[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.