SALEM, IN :: Following a very successful 2014 season, the Champion Racing Association (CRA) hopes to lead the charge for both innovation and affordability in Super Late Model competition for years to come.
Tour Director Glenn Luckett conceded that the CRA Super Series was struck hard by the downturn in the economy several years ago but is also optimistic that the outlook and interest is starting to pick back up.
“We’re doing good,” Luckett told Race22.com on Thursday morning. “We have teams who used to run the full schedule as recently as three years ago but can’t right now due to the economy. With that said, we have good participation at our local events and the JEGS (Pro Late Model) Tour saw a healthy increase in teams from last year as well.”
The CRA has been a long-time leader within short racing in developing rules and formats to lower costs and increase car counts.
In 2002, the CRA called together body manufacturers and track promoters to create a common body rule that was eventually implemeted throughout the industry. In 2011, the league worked alongside southern technical inspector Ricky Brooks to write and release a unified rule book of sorts, now known as the United Super Late Model Rules Alliance.
The end result has been a dramatic decrease in costs over the past decade for Super Late Model teams.
With that said, Luckett acknowledged that there is always additional work to be done on that front and has already started working on his next innovative project — one that involves making the sport attractive to college-aged students and interns. Luckett hopes to strengthen the CRA’s relationship with the Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) motorsports program and have interns work with teams as engineers and crew members.
“IUPUI already has a motorsports marketing program, based on PR and promotion,” Luckett said. “We’ve used that to our advantage but we want to expound on that. I would like to see talented kids come on board as crew members and gain experience working for teams and on the cars. ARCA has a similar relationship with students from (UNOH) and it allows those teams to not have to hire as many hands as they used to.”
For the second year in a row, Travis Braden was crowned CRA Super Series champion, out-dueling Ross Kenseth in a battle that went down to the season-ending Winchester 400. Luckett praised Braden as both a representative and ambassador for the CRA and short track racing in general.
“Travis is just a great kid,” Luckett said of the 20-year-old engineering student from the University of West Virginia. “He is a great example of what a talented and motivated young person can be. He is full-time with us in the CRA while also taking a full load at West Virginia.
“He has the heart of a champion, is well-composed; he is great with people and we love having him race with the CRA.”
When asked about his favorite moment from the 2014 season, Luckett admitted there was much to choose from between Winchester, the Redbud 300 at Anderson and the Circle City 100 at IRP. Ultimately, he chose the CRA’s return to Kalamazoo Speedway as a companion event for the Kalamazoo Klash Outlaw Late Model race.
That race saw Kyle Busch defeat Johnny VanDoorn in one of the best head-to-head duels of recent memory, leaving Luckett in awe of both competitors on that evening.
“We hadn’t been to Kalamazoo in quite awhile and we drew over 30 cars that night,” Luckett said. “I really enjoyed watching Johnny try his best to hold off Kyle Busch. He was so mad with himself when he got out of the car that night. You could literally see just how much winning that race would have meant to him.”
“I know some of our fans get mad when Kyle comes and races with us but I think it’s a positive. Our drivers want to race against him. They want to beat him. And when he wins, he does the burnout and bows to crowd so it was great having him race with us this season.”
With the CRA championship banquet just wrapping up in Indianapolis, all attention has turned towards the season-opening Speedfest 200 exhibition race at Watermelon Capital Speedway in Cordele, Ga. on January 25. Several stars are slated to compete, including Sprint Cup Series veteran David Ragan and defending Snowball Derby champion John Hunter Nemechek.
A 125-lap JEGS Tour race is also scheduled for that afternoon.
Southern Super Series Announces Championship Fund Bonus
For the third year in a row, the Southern Super Series will pay a $10,000 bonus to the series champion following a grueling slate of events across Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
“For the third consecutive year we are proud that the Southern Super Series, with the help of some of our marketing partners, are able to pay a point fund at the end of the season which will award the champion $10,000,” said Southern Super Series promoter Tim Bryant.
The SSS has crowned two different champions in the first two years of its existence with Daniel Hemric and Bubba Pollard earning the honors. Hemric won the 2013 championship by one point over Pollard with Pollard returning the favor with a seven point victory this past September. With a similar schedule and format in place for 2015, another close battle is expected by many in the industry.
Hemric has never been one to concern himself with the big picture of a championship battle until late in the season but admits that the $10,000 bonus is a great incentive for teams and drivers to participate for the full slate of events.
“It gives everybody including the whole team something to get excited about,” Hemric said. “The nights and weeks start to drag on the further you get into the season and that gives you an ultimate goal to shoot for. We’re all racers week after week trying to complete the ultimate goal of winning the race that given weekend, but having the $10,000 to chase gives you something to shoot for throughout the season.”
