When the 2016 season gets underway at Franklin County Speedway it’ll be the first full slate of Sunday races in the tracks recent history which will create new challenges for the track but also new opportunities as well.
No race track in this region competes on Sundays which could open the door for Franklin County Speedway to capitalize on racers and fans who can’t get enough of racing on Friday and Saturday nights. It could also be seen as a challenge with racers and fans having the option to spend their money at other venues before Sunday even comes around.
The challenges and the opportunities that Sunday racing presents for Franklin County Speedway is one Promoter Langley Austin is looking forward.
“Racing on Sunday is crazy isn’t it,” joked Austin. “Sunday’s in this region has also been a day that everyone sat at home and slept through boring NASCAR races. I think when we were at Franklin County in 2014 and raced on Sundays throughout the spring it really proved that people are looking for entertainment on Sunday. We had awesome crowds and great car counts and that to me was a sign that people are hungry for something to do on Sunday afternoons.”
“Racing on Sunday is a challenge for sure,” Austin continued. “You know there’s going to be weeks when people aren’t going to have the money left over to make it to us or their race car is going to get tore up somewhere else on Saturday night. But the opportunity there to gain cars and people who haven’t been to Franklin County in a while by choosing a day when there’s less going on in everyone’s life is a chance I can’t pass up.”
Austin said the decision to go with a full slate of Sunday races wasn’t an easy one but his staff made the decision easier by how well they performed at the track on Sunday’s in 2014.
“If it wasn’t for the staff we had in 2014 we would have failed tremendously with our Sunday program. Danny Willard’s leadership as the race director was instrumental in making Sunday’s work. He kept us on time no matter what. We never started late and I think the latest we ever finished a Sunday show was 6:30 or so. It’s a perfect situation for fans they can go to church in the morning, go home and change clothes and bring the family to the track and be home at a decent hour to get up and go to work on Monday.”
Austin says that most everything will be the same from when his staff operated the track before except the experiences he gained working at Southern National Motorsports Park in Lucama, NC will help make everything better.
“We only thought we knew how to manage a business,” Austin explained speaking of him and his wife Kimberly. “We just did what we knew which was mostly what I’d learned from being around racing all my life. Michael Diaz, who owns Southern National, taught us a lot about the financial side and the organization side that had nothing to do with the racing itself. That was the best thing we got out of our time down there. It’ll translate into making us better prepared at Franklin County which hopefully makes everything better for the fans and drivers.”
Franklin County Speedway’s headline division is Late Model Stock Cars running under rules similar to the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series which sanctions tracks all over the country. They also will have Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, U-Cars, Tunerz, Mini Cups and Future Stars Mini Cups as well as having several touring divisions and series coming to the track throughout the season.
Some of the drivers expected to compete in the Late Model division includes former track champions Kyle Dudley, Bobby Gillespie and Wesley Thomason as well as Mike Looney, Todd Arrington, Josh Leedy, Devin Steele, Calvin Brooks, Joey Phillips, Kevin Parker, Timmy Hogan, Daryn Cockram, Bobby Griffin, Steven Weeks, Brian Sutphin and others with a stout, very competitive field anticipated.
“In 2014 we had as competitive of a Late Model field as any track around,” commented Austin. “We didn’t have the Lee Pulliam and Tommy Lemons type guys but we had racers who are second to none at Franklin County. We had three winners in the first five races which shows how competitive the field was. Most of those guys are coming back along with some new guys who will be right in the mix for the win.”
Franklin County Speedway’s 2016 season kicks off with the Spring Sizzler 200 on Sunday April 10th which will feature the Late Model division along with six other divisions of racing.
