Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]

Copper Hill, VA(December 12, 2012) — With the recent release of the 2013 Motor Mile Speedway season schedule, racers seem to be excited at the opportunity to travel around the region.

The 2013 schedule for Motor Mile, in case you haven’t seen it, includes just six NASCAR Whelen All-American Series points events.  However those six dates include twin 125-lap races for the Late Model Stock Car division.  A seventh date has also been added to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the track being NASCAR sanctioned in September.

The reduced schedule also shows an increase in the available purse for drivers competing in the twin races.  Each race, according to a recent Motor Mile Speedway press release, will pay $2,000 to win, making it possible for a driver to win $4,000 on any given night.  In this day and age when every track seems to be cutting back, Motor Mile boasts the largest purse for any race night of all the Late Model Stock Car tracks.  That alone should draw a lot of interest for drivers to compete in the full 6-race schedule.

Speaking of payouts, the 25th Anniversary Celebration for Motor Mile will climax with a 250-lap race in September.  The race boasts a payout of $10,000 to the winner and is the first big race of any kind at Motor Mile in many seasons.  The $10,000 to win race is already drawing attention from many regional racers and could easily be one of the biggest of the big races this fall.

Also noted the scheduled seven dates do not conflict with any of the scheduled races at nearby South Boston Speedway.  In past seasons many of the dates during the year kept drivers at Motor Mile and South Boston from being able to compete for championships at both venues.  This year’s schedule will allow a driver to contend for the championship at both tracks.

In addition to being able to compete at South Boston on off weekends from Motor Mile, there are many other options on the weekends off.  The short schedule could benefit many regional tracks as Motor Mile has typically boasted the largest car counts of any track, hitting highs in the 30s at times.  Other tracks could see an influx of those cars when Motor Mile isn’t competing.

While the support division drivers seem upset by the fact that the schedule only includes a single race, each race weekend for their division, Late Model Stock Car teams are excited by the changes.

“Thinking, the race schedule for MMS is great,” was the message posted to the Facebook page of Mike Looney’s Black Cloud Motorsports.

“A lot of you won’t like it but I do. It helps keep the small teams in racing with less overall cost and more chances to go race at other tracks with the time off,” driver Rusty Gaspard said on the RACE22.com Facebook page in response to the schedule announcement.

With responses like that from the smaller teams, Motor Mile could very well have created a schedule and a program that will boost their already healthy car count.  Time will tell and we’ll all get to see what happens when their first green flag drops on April 27th.  CLICK HERE to view the full schedule for Motor Mile as well as all the other schedules already released.