Champion Racing Association - Taking Control

In 2000, Luckett left Salem Speedway and took over the full-time management of CRA's day-to-day activities. Under Luckett's guidance, the CRA Super Series continued to grow. At the 2001 season awards banquet, Luckett made an announcement that shocked the gathered crowd. Kendall Oil, the series title sponsor since its onset, was leaving the sport due to business concerns after having been sold.

That was the bad news, and the good news quickly followed.

Sunoco Oil had agreed to come on-board as title sponsor for the next three years, and the series would be renamed the CRA Sunoco Super Series. Sunoco gave the CRA Super Series three years of a high-profile sponsor, and the series prospered with more new drivers and venues coming on-board.

The tour began to travel to tracks in Michigan, Nashville, and I-70 Speedway in Missouri, with drivers such as Scott Hantz, Gary St. Amant, and Eddie Hoffman leading the action.

While Sunoco scooted off to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series after the company's contract with the CRA Super Series expired, CRA continued to bring the best of stock car racing to tracks throughout the Midwest.

Fast-forward to March of this year at the Music City Motorplex in Nashville, Tennessee, and the health of the series is evident. Fifty cars were pre-entered for the race at the historic Nashville track, and the drivers came from everywhere in the eastern half of the country, from Florida to Minnesota.

For this race, the CRA Super Series cars were given a 50-pound weight break because that's what the rules require for the track's All American 400 race in November. The CRA officials thought that by making the weights the same it could serve as a good tune-up for the fall classic.

Luckett, one of the CRA owners, has a perfect blend for asphalt Late Model drivers.

"NASCAR, right now, is just looking at the young kids," Luckett says. "Some teams are hiring drivers as young as 15 and 16 to developmental contracts. None of the teams seem to be interested in the veterans that have been around for a while. We welcome those guys with open arms. The average for a driver in the Super Series is probably about 30 years old, and they all are real racers who want to go to the front every race. But we are not just about the veterans. We have a fine crop of young drivers who someday may be racing on the Cup level.

"We are an economy touring series. Our rules are intended to make any Late Model driver from anywhere in the country able to be competitive in our series. The cars we run are 1999 models or newer, and we utilized the A-B-C body rules that have pretty much been standardized across the Late Model world."

"A variety of motors are available to use," adds Luckett. "The most commonly used engine is the 358 cubic-inch, 9:1 compression model, although we do allow 362 cubic-inch steelhead motors, with some restrictions.

"Crate engines, like those used in the ASA Late Model Series, can be used with some weight restrictions. But the most exciting engine we have is the CRA McGunnegill sealed engine. For less than $18,000, these motors will last throughout the season. If any kind of internal breakdown does occur, the engine is repaired at no cost."

"We used to go to tracks as far away as Missouri, but now we try to keep everything fairly close to our base, except for the early season when we race in Florida," says Luckett. "We have a nice blend of tracks, everything from the three-quarter-mile USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Florida, to the quarter-mile Anderson Speedway in Indiana.

"We just try to make it affordable for everyone, but we are going to have an opportunity to give our guys a chance at some big bucks with our Triple Crown this year. The first race is at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, on September 22. It's going to be 100 laps long and pay $10,000 to win. That race is being promoted by Jim Winters, who is one of our car owners.

"Jim has been with us since the beginning of the series and shows what kind of atmosphere we have here in CRA. That will be followed in October with the Winchester 400, paying $10,500 to win, and then November's All American 400 in Nashville, with another winner's purse of over $10,000. If one driver can win all three races, he will receive a $50,000 bonus, two races a $10,000 bonus, and if three different drivers win, the driver with the most points in those three races will take home an additional $5,000. Plus, each winner will get an automatic berth in the Snowball Derby at Pensacola in December.

"Everybody is really excited about it, especially the race at ORP. We want to move asphalt Late Model racing up to the level that Dirt Late Model racing has achieved, and this is the start of it."