NSS and Volusia

Boneman · September 29, 2021, 3:13am

I closed out speedweeks with two excellent nights at the tracks: Friday at New Smyrna, then Saturday at Volusia. Both shows were very different from each other, but were each very enjoyable. NSS is more precise: running inches apart, door to door, lap after lap. Volusia is more balls to the wall: back it in at 120, and pick any one of 3 or 4 grooves.

I wish there was a way to restore some of the luster to the tour modifieds at New Smyrna. The car counts have been lighter for years (compared to the glory days), and I really missed the rivalries that I have been fortunate to watch: Balough vs. Bodine, Tony Stewart vs. everyone, Ted Christopher vs. the field, and the year that the Myers brothers invaded. Wow, there were some exciting and interesting races! Is there any way to get it back from its current grade of “B-” to the “A+” of previous years?

The big block 50 lapper at Volusia was an excellent race: an “unknown” came from the back and passed the biggest names in the sport to win it. Funny thing about the big blocks: you could say they have a “distinctive appearance”, or that they “fill a niche with their unique look”, or my opinion that they are “butt ugly”. Its too bad they don’t offer a body option of a fiberglass replica body that copies a 1972 Pinto, 1973 Gremlin or a POS Vega from any year.

Friendly suggestion to Volusia: turn the speakers down, or ask the announcers to take a breath sometimes. Your sound system is powerful, and your announcers are pros, but the combination of non-stop chatter and very loud speakers was over-whelming. I was with my son and 3 friends, but it was very difficult to converse at all.

Thanks to both tracks for a great racing weekend!

Photo credit to Winger!

OldSchool · September 30, 2021, 4:21am

Funny, well actually ironic, that those cars looked like Pintos & Gremlins until Balough’s Lincoln (aka “the batmobile”) came along.

Everyone fussed about that car, but it sure was better looking than the current model, IMO.

Fixes? The usual–rules. They don’t need to be template NASCAR, but they need some guidelines, assuming looks count. Mebbe they don’t.

While they are at it they could nail down the left side wheelbase & maybe the RR spring/bar rate so they were not so…squashy.

Of course, the rules would be the same for all, and I doubt the fans would miss the speed–but they might identify with them a little more…

I am an asphalt guy, however, so am out of my league.

Dirt Mods are fun once in a while no doubt.

jbonez21 · September 30, 2021, 4:21am

I would love to see 25+ tour mods at NSS once, twice, or three times per year, whether they are official tour races or for speedweeks.

TC is a great racer and very fun to watch, but is it suspicious that he hasn’t returned to NSS in 3 or 4 years since they wanted to tear down his engine?

kendo · September 30, 2021, 4:21am

Braved the cold and went to Volusia twice.The place was jammed packed both nights with cars parked out to the road.Hardly an empty seat in the house.Racing was excellent as always,fast paced show with few cautions.

Watched a few NSS races on the web.The low car counts and small crowds were once again disappointing.

Boneman · September 30, 2021, 4:21am

Spectacular, but unrelated… Did anyone else notice the enormous meteor that burned up during the modified feature? We all saw it above turn 3, and thought it was fireworks from the track. I see that WFLA.com has a story about it, and it was visible from as far away as S. Carolina. They estimate that it ended around 30 miles west of Jacksonville.

Congratulations to the promoter that arranged THAT ONE!

scott_bertram · September 30, 2021, 4:21am

scott_bertram · September 30, 2021, 4:21am

I went to both tracks, VSP stayed packed, great racing, great car count.

I am a fan of the north eastern big block mods, love the bodies. Of course being raised in NY at a dirt track it’s all I saw.

NSS had some great racing as well, but as stated fan count was not impressive to say the least.

I think the atmosphere dictated the fan base mostly.

first thing I noticed was the flaggers at both tracks, the music, the announcing, the workers demeanor, and of course the prices.

the flag man at NSS seemed less than energetic lets say.

the music (if any) typically dictates 1 crowd type and isn’t very lively,

and I was pretty irritated with hearing “circuit” non stop at both tracks. I don’t recall hearing that term used before in place of “lap”. Maybe I just noticed it and they have been doing it all along.

while it seems VSP strives to pull a fan base, it appears that NSS is content with just the back gate.

I heard many times the excuse for the lack of fans at NSS was the weather, which is crazy talk considering VSP packed the stands the same nights.

I have witnessed first hand the difference in workers between the tracks also. at NSS some of them act as if they are doing you a favor and would rather not do it let alone go the extra mile. these types could really use a kick in the ass to the curb.

VSP seems to cater to the fans, with very bubbly personalities. And look as if they actually enjoy what they do.

One thing I don’t understand (not secluding any track here): if fan count is down why in the world keep ticket prices high?? if I’m missing something please enlighten me… say admission is $30, you pull 100 fans = $3k. now these people aren’t exactly happy with the price they just paid and aren’t as eager to spend the $ at concessions as they would be had they spent $10 to get in.

now lets say we start charging $10 admission for the same quality show, after a few weeks word gets out that its cheap entertainment and fan base say only gets increased to 300 fans. we are at $3k again…but… these 300 fans feel so great about the cheap admission and great show that they willingly spend the extra $ on concessions. so now we have $3k in admission plus 300 fans buying concessions vrs the 100 that was penny pinching.

personally when I’m a paying spectator I bring 3 adults (because one of my kids is considered an adult)and 1 kid. if I spend $50 in gas to go, $90 to get in and I’m heading home by 10:00 I spent at min. $140 not counting concessions for essentially 3hrs of entertainment. meanwhile the kid wants this and that. so $200 is the norm for 3 hours, much of that filled by wreckers cleaning up wrecks and other non racing situations. We have a problem in our sport of not offering a valuable service for the price paid. what I see is stubborn tracks refusing to lower prices because they aren’t making the profit they desire. sounds a lot to me like biting the hand that feeds you. It kind of goes hand in hand with tracks in the tire/fuel business that don’t encourage car counts. Many times I have wanted to race and had new tires and fuel ready to go but there was a min. tire/fuel purchase that I couldn’t afford. If things are bad… don’t make it more costly. instead get costs down!! The poor fan base kills growth all around. Sponsors aren’t going to fork out $ to get to a whopping 50-100 fans, a lot of sponsors are family/friends/ or the car owners business. the day of getting a non affiliated sponsor is about done with the local scene. and how can you blame them? so here we are with no raise in car counts, no fans, no new sponsors bringing a bigger fan base to the sport we love. every track that doesn’t do everything possible to bring fans in the stands has a role in this. which to me is crazy considering it hurts track owners the hardest eventually.

Groundpounder · September 30, 2021, 4:21am

[QUOTE=Boneman;155923]Spectacular, but unrelated… Did anyone else notice the enormous meteor that burned up during the modified feature? We all saw it above turn 3, and thought it was fireworks from the track. I see that WFLA.com has a story about it, and it was visible from as far away as S. Carolina. They estimate that it ended around 30 miles west of Jacksonville.

Congratulations to the promoter that arranged THAT ONE![/QUOTE]
That was no meteor. That was Kurt Busch’s NASCAR career flaming out!

Boneman · September 30, 2021, 4:21am

Hey Scott, your point about atmosphere is well taken. It has always been an intangible that some tracks never seem to capture. I give kudos to New Smyrna for their addition of live music at their bar. Fun for sure.

I was never much of a Kid Rock fan…until this. I thought his performance before the Daytona 500 was outstanding! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVrQpRCjVY4

Winger · September 30, 2021, 4:21am

Good observations Rex. I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye and actually wondered if it was a meteor at the time. But it was only a flash and I figured firework that I missed. I grew up around the big blocks and I’ve seen the transition in body styles. I was fond of the pintos and gremlins. After Balough brought his “Lincoln” they bodies did change but actually retained a shape of a gremlin for many years. Then DIRT wanted to change the body styles so they reflected something that was actually driven on the streets. The first ones that did that were pretty neat. But it seems that since then they have evolved so really take advantage of “sail panels”. I will agree that they seem ugly compared to other classes now. The graphics and colors are pretty spectacular in the class but the bodies themselves are shaped ugly. I was pretty disappointed in the racing Saturday until the Big Block Feature. The rest of the night was pretty much single lane with not a lot of side by side racing. The big blocks made the night worthwhile. I was actually shooting pictures from turn one and was wishing I was in the stands watching.

Shiloh64 · September 30, 2021, 4:21am

We’re all comfortable with what was on the track when we first started attending races. For me it was right after WWII, mostly midgets and sprints (or “big cars” as they were also called). Then for the next twenty years, coupes ands 1930’s vintage sedans made up the fields. Myself and a lot of others, at that time, hated the influx of Pintos, Gremlins, etc. Keep in mind that by the 60’s when modifieds were king (at least in New England), most tracks had a “B” division and it was always rather stock appearing late models. For most of my lifetime to this day, late models and their different variations still seem like “pretenders”, as compared to the coupes and sedans of yesteryear.

I hate to admit it but my interest in the Champ cars faded away with the demise of the front engine uprights and roadsters.

My point is not that any one of these classes or types are better (or worse) necessarily, just different from the ones we grew up and are comfortable with.

Winger · September 30, 2021, 4:21am

Exactly right Shiloh. I remember the A and B classes in the modifieds also. Pintos and Gremlins to replace the coupes and model A’s. I remember the “late models” being a support class similar to what is now the street stock class. They have all evolved. The Big Block Modifieds are nothing like the modified of the south or the rest of the country. If you look at them, the driver basically sits in the center of the car over top of the rear end. The engine is in the middle of the car, and the front wheels are almost in front of the body. In fact, I have a few photos from this weekend where the wheels are in front when turning. These cars are closer to a sprint car than anything else. Except that their wing is inside the body with the driver sitting in the middle of it. LOL I’ll post a photo showing the wheels actually in front of the car.

luke81 · September 30, 2021, 4:21am

That’s where the chassis sort of originally evolved from. And until maybe 10-ish years ago if you stripped a mod chassis down to bare and put it next to a sprint chassis they appeared very, very similar aside from overall size. My dad still has his original 1987 Tobias modifed in the garage, fully assembled. It’s 4 bar like a sprint, Z-link rear with a W-link (or jacob’s ladder), and even has a torque tube coming off the transmission exactly like a sprint uses. It was the late 90’s when coil fronts, 4 bar rears, and then panhard bars and torque arms with driveshafts really started coming on in the mods. It’s a pretty cool evolution. I don’t mind the look, but I wish they would put full sail panels on the big blocks so there was a more visual difference between them and the sportsman. (Which for you southerners sportsman are the exact same chassis/body with a 602 crate and various other limits.)

katlizy · September 30, 2021, 4:21am

Best line ever.

katlizy · September 30, 2021, 4:21am

[QUOTE=scott bertram;155925]I went to both tracks, VSP stayed packed, great racing, great car count.