Denver Sports

Super late models to be back at Colorado National Speedway in 2017

THE SUPER MODIFIEDS stock cars will be coming back to Colorado National Speedway in 2017. These super fast cars left in mid season because of some confusion and miscommunication between drivers and track officials. That made a lot of people unhappy and the ones who suffered most were the fans. The super mods went to Beacon Hill speedway a tiny asphalt track in southern Colorado.  iN 2017 They will be running under new rules set up by CNS and not their own association rules. This happened to the regular modified coups. They too run under speedway rules. It does not seem to matter because the rules are the same , but it might be better for promoting races and no worries about a race car associations rebelling and leaving mid season.

The late models and super late models.. will they be one?

THE LATE MODEL car count is down all over the west. One problem is Colorado National speedway created two late model divisions . One is called Super late model . The other is late model. But the cars look exactly the same  and are equally as fast.  So everyone wants to know .. why did CNS do this?  During last weeks season ending  Challenge cup race the late models did not run but the Super Late Models ran a boring 100 lap championship… then  they added pro trucks which all  ran last. . What ? Yep they added 3 pro-trucks. Why didn’t they add the late models? They would have had a race . There are 17 Super Late Models and 23 late models.

Combine the pure stocks and superstocks?

The same problem exist with the SUPER STOCKS and pure stocks at CNS. During challenge cup , they did run them together for a 37 car field. The usual limit for a nascar race is 42 race cars. Between the two classes CNS still can not fill a race.  In its heyday of the  mid 80 the speedway had 125 pure stocks , 50 late models , 70 sportsman 30 mini-stocks, 30 midgets and 20 sprint cars.  There was racing action galore and everyone was happy.

TOO MANY DIVISIONS Now the Speedway has as many as 11 divisions and the car count is low in all of them.  Combing classes is popular with drivers. The other problem facing CNS , they made it so expensive to race there, they eliminated 3/4 of potential racers. A lot of cars went to I-76 Speedway 100 miles away in Fort Morgan. It has huge car counts and crowds. It is doing better financially the Colorado National Speedway and it is run by beloved Late model champion Butch Spiker.

TOO EXPENSIVE If CNS made it less expensive to build a race car, that would solve the problem. One Super stock driver told us he spends $25,000 on his operation.  Pure stock and superstocks are basically the same car. but they should not cost any more that $2500. They now cost 10 x that amount  to race.

The speedway needs to change the rules to allow cars to be built with their oem equipment.  An Example would be a stock 2000 Chevy Impala which comes with 200-hp, 3.8-liter V-6 (regular gas) 4-speed automatic w/OD Front-wheel Drive.  Then you could race a Camry, Ford, Dodge.

STANDARDIZE THE CARS The speedway needs to have a “builder package” with includes, roll cage, seat belts, fuel cell, battery box, fire extinguisher, for $2500. for all pure/stock/superstocks.   watch the car count go up. They might bid out car building to some race car shops. Or build a shop on site. but something has to change. Right now they are racing rare antiques in purestock/superstock. photos courtesy Joe Starr taken from the web.