Myerstown, PA -July 20th, 2010:  With the economy taking another turn I realize that racing for some teams is becoming more difficult as the season progresses on.

As an earlier email stated, there are quite a few big money events coming up and the payout is very good all the way through the field. For the payouts to remain this way they need your support. The entry fees go directly back into the payouts. Reading will be paying over 4800,West End is looking at basically the same payout and Kutztown's should top 4000. Shellhammers had a total payout at 5000.

West End, Kutztown and Shellhammers are 1 day races, where Reading is a 2 day affair for the All Stars, but they are allowing free camping on the grounds and also the pit passes allow fair admission which is 10 each day. A few tracks are looking at cutting back on their Slingshot schedules for 2011. 31 cars entered for Shellhammers with car counts waiting to be placed under the microscope for Reading and West End as well as Kutztown hoping to see a full pit area for the All Stars and Juniors. Special thanks to Hammer Down Dynos for their sponsorship of the West End National.

The Snack Bowl 25 at Atlantic City could not have been possible without the support of Herr's Snack Foods. For sponsors to continue to give back, they need a positive return for their money. Please thank your car sponsors and race sponsors whenever a chance comes by. Everyone will be affected by just the mention of their names.

Reading is offering 2 passes for any sponsorship of 50. For more info please check out www.rfrhs.com

The car count at Shellhammers has declined over the last few weeks. They have a decent weekly payout and have taken charge of the action on the speedway as well as scaling and teching to ensure that all teams are equal. They have even added the Junior Class for anyone looking for an alternative Sat. night track

Lindas Speedway has also seen car counts drop and they were one of the 2 best paying tracks for the Slingshots in the area. Lindas will be ushering in the Speedweeks for 2010 for their 4th year on Friday July 30th.Check it out, the big 1/4 mile really brings out the lead foots.

What is keeping race teams away from these tracks?

Borgers is seeing an increase in entries lately and that is a positive sign with Raidline / Heckman becoming very serious about the competitive nature of their entries. They are doing a great job in keeping the racing action moving and as is the case for many tracks, the more cars that are entered, the bigger the return will be at the end of the night.

Billy Maynard at WVMP goes beyond the books and will give unannounced bonuses to his racers and he also is continually striving to give the best possible racing surface for his entries.

OVDO is one tricky race track in Cuddebackville, NY. Their Saturday night programs are well run and move along at a quick pace. The end of the year special events draw quite an entry list.

Hamlin Speedway is currently riding the wave of popularity and Randy and Denise Smith currently have the best weekly payouts of any speedway. Their Super Class is continually growing and the Junior Class counts rival many tracks All Star counts.

Caroga Creek has one of the best racing surfaces anywhere and the track configuration is conducive to side-by side and 3 wide racing. Their Junior Class is always looking for new entries and the All Star Class has really seen some of the closest finishes of all classes run at the Ephratah, NY 3/16th mile.

Button Buck has been the place to be in the MN / IA area as the Queensland Family has given the teams a 1/5 mi clay oval that leaves the pedal down from green to checkered. Their Pee Wee Class has become a fan favorite with the young wheel twisters putting on some fabulous shows.

The Florida Teams are currently on their off season with temps climbing into the 100's regularly, it is virtually impossible for many tracks to maintain their speedways to give the cars the best surfaces to race on. With Dirt Devils becoming the hotbed of small car racing, the Sunshine Region racers will be back on the tracks in the middle of August.

Selinsgrove, Greenwood Valley and Paradise Speedway all give the Slingshots a different outlet during the touring season. Raceway Park at Selinsgrove is one of the best maintained speedways on the tour list with Greenwood Valley being very demanding with driver ability, having as much importance as the car set-ups. Paradise Speedway is one of the biggest tracks that Slingshots race on as the former modified track has been scheduling the Super Dirt Week National now for over 8 years with an entry list of over 40 cars 3 years ago.

Janelle and Kerry are working hard to make Kutztown the happening track with a mid-week abbreviated season that can only be described as one track tough to conquer. If you can win at Kutztown, you have really accomplished something. The addition of the Juniors was to give the younger racers a chance to get more seat time, race against some different teams and have a great chance to be named a champion with a successful season, but it seems many of the Junior teams have other plans on a Weds. night. The racing program is usually checkered by 9:15 still giving some of the farther away teams a chance to be home by midnight.

Accord Speedway took on the Slingshots 3 years ago and the current car counts are very encouraging with their Weds. night schedule seeing many of the locals mixing it up before heading off to their weekend home tracks.

With New Jersey Motorsports Park, Wachusett Park and Jolly Roger getting special dates along with Thunder Mtn, Penn Can and 5 Mile Point all including Slingshots in their plans, there aren't too many race teams that say they have to travel far to race.

All these tracks need support to survive, to keep giving you a place to race, if you feel that an occasional trip to one of these tracks is not for your team plans, that is fine, but when I keep getting emails saying there is nothing running or the money is not worth the efforts, I will beg to differ. I realize that there can only be 1 winner, but after 31 cars entered for the 2000 to win Spring Spectacular and a few years ago we had 42 car entered for the at the time 1200 to win Reading race and the next week there was 46 cars entered to win 250 at Kutztown, it is evident that money is not the deciding factor for many race teams.

Can someone please let me know why cars will still away from big money races, but beat and bang for a regular track payout and I will get with many of the tracks to see what their 2011 plans are regarding Slingshot racing.

To lose a speedway because of lack of entries is not a favorable sign. These tracks are taking the time and energy to give everyone track time. Please don't be the first one to complain if your favorite or closest track cuts back on their schedule. The tracks want to work with us and we want to work with you, they are offering more money than ever and also many of them are working to have the fairest field of cars possible. The Slingshots are a great moving up class for the younger speedstrs, it is also a great class for someone that just wanted to experience the thrill of wheel to wheel racing without sacrificing any of their possessions.

Look at the ages of our drivers, currently range from 6 to 88.There is NO class of racing today that can say that you can be just as competitive at any age of our drivers.

There are many writers and photographers that are willing to get your race team out in front of the racing public and non-fans as well. Please use them. It will help everyone.

This is not meant to be a negative post, but a state of the sport right now. Many classes are suffering and many tracks are searching for answers. Big track car counts are suffering as well, but it is the smaller car classes that should be seeing an increase with costs within reason to race regularly. For a 25,000 modified engine you can buy 3 Slingshots and comparing payoffs on a graded scale, the Slingshot return is much more profitable.