the series outside of Indiana and maybe Michigan. Newton created the series because he wanted less travel time to get to a race. Indiana is primarily wingless sprint car territory and is not the target audience of a touring winged series. He plans to run around 12 races in 2024 at Lincoln Park and Bloomington, with an open mind about visiting other tracks. With Newton’s reluctance to travel, it doesn’t look like the Maverick series is going to be making it to Ohio anytime soon. Eldora is the closest track to Lincoln Park, at nearly three hours away. Newton has branded his new series as a “working mans” series and will be filling his own void in the state of Indiana. He did mention a willingness to work with other series, but that still doesn’t answer the question about Ohio.
So what about some other regional 410 sprint car series that already exist. The most popular one would be the Bumper to Bumper IRA Outlaw Sprint Series that primarily runs in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota and North Dakota. IRA held 27 races in 2023 and the championship was won by Brenham Crouch. They had an average car count of 33.7 and often co-sanction events with the likes of MOWA, NOSA and the All Stars. MOWA (Midwest Open Wheel Association) operates in Iowa and Illinois. They ran just 13 races in 2023. New High Limit race director, Mike Hess, has already indicated that he does not see any co-sanctioned IRA events happening. The IRA series is already filling a regional void and if they were to expand East or South, then they really wouldn’t be a regional series anymore. They would just become another national series. But what about the possibility of multiple regions under one series like we see with ASCS 360 sprint cars.
Outside of IRA and MOWA, the POWRI 410 Outlaw series is another regional series that races in Missouri, with trips to Kansas and Oklahoma as well. POWRI sanctions more than just 410 sprint cars, but midgets and micros as well. While I don’t see them expanding their current footprint, I don’t think it would be out of the question if we saw a “POWRI North” 410 series pop up. Using a similar business model as ASCS, could POWRI or IRA start a series in another region such as Ohio? Would this even be something that Ohio teams want to happen and would the local tracks even cooperate?
Right now the landscape in sprint car racing is messy. For the 2024 season, it seems like the best option to fill the regional void is for tracks and promoters to work together to provide the teams with a solid schedule. Whether that means the FAST Series and AFCS work together, or all of the tracks come to an agreement that benefits everyone, I don’t know. It will be interesting to see if another series tries to come in and make something work, as there could be potential for success.
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