From Andrew Kunas
(February 7, 2022) — The 2022 schedule for the Brodix Frontier Region of the American Sprint Car Series was released on Wednesday, with 22 nights of racing scheduled at five different tracks in Montana, Wyoming and Utah. The schedule marks a shift for the winged 360 dirt sprint car series, which is returning to its Montana roots, but that’s just one of many things happening as the 2022 season approaches.
Electric City Speedway, which had not been on the schedule since 2018, returns to the fold. Along with Gallatin Speedway and Big Sky Speedway, Montana’s only dirt tracks will host a combined 18 events in 2022. The regional ASCS tour began as a Montana-based series in 2013, and was preceded by several other sanctions dating back several decades that had been based and mostly raced in Montana. Those tours, including the Montana Open Wheel Racing Association that ran throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, often stepped out of state once or twice a year to change things up, with races held at various tracks in the neighboring states of Idaho, Wyoming and South Dakota over the years and even in Alberta, Canada back in the MOWRA days. The ASCS Frontier Region will continue that tradition with a run to Utah to open the season in May and its annual trip to Wyoming in August.
The series will again operate under Stagg Motor Sports, with businessman and racing enthusiast Josh Stagg entering his second full season running the series after taking over in mid 2020. Working with the tracks and his team, Stagg has a multiple long term agendas going into this season.
Thanks to the hard work of many, not only is the Montana 360 sprint car scene all under one roof again, but a solid foundation is being laid down for the future of the sport in Big Sky Country, with growing the Montana-based car count being one of the major focuses. With the costs of racing always being a concern, a solid 18 nights scheduled on the home front will allow Montana’s sprint car teams to get in a lot of racing without having to travel too much to do it, and hopefully encourage others sitting on the fence to bring their cars back out or even build new ones.
That said, the series isn’t turning away from the long distance travelers either. A number of teams from Wyoming, Utah and Colorado ran several races last year, and the top two in the points last year, series champion Logan Forler and points runner-up and series Rookie of the Year Tyler Driever, came from southern Idaho to run the entire season. They’ll be just as welcomed at the track as they were before. The series still anticipates its friends from down south running north to race with us several times again this year. Even though the series is going back to its Montana roots, the series will return the favor to those teams and head out of state a couple of times, as earlier stated above.
Desert Thunder Raceway in Price, Utah hosted the series for the first time last year. It was that track’s first time hosting a larger sprint car event, and series staff couldn’t help but notice how much the fans loved what they were watching. Things were learned by all parties involved and the ASCS Frontier Region is looking forward to an even better visit when it opens the season on May 20th and 21st with the Utah Sprint Car Clash. Meanwhile, Kara Beech and staff at Sweetwater Speedway in Rock Springs, Wyoming have been wonderful to work with. Sweetwater Speedway, which has been an ASCS Frontier Region stop since 2017, will host its annual two-night August event on the 12th and 13th when the series comes for the Wyoming Sprint Car Showdown.
The events at Price and Rock Springs are long tows for the teams from up north, and all the Montana races are long tows for anyone coming from down south. They’re all long tows for anyone coming from Idaho, the Dakotas, or the Pacific Northwest. One big thing that the ASCS Frontier Region is doing for 2022 is adjusting payouts to create guaranteed tow money for race teams. In the past, a car not starting the main event would get just $100. Now, a team perhaps having a really bad night from the start will get some tow money on top of that. For a struggling low dollar team, that extra money could be a significant help.
Main events in 2022 will be at least $1,200 to win, with several paying either $1,500 or $2,000 to the winner. The series and partner tracks, however, will be working toward finding sponsorships to create larger paying events down the line. There have been a few discussions in recent months about wanting to make Montana (and vicinity) a player in 360 sprint car racing and make special events in our area a circled date on every racer’s schedule. While we’re taking care of the low dollar racers with the extra tow money, we still want to attract a lot of the top racers when we can to create an even bigger show for our fans. Anyone interested in becoming a sponsoring partner of an ASCS Frontier Region sprint car event should contact ASCS Frontier Region staff or the tracks.
As stated recently, Stagg Motor Sports and the ASCS Frontier Region had started communication with tracks in neighboring areas with interest in working long term on a little schedule coordination for special events, looking mostly at 2023 and beyond. One move was already made for this season as July’s Big Sky 360 Nationals at Big Sky Speedway was bumped forward a week to July 15th and 16th to not conflict with the big $10,000-to-win Summer Nationals at Skagit Speedway in Washington on July 22nd and 23rd.
More information on the Frontier Region of the American Sprint Car Series, along with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour and other regional series, can be found online at www.ascsracing.com and on various social media, including Facebook. Stagg Motor Sports, the promoting company of the ASCS Frontier Region, can be found at www.staggmotorsports.com.