Happy New Year!

Just wanted to wish all you guys a very Happy New Year! Be safe tonight, I've already got my D-D lined up.

There's been literally no news lately, so, hopefully with the holiday season now in the past, we'll start to get some news to share.

Can Am Motorsports Park Going Big-Blocks

Can Am Motorsports Park has announced that they will bring the big-block modifieds back to run the the small blocks in 2012, like they did in 2010. Can Am ran small blocks as the headline division in 2011, which forced former track regulars Steve Paine, Lance Willix, Rob Bellinger, Vince Vitale, and Tim Kerr all to not return to Can Am in 2012. Billy Dunn had also previously announced he would not return to Can Am in 2012. No word on any of those drivers plans, yet.

Can Am has already previously announced a move to Saturday nights in 2012, along with a the purse being increased to $1,500 to win.

This is the track that I hinted was returning to DIRTcar big-block sanction earlier in the off-season.

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish a very Merry Christmas to you and your entire families! I hope you all have a very safe, happy, and relaxing day. You guys are the best!

Schedule Updates

First of all, Glen Ridge Motorsports Park has announced that they will not for DIRTcar sanctioned in 2012, while Canandaigua Motorsports Park returns to the DIRTcar fold in 2012 despite rumors suggesting otherwise.

Big Diamond Speedway has released its Friday night schedule, which is available on SouthJerseyDirtRacing.com, and also HagerstownSpeedway.com has released its 2012 schedule. Of note from the Big Diamond schedule, the Coalcracker is being shortened to 72 laps this season, and Hagerstown Speedway's "Octoberfest" has been replaced with the "Fall Brawl." Big blocks/small blocks will run together at the event in 2012, and the race will be a 50-lap feature. No word on purse.

I'll post Big Diamond's schedule to the big block/small block schedule when the Saturday schedule also comes out.

Kolka Heading to Volusia

Mike Kolka, a feature winner in 2011 at Orange County Fair Speedway, is the latest driver to confirm his plans on going to Volusia in February. Kolka confirmed on Dirt Track Digest's message board that he's going to make his first every trip to Volusia to take part in the big-block portion of the DIRTcar Nationals.

Kolka will not be in his usual #25 though, instead, he will pilot the Oscar Boria-owned #OB's car. Since Boria stepped out of the seat in the mid-2000s, he's had many drivers drive his equipment. Scott Flammer and Ric Hill experienced the most success with the equipment. Boria's car stayed parked through most of 2011, but Bobby Varin had a solid run before being involved in an accident in the Eastern States 200 with the car.

Here's the updated (very early) entry list for Volusia

OB's Mike Kolka
3D Matt DeLorenzo
10 Michael Storms
20 Brett Hearn
23 Billy VanInwegen
33 Ray Swinehart
61s Johnny Scarborough
79 Jeremy Markle

Godown To 747

Ryan Godown confirmed via his Facebook that his 2012 weekly New Egypt ride will be aboard the Team 747 Racing Team.

Godown has driven the 747 machine at Super DIRT Week for the past 2 seasons, and ran the car in 1 previous season at New Egypt. Godown became a free agent after JR Motorsports sold out earlier in the season. Godown will also have his own #26 car and the Wink Motorsports #27 to run in specials throughout 2012.

Dick Biever Update

Don't expect to see the popular Dick Biever Racing #14 running anywhere weekly in 2012. Biever is hoping to run a specials-only schedule with a high-profile veteran driver, however, there is a slight chance that Biever may not field a car at all in 2012.

Ryan Godown has landed a ride for New Egypt weekly in 2012. You'll have to check out this week's edition of Area Auto Racing News for the scoop.

Albany, Meitzler Tidbits

First of all, to the left I've posted a link to the 2012 big/small block modified master schedule. All that's currently listed are the Volusia dates. I know there are a few other tracks that have announced races, but I'm going to wait to post those until the final track schedules come out later this winter.

Albany-Saratoga Speedway is already starting to compile a nice field of drivers, despite not announcing a sanction. Brett Hearn, Ronnie Johnson, and Matt DeLorenzo have already confirmed that they will be weekly competitors at Albany on Friday nights in 2012.

Rich Stankiewicz Racing may be sitting out 2012, which would leave former Grandview Speedway Rookie of the Year Addison Meitzler without a ride. A decision should be made soon.

It was previously reported on here that there were rumors of Team FAST, which fields modifieds for Meme and A.J. DeSantis, selling out. We've received word that the team won't be sitting out and will have the DeSantis father and son combo in the team's equipment in 2012. However, current plans are for 2012 to be the final season for the team. Special thanks to Matt Bauer for the info.

AARN Confirms Asphalt Series

As previously reported on here, there was a new asphalt series taking shape under sanctioning from DIRTcar, Area Auto Racing News confirms those reports. However, it appears as if only two tracks ended up signing up to be part of the series. Dunn Tire Raceway Park and Airborne Speedway will be the two tracks that will be part of the 4-race schedule. Check out this week's AARN for more info.

Horton Officially a Free Agent

It's official, Jimmy Horton and Dick Biever Racing have parted ways. The two sides struggled through mechanical woes and major streaks of bad luck throughout 2011 and were only able to collect 1 win in 2011. Special thanks for Jimmy Horton IV for allowing me to break the story.

Horton, who ran weekly for Dieter Schmidt along with select RoC and Super DIRTcar Series races, also drove in about 10 races in special shows for Dieter Schmidt in 2011, expect him to return to that team on a part-time basis at least. Horton is apparently already working towards 2012.

Dick Biever Racing's famous #14 has had an all-star cast of drivers over the years including Elvin Felty, Terry Meitzler, Rick Laubach, and Doug Manmiller. Look for the team to land another high-profile driver. Ryan Godown and Kenny Brightbill are two big-names that recently lost their rides and could be good fits.

Early Volusia Roster

This will obviously grow throughout the off-season, but here's what we've got so far driver wise who are officially heading to Volusia as of now...

3D Matt DeLorenzo
10 Michael Storms
20 Brett Hearn
23 Billy VanInwegen
33 Ray Swinehart
61s Johnny Scarborough
79 Jeremy Markle

Rest in Peace Wade Decker

The racing world lost a great driver and person today as Wade Decker, a great competitor on the Southern Tier, passed away today. We'll certainly miss seeing the black #1w on the track. Rest in Peace, Wade Decker, and thanks for the memories

Volusia Update

Per Doug's Dirt Diary, Matt DeLorenzo will be running at Volusia again in 2011, he made his first appearance there in 2010. Ray Swinehart, one of the top PA veterans, will once again go to Volusia as well. Swinehart is an annual participant in the February races.

Can Am Raises Purse

Can Am is raising the winner's purse to $1,500 to win in 2012, which is what it used to pay when the big-blocks were the headline division. Look for Chris Raabe to run weekly at Can Am in 2012.

My Take: RoC vs Super DIRTcar Series

Time for me to start sharing my opinions. First things first, this is my unbiased opinion, I no longer work for DIRTcar (was a 1-year internship-like deal I was in) so my opinions are in no way swayed one direction or the other.

The Super DIRTcar Series had become stagnant. Do they still have fantastic fields? Yes. Do they still put on good racing? Yes. But the events had become stale. Here's the problem, the Super DIRTcar Series is no longer the best modified racers in the country running the series together, instead, with the exception of Brett Hearn, it's turned into the best drivers from one area running the series. This isn't the 90's anymore where Kenny Brightbill, Jimmy Horton, Doug Hoffman, or Jimmy Chester are following the tour from other regions of the northeast, instead, the stars of the Super DIRTcar Series are Billy Decker, Jimmy Phelps, Matt Sheppard, Danny Johnson, Justin Haers, etc; don't misinterpret me here, those drivers ARE super stars, but there's one major problem. If you purchase a ticket to a weekly show at Brewerton or Canandaigua you're basically seeing the Super DIRTcar Series field running at your weekly home. That's great for those tracks, but why should those tracks feel enticed to pay a sanction fee to bring in the Super DIRTcar Series when they're getting more than half of the Series regulars at their track on a weekly basis?

Now, the RoC Dirt Tour started off as the little engine that could. When Andy Harpell announced the tour, not many people had high hopes for it. The first years of the tour they had a neat group of drivers that ran the tour including Bobby Varin, Mitch Gibbs, Brian Weaver, Ed Strada, Chris Shultz, Ryan Bartlett, etc. They're not the biggest names in dirt racing, but they're big enough that the fans came out to support these drivers, and the RoC Dirt Tour easily survived the first few years of existence. As the tour grew, they started to get the sexy names to follow their tour, Alan Johnson and Pat Ward were early champions, Stewart Friesen began following the tour in the early stages. In 2010, an influx of Super DIRTcar Series stars announced their intentions of following the RoC Dirt Tour as well. The fields were excellent, the racing was great, and they had an outstanding mixture of big name drivers like Danny Johnson, Duane Howard, Brett Hearn, Matt Sheppard, Stewart Friesen, Pat Ward, and so on following the tour along with some of the talented lesser known drivers like Danny Tyler, Kirk Horton, Danny Creeden; the RoC Tour in 2010 had 14 drivers attempt every race. However, 2011 paid the price for 2010. The car counts were still strong, but the influx of big money teams saw the "underbuck" teams drop off the tour. Only 6 teams attempted every RoC race this season.

Obviously, both tours have flaws, but both tours also flourished in 2011. The Super DIRTcar Series may be lacking the drivers in other area, and the RoC Dirt Tour may be lacking the full-time followers, but both tours in 2011 had fantastic crowds at every race they ran in 2011, both series had great car counts at most of their races as well; obviously, both tours are in fantastic shape right now.

However, the RoC Dirt Tour has announced that they will split up into a Northern and a Southern tour in 2011, as they did when the tour was first introduced. With the lack of full-time followers, and with Fulton and potentially Delaware being added to the 2012 RoC Dirt Tour schedule, the tour needed to limit the amount of traveling full-time followers would do in 2012. I can guarantee the RoC Tour will be a significant increase in full-time followers in 2012 because of this change. However, tracks that don't get end-of-year combo races are faced with losing some of the cars that made the RoC Tour so appealing in the past.

If I own a track that would be part of the Northern Tour, and I'm forced to choose between having a RoC or a DIRTcar race, I'm choosing RoC all the way. Its a cheaper sanction, a cheaper purse, and you're still basically going to get the same drivers you would if you were having a Super DIRTcar Series race. Hearn, Decker, Sheppard, Phelps, Ward, Friesen, Wight, D. Johnson, A. Johnson are all basically locks to be at the race, and factor in the amount of local talent that would support the local higher-paying race, it makes a lot more sense to save the extra money and have the RoC Tour at your track than the Super DIRTcar Series.

However, if I own a track that would be part of the Southern Tour (remember, Grandview is thinking of bringing back the Super DIRTcar Series to replace the RoC Dirt Tour) I'd definitely rather have the Super DIRTcar Series come to my track. With the RoC Tour splitting up, with the exception of 1-2 drivers, the RoC Southern Tour races aren't going to draw the New York talent as they have in the past. So, let's use Grandview as the example here, if Grandview were to host a RoC Southern Tour race, what they'd basically get is the same field that would show up if it was a non-sanctioned higher paying race. Sure, you'll get a couple of Penn Can drivers following the tour, and maybe a Brett Hearn, Stewart Friesen, or Danny Johnson, but the mixture of New York vs. New Jersey vs. Pennsylvania won't be as present as in the past. Now, the Super DIRTcar Series guarantees the 12-contract drivers to be at their events. You get 12 of the best New York talent at your race mixed in with the big name local and non-series regular invading drivers.

Obviously, there are exceptions to both ideas. Just wanted to give my opinion on it.

I know this was probably hard to read, I assure you the rest of these will be a little better thought out and easier to read and follow. Let me know what you guys think on the issue.