[plymouthfan]

With Indiana Sprint week off today and tomorrow, it would be a great night to watch some of the Best Late Models and Mods in the Midwest this Tuesday July 12th. I am i open wheel fan but this will be a nice change to watch. You can come and relax in the stadium seating and enjoy your night. (if you have not seen the new stands you have to get there. All i can say is WOW! This last Saturday the track was smooth and there were slidejobs everywhere. Will the outsiders in the mods be able to come in and run against the Plymouth Posse? Time will tell.. Can't wait to see Bobby Pierce. Hot laps at 6 Races at 7.

[Birdsboro]

First time to plymouth.... beer in coolers allowed?

[Stevensville Mike]

No.

[Chris Nunn]

Hope more than 16 show up to that one.

[hoosier race fan]

Originally Posted by Chris Nunn Hope more than 16 show up to that one.

I'll steal the "quality over quantity" line from those that try to make it sound better when the car counts suck. It's a bummer that Indiana tracks get stuck with the weeknight races on the summer nationals tour. Car and fan counts tend to suffer and lead promoters to say we're not doing that again.

[btg1963]

Not ALL of the Indiana tracks got stuck with a weeknight race. Haubstadt had a Sunday night event. I attended and was VERY disappointed in the Late Model turn out. Only 23 cars that night. The racing in the feature was good, but the rest of the late model action was quite a bore. I would have to disagree with the quality over quantity comment. Perhaps 6-8 top notch cars, but that was it.

Haubstadt offers one of the finest venues to race at. Drivers over the years have had one of the smoothest, best prepared surfaces on which to race and I have never heard it said that it was hard on equipment. Shoot, even a Late Model Hall of Fame member is the owner/promoter. Yet, for whatever reason, the traveling show didn't support the track this year. I took a first timer to the track that night and was embarrassed. Thank goodness the ISW stop is Saturday night! I will get to show my new friend some of the exciting racing I have been bragging about. I sure didn't get it from the late models that night!

I wish you better luck Plymouth on Tuesday night! By the way, Bobby Pierce will not disappoint!

[plymouthfan]

Just saw that Devin Gilpin will be there tonight. As for car count, i am just glad that there is a Late model race in the area. The amount of cars that are racing today compared to 15 years ago is down everywhere. I puzzles me to go to Lucas stadium and only have 10-15 Monster trucks and the place is packed. If we all really care about the well being of motorsports we should all praise it. Life is all about choices and i choose to try to support the Tracks, Owners, Drivers and Crews that work tons of hours to be involved in this great Hobby we all have passion for.

[hoosier race fan]

Originally Posted by btg1963 Not ALL of the Indiana tracks got stuck with a weeknight race. Haubstadt had a Sunday night event. I attended and was VERY disappointed in the Late Model turn out. Only 23 cars that night. The racing in the feature was good, but the rest of the late model action was quite a bore. I would have to disagree with the quality over quantity comment. Perhaps 6-8 top notch cars, but that was it. Haubstadt offers one of the finest venues to race at. Drivers over the years have had one of the smoothest, best prepared surfaces on which to race and I have never heard it said that it was hard on equipment. Shoot, even a Late Model Hall of Fame member is the owner/promoter. Yet, for whatever reason, the traveling show didn't support the track this year. I took a first timer to the track that night and was embarrassed. Thank goodness the ISW stop is Saturday night! I will get to show my new friend some of the exciting racing I have been bragging about. I sure didn't get it from the late models that night! I wish you better luck Plymouth on Tuesday night! By the way, Bobby Pierce will not disappoint!

Sunday night shows are like a week night since most people have to work the next day. I was referencing that none of the Indiana tracks host the tour on Friday or Saturday nights when fan and racer support tends to be higher. The Sunday show you saw at Tri-State is like most sprint shows at Kokomo. 20-25 cars, only about 6-8 that are real contenders, and usually a decent race for the fans to enjoy. While I understand your view and your intention to make late model racing sound so inferior to sprint cars, imagine what it would be like if the sprints ran the hell tour. Probably no better.

Car counts seem to be down at almost all of the summer nationals races. It's a grueling tour that not many can afford to do, and weekly super late model racers that would run when the tour came to their home track aren't as numerous as they used to be. I wouldn't be surprised to see the hell tour take on a different format starting next year.

I am hoping to be able to attend tonight's show and Shadyhill tomorrow night also.

[Birdsboro]

I am mainly going because i am out here for the week for racing and its the only race in town so to speak. Plus i enjoy supers and never been to plymouth. If more tracks ran during isw i would go there instead. I would go somewhere monday night, one of these other locals (southern indiana) brownstown or paragon or heck even northefn kentucky.... throw a regular show in there and ill come. You dont have to pay a sanctioning fee just dont have 5 divisions, keep it tight and end early and people like me will come. Lol. Pipe dreams im sure lol

[ISF]

I live 40 minutes from ground zero of dirt late model racing (Fairbury, IL) and this hell tour thing is still a fairly big deal in our neck of the woods. I've followed it from it's inception back in the late 1980's. From it's beginnings through the 1990's was the golden years for the hell tour. It started as a 6 race series in 1988 but has grown to a bloated schedule of 28 to 30 dates. I go to only 1 or 2 Summernationals series races a year now. It's gotten so watered down that it isn't worth the effort anymore.

The more widely known and highly regarded venues are the ones that get the Friday and Saturday night. Naturally Fairbury has a Saturday night date and Cedar Lake (2 day show) up in Wisconsin along with Pevely, Granite City and Farmer City get the prime Fri. & Sat. dates. Places like Peoria, Boswell, Medaryville, Ind., Lake City, Mich., Canton, IL and others get the less attractive weeknight dates. Car counts and attendance has been withering at those weeknight dates for several years now.

The widely held opinions among those that follow the hell tour is that it needs to be substantially shortened so as all races would pay $10,000.00 or more to win. With so many dates on the tour the significance of winning one of the lesser regarded venue races doesn't carry the magnitude they once did.

In my very humble opinion ISW is just about the right length. It could absorb a couple more race dates without diluting the product and lessening the significance of winning one or more of the tour dates. To win an ISW race is a fairly big deal. Other than at a few of the more "glamorous" venues, hell tour? Not so much.