The CARS Tours maiden voyage in 2015 was met with exceeded expectations and racing that fans and drivers alike found to be among the best in the country. The Sophomore season fires up this Saturday at Southern National Motorsports Park and the series appears to be on the verge of growing into the best touring series in the country.
It’s not a simple concept. There was never a series like it in the past, at least not in the Southeastern region of the country. Many series have faltered and failed in the past. Other touring series were broken and bruised from lack of car count and a lack of excitement to draw in fans. In fact that CARS Tour was born from a broken series, the CARS Pro-Cup Tour which was once one of the greatest touring series anywhere was a shell of itself.
Series owner Jack McNeely and Series Director of Operations Chris Ragle had a plan. A bold plan. They were about to embark on a whole new journey with not one but two types of cars to form what many call a “Super Series”. The Late Model Stock Cars had a strong series in the UARA-STARS Series for more than a decade but in 2014 had taken a hiatus due to family issues with the series owners and promoters.
The break for the UARA would open up an opportunity for CARS as drivers, teams and fans were missing the tour. The CARS Tour would be founded with a Late Model Stock Car tour and a Super Late Model Tour. On the Super Late Model side the PASS South Series had been in business for many years and many wondered if two Super Late Model series could survive in this region. Either way CARS forged ahead with plans to work with many of the country’s other Super Late Model series and to stay off the dates of the PASS Series as well.
On March 28, 2015 the new series hit the track for the first time at Southern National Motorsports Park in Lucama, NC. The anticipation leading up to that race was huge but the delivery on opening day was just as big. 67 Cars entered the days two races with 36 Late Model Stock Cars and 31 Super Late Models making their way to Southern National. The CARS Tour had delivered on day one.
The racing product with top Late Model Stock Car racers and an all-star cast of Super Late Models was nothing short of impressive. The car counts didn’t really waver all season either with the Super Late Models never slipping below 20 entries and the Late Model Stock Cars only dipping to 22 cars for one race.
While the series was met with its own set of challenges most of them were of the good variety. The series had parking issues at some venues due to the number of entries. Who wouldn’t want that kind of problem? They also had scoring issues especially during qualifying which they solved this off-season with a brand new state of the art system being purchased and ready for use this weekend at Southern National.
This winter the CARS Tour was spent preparing not only for another season but to improve on a proven product from their first season. They have implemented a new Loyalty Program aimed at keeping more competitors racing all of the events this season. The new program offers free fuel and free tires to competitors racing every event. A move that the series hopes will increase the number of drivers running all of the events after only 17 drivers competed in all events across both series.
The entry list has yet to be released for this weekend’s season opening #CARSTour300 at Southern National Motorsports Park but the anticipation for this season seems to be higher than it was a year ago. Many new cars and teams have decided to compete on the tour this season as well as many of the teams that raced last year returning for the 2016 season.
With the base that was built-in their Inaugural run last year, the CARS Tour has virtually no ceiling for its growth potential this season except having room enough to park all the cars in the infield at short tracks across the region.
