The Whelen Modified Tour: NASCAR Celebrates 25 Years As The Division Falls To Ruins Around Them

WhelenModifiedTour · WMT Moderator

The Whelen Modified Tour: NASCAR Celebrates 25 Years As The Division Falls To Ruins Around Them

Date: Thu Feb 26 21:40:17 2009

While I find it difficult to argue with Shawn, I also feel like there is a lack of support from the fans in order to make it worth while for NASCAR to heavily promote it.

I have been to plenty of events that would make an enduro race or demolition derby look clean. Not going to pick out drivers, but I think we can all think of guys out there that drive like they have more money than talent, and then those guys end up wrecking the drivers out there honestly trying to get out there and put on a good show. The drivers need to go out there with their heads screwed on straight and put on a competitive clean show that other drivers in the region desire to compete in - like in the good old days.

Fourteen races doesn't make a tour, it is just a sad state of affairs.

WhelenModifiedTour · WMT Moderator

I have to agree with you annon. I can think of more than one occasion where an ego has taken over for talent with TERRIBLE results. And way to many drivers/teams can not afford to have their car repaired due to someone elses carelessness.

I also agree that 14 races does not really make a Tour. but with the economy the way it is and NASCAR's GREED, it is understanable why tracks would go with cheaper alternatives like the True Value Modified Racing Series.

MOD11RACER · Crew Chief

Another great report by the Mr. doom and gloom Shawn Courchesne. Does Shawn ever have anything good to say about the WMT ? Shawn loves to kill the WMT. Shawn must have lost out on the WMT PR job he wanted.

How many WMT , TVMRS or ROC events do the previous two posters go to per year ? I make every tour race I can and I support each and every Modified Tour WMT, TVMRS and ROC because I love Modified racing. You say 14 races do not make a Tour so I guess 16 races do. The WMT races have the best purses, the best point fund, the most cars per event, packed grandstands and a great bonus plan how can anybody complain and downgrade this Tour. It is not perfect by any means but it is still the best paying Modified races out there. Did either one of you go to the Waterford Speedbowl last year ? It took the TV Tour 2 months to get the car counts back to respectablity. I really like the TV Tour, but they do not pay the teams anything. $1,300 to win and $13,775 payed purse for 100 laps and heat races just is not getting it done. Do you think that the Mods that win ( #43,#06, #40 and the #15 ) on the TV Tour cost less than the Modifieds that run up front on the WMT. They are very good race teams that can run with anyone I see just as much damage on the TV Tour as the WMT. Sometimes the races are great and sometimes there not. That's racing. Thompson is trying to pull a power play with NASCAR to get them to pay more of the Modified purse like they (NASCAR) do for the Camping World East Series. Maybe it will work and Don can get NASCAR to cave and pay more of the purse instead of the track picking up the full bill. If Don's plan fails it only hurts the Thompson Speedway, the WMT owners and fans, because we all lose. If and it is a big IF the Bristol event is a good one Don's bet is a loser and the Modifeds will be in Bristol for two events in 2010 and an added event in Loudon with the IRL in 2010. The TV Tour cut races from Monadnock, Lee, Waterford and no race at Wiscassett. Lets hope someone comes along to pay the purse for the TV Tour at Waterford or we will lose the 2 races they have. The guy that owns the place is not very stable he's not even paying the mortgage.

Chris Pasteryak is going to run both the WMT and TVMRS in 2009, but he plans to run for the WMT Championship . WHY ??? $60,000 to $75,000 reasons that's why.

As for Chuck Hossfeld and Matt Hirschman not running the WMT in 2009 thats a shame but they both have Modifieds in there garage that they run on the ROC Tour. The WMT will survive with them or without them and if they really wanted to run the WMT Tour they would run there own Modifieds on the Tour. Chuck just spent a boatload of money in Florida at NSS $6,000 to $7,000 on tires alone. What do you think the total of that little trip cost.

Why can't Shawn write about how many Tour races we the fan have a chance of attending in 2009. WMT 14, TVMRS 16, ROC 9 and the WSMT 16 thats a total of Modified 55 Touring events plus open shows and the SouthernModified ASA Tour.

I talk to much.

Date: Fri Feb 27 23:46:29 2009

One thing Shawn does not state is the fact that Hoss got replaced by a better shoe in Lia! He talks about 1/2 of 08's top 4 without rides, Hoss and Hirsch... but what about the '07 champ replacing Hoss? It is an up grade for the 4. I know Shawn blogs at the Chrome Horn, I wish he would here, it would add to the fray, another character's opinion.

WhelenModifiedTour · WMT Moderator

Well Mod11, I can not say I attend EVERY race ANYMORE. BUT for several years of my lfe I crewed for several different teams including doing so as a full-time job. I have also spent SEVERAL nights in a tent during a rainstorm or below freezing temperatures to attend a race. While I may not be the greatest source of knowledge, I hav followed the Tour since it began and have attended Modified races since the 70's.

Date: Sun Mar 1 22:45:14 2009

Mod11, I was the second poster in this thread. I can say I attended every Modified Tour race from 1996 through the end of the 1999 season, and almost every Modified Tour race from 2001 through the present. Back in the late 90s, that was when the Tour was in a high. You had sponsors on every car, large car counts. Now look at the current Tour where you have either unsponsored cars or cars with the owner's company on the sides. While car counts still end up sending guys home, they aren't nearly as high as they used to be. Add to that back in the day having 24+ events in a season, and now there are only 14 events. Just a sign of the times, and that doesn't just mean the economy. The fans don't pack the stands at these places, even at stalwart tracks like Stafford and Thompson. From the infield, the teams can see the empty areas of the grandstands that fans out there can't always see.

Certainly there are some of the tracks that we can not go back to because they no longer exist (Nazareth, Wall Stadium, etc), but there is a point at which the heads at NASCAR need to look at what they are doing to this Tour and try to remedy it. The only thing that it appears to me is that NASCAR honestly does not care about this division and is slowly killing it from the inside out. I feel like the two tours need to be combined in order to save them. If you combine the number of tracks that the two tours have (The North has 6 unique tracks and the South has 7 unique tracks, plus the two combination events), you have 15 different tracks to visit. If you take the number of "traditional events" that tracks have (I know the North has quite a few - Icebreaker, Spring Sizzler, Fall Final, World Series, both Loudon events; the South I do not know about as far as traditional events but assume 3) and you have 24 events. Certainly travel then becomes an issue, especially if they are midweek shows like Bristol is, but with a combined tour you have more drawing power to honestly see the best of the best so purses go up. If purses go up, I do not see a reason why NASCAR wouldn't try to work out a deal with some form of TV station (be it Speed, HDnet, NESN, whatever) to put races on air. If you gain television coverage, you have a better viewer figures to present to a sponsor.

At least that is the way I view things.

WhelenModifiedTour · WMT Moderator

Very well put Annon!!!!