MOORESVILLE, N.C. — The month of October provided a crazy travel schedule.
First, it was off to Cardiff in the United Kingdom for the World Supercross debut, then to Florida for the American Flat Track season finale at Volusia Speedway Park. From Orlando, we flew to Melbourne, Australia, for another round of World Supercross. It was 29 hours in the air from Orlando to Los Angeles; to Hong Kong; to Australia. I saw two sunrises and two sunsets during the trip home.
Once back from Australia, I went to Oklahoma for the Legends of the Fall off-road races featuring Ultra4 Racing.
From there, it was on to Vegas for the annual SEMA show.
We made it home to Charlotte in time for the World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Randy Dorton Hendrick Engine Builder Showdown at Hendrick Motorsports. Whew! I’m tired just typing all of that.
• World Supercross is off to a tremendous start. Fans from around the world poured into the stadiums, proving there is a huge appetite for Supercross racing around the globe. The folks at SX Global, who own the series, plan to announce the 2023 schedule in late November. Expect between eight and 10 races. Venues will be all around the world, including at least one in the United States.
• American Flat Track announced an 18-race schedule for next season, kicking off with the traditional season opener during Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Fla., and concluding with a Labor Day weekend doubleheader on the famed Springfield Mile in Illinois.
• Disney, Okla., which is about an hour outside of Tulsa, hosted the inaugural Legends of the Fall event for Ultra4. It turned out to be a stunning location, with a spectacular mixture of challenging terrain for the versatile Ultra4 machines and amazing fall color painting the landscape.
New Ultra4 series owner Jason Robinette has aggressive plans for how he hopes to grow the already popular off-road racing series. A big part of that growth includes SPEED SPORT. We are excited about our new media partnership for television and live streaming. Expect the SPEED SPORT team to have a large presence at the prestigious season-opening King of the Hammers in California’s Mojave desert during early February.
Twenty minutes from Disney, Okla., is the town of Jay, Okla., and the impressive MidAmerica Outdoors facility. Robinette owns this remarkable venue, which is the ultimate off-road playground. Every variation of off-road course exists on the massive property.
It’s so spectacular that Travis Pastrana has announced he is moving his entire Nitro Circus Compound to MidAmerica Outdoors.
• The primary topic of conversation during the SEMA Show was, “Where are Chevy and Ford?” After that, it was, “How how do you feel about all of the electrification on display? There were no good answers to either of these questions.
• During the World Finals there were intense meetings among World of Outlaws officials and team owners and drivers. Naturally, the main topic of conversation was about money. Expenses have skyrocketed and the owners say they need help to adequately fund their programs. WoO officials point out the substantial increase in purses and point fund money during the 2022 season.
We’ll keep you updated as the conversations continue.
• Do not expect to see Clauson Marshall Racing and its stable of cars as part of the annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals in January.
The team is focusing its energy on winged sprint car racing moving forward.
• Congrats to Hendrick Motorsports engine builder Danny Emerick and Hendrick Automotive Group service technician Brad Huston on winning this year’s build off with a blistering time of 22 minutes and 31.85 seconds. They had to build a NASCAR Chevy R07 engine from scratch and it had to run for 60 seconds. Well done gents. Randy Dorton would have loved it!
• As a kid I used to wander through Tower Books in Sacramento and check out every car magazine. I loved flipping through each page. Of course, I read National Speed Sport News cover to cover every week. It has been a thrill to own and publish SPEED SPORT Magazine, as well as SprintCar & Midget.
Unfortunately, the print world has changed and no matter how hard we try it just doesn’t work anymore. But racing is always evolving and so is SPEED SPORT. The one constant is the quality of our journalism, which will never change. What’s changing is how you receive the content. You have gotten SPEED SPORT content as a newspaper, magazine, website, tv, video and social media.
We believe what is coming next will be the best SPEED SPORT yet. Here’s to the future.