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.