By Andrew Kunas
It was something we did not want to do, but the Brodix ASCS Frontier Region sprint car series was forced to postpone this weekend’s season opening Utah Sprint Car Clash at Desert Thunder Raceway in Price, Utah.
The difficult decision was not made lightly. An effort will be made to reschedule the event for later this season. The staff at Desert Thunder Raceway were wonderful hosts when the series visited last year and ASCS Frontier Region / Stagg Motor Sports personnel were looking forward to returning.
The tire supply issue affecting all of racing and the automotive industry came to a head for the regional sprint car series set to open things up on May 20th and 21st. Things were looking fine about a month ago as tires were expected to be available. However, concern grew in the following weeks regarding the supply problem and delivery timeline. During that time, series coordinator Josh Stagg reached out to suppliers and vendors everywhere from Texas to Washington to Canada. No one had anything available.
This weekend’s events had teams from Montana, Alberta, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona interested in making the long haul. We were conscious to the likelihood that some teams, if not more, would need tires available at the track. Also considering the cost of fuel these days, it was decided that it would be unfair to have everyone make the – for most teams – fairly long tow to Utah and potentially not be able to race due to lack of tires to race with. Again, it was a tough decision we did not want to make.
The initial postponement announcement was made by ASCS National on Sunday. Josh Stagg and Frontier Region publicist and announcer Andrew Kunas spoke again on Monday regarding the tire situation. We understand that there is a production run happening and that we have our portion coming to us. We anticipate having those tires available at our events in Great Falls, Montana on Memorial weekend. For teams who will be competing that weekend and will be needing tires at the track, we ask that they keep their orders to just what they need as we try to make sure tires are available to all who need them that weekend and likely two weeks later at our events at Gallatin Speedway and Big Sky Speedway. We thank everyone for their cooperation in that matter.
Again, we feel bad for the staff and fans at Desert Thunder Raceway. It was obvious to us during our visit last year that the fans were eating up everything they saw. Both of our main events that weekend were perhaps the biggest show they’d ever seen at their track, based on the reaction they gave. We were looking forward to doing that again this weekend. Again, we will try to find a weekend that works for all parties involved and get the Utah Sprint Car Clash rescheduled. Utah generally isn’t the first state that comes to mind in any conversation regarding sprint car racing, and we are wanting to help grow sprint car racing in that state.
The Brodix Frontier Region of the American Sprint Car Series is now scheduled to open its 2022 season with the Montana Spring Round-Up at Electric City Speedway in Great Falls, Montana on Friday and Saturday, May 27th and 28th.
More information on the ASCS Frontier Region can be found online at www.ascsracing.com. Stagg Motor Sports, the promoting company of the ASCS Frontier Region, can be found at www.staggmotorsports.com.