As some of you may know, I’ve spent most of my racing life following the modifieds. They were my first racing love.         There was good reason, they were plentiful, put on good racing from deep in the pack and they had variety and identity. What wasn’t there to love?
They are getting blown out of the racing water. There sure are people to blame. No one hurt them intentionally, but the modifieds have become a sad shadow of what they were.
The modified gentry did exactly what the midget folks did ... they strayed away from home-built cars and went for shelling out big money instead.
One of the great things about modifieds was the diversity in the pits. Everyone had their own idea. Various pre-war coupes and sedans were evident. The powerplants varied, too. I took a “mill” count at a race at Old Bridge, N.J., once and the 24-car feature had 11 different engines. Plus there were four barrels, three deuces, fuel injection and some ran fuel, others gas.
The cars had identity. Because of their large size, many were adorned with two- or three-tone paint. No two were alike. In a 100-mile range from my Long Island home I had several tracks, dirt and asphalt, to venture to. I would cheat some Fridays and drive an extra 50 miles to Reading, Pa., or Stafford Springs, Conn.
I’d see three nights a week of them. Then the All-Star League started in 1967 and it was found that mid-week racing was popular too. What made the modifieds so great is that they were powerful but far from easy to handle. The drivers had to make them work. There were dozens of great modified drivers back then. Many raced for a living.
The cars were backyard/garage built. Mostly junk parts were used and many owners built their own engines. A first-rate modified could be put on the track for about $4,000. Will Cagle told me that it cost him about $100 a night to race in those days.
Then it all started going away. A handful of businesspeople began building and selling chassis. Tubular frames from sprint-car designs were used.
In the ’70s, many modifieds were bought, not built. Then engine builders came on the scene. Soon the price of a modified went up five times. Now a turn-key car is more than $40,000.
Trouble is, there was no way the purses could be brought up to pay for them. Guys with their homemade cars couldn’t keep up. They started dropping out of the sport in droves. Tracks that had more than 40 cars in the pits were lucky to get 30. It hurts to read in a regional newspaper when the track reporter says, “a fine field of 25 cars competed tonight.”
This means no one has to race to get into the feature. The heats which used to be exciting are now warm-up sessions. As years have gone on, the modified fields are dwindling and tracks are disappearing.
Fans are paying to see a far inferior show then they used to with fewer cars in the pits. These manufactured cars handle so well that anyone can drive them and many races have no passing.
NASCAR is doing everything it can to ruin the division Big Bill France started with in 1947. They are down to 15 tour races. The new “flash” system put on such a bad show last May at New Jersey’s Wall Speedway that people paying $35 walked out disgusted.
Today’s modifieds all look alike and most use the same engine. The most competitive racing I have ever enjoyed isn’t close to what it was. It makes me very sad. What a damned shame.