Just saw the results from this weekends Pro Cup (former Hooter’s Pro Cup Series) race at Orange County Speedway in NC… A whopping 8 cars started the race… Can remember when 8 or more would be sent packing after qualifying at Lakeland… Doesn’t look like times are getting any better… NASCAR K&N East Series fields have been dwindling too…
K&N struggling doesn’t surprise me. The weekend warriors have been run off by the Cup Series teams running there, with rich-kid, ride buyers in a lot of the cars. After a year or two, these kids either buy a bigger series ride, or go broke and get out.
Look at results from 2 years ago, and compare it to today. No more than a handful of names on both lists.
Frasson is dead on. As long as the Cup owners use these type of series to review and train their future Nationwide drivers the locals and those without the level of working capital will fall by the wayside as no one wants to actively race when the best they can hope for is 3rd place. I don,t have a solution as I can see where the people with corporate sponsorship have to know what they are putting on the track both as a driver and as a personality. As always money or the lack of is the ruling factor.
This is a real shame, too. After Robert Brooks died, it was pretty clear that the people running the company had no interest in racing. It was a great series, though. I regularly watched the 2 hr broadcasts for all the races I couldn’t get to, and it was rare for us to miss a Procup race at Lakeland or South Georgia. I still follow the Procup alumni, at least the few that are still active these days.