Jimmy Owens and Kenny Wallace both shared their thoughts on what they believe has killed local racing.
During the most recent Kenny Conversation episode featuring Owens, Wallace observed that local racing has become stagnant while national and even regional tours are doing well. He said, “We get 9 to 10 Super Late Models here at Pevely or Brownstown. We could get 12. Specifically what is your thought? The Late Models are not as big as they used to be on a local level in our area, the Midwest. Do you see that? And what is your thoughts on what I just served up to you?”
Owens answered, “Yes, I definitely see the local racing. Our local tracks, in general, it’s the same group of people that’s always been there and you don’t hardly see any newcomers coming to the sport and I don’t understand why that is. I mean I understand the cost is just crazy, but I feel like racing is a lot of mechanic work and a lot of fabrication work and stuff like that. And I don’t feel like we got as many fabricators in our sport as they used to be.”
Owens also addressed common claims that streaming is killing local racing. He said, “Like Lucas [Oil Late Model Dirt Series] and all that stuff. That TV stuff and everything’s really, really boosted that I feel like. And everybody’s like, ‘Well, it’s killing your local racing.’ And I don’t feel like it has killed local racing at all. I just feel like everything else has, the economy, and all that.”
To Owens’ point, Mark Richards, who fields the Rocket1 Racing car that is piloted Brandon Sheppard and is the co-owner of Rocket Chassis, recently shared that it costs him $8,000 every time he unloads to race.
Richards told The Dirt Parlor Podcast, “When I lay my door down, I’m $8,000 minimum per night to race. … 50% of the purse of mine goes to the crew and the driver. So, I got to win a $16,000 to-win race to justify laying that door down if I’m just doing it off the purse money. So, we have to rely on sponsorship. And if it wasn’t for sponsorship I probably couldn’t be doing this. Between sponsorship and my business, to promote our product, it wouldn’t make no sense.”
“Nobody is winning any money in this,” he continued. “Nobody except the drivers are making a little bit of money at that top level because they get a percentage off the top of the purse. And the better drivers you got to pay for. You’re not getting the top drivers unless you’re paying and they’re getting a percentage of the purse. So, even if you got all the purse money it would be tough to break even in this money. So, that’s where the issue is. … What we need is [a] more structured purse to where the money’s getting spread a little more out.”
Part of that $8,000 that Richards and the Rocket1 Racing team are spending is on fuel. He shared that his fuel costs have doubled. Between April 15th and September 15th, he revealed he spent $31,000.
“Fuel for my truck for the two quarters, which is six months, was $31,000. That fuel used to be $15,000. It’s still a lot at $31,000 just for fuel. That doesn’t include insurance, the maintenance on the truck, tires on the truck, or anything. So, stuff like that is what’s causing the issues that we all have. The more races we run, the more it costs.”
Wallace also shared his thoughts and pointed to a change in wants and desires among generations, “I call this a societal shift and what I mean by that is society, the people, are way different. You and I used to melt lead down from tire weights. Now you buy lead. I used to cut Lexan out to make a windshield. Now, they buy the windshield. You don’t weld on the frame and cages anymore. You clamp things on.”
“I think people — and I’m always controversial because I say it the way it is, but I don’t mean any harm — I think people are lazier. I think people don’t want it as bad as we did because we grew up in an era where you collected soda bottles. You went up to the store and got five cents. That’s just what you did. Dirt racers now are like, ‘Well, I can’t race this week ’cause it’s my grandma’s birthday.’ I’m like, ‘What? My grandma had to come to the race track.'”
“So I think Jimmy Owens and myself agree that local racing is lesser because the locals—. The great Dick Trickle said, “You got to wanna.’ We got a guy here in town, Rusty Griffaw. Griffaw wants it. He can make chicken salad out of chicken [crap]. And he’s going racing. The rest are like, ‘Oh, we’re taking our family to the lake.’ I’m like, ‘What?'”
Jimmy Owens at the Oshkosh Speedzone on the Sunnyview Expo Center grounds in 2015. Photo by Royalbroil.
Owens then concurred, “I feel like it. I feel like their level of want to versus our level of want to isn’t the same.’
Wallace then reiterated his point, “They blame it on money. I’m like, ‘You’re lying to yourself. You just don’t want to do it like we did.'”
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