Key players in POWRi and USAC, the two clear midget racing powerhouses, can quantify the overall growth in interest. Jason McCord, the director of competition for POWRi, feels his series hit on a bit of magic early on that really helped it grow,
“The smaller the race track, the greater the influx of cars,” McCord said. “This has proven itself time and time again.”
As a result, POWRi averaged 35 cars a night in 2018 and this year the series has announced a stout 41-race slate. McCord admits there was a time where he felt midget racing “was on a slippery slope.” Not now. When you combine a full field of midgets, with POWRi’s vibrant micro program, it is easy to understand the attraction for promoters, and thus, why the calendar was filled early.
McCord’s counterpart at USAC, National Series Director Levi Jones, can barely hide his enthusiasm for the 2019 season. The 35-race schedule is the largest for USAC in years, and adding to his anticipation is the fact new teams and drivers are signing on for the full ride.
For Jones, the ability to get more promoters under the tent for 2019 was easy to understand.
“I think for one thing,” Jones said, “the racing action is really good, so we aren’t trying to sell something that isn’t entertaining. We have a product that people want.”
For Jones, the good news doesn’t end with the enhanced schedule.
“Everything is on the up,” he said. “If you win a midget race, everyone is talking about it. With a great schedule, teams can secure good sponsorship programs and then go out and get the best drivers.”
Jones then added, with obvious satisfaction, “We are getting back to getting professional drivers in the series, by that I mean guys who truly race for a living. It’s the best it has been in recent years. When you put the best drivers in really good cars at cool race tracks, the product is a hit.”
Because they attract the teams with the most resources and high-profile racers, USAC and POWRi officials understand the dynamics at hand. First, their rules packages are similar, and from there, as McCord noted, “We share teams, crews and fans, so we try to schedule in a way to stay off of each other. Now, there are only so many Saturdays in the year so we are going to run into each other some, but more often this happens when they are in Pennsylvania and we’re in Oklahoma.
Despite the good news, there is little question that racing with POWRi and USAC requires a budget that far exceeds anything the average mom-and-pop operation can ever dream of.
In many respects, like much of racing, the entire enterprise can feel fiscally irrational. The recent Keith Kunz onslaught at the Chili Bowl occasionally leads some to assert that the super teams are ruining the sport. It is a claim Kunz and Clauson reject out of hand.
“If Tim and I are so bad for the sport, why is our sport so good?” Kunz asked “Why is it so much more competitive and the racing so great?”
Nonetheless, there is no denying that in some quarters midget racing has suffered badly. The ARDC, the longest standing East Coast midget organization, has been relegated to history. Additionally, just a few short years ago the Badger Midget Auto Racing Ass’n, the oldest of midget organizations was, at best, on life support.
In order to survive, former racer Quinn McCabe led the club in a period of transformation, starting with a less expensive engine package. The returns have been overwhelmingly positive, and in their own niche Badger is also in the midst of a resurgence.
In the New England area, the Northeastern Midget Ass’n, an esteemed club edging toward seven decades of operation, also employs a more restrictive rules package to stay alive. President Tim Bertrand understands the needs of his membership and feels strongly that allowing high-dollar engines would be counterproductive to his club’s long-term survival.
For proof, he looks at the plight of ARDC and feels the failure to keep costs in check was one factor in that organization’s demise. NEMA has its own unique niche, winged midget racing on pavement.
While allowing a wing on top may seem counterintuitive given the strain the top fin can place on engines, Bertrand feels it helps older race cars remain competitive. This works, in part, due to NEMA’s effort to also keep high-dollar shocks and other similar components out of the series.
The key stakeholders in USAC and POWRi understand and applaud the direction taken by leaders like McCabe and Bertrand to save their respective organizations. Reflecting on what has transpired with Badger, Keith Kunz said, “They’re having success with it, and for that area and for those racers it is working.”
That said, Kunz offers an opinion shared by many closely tied to POWRi and USAC. He noted, “But there is still room for National midgets, which is USAC and POWRi. Why can’t there be an elite series too?”
The question at hand is sustainability. Can race teams attract manufacturer and sponsor interest in a sport where the prize money doesn’t come close to matching the cost of participation? Will fickle consumer tastes still be piqued by midget racing and keep the grandstands filled all season long? Only time can tell.
However, at the moment, it seems indisputable that there is a feeling among fans, officials and participants that we are on the cusp of a special epoch in midget racing.
At the very least, few can wait to watch the next showdown between Larson and Bell, and see how a new batch of young guns can fare against proven veterans.