CARTERSVILLE, GA – NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series officials have postponed the National Touring events scheduled for Batesville Motor Speedway in Batesville, AR on June 26-27 until 2010 to give the track more time to build its weekly Late Model program, and to give the economy more time to improve.
Both the NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series and Batesville Motor Speedway promoter Mooney Starr are hopeful that another year of development for the weekly late model program at the track will be a positive move that will lead to a successful National Touring event in 2010.
Batesville Motor Speedway brought back the dirt late models as a part of its weekly Friday night program this season for the first time since 2000 under the banner of the NeSmith Chevrolet Weekly Racing Series, and even though the car count has been coming up in recent weeks, it still wasn’t quite where it needed to be to support a successful car count for a National Touring event.
“Mooney Starr is doing a great job of bringing dirt late models back to Batesville Motor Speedway on a weekly basis, but more work has to be done, and we have the utmost confidence that Mooney will get the program where it needs to be by 2010,” NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series Founder and Director Mike Vaughn said. “We’re going to do everything we can to help Mooney get a successful weekly late model program going at Batesville Motor Speedway.
“The sluggish economy this year has hit us all hard this year, and hopefully that will also improve in another year,” Vaughn said. “It is our intention to bring a big successful show with a lot of cars to Batesville, AR because that is what this track is well known for, and the local cars are just as important as the traveling drivers to make that happen.”
The June 26-27 NeSmith Chevrolet DLMS National Touring events at Batesville Motor Speedway were originally to be non-point races, but Vaughn said the bad economy has parked several traveling teams at the midway point of the season, and the some of the remaining traveling teams are having a tough time staying on the road.
For the Georgia and Alabama-based traveling teams competing with the NeSmith Chevrolet DLMS National Tour, the Batesville, AR trip would be the longest tow of the season.
“We lost some of our traveling teams due to the bad economy, and not just to the point they can’t afford to travel, but to the point where they can’t afford to race period,” Vaughn said. “Some of them have lost their jobs, others own businesses that are struggling to stay afloat, and others have lost sponsorships. This business goes up and down with the economy and it’s down right now. We’re confident the economy will go back up and there are better days ahead for everyone.”
The next two events on the schedule for the NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series National Tour will be on Friday night, July 17 with a 40-lap $2,000-to-win race at Wartburg Speedway in Wartburg, TN, and on Saturday night, July 18 with a 50-lap $2,500-to-win race at Mountain Raceway Park in Maryville, TN.
Both the NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series and Batesville Motor Speedway promoter Mooney Starr are hopeful that another year of development for the weekly late model program at the track will be a positive move that will lead to a successful National Touring event in 2010.
Batesville Motor Speedway brought back the dirt late models as a part of its weekly Friday night program this season for the first time since 2000 under the banner of the NeSmith Chevrolet Weekly Racing Series, and even though the car count has been coming up in recent weeks, it still wasn’t quite where it needed to be to support a successful car count for a National Touring event.
“Mooney Starr is doing a great job of bringing dirt late models back to Batesville Motor Speedway on a weekly basis, but more work has to be done, and we have the utmost confidence that Mooney will get the program where it needs to be by 2010,” NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series Founder and Director Mike Vaughn said. “We’re going to do everything we can to help Mooney get a successful weekly late model program going at Batesville Motor Speedway.
“The sluggish economy this year has hit us all hard this year, and hopefully that will also improve in another year,” Vaughn said. “It is our intention to bring a big successful show with a lot of cars to Batesville, AR because that is what this track is well known for, and the local cars are just as important as the traveling drivers to make that happen.”
The June 26-27 NeSmith Chevrolet DLMS National Touring events at Batesville Motor Speedway were originally to be non-point races, but Vaughn said the bad economy has parked several traveling teams at the midway point of the season, and the some of the remaining traveling teams are having a tough time staying on the road.
For the Georgia and Alabama-based traveling teams competing with the NeSmith Chevrolet DLMS National Tour, the Batesville, AR trip would be the longest tow of the season.
“We lost some of our traveling teams due to the bad economy, and not just to the point they can’t afford to travel, but to the point where they can’t afford to race period,” Vaughn said. “Some of them have lost their jobs, others own businesses that are struggling to stay afloat, and others have lost sponsorships. This business goes up and down with the economy and it’s down right now. We’re confident the economy will go back up and there are better days ahead for everyone.”
The next two events on the schedule for the NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series National Tour will be on Friday night, July 17 with a 40-lap $2,000-to-win race at Wartburg Speedway in Wartburg, TN, and on Saturday night, July 18 with a 50-lap $2,500-to-win race at Mountain Raceway Park in Maryville, TN.
