Yesterday I had the chance to sit a read the latest Sprint Car & Midget magazine. There was a piece in there from Jack Miller. It talked about an outing he took with a couple of buddies to a Florida asphalt track to see some wingless sprint cars. He commented on how many classes there were and how the promoter was using the back gate to pay the purse…Just found it funny that what we’ve been saying all along was in print in a national magazine!
That was an excellent article. I don’t know that you can find SC&M Magazine at a store anywhere (I have a subscription) but it encapsulated very nicely about how you take a bunch of “new to local short track racing” people to their first race and they won’t go back because of far too many classes which makes for far too long of an evening.
Hey Haudfan - aren’t you glad I talked you into buying a Lance DeWease shirt last year? Hopefully you were wearing it while watching him win at Charlotte. 
Glad to see DeWease win it at Charlotte if the Wild Child couldn’t…Did you see the replay on Speed from Williams Grove? Old Craig Keel didn’t make many friends with his defensive driving style.
Yeah, haven’t seen Sprint Car & Midget on any newstands. Did you notice how Miller said there were something like 8 classes that ran and only had a total of 81 cars?
Thinking TBARA at NSS Saturday night.
I used to watch “Cricket” Keel run Late Models at Weedsport Speedway (NY)before he ever hopped into a Sprint car. He and his Dad have spent about 25 years now on the road together, never with any kind of budget to speak of. Just to still be OUT there is an accomplishment.
And, once in a while, he still pulls out a win!
Just wondering if I’ve totally lost my memory? I may have. Are you talking about late models as we know them now or even then with the wedge bodies? Or are you talking of “street stocks” which were called late models in NY at one time? I just don’t remember much late model racing in NY until more recently.
You’re not crazy Winger… the Late Models, as they were called there, were stock chassised, full steel bodied cars with wide tires, headers, and all the safety gear. Not at all like we’d think of as a current LM. They were quite a bit like the Street Stock class that runs at VSP now.
Those guys put on some excellent races, and always brought 30-40 cars to most shows. Some names that did real well in that class were Walt Mitchell, Jeff Kappeser, Jack Emerson, Roger Phelps, Mike Colsten, Charlie Castle, Jim Gabriel, Randy Glenski, Dick Sweet and hundereds of others. Many of them moved up to Modifieds along the way, and several are still racing today.
Thanks, I just wasn’t sure anymore. I think Late Models, as we know them, are just starting to catch on up there. I love the NE modifieds but I also love the late models. I had only seen a few late model shows before I moved down here. (I use to watch them at Penn Can speedway and saw the STARS race at Syracuse one year.) I had avoided “late models” for quite a while because I associated them with, what we now call, street stocks. Nothing against the street stocks but things were different back then. Now, I will go out of my way to see them, when I can afford it. 
Hope to meet you and many others Friday in Ocala.