The Void in Ohio Isn’t as big as you think, but can it be Filled?

Like most sprint car fans, I was scrolling through social media a little bit more than usual after the High Limit Racing schedule was released. It was mostly what I expected, a huge mess of mixed opinions, negative comments, positive comments, and much more. I stumbled across Zach Hampton’s video where he spoke on the current sprint car landscape and what he thinks could be done to fill the void in Ohio and the surrounding States. Hampton was also involved in some conversations about the loss of sprint car races in Ohio in 2024 compared to what they had in 2023.

I joined in on a Twitter Space hosted by Open Wheel Updates that had Hampton, Garet Williamson, Craig Mintz, Jacob Hord from OhioDirt.com and many others speak on the High Limit and WoO schedules, as well as the current situation in Ohio. Being from Pennsylvania, it was good to gather some information about the logistics of Ohio sprint car teams and tracks. Hampton argued that Ohio still has a big chunk of the national schedule and Mintz argued that there are over 100 410 sprint cars running on a Saturday night in Ohio and that they deserve a big piece of the pie.

Based on the new schedules from High Limit and the WoO and the absence of the All Stars, Ohio will go from 29 “national” sanctioned races in 2023 to 18 in 2024. It is important to note that seven of those races were for Ohio Speedweek that was sanctioned by the All Stars. Including rainouts, those Speedweek races paid an average of $8,000 to win. Is it that crazy to think that the FAST Series couldn’t produce something similar with the help of High Limit? I don’t think so, as we see PA Speedweek go unsanctioned every year with respectable race purses.

Putting all of the hypotheticals and uneducated ideas aside, it does appear that some tracks and promoters within Ohio are already working together. AFCS (Attica Fremont Championship Series) announced that they would be increasing their points fund and purses for the 2024 season. They will be building their schedule around Ohio Speedweek, the Attica Spring Nationals, the Pete Jacobs Memorial, the Lou Blaney Memorial, the King’s Royal and the Brad Doty Classic so that local teams can have the opportunity to race for as much money as possible. AFCS ran a 12 race schedule in 2023 and had an average car count of 25.

Speaking of Ohio Speedweek, the FAST Series provided an update. They will move it back to the traditional way with 7 nights of racing at 7 different tracks. It will run from June 9-15. Payouts and the schedule have not been released yet.

While most looked at the schedules as a negative for Ohio, others looked at it as a massive opportunity for someone to come in and help fill the void. Clinton Boyles, the car chief on the Vermeer no. 55 team, offered up the opinion that this could open the door for an existing series or a new group to work together to form something similar to the All Stars. He felt that the All Stars were in this weird position of being regional but also being national and I couldn’t agree more.

Thanks to Zach and Clinton, I couldn’t help but think that some of the local and regional series that already exist didn’t bother adding Ohio or Pennsylvania to their schedules because those areas were already heavily occupied by the World of Outlaws, All Stars and local series. Now, with the All Stars gone and High Limit only scheduling a few races in Ohio, could a regional series like IRA/Maverick come in and add a few races to the area? The car counts would certainly be there, but would the tracks cooperate?

I think there is a common misconception from some race fans and teams that the All Stars were playing a huge role in helping local Ohio teams financially. Sure, they offered more money to win and more money to start, but how many locals were really capitalizing on that money? From All Star races only, the top earner in Ohio was Cap Henry, who accumulated $19,000 from the series in 2023. That is a significant amount of money for a local team, but when you divide that by the 14 races the All Stars held in Ohio, it amounts to about $1,360 per race. But Henry is a guy who has better funding than most Ohio locals and sometimes branches out, so if we look at someone like Travis Philo, who ran 11 of the 14 All Star races, his average earnings were about $910 per race. On average, most of the top 20 earning Ohio locals were coming away with around $550 per All Star race. Craig Mintz was the only local Ohio driver to win an All Star race in 2023.

If you look at where a big chunk of that money was coming from, you will see that it was from the Lou Blaney Memorial that paid $10,000 to win and the Dean Knittel Memorial that paid $22,554 to win. The good news is that the 2024 Lou Blaney Memorial will pay $12,000 to win and be unsanctioned, meaning a better chance for a local to capitalize on that money. Neither the WoO or High Limit will be close to Sharon on 8/17, making it anyones race to win. The Dean Knittel will also be returning, this time sanctioned by High Limit, and will pay $25,000 to win. Additionally, the WoO did add one more race in Ohio compared to their 2023 schedule.

Getting tracks and series to work together is like pulling teeth. If it was easy, I wouldn’t be writing about this in the first place. The good news is, the IRA Sprints and the Maverick Winged Sprint Car Series are already working together in Indiana. Getting a third series on board sounds like it could get messy, but if a couple sanctioning bodies came together to create something new, it would be great for the sport. I just don’t know how it would financially benefit three or more different series and the track. It would seem that it would be nearly impossible for something like that to work and for everyone to come out of it happy and profitable.

Not to mention, the IRA and Maverick sprint car series were already created to fill a void of their own. The IRA has been running races in Wisconsin, Illinois and neighboring states for years. Kevin Newton created the Maverick series so that he didn’t have to travel more than three or four hours to race a winged 410. Why would they want to come into Ohio if they are having success in their own region?

But in order to create a regional series like the IRA or POWRi, you need to figure out how many teams you could get to sign on full-time. With so many more high paying races in 2024, teams might scale back their local schedules in order to travel more to the big races. Still, not many teams can afford to do that and would prefer to keep their racing local. Ohio certainly has enough tracks to keep racers happy, but can those tracks maintain a steady purse through the field?

With a small, regional schedule, you could assume that most of the original 2023 All Star teams that are not running WoO or High Limit would be prepared to run full-time. Excluding Wise, Courtney and the Vermeer. no 55, the remaining seven teams will probably be focusing on some regional schedules. A few of the PA Posse teams could definitely make a limited travel schedule work. As for Ohio, they have their steady group of teams that run the FAST Series or AFCS and do not do much traveling outside of that. Factor in a few teams who ran with the IRA Series, then you have a great field of cars. Based on 2023, I’d say there could be anywhere from 12-16 teams that will not commit to the WoO or High Limit in 2024 that would potentially be interested in this hypothetical regional series.

I have never created or worked for a sprint car series. I have never owned or promoted a sprint car track. I have never owned a sprint car team. With that being said, here is my idea for a regional sprint car series that I think would draw solid car counts and crowds.

Regional Sprint Car Series Idea

• 20 Race Schedule
  • 10 in Ohio/Western PA
  • 5 in Indiana
  • 5 in Michigan/Wisconsin/Illinois
• Gaps in the schedule based on the WoO/High Limit schedules
• Your 15 best races count toward the point championship
• Driver is allowed to miss five races to lighten travel and still be eligible for the points championship
• Similar purse to what the All Stars had ($6,000-$8,000 to win) – some races would pay more
• $400-$500 to start
• A “tow package” fund that would be tiered based on points finish and how many races the driver attended
• A small points fund awarded to the top 10 drivers at the end of the season

Like I said, I am not expert on any of this and I am probably not even qualified to write about it. I can’t help but see the potential for it to happen if a group of the right people got together and came up with a plan. Sprint car racing is in a great place, but it would be in an even better place if this could happen for the regional and local teams