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  • SHORT TRACK: An Homage to a Forgotten Series

    SHORT TRACK: An Homage to a Forgotten Series

    The Stephen Cox Blog is presented by Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions

    Hard to believe it’s been nearly 20 years since the Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) ran exciting, wheel to wheel stock car races on short tracks around Indiana. This series was distinct from and should not be confused with today’s southeastern CARS series that descended from the old Hooters ProCup series.

    The original CARS series was Indiana-based, founded by former ARCA driver Morris Coffman. The concept was built around a spec stock car chassis powered by 305 cubic inch Chevrolet small block engines with two-barrel carburetors that produced about 335 horsepower. The hard compound tires were grooved to limit grip. A completed car, ready to race, was available for about twenty thousand dollars while kits could be purchased for half that price and assembled by the race teams.

    The result was a fun, affordable mid-level touring series that frequented premier Midwestern short tracks including Indianapolis Raceway Park (now Lucas Oil Raceway), Winchester Speedway and Illiana Speedway.

    The crowds were good. The race cars were fun to drive. They had enough power to slide through the turns but not so much grip that engine prices soared into the stratosphere. For a while – a very short while – CARS provided an excellent platform to learn the craft of stock car racing.

    I competed in the series from early 1999 until August 2000. My record was marginal, winning two of the series’ smaller events, sitting on the pole at Winchester and finishing sixth in the season points championship. But the competition sharpened my driving skills and introduced me to some great people who remain friends nearly two decades later.

    Jeff Cannon (33) battles Stephen Cox (21) at Winchester Speedway, 1999

    On September 19, 1999, we put on a pretty good show for Winchester Speedway’s race fans on a bright and cool Sunday afternoon. The top five cars broke away from the field and ran nose-to-tail and sometimes side by side on Winchester’s extreme, 32-degree banking for most of the 20-lap feature. My father and spotter, Nelson, coached me up to fourth place late in the event. The whirlwind speeds of Winchester’s high groove took your breath away, especially when running in a two or three-wide pack of five cars, all vying for a win before a huge crowd at a historic track. I finished fourth in one of the best short track races of the year.

    Series front runners included many outstanding drivers who had already proven themselves winners at other levels of racing. Mark Fesmire could do no wrong in the 1999 season and left us all in the dust on his way to the first CARS championship title. Indiana short track legend Eddie Van Meter won in front of 25,000 fans at Indianapolis in May 2000. Jeff Cannon was so fast he couldn’t keep tires under his car. Bob Dumke, Tim Green, Wes Bullock, Tim Wallen and other fine drivers competed in my era with many more joining after I departed for the Hooters Pro Cup Series in late 2000.

    Jerome Branscum, who won the 2003 CARS championship title and later purchased the series, said, “It was a series that we could get into for ten grand and get a nice looking car and we could go racing. I was 44 years old and had never driven a race car before. It was a real thrill for me. It was the excitement of getting to go racing every week, and on a budget.”

    Going through multiple ownership changes, the series was active as late as 2012 although it struggled to draw entries. It eventually faded away, forgotten by all but a handful of former competitors.

    The Championship Auto Racing Series existed in the era immediately preceding the Internet, so not a trace of its history can be found online. It existed in the earliest era of digital photography, so traditional 35mm photos are scarce and the few available digital pictures are of poor quality. As far as I can tell all records of its races and indeed, the very existence of the series, have been lost.

    “I would like it to be remembered like it was in the early years,” Branscum recalled, “when you could go racing and it wouldn’t cost you a fortune. You could meet friendly people, race hard and have fun.”

    Stephen Cox
    Driver, Super Cup Stock Car Series and FIA EGT sportscar championship
    Co-host, Mecum Auctions on NBCSN
    CEO, Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions

  • 1922 INDY 500: Two Boys, a Train and the Making of a Race Fan

    1922 INDY 500: Two Boys, a Train and the Making of a Race Fan

    Stephen Cox Blog Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance

    Here’s a short story to help you enjoy this year’s 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500.

    In the spring of 1922, Alton Hartley was a college student at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He and a friend decided they wanted to attend the 10th International 500 Mile Sweepstakes, as the race was then known, on Tuesday, May 30.

    Having no car, Hartley and his friend needed a cheap method of transportation for the 65-mile southbound trip to Indianapolis and the local freight train beckoned. Hopping trains was illegal and considered trespassing in the early 20th century, and every major railroad company employed armies of police to protect their property.

    These privately employed police were generally afforded the “right” to deal with trespassers as they saw fit, which routinely involved some pretty brutal tactics. As one traveling hobo from the 1930s recalled, “God help you if you ever get caught on railroad property… they have their own brand of justice and the police and courts are not part of it.”

    But Hartley and his friend decided to jump the next southbound freight train and take their chances. It wasn’t long before the onboard security officer found the two young men, who were horrified at their fate. Desperate to explain their situation, Hartley told the officer they were not hobos or long distance travelers. They were two college kids who just wanted to get to Indianapolis to see the 500-mile race.

    Fortunately, the railroad security officer must have been a race fan. Rather than being beaten, thrown off the train or sent to jail for trespassing, the young men were marched up to the locomotive and introduced to the engineer, where they were welcomed and given a spot to ride in relative comfort for the remainder of the journey.

    Much to their surprise, the train staff happily dropped the boys off in the town of Speedway on the west side of Indianapolis. As a parting gift, the train staff provided them two box lunches, a pair of general admission tickets to the event and a pile of newspapers which the boys were told to use as blankets while napping throughout the day.

    Box lunches in hand, they arrived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 16th and Georgetown in time to see a 1,000-piece band perform in front of the grandstands at 9:20 a.m. Shortly afterward, racing legend Barney Oldfield drove his National onto the track to pace the field. The race began at 10 a.m, as was the practice at the time, with a hot-air balloon floating above the track carrying a huge American flag.

    California’s Jimmy Murphy wrote his name in the auto racing history books that day, taking the checkered flag shortly after 3 p.m. with an average speed of nearly 95 miles per hour.

    Making their way back to the train station, the boys had one more favor to collect. The railroad crew had promised to pick them up again after the event and take them back to West Lafayette after the race. Hartley, who related this story to his nephew, Pete Gruich, in 1991, said they gratefully accepted the offer for a return ride and made it safely back to West Lafayette to continue their classes.

    Hartley married his teenage sweetheart, Josephine, in 1926 and the couple shared more than seven decades together. An antique dealer by trade, Hartley remained an auto racing fan for the rest of his days. He died in 2001.

    And once upon a time, long ago, that’s how race fans were made.

    Stephen Cox

    Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions

    Driver, FIA EPCS sportscar series & Super Cup Stock Car Series

    Co-host, Mecum Auctions on NBCSN

    Alton Hartley (L) and nephew Pete Gruich in 1991 (courtesy Pete Gruich)
    Jimmy Murphy takes the checkered flag at Indianapolis in 1922

     

  • Driver Ego: The Key to Building a Successful Racing Series

    Driver Ego: The Key to Building a Successful Racing Series

    The Stephen Cox Blog is Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance

    The easiest way to increase car count in short track racing and amateur road racing is to keep your drivers happy. Really happy. Fortunately, there is a very effective and affordable way to do that.

    It was four o’clock on a Sunday afternoon, August 29, 2004. It was blazing hot at the Hallett Motor Racing Circuit just outside of Tulsa. Although we missed the setup and were posting slower-than-usual lap times, we won the GT-2 qualifying race after the leader retired with a broken supercharger belt.

    I climbed out of the race car drenched in sweat, knowing that I’d won a race I didn’t deserve. The track owner, the late Mike Stephens, was setting up victory lane and preparing to hand out trophies to the day’s winners. I stopped by to chat with him just before the main event and jokingly asked which trophy was mine. Mike laughed and then responded with some of the most truthful words ever uttered in motorsports.

    “Stephen, I’m not in the racing business. I’m in the ego gratification business. I promise we’ll take care of you.”  

    World Racing League championship ring

    The racing driver in me doesn’t like to hear that, but it’s true. Drivers want to participate in events that reward their ego. They’re interested in events that leave behind detailed records so that future generations can see and recognize their efforts.

    Records matter. Even the small ones. Heat race wins, track records, qualifying race wins, entry lists… these things are important to many racing drivers. They want to know that the series keeps careful records that will be made widely available and preserved long after their careers are over.

    Some may call this nothing more than childish ego. Your drivers and teams will consider it an honest, justifiable pride in years of hard work. But ultimately, what we think doesn’t really matter because human nature remains the same.

    The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series is now re-writing their record book to include drivers who won A-main races during multi-day events. Previously, drivers who had won feature races on anything other than the final night of the event weren’t credited with official wins. Now they are. This brings a host of new, officially recognized winners into the record books. It makes a lot of drivers and teams very happy, and it didn’t cost the World of Outlaws a cent.

    World Racing League president Joey Todd offers a championship ring to the winners of the U. S. Endurance Championship at the Circuit of the Americas every December. Almost every racing driver I’ve ever met would trade all the trophies and accolades he’d ever earned for just one championship ring.

    It’s also a smart public relations move because a ring is worn regularly and continues to advertise for the series for decades to come. Championship rings hold a special mystique. Nobody gets a ring for participation. Few people will ask about a trophy after it disappears into a closet, but everyone wants to know, “Hey, how did you get that ring?”

    Midvale Speedway has begun posting the names of their track record holders on the front page of their website. It gives drivers something to shoot for. It shows that the series is interested in promoting their own teams and recognizing achievement at their track. It’s a great move that costs the track nothing.

    Every racing series and local track should have a master record book that is digitally distributed at no charge to the racing media, permanently posted on the series website and sent to every online racing database after each season. It should include every team and driver possible, and every record imaginable.

    It costs nothing to include short track heat race wins, track records and class champions in your record book, but your teams and drivers will take notice. They will appreciate the recognition.

    For better or worse, I really believe that Mike Stephens was right. We’re not in the racing business. We’re in the ego gratification business.

    Stephen Cox

    Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions

    Driver, FIA EPCS sports cars and Super Cup Stock Car Series

    Co-host, Mecum Auctions on NBCSN

  • INDYCAR: What’s Missing at St Pete’s Season Opener

    INDYCAR: What’s Missing at St Pete’s Season Opener

    The Stephen Cox Blog is Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance

    Qualifying for an Indycar race is no longer considered an accomplishment of any value in the auto racing world. Of course, qualifying well is still valued. But qualifying itself is not, because every team that shows up automatically makes the race.

    This is one of the unspoken differences between Indycar racing today and Indycar racing of the past. Once upon a time, simply putting the car in the field was a noteworthy accomplishment in motorsports because there were more teams, cars and drivers than available entry positions in America’s highest open wheel series.

    Of course, there has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth over Indycar’s failure to produce bumping on Bump Day at Indianapolis, but that is only part of the story. The meaningful excitement of time trials has collapsed not only at Indy but across the board.

    The opening race of the 2017 Indycar campaign at St. Pete drew twenty-one entries. Everyone who showed up with a pulse and a car made the show. Today this is considered normal. But for much of Indycar’s past, it wasn’t.

    Compare that to 1970 when the Indycar season opener at Phoenix drew twenty-seven entries, all of them fighting over twenty-four available starting spots. Qualifications were exciting and unpredictable. Teams weren’t just worried about a getting good starting position; many of them were concerned about starting at all. When time trials were done, Roger McCluskey, Larry Cannon and Bentley Warren loaded up and went home. They weren’t fast enough to make the show.

    Fast forward to 1998. Thirty-one car and drive combinations showed up for the Indycar season opener at Orlando. Twenty-eight cars started the show. Time trials were again of genuine interest because the previous year’s upset winner at Phoenix, Jim Guthrie, was among three drivers who didn’t make the race.

    For much of its history, Indycars provided a race before the race. Getting into the show at all was considered an accomplishment. That excitement is lost on today’s racing audiences.

    Instead of a real, substantive contest among drivers scrambling to make the race, we are given the “Fast Six” qualifying gimmick that attempts to generate interest over who qualifies in what position, rather than who qualifies and who does not. And the public isn’t taking the bait. It’s obvious to even the casual racing fan that if there was any real drama during qualifications, the “Fast Six” program wouldn’t exist.

    Indycar needs more teams, more cars and more drivers. But the financial barriers to entry remain so high that few can overcome them. Mandated engine programs did not solve the problem. Spec chassis, spec aero kits and spec tires did not solve the problem. Indycar barely fills its own starting fields and has not been able to muster any real interest in qualifications. Worse yet, Indycar’s leadership shows little interest in bringing in new drivers from other disciplines.

    I’m looking forward to this year’s season opener at St. Petersburg. But we’re all still waiting for the day when earning a starting spot in the field at an Indycar race is once again considered a significant accomplishment in worldwide motorsports.

    Stephen Cox

    Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions

    Driver, FIA EPCS sportscars & Super Cup Stock Car Series

    Co-host, Mecum Auctions on NBCSN

  • GHOST TRACKS: Revisiting Indiana’s Armscamp Speedway

    GHOST TRACKS: Revisiting Indiana’s Armscamp Speedway

    “No Trespassing” signs were everywhere. I had taken a wonderful 90-minute ride on my Triumph Bonneville to see the old race track and I didn’t want to go home empty-handed. It took half an hour to find someone who assured me that I could take a few quick photos of the former Armscamp Speedway in Alexandria, Indiana.

    There’s not much left. The south concrete wall still stands, marking the asphalt track’s fast main straightaway. The smaller infield track, which circles inside the quarter-mile main facility, is easier to make out. Half-century-old trees have grown up and through everything, including the old track surface itself.

    Built in 1941, Armscamp Speedway was at its zenith in the 1950s under the watchful eye of owner Paul Karnes, universally known as “Whitey.” If you could travel back in time and attend an average night at Armscamp Speedway, there is absolutely nothing that you would not recognize. You would feel right at home.

    You could watch races on Friday or Sunday nights. Occasionally a special double feature would be held with a complete midget show running Sunday afternoon at 2:30 pm, followed by a “hardtopper” show at 8:30 pm the same evening for stock cars. For a dollar, you could watch them both (about $6.50 in today’s devalued currency).

    The entire nightly routine would feel familiar to a modern short track fan. See if there’s anything here you recognize…

    Qualifying, or “time trials’ as they were then known, began an hour before the first race. If you could run the quarter-mile bullring in about 17.5 seconds, you were among the fastest cars.

    Fifty or more “hardtops” would enter the event, divided up into a trophy dash and four 10-lap heat races. The faster cars advanced into one of two 15-lap “semifinals,” with the fastest semifinal cars transferring to a 25-lap feature event.

    Amateur racers competed in “pleasure cars,” sort of an early version of street stocks. All other drivers were listed as professionals if their class paid a purse. The fact that most of them held day jobs mattered not. If you got paid, you were a professional racing driver.

    Just like today, a handful of the fastest open-wheel touring pros could make a decent living by racing full time. When Bob Breading of Indianapolis won the first of his three eventual Consolidated Midget Racing Association titles in 1946, his earnings for the year totaled $14,000. He would spend more than half of that on travel and car maintenance, but $6-7,000 was an upper middle class living in 1946 when the average US annual salary was barely $2,600.

    Special events paid more. A $2,000 total purse for a special main event was a big payday in the early 1950s, and a common sum for special touring series events or 100-lap championship features.

    Does all this still sound familiar?

    Drivers and officials at Armscamp Speedway argued over fairness and budgets just like today. Whitey Karnes introduced a new rule for the 1952 season declaring that any car winning three features must be sold to the first bidder for five hundred dollars. If no one bought it, the driver was free to continue competing in it. The “claim” rule is standard for many Midwestern short tracks today.

    Armscamp’s 1953 rules package was exactly ten sentences long. This is an exact quote: “Motor… anything you can’t see (is okay). If the motor looks stock outwardly, it’s okay. No tear downs!”

    The successful drivers were well known to race fans throughout the region. Names like Huston Bundy, Audie Swartz, Johnny Arnold, Francis Morris and Bill Holloway were in the newspaper every week.

    In 1953, Holloway was a 29-year-old from Muncie who built his own cars, managed the family garage, held a full-time position at Delco and ran four or more short track races every week. The previous year he had set single lap, 5-lap, 10-lap, 15-lap and 50-lap speed records at Armscamp while posting more Hardtop feature wins than any other driver. He raced for thirty years in stock cars and midgets before taking up motorcycles. He was still riding a 1200cc bike (rapidly) at age 83. If they’re going to build a Hall of Fame, guys like Holloway belong in it. He was typical of the local heroes who lit up Midwestern tracks every weekend in the middle of the 20th century.

    Armscamp Speedway ran its final race in the summer of 1967, after 26 years as a mainstay on the Indiana/Ohio short track racing circuit.

    If you could travel back in time to Armscamp Speedway in the 1940’s and 50’s, every single moment of your experience would be familiar. It would feel like home. You would instantly become comfortable with the format, the atmosphere and even the fans. It is shocking how little has really changed throughout the history of short track racing.

    The ruins of Armscamp Speedway can be found about a hundred yards northwest of the Centennial Steel building on the north side of State Road 28, less than a mile west of the junction with State Road 9 in Alexandria, Indiana. There’s not much to see, but I still considered it worth the trip. It’s like having your own personal time machine.

    But be sure and ask first. There are “No Trespassing” signs everywhere.

    Stephen Cox

    Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions

    Driver, Super Cup Stock Car Series & FIA EGT Championship

    Co-host, Mecum Auctions on NBCSN

  • Are Grid Girls the Next Casualties in the War for Political Correctness?

    Are Grid Girls the Next Casualties in the War for Political Correctness?

    Stephen Cox Blog Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance

    Auto racing’s long-standing tradition of grid girls seems to be in trouble.

    It was early 2015 when the World Endurance Championships (WEC) got rid of them, and Formula 1 may be next. Director Ross Brawn of Liberty Media, the new controlling group of Formula 1, recently said that the tradition of grid girls is being reconsidered.

    For the uninitiated, “grid girls” are the pretty women who stand beside the race cars prior to many events to hold grid markers and sponsor signs, and, well… look pretty.

    Traditionally, grid girls have dressed to look attractive and feminine. That’s all well and good. Recent years have seen (some of) them dressing more and more scantily. In my opinion that’s not so good. But if I don’t like it, I’m still free to stay home. And that’s good.

    This is precisely why I don’t attend boxing matches and MMA fights, by the way. The ring girls aren’t just dressed attractively. Some of them are downright indecent. So I stay home, shut up and mind my own business. The girls can keep their jobs, the fight promoters can put on the show they like and everyone is happy.

    What, exactly, is being accomplished if Formula 1 decides to defend women around the world by firing hundreds of women around the world? The girls that needed these jobs will no longer have them. The girls who aspire to be models, spokeswomen, media personalities or actresses will have one less avenue available to enter their chosen field.

    The grid girls are not being well served by getting fired. The only people satisfied by their unemployment are people who demand that their agenda be enacted no matter what the cost may be to anyone else.

    Did you see auto racing enthusiasts protesting and rioting against grid girls at the last race you attended? Me neither. Motorsports series are not firing grid girls in response to an overwhelming mandate from fans.

    They’re doing this to please people who have little or no interest in motor racing, who may never attend an auto race, and who, in some cases, oppose the very existence of the sport. By definition, these are not people who are willing to live and let live. If they were, they would refuse to have grid girls at their book burnings and witch hunts but leave you free to have them at your auto races.

    Racing officials need to understand one point very clearly – these people will not become fans once you fire the grid girls. Auto racing is a loud, dangerous, fatality causing, fossil fuel burning, cut throat competition that does not award trophies for participation. These people hate you. They are not suddenly going to embrace you as a forward thinking intellectual simply because you caved in to their demands and kicked a few recently unemployed women to the curb.

    If this artificially manufactured non-issue needs to be revisited at all, it should be revisited solely on the basis of what the the teams, their fans and the grid girls want rather than on political pressure to conform to the demands of outside groups who don’t care one whit about the sport. Make your own decision and listen to your own fans and we’ll be happy no matter what the outcome may be.

    If I don’t like it, I’m free to stay home.

    Stephen Cox
    Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions
    Driver, Super Cup Stock Car Series & EGT Championship

  • What November 18th Means for Sports Car Racing

    What November 18th Means for Sports Car Racing

    Stephen Cox Blog Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance

    As racers and motorsports enthusiasts, most of us like to keep our ear to the ground about what’s happening in our sport. Who could have predicted the explosion of $500 “crapcan” endurance racing, the declining attendance in NASCAR or the amazing rise of Formula E? What’s next in our sport, and why?

    I must admit that the success of Formula E took me by surprise, especially considering the intense controversy surrounding electric vehicle racing.

    Personally, I don’t take a side in the debate. I drive stock cars, sports cars and anything else that has four wheels and brakes. Yes, I watch Formula E and enjoy it. I also watch Indycar and sprint cars and local hobby stock divisions. If they raced tricycles, I’d watch that, too. I don’t discriminate. I just love racing.

    Once Formula E became established and financially viable, it was only a matter of time before an all-electric sports car series was introduced as well. That series is now here.

    The Electric GT Championship (EGT) will hold its inaugural “Day of Light” on November 18th at Circuit Pau-Arnos in southwestern France. What is a “Day of Light?” Think of it as an American-style “open house” without the potluck dinner. The idea is to introduce the public to the series, which is scheduled to race in eight European nations in 2018 along with possible stops in the Americas.

    Full disclosure – yes, I’m one of two American drivers slated to compete in the Electric GT Championship. But believe me, I’m as curious about this whole concept as you are. The tracks and cars are all new to me. I anxiously await press releases and new information just like everyone else. Although I’ve spent some time with the series principals (they’re great people and sharp businessmen), I don’t know most of my fellow competitors and all twenty international drivers come from wildly different backgrounds.

    If nothing else, it will be pretty incredible to watch F1 test drivers, international road racers, Indy 500 pilots, 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers and Dakar Rally veterans mix it up in cars that none of us have ever driven before. That alone should be worth the price of admission.

    On November 18th I’ll be glued to my computer, checking out the EGT Facebook page. That seems to be where new information on the series is first released. They’ll likely post new photos of their cars, and probably some news and interviews with a few EGT drivers (I won’t be there – I’ll be in the US preparing for Mecum Kansas City on NBCSN).

    If you want to know the inside scoop on the future tides of the world racing scene, I recommend following this event. EGT’s “Day of Light’ begins at 10 a.m. local time in France, which is 5-8 hours ahead of most American time zones. Some news may already be posted by the time American readers get up that morning.

    Remember, 10 years ago no one thought they’d be tearing down grandstands at Daytona. Thirty years ago it was unthinkable that one day Indianapolis would have no bumping but the World Racing League would draw nearly 100 amateur endurance teams to Texas Motor Speedway.

    Forget personal allegiances. It makes no difference if you’re a hardcore dirt track guy, an endurance racer or a nerdy computer whiz who wants to see electric racing take over the world. If we want to know what’s coming next in our sport, we have to stretch ourselves and look in unlikely places for under-reported trends. This is one of them, and it’s worth keeping an eye on.

    Stephen Cox

    Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions

    Driver, Super Cup Stock Car Series & EGT Championship

    Co-host, Mecum Auctions on NBCSN

  • This Will Bring Fans Back to the Races

    This Will Bring Fans Back to the Races

    Stephen Cox Blog Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance

    The past few years have brought every gimmick imaginable to auto racing. NASCAR holds races that three people can win. The ever-changing playoff system (a gimmick in itself) functions like an automotive version of musical chairs.

    Indycar’s gimmicks are even worse. They tried mandating overpriced “body kits” to make their field of 33 identical Dallara chassis look like something other than a field of 33 identical Dallara chassis. Their “Fast Nine” and “Fast Six” qualifying gimmick hasn’t revived interest in pole day although it’s proven very effective at totally confusing fans.

    Instead of trying to out-gimmick the competition with Disney-style entertainment to attract a generation of I-gadget slaves who can recite the Starbucks menu by heart but can’t drive a straight stick, perhaps we should be asking why gimmicks are necessary in the first place.

    After all, Indycar needed no gimmicks to draw global attention in 1985 when Danny Sullivan spun trying to pass Mario Andretti for the Indianapolis 500 crown. NASCAR needed no gimmicks to shock the world when The King passed the spinning cars of Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison to win the 1979 Daytona 500.

    So why now? Yes, the plague of I-gadgets has certainly had an impact. But it can’t be the entire problem because Atari’s 2600 home video gaming system brought digital entertainment to the masses back in 1977, yet race tracks had full grandstands and little need for gimmicks.

    It’s true that the economy has not been our friend. But the economy was awful in the late 1970s as well, yet people still turned out in droves to see Larry Rice and Pancho Carter and Gary Bettenhausen battle it out on dirt tracks every weekend. So that’s not it, either.

    The problem is that fewer people care about cars today. The auto racing industry needs to get this, and get it good; people who don’t care about automobiles will never, ever care about watching anyone else race them. If public interest in the automobile falters, then auto racing is doomed. And that is precisely what’s happening right now.

    226 million Americans bought about 10 million new cars per year from 1976 through 1988. But over the past decade, 323 million Americans have bought between five and seven million new cars per year and that number is dropping precipitously. Americans just aren’t buying cars like they once did.

    For most of the 20th century, grandstands were filled at racetracks across America. Beverly Hills Speedway, 1910 (University of Southern California, California Historical Society

    Why? Because getting a driver’s license is a creepy, invasive, Soviet-like experience that everyone hates. Because the price of mandatory insurance policies is skyrocketing and if you dare use your insurance for its intended purpose, they’ll gouge you even more. Because even if you have a great sports car, you can’t have much fun driving it because the penalties for the most minor speeding infractions are insanely high and surveillance cameras watch every move you make at stoplights around the country. Because we make cars with proximity warnings and rear view cameras and a mountain of gadgets that enable lousy drivers to think they’re competent.

    So long as this situation continues, it really doesn’t matter what auto racing does. There aren’t enough gimmicks in the world to fix that. Remember, people who don’t care about automobiles will never, ever care about watching anyone else race them.

    America was once in love with the automobile because the automobile represented freedom. The enthusiasm Americans had for their automobiles directly translated into enthusiasm for automobile racing, which gave birth to a golden era of American motorsports.

    The goal of the motorsports industry must be to restore the liberty, freedom and fun that was once synonymous with the automobile. When that enthusiasm returns, we won’t need three winners at every race or multiple rounds of qualifying to con them back to the race track. They’ll show up by themselves.

    Stephen Cox

    Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions

    Driver, Super Cup Stock Car Series and Electric GT Championship

    Co-host, Mecum Auctions on NBCSN

  • How To Save The NASCAR Truck Division

    How To Save The NASCAR Truck Division

    Stephen Cox Blog Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance

    It’s really not that difficult to organize a race series. But turning down money? Now that’s tough.

    The easy way to run a series is to have an official provider for everything from tires to body kits to engines. Mandatory components (“spec” parts) are frequently offered as a fix-all solution though, in reality, costs are rarely contained.

    Remember, everyone at every step along the way has to make money. The series, the parts manufacturers, the distributors and on and on. Everyone gets a piece of the action and team owners are stuck with the ever-spiraling bills. The usual result is just what we see in the Indy Lights Series and Indycar… higher costs and lower car count.

    All of this is a result of wrong thinking. The job of a race series is not to put a limit on how much money teams can spend. The job of a race series is to make sure that spending money doesn’t help.

    NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series is in trouble because competitive engine packages are too expensive. Teams are losing money and closing up shop. NASCAR’s response is to consider a spec engine. Wrong thinking.

    Take away their tires and everything else becomes elementary. NASCAR tires are enormously wide and offer a broad, sticky contact patch with the asphalt. The trucks reach tremendous speeds before they begin to lose adhesion and when they do, the drift is slight and nearly imperceptible to the average race fan. The racing isn’t that good. The tires are just too wide.

    If NASCAR trucks adopted a narrow, hard compound tire, the importance of horsepower would diminish considerably. Speeds would drop. The trucks would visibly slide on the race track and the average race fan could see and appreciate the skill of the drivers.

    Teams who spend fantastic sums on engine power would find themselves gaining little, if any, real advantage because, without big, wide tires, it would be impossible to utilize all that engine power. The limiting factor in a truck’s speed would no longer be the engine; it would be the tires.

    The series should concern itself with reducing mechanical grip and to a lesser extent, aerodynamic grip. When the trucks begin to slide, the real racing begins and the unbridled supremacy of overpriced engines quickly fades.

    The job of the series isn’t to limit horsepower or spending. NASCAR’s job is to limit the amount of horsepower that can be used in a race by eliminating traction. When that is achieved, the enormous horsepower and massive engine budgets will collapse of their own weight and teams will begin considering the Camping World Truck Series as a viable alternative again.

    Stephen Cox

    Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions

    Driver, Super Cup Stock Car Series and Electric GT Championship

    Co-host, Mecum Auctions on NBCSN

  • Salty Dog’s Grand Prix and the Future of American Racing

    Salty Dog’s Grand Prix and the Future of American Racing

    Stephen Cox Blog Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance

    I started late. I didn’t drive in my first professional auto race until age 21. Before that, I was addicted to go kart racing. No, not the World Karting Association or the National Karting Alliance. I’d never heard of them.

    My karting career began by paying $5 for 10 minutes of track time in a five-horsepower, 25 miles-per-hour fun kart at tiny, tourist-driven venues during our family vacations. We stopped at go kart tracks from Virginia to Utah. Any track, anytime. It wasn’t real racing, but it was the only racing I had.

    The tracks were minuscule. The karts were poky rent-a-wrecks. Sometimes they didn’t even require a helmet. My first races were on tracks like the Salty Dog Grand Prix against other vacationing kids, most of whom never realized they were locked in bitter competition with a teenager and his visions of grandeur.

    Several days ago, while returning from my entirely unsuccessful run in the Super Cup Stock Car Series American Racer Twin 50’s at Jennerstown Speedway, I stumbled across what appeared to be an abandoned rental kart race track. The sign said it was “The Salty Dog Grand Prix” of Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania. I parked the Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions van and started walking. The track was closed at the time but the gate was open.

    It had apparently been closed since 2015, though information has been hard to come by. The property was well kept but a sign in front of the track advertised karts for sale, which means they probably have no intention of re-opening soon, if at all.

    Maybe it’s just me, but I believe that little go kart tracks like the Salty Dog are perhaps the canary in the coal mine for American auto racing. I’ve made it clear many times why I believe the average age of race fans continues to get older and older. Kids are losing interest in automobiles, and those who don’t care about cars will never pay to see anyone race them. Until the automobile is again viewed as a teenage ticket to mischief, personal liberty, speed and late-night fun, interest in cars will continue to decline and the snowball effect on motorsports is inevitable.

    I hope the property can reopen because it’s tough to see time move on from places like the Salty Dog Grand Prix. The asphalt is still good. The tire barriers are solid. The pit area and outbuildings are nicely maintained.

    Yet people just don’t flock to these venues as they once did. The world is too full of I-gadgets and screens and distractions. And lame superhero movies.

    And cheap milk shakes masquerading as status symbol coffee drinks. And discredited evening news programs that claim everything else is fake. And social media that’s not.

    The more hear from Bruno Mars, the better I like the smell of gasoline.

    Long before I landed my first sponsor or won my first race, I looked forward to the simple purity of racing a cheap go kart on tourist tracks. No qualifying. No mandatory autograph sessions. No driver’s meetings. Go kart racing was all fun and no pressure.

    Go find yourself a kart track this weekend. No, it’s not “real” racing, but for millions of Americans, it’s the only first-hand motorsports experience they’ll ever have. And that’s surely better than the alternative.

    Stephen Cox

    Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions

    Driver, Super Cup Series and EGT Championship

    Co-host, Mecum Auctions on NBCSN