Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

From the time that the NSL was an idea on paper, we recognized that this April race at Burlington would be a nice fit for the NSL.  We encouraged the track and NSL officials to talk and made it clear that if this became an NSL race that it would be acceptable to MOWA.  Geography, purse, field all made it a great fit.

34 Raceway hosted our first ever MOWA event.  We have a great relationship and much of our staff has roots and continuing ties to 34 Raceway.  As MOWA has grown, many of our newer members are starting to come from the South, East and a little bit further away from Burlington.  With the NSL  taking roots in Iowa, and with us having no desire to go deeper into Iowa anyway... it seemed like a great place for them to take control of a race that had historically been a MOWA race.   We still hope to race at 34 at other times in the future.  

We are actively working on a structure and our position on 'co-sanctioning' races such as this going forward and deciding what exactly a co-sanction means.  Do we make joint races full points events where attendance is almost mandatory, or do we do something short of that while still supporting and having our name on a race.  Issues of budgets, locations, sponsors, staffing, insurance companies, member coverage,  points fund allocation, number of cross-membrers between two series, membership fees, tow money parity and many other factors play into it.

Will the MOWA name be on this race also?  Perhaps.  Will a good contingent of MOWA drivers be there? For sure.  Are we going to count races such as this as a full MOWA points race and give it an allocation of our points fund?  That's yet to be determined and will require some internal discussions with our members at our upcoming banquet/meeting. 

It's no fault of NSL.... it just raises issues that we as an organization haven't had to deal with before.  We have X amount of sponsorship money to allocate over a season to points money and bonus/reward money.  The more events that is spread across, the less it amounts to per night.  Suddenly co-sanctioning a large number of additional races reduces the pot available to support our own races and to help our members get from track to track. Yet 'sanctioning' a race carries insurance benefits for our members who choose to participate and is good exposure for MOWA.

The solution is to find a different structure for some of these races with other sanctioning bodies that has some MOWA involvement and branding, assures a nice representation of our cars but isn't necessarily a normal points race where everyone is required to attend.

You will notice that the WoO race at our home track at Jacksonville last year wasn't a MOWA points race.  Although most members attended, we didn't require it.  Everyone knew it would be a huge field and for some teams sitting that race out made perfect sense.

There's a lot of thinking going on right now across the Midwest as to how various series can work together and grow from the presence of others and how those cross-series relationships can be beneficial to each series and the sport, while also being fair and meeting the core goals of each series individually.

In some respects our goals are different.  MOWA came about to revive sprint car racing in the Illinois area where there has been no weekly show for a number of years.  We will continue to do and advocate for what we think is best for the sport in what we consider our territory.  We have been encouraged over the years to get bigger and go farther.  We could have done that, but it would have hurt sprint car racing and the number of cars in and around Illinois.  NSL has the benefit of having th Knoxville and Husets weekly programs serving the needs of the local racer and to develop local fans, so they can set their goals higher and spread their wings further.

We have been in communication with NSL staff as well as 34 Raceway over the past month on this.  We welcome the NSL as a new series to the MIdwest.  I'm sure they will be very successful and I am confident we will be working together as neighbors for many years to come.