Spreading DIRT Nationwide

At a time when some of his generation would be thinking of finding a nice place to relax after a successful career, DIRT Motorsports series founder and promoter extraordinaire Glenn Donnelly has taken on the business equivalent of herding a bunch of rabid cats into a corral, vaccinating them, and then domesticating them enough to charge the public admission to see them.

Donnelly is soon to become the point man for a major deep-pocket effort to transform touring, dirt short-track racing as we currently know it. It has as its core vision taking over the balls-out DIRT big-block Modified regional touring series and expanding its unique racing program nationwide. Donnelly has successfully nurtured it in the Northeast since 1976 among racers, fans, sponsors, and other independent dirt short-track operators into the crown racing jewel of DIRT Motorsports Inc.

Yet, to take his series to a national level, Donnelly recognized it was time to partner-up if it was going to grow. Long-term, he saw it was a case of get bigger, or slowly get gone. Once this acquisition is complete (the ink should be dry on the contract when you read this), the ambitious plan is to deliberately grow DIRT’s fervent Northeastern regional racing identity into a vibrant and profitable national one. The new DIRT will have the management resources and monetary backing to leverage the DIRT big-block Modifieds as the feature race attraction supported by a companion race series at suitable dirt short tracks far away from their current jurisdiction.

For instance, the rumble of big-block Modifieds might one day be thundering off The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway with a companion race of UDTRA-type Late Models, which are popular in the Southeast. Then again, these big-block ground-pounders could be churning dirt at a Midwestern track within a year with an IMCA-type Modified support event, because of the popularity of that racing in the Midwest. You may see these mechanical beasts in exploratory short-track races in the Pittsburgh and Las Vegas areas before too long, also. The DIRT Modifieds will not be just for Northeast fans and sponsors anymore.

Explore, Then Migrate

The DIRT Modified migration plans to anchor down the East Coast in earnest in 2003, and then expand westward over the next three to five years. Note that the big-block Modifieds will crank sideways at famed Eldora in Ohio this fall, and take their special form of racing madness to the dirt racing fans of that area. This is yet another exploratory step in the migration of the DIRT racing brand to dirt short tracks across America.

The first tentative steps of this migration has a formidable example of success. The initial Donnelly-sanctioned exploratory racing forays in 2001 and 2002 straight into the heart of stock car country at the The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s may one day be seen as the visionary dirt racing equivalent of Big Bill France’s building Daytona, or Bill Jr.’s shepherding NASCAR Winston Cup to run at Indy—watershed actions that raised their racing series in public perception, and galvanized converts geographically and in corporate boardrooms.

A DIRT corporate partner like Eckerd Drugs was shown by sponsoring the Modified event at Lowe’s that the racing product it had invested in up North could give it a satisfactory and measurable return in another region it wants to expand in. Plus, the cost of Eckerd’s ground-floor participation in the series wasn’t as sky-high as it would be to get involved with NASCAR, for example, which left the ground floor long ago. Of course, the exposure wouldn’t be at NASCAR levels, yet.

These days, particularly after the great Internet money flameout, it’s all about return on investment for investors (read sponsors) if a business product is to succeed. If Donnelly and the backing venture group of money and management men can replicate the success of the Lowe’s event, and bottle and market to the masses the essence of big-block Modified’s racing fury across the nation at a collection of top-notch dirt short track facilities, he should be hailed as the modern dirt-track incarnation of France Sr., the founding father/benevolent dictator of NASCAR.

Success with this monumental endeavor is not guaranteed nor will it come overnight. In fact, one could point out that the World of Outlaws Sprint car racing series has just as compelling dirt short-track racing, but it has remained somewhat fragmented and unable to capitalize on its wild racing presentation and capture the imagination of casual race fans like NASCAR’s Winston Cup has so supremely done. Albeit national in scope, the WoO has remained a racing product that enraptures the hard-core racing fan, not broad appeal sports entertainment that yields major eyeball numbers and the subsequent sponsorship dollars that follow. Can DIRT and Donnelly & Co. make DIRT Modifieds a name in households without a full-on race fan?

National Vision & Will To Achieve It

If there is a one man with the respect of the nationwide dirt racing community, built up over 30 years of profitable race management experience, it’s Donnelly. It remains to be seen, however, whether that respect is enough to ultimately convince a bunch of ornery and successful independent dirt-track operators over the next three to five years that their future collective self-interest is more lucrative than their current individual one.

France Sr. was a man who could charm his competition, or fire warning shots at them, depending on the necessary end he was trying to achieve. He was a force of nature with an iron will who built a racing series from scratch. There was really no business model for him to pattern after. Fifty years later, as NASCAR’s Winston Cup basically owns pavement racing in the United States by any standard of measure, one can better appreciate just what a colossal achievement that organization is.

Donnelly & Co. face a similar challenge in trying to bring the same national coherence to dirt-track racing. He started DIRT in 1976, facing more than one challenge to his racing leadership and organization, while mentoring it into the Northeastern racing powerhouse it is today with over 30 tracks sanctioned. That certainly demonstrates he has the necessary skill set and same rock-hard will, and willingness to take a risk, if need be.

Donnelly has built a regionally lucrative dirt short-track racing model, now he’s getting the opportunity to take it national. He doesn’t have a public arm-twisting style, but has apparently developed the ability to work all the angles of a dirt short-track event, and those of corporate boardrooms, with equal dexterity. That’s no small achievement.

How Do You Spell Race? M-O-N-E-Y

He won’t be doing this alone. While Donnelly has the unbridled enthusiasm of the entrepreneur, his “Mr. Realism” is Tom Deery. Deery, former vice president of NASCAR’s Weekly Racing Series, is the president of the megabucks acquisition company that is buying DIRT and beginning the selection and purchasing of dirt tracks to bring into the fold. They are going to manage the DIRT racing product from the venue up the event chain—from location to participants to presentation.

Deery is a key liaison between the money and management group and Donnelly, and he too has racing experience that transcends across the grass roots to the national level. He’s managed his family’s respected Rockford (Illinois) Speedway, so he knows what puts fans in the stands, and his NASCAR experience girds him for what track operators and sponsors require at the national level. He specifies that the full roll-out of the new DIRT will happen in 2003, but “select dirt track facilities are being contacted in 2002.” There are 15 letters of intent from dirt tracks on the East Coast in the mix at this writing in early summer. More are planned.

After this first group of East Coast tracks are secured in 2003, then Donnelly & Co. will begin to bring consistency to rules and the schedule—you’ll be able to race or attend a DIRT big-block Modified event from Canada to Florida under the same sanctioning structure. The management team plans to bring in more sponsors as the expansion grows, improve track facilities, and correspondingly increase purses for racers.

According to Deery, they’re looking to “judiciously expand the Modified’s schedule. Say, from 26, to 30, to a possible 35 events” and “we’ll roll in a championship structure for other divisions.” This group isn’t short on ambition. Deery envisions a future dirt racing “Race Off”—think along the lines of an NCAA college basketball tourney for dirt-track racers—which will include seven or eight divisions ranging from Hobby Stocks up to the big-block Modifieds. All of this sanctioned, directed, and promoted by the new DIRT group.

Will DIRT Racing Play Nationally?

First items first, however. Deery emphasizes, “This is a long-term play. We face challenges like any endeavor building a product from the ground up. There will be naysayers and competitors who think they can do this better.”

One of the first obstacles is to find and corral suitable dirt short tracks into the collective organization. “Getting independent track operators who are inclined to schedule against their neighboring tracks to now work with each other is not easy,” comments Deery. “Managing and making a profit from a weekly racetrack is not easy either. But we will demonstrate that our available resources and management team will help the local operator who joins us do so,” he declares. “Glenn will be an integral part of the ongoing operation,” Deery says. His leadership will be invaluable in bringing unity to a business group not know for its cooperation.

A critical fuel for this forward movement is TV coverage. Right now, DIRT has its This Week on DIRT TV magazine program, but no national network TV partner to telecast live its product. Deery downplays TV’s immediate union and impact with the expanding series. “Being on TV doesn’t necessarily make the expanding series a success,” he says. “Don’t mistake me, I’m not minimizing TV coverage of our racing, but we have to make sure the racing program and schedule are ready for it. It’s more likely that we’ll first look to expanding our This Week on Dirt program.”

There’s that long-view again. Deery is counting on building a product and bringing in supporters when the initial cost to play in an exciting motorsports program is comparatively inexpensive, compared to the NASCARs and IRLs and CARTs of the motorsports landscape.

He’s right, a solid TV contract won’t guarantee a sport success—witness the XFL. You first have to have a compelling product. Yet DIRT may be stopped in its dirt tracks if it doesn’t eventually develop a national TV package. It’s unlikely a new, improved, going-national, DIRT Modified racing product can be accomplished unless teams, tracks, and the series can bring a return on investment for sponsor dollars, and TV is basically the largest lever to yield those returns.

Without a doubt, Donnelly and Co. have their work cut out for them to bring the grass roots and hometown excitement of the extreme racing put on by big-block DIRT Modifieds to a national audience. They’re going to change the short-track racing landscape in the U.S. one DIRT race at a time.