NASCAR Elite Series Cancellation - Have Car, Will Race

Huth is working with Davey Hamilton, former Indy 500 driver and competitor in the Indy Racing League, and Steve Fensler, director of operations for the SRL, to launch the ASA-sanctioned series in 2007.

Hamilton and Fensler already run a touring series-the 12-race SRL Wild West Late Model Shootout, aka SLR Super Late Model Series-in central California. They will use it as the template for twin series on the West Coast beginning next year. The SRL uses rules almost identical to NASCAR's Elite Division.

"It is way too early to talk specifics," says Huth. "All I can say for sure is that we have been contacted by tracks and drivers about becoming part of what we offer in 2007."

Huth says the inquiries have not been limited to the West Coast.

Hamilton says the new series will allow drivers who invested in NASCAR Elite cars an opportunity to retain and race their equipment. He says drivers from the North and South divisions would race in their own area, and then come together for North-versus-South shootout races.

ASA has been known for decades as the short-track proving ground that tempered the talent of young drivers such as NASCAR champions Rusty Wallace, Alan Kulwicki, and racing legend Mark Martin.

After a couple years of retrenching, Huth feels it is on the verge of returning to that stature.

Huth says the SRL series could be a destination for some drivers who race strictly for the competition, while for others it could be a finishing school for drivers and teams who want to step up to NASCAR's Grand National West or one of NASCAR's professional series.

The ASA owner is confident his organization will work where NASCAR says the series is no longer cost effective. He says the difference between the ASA and NASCAR is the cost of management and how they work with drivers.

"The cost of doing business with NASCAR has become astronomical," he says. "Because we are much smaller, we have the ability to work more closely with track owners and the competitors. We'll do things differently than NASCAR. If we make the same mistakes, we'll have the same outcome."

Elite Southwest Series
Number of races: 14
Number of drivers: 105
Number that made every race: 11
Average car count: 28
Champion's earnings: $38,891

Elite Southeast Series
Number of races: 12
Number of drivers: 46
Number that made every race: 10
Average car count: 20
Champion's earnings: $51,706

Elite Northwest Series
Number of races: 9
Number of drivers: 45
Number that made every race: 15
Average car count: 24
Champion's earnings: $17,982

Elite Midwest Series
Number of races: 9
Number of drivers: 42
Number that made every race: 12
Average car count: 20
Champion's earnings: $29,925

The ASA Late Model Series is gaining ground toward becoming the national standard for short-track competition

Jim Haun knows all about the high price of racing. Bill Tomlinson knows how to race on a budget.A little more than a decade ago, Haun was living in California and racing at three area ovals.

"And I needed three cars to do it," he says. "The cost and the effort to maintain three of them was ridiculous."

"Each promoter at the local tracks had his own way of doing things, and they pretty much refused to talk to one another," Haun remembers.

The rules, he says, were just different enough that you couldn't race the same car at a different track without spending a massive amount of time converting it to each track's unique set of rules.

"Most drivers had only one car, so they had to decide which track they wanted to race at. A lot of them would have raced twice each weekend, but they couldn't afford the time switching their cars back and forth."

He says the different rules hurt the car count at each track, which in turn had an impact on the number of people buying tickets.

Today, Haun is trying to change that.

He is the operations manager for the emerging ASA Late Model Series, which may some day be the national standard for short-track racing.

But first, a bit of history.

The ASA Late Models began as a touring series for tracks in Michigan. The owner, Ron Varney, renamed it the US Pro Cup Series in 2002, and the series ran a dozen races in the Midwest the following year. By the end of the season the weekly car count more than doubled from 13 to 28, Haun says.

By the end of 2003, the series was successful enough that racer/investor/promoter Steve Dale purchased it and re-branded the concept the ASA Late Model Series.

But the wheels fell off Dale's ASA in 2004, and by the end of the year, Varney repurchased the series he created. He retained the name ASA Late Model Series and, in 2005, his group ran 16 events to good reviews by fans and drivers.

The key, says Haun, is getting tracks to accept common rules and forcing drivers to build cars within strict guidelines that contain costs.

It's a formula that's worked for Tomlinson.

The Kalamazoo, Michigan, driver closed the 2005 season as the only man to race in every event since Varney founded his series.

"When Ron first approached me, we were finishing up the season and looking to move up from a stock class car," he says. "We were actually thinking of a class with a built motor that would have cost us at least $20,000.

"Ron had this idea about a low-cost series with a crate engine and an off-the-shelf body, and it all started to sound pretty good. We wanted to move up to a faster class and also do some racing at other tracks, so his idea of a touring series was perfect for what we wanted to do.

"Now, I admit that racing isn't a cheap hobby," says Tomlinson, who pays the bills with what comes in from a family-owned excavating company, "but this one is about as cost effective as you can get."

"The scenario is pretty simple," the ASA's Haun says. "Control costs and they will come. Car counts go up, competition is better because you won't be out-spent, and more fans will come to see closer racing."