CARS Tour West

[ron.brown11]

I got a big surprise yesterday, with an article on FloRacing. Flo's article said that Kevin & Keeland Harvick will headline the CARS Tour West series races at the Bullring in Las Vegas. They are being broadcast live on FloRacing tonight. I had not seen/read anywhere that they had started a West division for the Pro LMs. Keelan will be running Legends division, also put on by the CARS Tour West. The article said that the West series was created back in Jan 2024. They will be running at some CA tracks, and at the Bullring. I'm hoping that they will go to Tucson in the future too. I tried looking at the normal CARS Tour website, and found nothing. So I googled the CARS Tour West, and found their site. There I found out that the race tonight is the 11th of the season, with one more to go, at Harvick's Kern County track.

It wasn't that long ago, I said on this site, that I thought that between the CARS Tour & the SRL Series, we could end up with at least a Pro series that could connect the east to the west. The SRL's main division is their super late models, with Pros and modifieds as undercard divisions. Well, either shame on me for not ever hearing about the West series, or for them not saying anything about it. There was no info saying whether there will be a 2025 season for the West series yet. I would love to say that I'm a genius and can see the future, but no, unfortunately. Still, I'm ecstatic!!

I'll say it again, the new CARS Tour ownership seems intent on trying to save asphalt stock car racing, and I'm hoping that they succeed. I wonder if the West series was waiting to get a contract with Flo before announcing, or was it something else. As I had stated in that earlier topic, the SRL series Pro LM rules were nearly identical to the CARS Tour's. I don't know if the 2 series are working together, or if the CARS Tour is trying to squeeze them out. My hope is that there are working together.   

I read another article on Flo, stated that the Harvicks will be partnering with Rackley WAR next year. Kevin and Keeland will be running their cars. The article made me feel that Keelan will be running a Pro LM, and dad a super LM. I don't think the Rackley WAR has anything on the west coast, so I'm guessing that they will run the east coast stuff, with maybe a a race or 2 on the west coast. Stay Tuned, film at 11.

[ron.brown11]

Well, I'm watching the Vegas race, it's a 100 laps for the Pro LMs, and another surprise. Tim Huddleston is running the show there. He's the guy that has kept Irwindale Speedway from closing a few seasons ago, and was hired to operate Kevin Harvick's Kern Co Speedway.

[ron.brown11]

I can't remember if the Bullring is located off turn 2 or turn 3 of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. These days, short tracks pop up beside a bigger speedway, Indy & Charlotte come to mind. In this case, the big track was built beside the short track. The big track left their track lights on tonight, so you can see it in the background, off the backstretch of the Bullring. Cool sight. 

Well, I have an answer, at least for tonight, Rackley WAR will be running their super late models here tonight. Dawson Sutton, the son of the part owner of Rackley WAR, will drive one, and Harvick the other. This should be fun!!

[ron.brown11]

Watching this Pro LM race, I had some happy, and one very sad memory. The happy ones were of one of the wraps, as it was exactly the same Spears Manufacturing scheme that Ron Hornaday Jr ran in the Winston West, now ARCA West series. The very sad one was another paint scheme, with Star Nursery. Star Nursery is a big operation there in Vegas. They were the sponsor of the late Chris Trickle. He was a former track champion at the Bullring, before moving on to the old Southwest Tour. That's where I got to see him race, when he ran the Winter Heat Series, at Tucson Raceway Park. He was murdered a couple of weeks after competing in Tucson, in a drive by shooting. His murder has never been solved.

[ron.brown11]

The Supers will race for 125 laps. It's been 6 years since they have run supers at the Bullring. This should be fun. 

[ron.brown11]

They started 17 cars for the race. Harvick started 6th, got spun about 40 laps in. He's made it back to 10th. With 40 laps to go, Cole Raz is leading. He took over the lead from Derek Thorn, who lead a good bit of the race. He's the multi track champ at Tucson, and also won their big Chilly Willie race there in Jan. Since that race in Jan, Raz has a new sponsor. His car is now sponsored by Unocal 76, he changed his number to 76, and it's painted their orange and blue.

I don't think that Harvick's car #62 is a Rackley car. It's painted with his #62, and sponsored by Busch Light. Dawson Sutton's car is its usual white, and black colors and their logos, and he blew an engine about 85 laps in. Harvick doesn't have anything Rackley WAR on his. So I guess that driving for Rackley will start next season.

Cole raz wins; Derek Thorn 2nd; Jeremy Doss 3rd; Harvick 4th, and Kleyn 5th. There were a couple of spins, and a couple of noses that got bent up. But all in all, it was a clean race. I hope that the West Series runs next season live in FloRacing.

Thorn is the winningest driver for races & championships in the SRL Series. My friend Jim Pettit II is the second winningest in both those categories, but Jim ran a lot fewer seasons than Derek has. They both are great drivers I didn't watch the legends cars race, so I don't know hoe Keelan did.

The weather is supposed to be great for the CARS Tour races at North Wilkesboro for Sat. 

I will try to find out of the last West race at Kern Co will be broadcast on FloRacing.

Goodnight!!

[NickHolt]

Very interesting developments, Ron.  Thanks for sharing this important info with us.

[ron.brown11]

2 hours ago, NickHolt said:

Very interesting developments, Ron.  Thanks for sharing this important info with us.

Yeah, I was shocked for sure. I've gone back and looked at a few sites from the west coast, that I used to read from time to time, nothing. I don't think that there is any doubt that the CARS Tour ownership is hellbent on making asphalt racing stronger, and I felt that their footprint would expand, especially after ZMax came onboard. I really hoped that it would/could expand, but I figured it might take awhile. I also have seen what Tim Huddleston and family has done on the west coast. Considering that we are talking about CA, he's been amazing. Leadership Matters!! He was also a pretty good driver too. If you remember, when I was talking months ago about expansion, I was thinking that the CARS Tour would look to the Gulf coast. Hell, they just skipped it all, and went as far as they could go. There's a lot of great racing, drivers, and teams out there, and it seems like they've never been shy about spending the funds to do so. I can't wait to see where this could go.

Beings that Harvick has very good relations with the SRL Series, maybe the CARS Tour will revive their SLM class again, and the 2 series could do some joint events, like ARCA does between the national, east & west series'. Wouldn't that be fun?? Now, if we could get a steady/stable asphalt track here in TX. One that would have LMSC & Supers on semi-regular basis (monthly or bi-monthly). We could then play connect the dots. There are a handful of tracks along the gulf coast. Colorado National and Tucson are great tracks, and of course Las Vegas. I-70 in MO has run some shows with the SRL, and it's another great facility. Maybe you or Rodney could comment on whether HMS has solid plans for 2025 and beyond.  I still thin that the ideal place for a nice 3/8 to 1/2 mile track is on the COTA property. SA is also not a bad location, but it just seems like the racing won't ever go back there. I wouldn't mind being wrong on that, but the main thing is there has to be some stability that racing will be there year after year. Nobody wants to invest $50k+, and not know if that will turn into an expensive lawn ornament next year. That's why I like the idea of COTA. I don't see them rearing it down next year, and I think the F1 contract has a couple more years on it. The F1 ownership and the teams seem to love the place, so if that doesn't change, and they still want to be in the US market, it's basically the track that they set to configuration out for. The track just repaved it for this year's race, it seemed to hold up well and was competitive. Time will tell I guess, as F1 can be a fickle bunch. But since Bernie Eckelstone was bought out, not nearly as much as it was under him. 

[NickHolt]

 

11 hours ago, ron.brown11 said:

SA is also not a bad location, but it just seems like the racing won't ever go back there. I wouldn't mind being wrong on that, but the main thing is there has to be some stability that racing will be there year after year. Nobody wants to invest $50k+, and not know if that will turn into an expensive lawn ornament next year. 

COTA has the infrastructure and resources for sure, but I've always felt that San Antonio is the logical place for a half-mile, paved oval. 

Hmmm.... I wonder if Tavo has any interest in becoming the short-track owner/promoter of the decade.

 

[ron.brown11]

6 hours ago, NickHolt said:

 

COTA has the infrastructure and resources for sure, but I've always felt that San Antonio is the logical place for a half-mile, paved oval. 

Hmmm.... I wonder if Tavo has any interest in becoming the short-track owner/promoter of the decade.

 

I don’t know Tavo other than that Tim I saw him with you in the press box at Thunderhill. But he’s the only one that seems to have the stones to see something like this through to completion. COTA has the infrastructure and we already know that they already have several things going on that generate money when not hosting NASCAR F1 etc. Why not more racing?? I’m sure that some Sat night short track racing could bring in some too. Plus, a Sat race program wouldn’t be nearly as disruptive as a Cup or F1 event for the locals. The only thing that might be an issue is needing a curfew. But Thunderhill operated under one if I remember correctly. I don’t think the locals would be too upset about a track on the grounds of another track. So that leaves the COTA ownership. It’s doable but would take a lot of money. Plus trust from the racers that there would be a track for more than a couple of years. You can’t wish a field of cars into existence. With the closures of all asphalt tracks except HMS, and the shakiness of it, that might be the biggest obstacle..