Last summer, we asked longtime car owner Randy Ross for his thoughts on the state of dirt-modified racing and the DIRTcar organization.
Regular readers will recall that he was not optimistic about the cut in weekly purses and the focus on “local” racing. Then came an abrupt change in his program as well.
In late winter, he sold his cars, released driver Matt Sheppard, started fielding offers on his hauler and trailer and reduced his involvement to sponsorship of friend Dave Camara through the family business, Adam Ross Cut Stone.
“There’s just no foresight there,” declared Ross from Camara’s pit stall. “The division’s not going anywhere. The Super DIRT Series used to be the premier deal around here and last season five guys ran the whole deal — Brett Hearn, Tim Fuller, Billy Decker, Jimmy Phelps and Steve Paine. That was it.
“We missed one race because we were running for the track title at New Egypt, and finished eighth in points. We got $6,800 in cash and $2,200 in fuel coupons, when we used to get all cash.”
Sheppard did win the $10,000 New Egypt championship on the strength of an eight-win season, but Ross was unhappy with the rewards there as well.
“Track titles were always worth $3,000 from DIRT and Hoosier, plus the money from the track itself. Last year we got $2,500, but 75 gallons of fuel at $8 a gallon was included so we got $1,900 cash.
“At the same time, the good sponsorships have gone away. Ten years ago people had good regional deals — Pepsi, Ground Round, Pennzoil, BKS Hardware, the auto parts chains, Budweiser — but all that went away with the ‘This Week on DIRT’ TV show. It ran nationally on cable and on eight channels around New York, so both the primary sponsors and our product sponsors saw us in action.
“And we also lost the televised Empire DIRT Series Sundays from Cayuga County. They were 30-lap races with lots of action and the product guys everywhere got to see us race. Now, with the economy gone bad, we’ve got nothing to sell except grass-roots racing at one or two tracks.
“Last year we took in $111,000, but still lost over $15,000 on a real good year,” Ross said. “I don’t expect to make money, but it was all coming out of my pockets and they’re not deep enough for that. If I ever decide to come back, I’ll have a small truck and trailer and race small scale. Even that’s expensive nowadays.”
Enough of the down side. Surely there must be some bright spots on the racing horizon.
“Yeah, a few,” Ross said. “Albany-Saratoga and Grandview have strong programs and attract big crowds.
The Bicknells do well at Merrittville. All the tracks around Albany benefit from the Fox Fast Track TV program, which really helps the local racers. And Fonda has a good deal this year, a series of good paying races where you can make some money without a lot of travel.”
Still, says Ross, the “old days” look even better in retrospect.
“I was a Saturday-night racer until I hooked up with Billy Decker in ’95 and hired a full-time mechanic,” he said. “We ran three nights a week for $3,000 to win in central New York plus the tour events. Central New York had the best competition ever, but with a good sponsor and mostly top-three finishes, we did OK.
“In 1998, we took in more than $250,000. We won 19 races, including Syracuse, won the Skoal Series and won the Mr. DIRT title. And we had some other years that were almost as good. Now, I’m in the ranks of former car owners, with guys like Jim Beachy, Bob Faust, Bernie Smith and Dan Madsen, guys who had winning, high-profile teams but walked away.
“When you see Brett Hearn running around with a local home builder on the side of his car instead of Pepsi or Budweiser or Auto Zone, you know the times have changed.”