I had a chance to speak to Montpelier Speedway employee Brian McEvoy to discuss this bold move to create a regular midget car program at the track.
T.J: Why start a regular midget cars program right now at Montpelier?
Brian: There is such a void locally for midget racing for fans and even race teams that we hope to be able to fill that void with a weekly/local program of sorts. We want to be able to combine the developmental driver needing laps with the blue collar guy that is unable to travel as much as he would like with a national division with the guys who maybe doesn’t have national level equipment but could be competitive in a deal like this or combine even with guys who are a traveling race teams that drops in with dates to fill or ‘testing’ needs.
T.J: How has interest been from potential competitors so far?
Brian: The interest and participation from competitors have been really good and really what pushed this forward. We are getting emails and phone calls from new and different drivers all the time wanting information on the series. We started with just a simple survey over the web to see if the interest was really there to even begin thinking about something like this. We ended up receiving a lot feedback from that, and it looked like there is a need for a division like this. At the first meeting, really everyone expressed the same concerns, and we tried to put the rules together on a common ground. Everyone probably had to give and take on what they thought the series should look like, and hopefully some of the small differences on what they personally wanted do not keep them from supporting the series. If we can get even half of the competitors who have expressed interest in racing in this series to compete with us, we should be able to put on a good show.
T.J: You are also allowing mini-sprints 1000cc and greater to join the program as well. Have you had much in the line of interest from this group of teams?
Brian: We have heard interest from these teams, and a lot of these drivers are fans of or would like to race midgets some time in their career. Right now, they have their own different series they can pick from, and they can basically run any weekend they want and not leave Indiana so a lot of these types of cars will probably drop in and out throughout the course of the season as their schedule allows. I think there will be a couple drivers try the entire 10 races, and they should be competitive. We are going to keep a close eye on this to make sure the mini-sprints are competitive and adjust our race format, guidelines, etc… as needed. Last season, the Mini-Sprints ran wingless at our track and the lap times were pretty similar to a mid level Midget’s lap time on our track. A lot of the mini sprints were using a midget chassis using midget bolt-ons so the cars are not as far apart as one might think.
T.J: Is this midget program more week to week, or is Montpelier committed to this program the entire season?
Brian: An initial challenge for us as a track was how can we structure this financially so it has time to grow and that we can still sustain over 10 races? There has been a lot of give and take between the competitors and the track, and thankfully most were really understanding with that. We could have thrown together a huge purse together right from the get go and hoped it worked, but if it didn’t, it would have killed the division after a show or two, and everyone would have been back to square one. We do not want this to be a one and done. We think from our end it gives us the best chance to let it grow and to succeed. The track owner, Harold Hunter, has told the competitors that we have met that once we get a solid number of cars each week and the stands begin to fill up, we will be able to really increase the purse. Even with 20 car purse we have now, it is going to take fans in the stands to support this. You’re not going to back gate promote a $5,000+ payout. At $10 a ticket, it should be a good bargain to see midget racing, and we hope that helps. Hopefully, with each race we host we see a little growth on the car count side and fan side.
T.J: Have you had any reaction from spectators about this program yet?
Brian: I think overall we are hoping to add to our current fan base. We have a dedicated fan base that have been there week in and week out for decades, and this is going to be a change for them. Open wheel racing has a die hard fan base, and we will hopefully pull in those fans to check out some midget racing at our facility. It wasn’t that many years ago you could midget racing pretty regularly all over Indiana so there is a void and not a lot of opportunity to see a lot of midget racing without traveling. I think those fans are the most excited about this. We need to connect our current fan base with the midget division as well tie in the new fans the midget division will hopefully bring to our facility.
T.J: Are there any more information meetings that are going to take place before the season begins?
Brian: At this time, we do not plan to schedule additional meetings. We had our initial meeting during IMIS, we distributed rules and ideas and met other midget owners at the Rumble in Fort Wayne, and we will also be doing the same at our booth at the Circle Track Expo in Indianapolis next week to meet with potential competitors. We are in contact with teams who have shown interest, and we will be reaching out to hopefully more teams to connect with them and show them what we have going on.
T.J: Is there a test and tune before the season starts?
Brian: We currently do not have plans for a test and tune. We are going to race as early as possible.
T.J: Midgets are not the only open wheel division that appears on your schedule. It looks like between mini-sprints, TQ’s, USAC Ford Focus midgets, and the Montpelier midget car program you have some sort of open wheel division running almost every week.
Brian: We tried to put together a diverse open wheel schedule and offer fans something different each week. The UMRA TQ Midgets have been racing at our speedway for at least the last 20 years and return again for four dates this season. There are several drivers who started with the UMRA series that have moved to midgets and will be racing at our track. This will be our 3rd season hosting the USAC Ford Focus Midgets, and we will host 6 dates total throughout 2012. This has been a good relationship, and USAC has done great things with that series on dirt the past two seasons. We will also bring winged mini-sprint racing to the track with the MMSA and AMSA groups, and they will head to Kokomo from our track to compete on Sunday night.
