With the amount of attention the GRAND NATIONALS garner each year, there are
elements in place which set the FASTRAK Late Model Series GRAND NATIONALS
apart from “the other” major racing events across America’s dirt tracks. Let’s examine different elements which make the FASTRAK Late Model Series and the $250,000 GRAND NATIONALS one of the premier short track events in the country today.
An idea comes to fruition
We have to begin with the FASTRAK Racing Series itself. The northeast Georgia based sanctioning body currently governs races in 22 states. The success of FASTRAK Late Model Series can be attributed to how it has almost single handedly changed the face of weekly short track racing across the nation. The FASTRAK Late Model Series uses the GM Performance Parts 604 crate engine. The engine is sealed to prevent those with big checkbooks from making internal modifications. So essentially, the 400 or so drivers who have competed in FASTRAK sanctioned events this year throughout the country are racing with the same power plant under the hood. Once more, the engine can be purchased from any GM dealer in the nation.
The first FASTRAK Late Model Series sanctioned event in 2004 had a starting field of just five cars. Two weeks ago in Rural Retreat, VA, 70 race teams showed up at Wythe Raceway to compete in a 32 car event. When you do the math, 38 teams conceivably were going home, yet no one packed up looking for another track where fewer cars might have been entered, increasing the likelihood of making the field and possibly even stealing a win.
The concept behind the FASTRAK Late Model Series is simple – put racing back in the hands of the driver!
Perhaps one of the biggest factors in keeping the FASTRAK Racing Series on top is its rules, and the enforcement of them. Race teams who have tampered with engine seals for example, draw a fine and one year banishment from competing in a FASTRAK Late Model Series event anywhere in the nation. This banishment is not limited to the nine regional touring divisions throughout the country; it extends to all tracks hosting a typical Saturday night race program as well.
If an engine builder “cheats up” an engine he can be criminally prosecuted.
What happens at the track to ensure a level playing field?
Perhaps the best way in which to field this question is this; when Austin Dillon crossed the finish line first at the $10,000 To Win ‘Pro Late Model Nationals’ at Wythe Raceway two weeks ago, the tech inspection process was completed at 4:07 A.M.
In addition, a black light was even on hand to inspect the inside of tires of anyone officials suspected of soaking tires from inside of the tire prior to mounting.
Influx of technology and dollars
The kind of racing the FASTRAK Late Model Series has produced has not only attracted scores of fans coming back to race tracks with more frequency, the FASTRAK brand has created partnerships with such recognizable names as the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, GM Performance Parts, Sunoco, Heintz Performance Products, Schoenfeld Headers and Duralite Racing Wheels.
In 2008, the FASTRAK City Chevrolet Weekly Racing Division was created enabling every driver from Oregon to Georgia the opportunity to compete for the title of FASTRAK City Chevrolet Weekly Racing Division Champion. Not only will one driver be crowned National Champion, the FASTRAK City Chevrolet Weekly Racing Division Championship will reward drivers through the 30th position in the year end point standings through its namesake City Chevrolet of Charlotte NC
Winston Salem NC based Modern Chevrolet has helped launch one the most competitive regional touring series in the country with 14 different winners in it’s final 15 events. At one point, The FASTRAK Modern Chevrolet Southeastern Touring Series enjoyed the longest streak of different winners of any major touring series anywhere in the country.
In the nine FASTRAK Racing Series regions which blanket most of the country, many of the individual touring events carry with it a title sponsor specific to the event. In the Northeastern tier of the country for example, virtually every touring event had a title sponsor.
In essence, every time a driver straps on a helmet and takes the green flag, he/she is accruing points in one, two, or all three championships, simultaneously.
Awesome racing action builds fan base
Of course, all the technology and influx of dollars in the world can’t create the type of racing that fans come to see. That has to be in place already. While survival may not hinge on it, growth requires it.
Having never wavered from the drawing board idea of putting racing back in the hands of the driver, the FASTRAK Racing Series, armed with its level playing field rules base, has routinely competed before packed grandstands at venues both large and small, whether there are 15,000 seats or as few as 1,000.
When looking at the finishing results of the 50 FASTRAK Regional Touring Series events held around the country so far this year, there have been an astounding 43 different winners.
While the FASTRAK Modern Chevrolet Southeastern Touring Series may have made the most headlines, clearly, races where the scoring sheets document events seeing 150 to 300 plus position changes in a single event is not exclusive to the FASTRAK Modern Chevrolet Southeastern Touring Series, it’s EVERYWHERE.
While the Cup Series is where almost every FASTRAK Late Model Series driver would like to wind up some day, it’s ironic that they may only get three chances a year to race as hard as they do now each and every time they cinch up the belts.
Fan friendly access
While NASCAR was founded on many of the same principals and elements touched on here, growth has a peculiar way of changing the landscape whereby it takes control exclusively and determines the course and direction of the end product we see.
The FASTRAK Late Model Series incorporates a driver autograph session into all events on its touring schedule. It has become so popular a better term might be “driver meet and greet”. Naturally, many of the children in attendance race through the grandstand aisles to get to the drivers first, but a second look reveals almost just as many of the over 21 crowd hurriedly scurrying in the same direction.
As the FASTRAK autograph session has taken on a new identity, tracks have responded in kind. At Eldora for example, a scheduled break half way into the night’s racing, saw the pit gate opened allowing fans to visit the pit area.
FASTRAK Racing Series Fanfare
Awesome racing action, meet the drivers, and in some cases, visit the pit area. Shouldn’t that be enough?
While the FASTRAK driver meet and greet, or autograph session is underway, race teams are wheeling the race cars onto the starting grid on the front straight-away. Since every driver in the field is with the fans, the transition to driver introductions is an easy one.
Complete with strobe lights, each driver is introduced, makes his/her way down the center aisle of the grandstands then onto the front straight-away to their waiting car.
A mainstay at most FASTRAK Late Model Series Touring events, the four wide salute to fans takes place with a low altitude short fireworks presentation overhead. Fireworks have even been “timed” to detonate as the first row of cars pass six different points all the way around the track.
Affordable racing is getting to be something of a reach, but with rules which put racing back in the hands of the driver, at venues that are competitor friendly combined with fan friendly access and awesome racing, the FASTRAK Racing Series has created the next great series in racing today
