How series are ensuring that each level of modified competition offers a fitting venue for nearly any racer regardless of age, experience level, or war chest.

Modifieds are a lot of different things to a lot of different racers. For some, these wildly popular machines are a relatively inexpensive way to compete in a strong-performing, purpose-built race car. For others, they’re the next step up from karts or lower levels of circle track cars. And for others yet, modifieds represent a valuable rung in a ladder that will ultimately lead to a top-level professional driving career.

Regardless of what attracts racers to the world of modifieds, there comes a point for many drivers when it’s time to consider taking the step from local Saturday-night events to bigger series that compete in wider areas, or even across the country. Yet, with that decision comes a number of factors that must be considered. Will it add to one’s enjoyment of the sport? Does it fit in with overall career plans? Is the cost of moving up manageable?

To help better understand these decisions and the factors that influence them, we spoke with representatives from several series, many of them considered “feeders.” Their observations and perspectives provide valuable insight into modified racing and how each stage of competition offers a fitting venue for almost any racer regardless of age, experience level, or budget.

Moving Up

Many in the sport feel there are significant advantages to getting ample seat time in modifieds. They say the unique characteristics of these cars can teach valuable skills that translate to any series or level of racing one might aspire to. “Folks are realizing that if you can drive a high-horsepower, lightweight modified on 8-inch tires, and you can hang on to that, then you could really do well once you get into the Late Model ranks and 10-inch tires,” said Stan Narrison of Modifieds of Mayhem, Montgomery, Alabama. “Some of my modifieds have 650 to 750 horsepower, and they’re much lighter than a Late Model. It truly teaches these kids how to drive cars and how to keep something underneath them. Plus, in a modified, with open wheels, guys learn a little bit of respect. When you put fenders on a car, guys like to lean on each other.”

Regardless of whether racers are planning to build a career from their modified efforts or just want to play in a bigger sandbox, so to speak, there are many factors that typically influence the decision of whether or not to make the leap to a more expansive series. Foremost among these factors, of course, is money. It costs a lot to race in any series. That’s compounded by the need to travel extensively across a multistate area. When that starts to become a challenge, many promoters find that payouts can make a significant difference in which series racers choose to advance into.

“The expenses of traveling, fuel, and time away from work become the biggest factors in what series drivers race in,” explained Darlo Mulder of United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS), Webster City, Iowa. “When you get 80 cars for an event, and only 26 of them can make the show, everybody else is getting tow money. Quite frankly, tow money doesn’t pay the bills. If you have guys who are struggling just to make the feature every week, pretty soon they’re just going to run out of money and not be able to travel with us.

“That’s why paying more money now is attracting more drivers to come race with us,” Mulder continued. “For almost every one of the swings we do this year, we’re doing three days at the same track. So instead of traveling from track to track on the weekend, we’re all at the same place. It’s going to save a lot on fuel for these guys.”

All Together Now

Along with trying to keep costs under control, many series find that it pays to cooperate with other sanctions to put on events, which helps keep them viable for racers considering stepping up to the next level. Key among the considerations in these cooperative ventures are rulesets. They need to work for everyone to foster a smooth transition for racers moving between series.

“We write our rules to try to accommodate most sanctions without them making major changes,” said Mulder. “So, for example, UMP is a huge sanctioning body east of the Mississippi, and we get a lot of their guys who want to come run with us. UMP rollcages are an inch and a half, whereas WISSOTA and IMCA are an inch and three quarters, but we allow the inch-and-a-half roll cages so all the UMP cars can come race with us. They also have open motors where they don’t have a whole lot of restrictions. So we made a package for all the open motors to try and get it to where these guys feel like they can come race with us without having to build a brand new car.”

Beyond these factors, one of the biggest keys to attracting the right kind of racers to a series is clearly understanding where a particular sanction fits in the overall modified-racing ladder. Doing so keeps expectations realistic and allows promoters to better serve their racers, whether they’re eager youngsters on their way to pro careers or seasoned veterans looking to satisfy their urge to race in between their nine-to-five weekday routine.

“People hate to say it, but our series is a B-League,” explained Bill Doucette of Modified Racing Series, Meredith, New Hampshire. “There are two steps above us before they get to the top. So we have our place in the ecosystem. Everybody wants to be the big dog, but any sport needs a feeder system. That said, if drivers have raced their local short track on Saturday night events, they can take their modified and come run with us. We don’t have a huge schedule, and we have a fairly small travel area. So they can try out tour racing and see if it’s something they want to do.”

“USMTS is a professional traveling series,” explained Mulder. “There are guys who race just with us as a profession, who have found a home racing here for their career. But building up to that, there are all your stock cars and your B-Mods and all that. Even an IMCA modified is kind of a step down from us.”

Young Guns

Most feeder series for modifieds see up-and-coming young drivers as the future of the sport, bringing new life and energy into the field, even if those racers aren’t likely to stay with the series for the long haul. So regardless of young racers’ overall aims, sanctions typically do all they can to attract them. Often, such efforts are a combination of reaching these racers in their earlier stages while striving to put on a show worthy of their consideration.

“Attracting young racers is something our organization thinks about a lot,” said Rod Lindquist of WISSOTA Racing Association, St. Cloud, Minnesota. “There are some really good kart operations around here, and a lot of those tracks are actually members of ours. So we already have our foot in the door there. But the best thing one can do to grow the sport, hands down over anything else, is to just have a solid, efficient running organization that puts on good shows.”

Whatever trajectory young racers choose for their ascent up the ranks, they need to weigh their options carefully. Typically, this means making the leap to bigger, more prominent series whenever they’re able, so they can continue to prove themselves worthy of making the next step beyond. For many young modified racers, doing so means switching to an entirely different type of car, typically Late Models.

“There’s a lot of glamour that comes with Late Model programs,” said Narrison. “They’re usually the feature event at most tracks. And modified racers don’t seem to feel the same pressure that there is in Late Models. I think the kids that are moving up realize that they’ve got to jump into that pretty quickly.”

Some sanctions acknowledge career-oriented racers’ progression through various types of cars and accommodate this switch by offering a wide range of classes, to provide a built-in career progression within the series. Sanctions that do so aim to entice their more ambitious racers to progress up the ladder with them, rather than leaving for a different organization.

“We have everything from Hornets to Late Models,” said Lindquist. “So the only reason people would ever leave our series and go to another series is if they moved out of this territorial part of the country.”

The Downside of Moving Up

Some promoters feel that young, career-oriented modified competitors often move up and out of their series too fast. They don’t build a following the way that drivers who stick around year after year tend to. “I’ve had some great drivers come through my race track,” observed Narrison. “Chandler Smith was racing here. It was boom, boom, boom, and he moved through the ranks. It didn’t take long. We’ve had quite a few who have done that here. It makes it tough as a promoter because you want to make stars out of your guys.”

“I think it’s been a problem overall in the sport,” added Modified Racing Series’ Doucette. “I don’t think young racers stay long enough in the lower series to build a fan base. Years ago, drivers raced short tracks all over the country, and they built a fan base. It took years. They didn’t get to the upper levels until they were in their 30s.”

According to some promoters, another potential challenge among intensely ambitious, career-oriented young racers is the problem of burnout. The intensity and high expectations of hot and heavy youngbloods can backfire, causing these fervent competitors to drop out of the sport altogether at a relatively early stage.

“Today’s world is all about instant gratification,” observed Doucette. “It’s not about the longevity of building a career and making a name for yourself. I see teams come in, and if they’re not up to the Cup level in two years, they don’t think they’re going to make it.”

According to some promoters, one potential solution is to do whatever possible to encourage modified racers to simply enjoy whatever level of the sport they’re at and let everything build on that foundation in due time. The reasoning is that, even if racers find that their career hasn’t panned out the way they’d hoped, there is still the satisfaction of participating and competing.

“Teach kids to enjoy the sport,” said Doucette. “Only a small percentage will ever make the big leagues. But if they learn to enjoy the sport, they’ll play it their entire life.”

For the Fun of It

Like most aspects of running a race series, some sanctions are more in tune with driver satisfaction than others. Those that are have found that the general satisfaction racers get from their events can’t be left to chance. Instead, it’s an attitude that should be fostered consciously and consistently.

“You have to remember that racers are a customer of the series,” said Doucette. “So our mantra is to make everything racer-friendly. Cater to them and do everything you can to get them to come back the next time. A lot of that comes down to just making it an enjoyable experience. It can be as simple as just going over and saying hello. That means a lot to people. At the end of the day, if they get a pat on the back and someone says, ‘Thank you for coming,’ at least they know they were appreciated.”

Along with concerns about young drivers having the right motivation is the matter of whether or not the youngest of competitors are even ready to jump into a modified to begin with. Some sanctions suggest that young racers should be evaluated carefully before being allowed to enter a series, regardless of whether the driver’s age fits the letter of the rules.

“For years, our minimum age was 16,” noted Doucette. “Now we’ve started to lighten up on that a little bit, but I’m still very leery of a 13-year-old coming in and racing with a bunch of veterans. I have to talk to the kid and see him run first. Then I can make a judgment if he’s ready. The proof is in the pudding—watch him race.”

Keeping It Real

Ultimately, the decision of whether or not to move up to a higher level of modified series is a personal one, dictated by emotional factors as much or more than practical considerations. Some drivers would rather stay where they are and continue to race modifieds in a local series because that’s simply what they enjoy. Others see modifieds as just another car and class to be mastered in a larger quest to build a major-league racing career.

“First off, know what you want to do,” advised Lindquist. “You have to recognize your abilities. You have to be clear about what your goals are. If you just love the sport and you want to compete, then put yourself into the class you want to race in, that you feel you’re best in. That could even mean going down a class. I have a guy in our series who ran several years in a modified, but he found he had more fun going down and running a Hornet.

“This is a great sport for people to find their lane and run with it,” he added. “It all comes down to what’s in your heart as a competitor.”

SOURCES

Modifieds of Mayhem
modifiedsofmayhem.com

Modified Racing Series
themodifiedracingseries.com

United States Modified Touring Series
usmts.com

WISSOTA Racing Association
wissota.org