First glance as a long time fan, I was a little disappointed in the schedule, but I fully realize the economics of the situation. Can't keep doing the "big buck" shows when the crowd doesnt seem to be there to support it.  I just want the track to be viable for the long term and be here for a long time to come and if the schedule has to be pulled back a bit, then so be it.  Another suggestion for the Labor Day show, might be Monday as a 1 day show. I know Cayuga used to run shows on the Monday holidays and were always very successful.  But then again, maybe times have changed and that doesnt work anymore.  Anyway, can hardly wait until May for some good short track racing.....

I don't know why a Monday wouldn't work. I think the car count would be good.

I think there's a couple of realities that they've unfortunately had to face up to regarding the Labor Day show.

1: I think that the general public is a lot warier of spending a day outside under blazing sun. People will still do it, but not as easily as they used to. An aside: after last year, it's quite understandable. That was the most brutal sun I've ever seen at one of these things. On yellow flags people were heading out the gate in packs just to get some shade, then coming back in when the green flew again.

2: They don't have the sponsor powered means to do a huge advertising push for the race the way they did in the Novotny era. And I think you really NEED that to be able to overcome reality number 1.

And, in this day and age, drawing other cars/fans in from other tracks is a non-issue. They've been doing backflips for years trying cater to guys from other tracks, and still hardly anyone bites....doesn't seem to matter what Delly does or when they do it.  (I think that's a byproduct of the way promoters have f*d up the LM division on a regional scale by each running different rules.) So time to quit worrying about that I think. Full speed ahead on the GCR Saturday night.

As far as the rest of the schedule goes, I think it looks solid. Not so many big shows, but that's ok with me. I'm sorry to see the ISMA doubleheader go, not so sorry to see the Super Lates gone. I'm completely indifferent to the NCTS, but sad that the Summer Shootout is gone. I always enjoyed that one.

I like the push for more Bone Stocks and "V8 stocks" on Fridays. I would absolutely LOVE to see the BoneStocks go thru the roof in car count, and if they keep it fair, they should. Weekend racing was built on amateurs that put together their own stuff in barns and garages, as opposed to buying from a fabricator. Here's hoping on bringing a little bit of that grass roots atmosphere back to Friday nights. 🙂

I'm also glad that we're at least back to a mid-May start, and cautiously optomistic about the new 7:30 start time. "Racing starts at 8" is pretty well established at Delaware, so there might be some growing pains there. I do wonder if that means hot laps are now going to be referred to as the "happy half hour" now, or if everything is getting pushed back. There's no excuse for an hour of dead time between practice and racing anyway. That's one place where "harkening back to the old days" is well called for: hot laps right up until about 15 mins til race time. Have those engines singing when people are pulling into the lot, instead of the dead quiet we're used to hearing between 7 and 8.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting back in the saddle already. It is my hope that this year I'll be able to go back to focusing on writing/reporting etc, so I can get the Shadow Report back up to where it should be. Unfortunately its sort of been laid by the wayside the past year or so and I'd like to bring it back from the ashes.

Here's counting down to race day. 103 days to go.  ;D

I agree with you for the most part re: GRC Shadow. However, the schedule still shows it as an afternoon race.

I know they have tried all kinds of things to get visiting cars, but they still don't seem to want to come. So with regards to the number of fans, I guess it's not really surprising as I think it's pretty unrealistic to expect them to pay double what they pay on any Friday night to see basically the same cars. I know there're more laps, but it's still the same cars and drivers . . .

really sad there is not more co-operation between tracks. I think a perfect example is last year where the night before the Great Cdn 200, Flamboro scheduled an extra lm feature (from a previous rain out) which would totally fubar any chance a Flamboro car (for example Jason Shaw) would have of participating the next day without pulling an all nighter. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the cars have to be in the pits at 8am???? If there had been any co-operation, Flammy would have only run one feature, not two, and run it first in the evening. Maybe even given the late models the night off. As it is now, fans don't even know the drivers from other tracks as they so rarely see them.
I'd love to see a nighttime race too-everything looks faster and more exciting under the lights. And I was one of the ones ducking behind the abandoned pizza stand trying to get some shade. Kind of ironic that we almost froze to death the year before for the Nascar Mod Tour Show.
Re the super mods-I attended the second show last year and it was obvious that the crowd was no larger than a regular weekly show. As much as we love the supers, they appeal to an older crowd and are a high admission ticket due to their purse so you could see the change coming. After the show at Delaware, the new Must See Racing supermod series is running at Auto City (north of Flint Michigan) the very next day. Must See ran about three shows last year (mainly concentrating on their sprint car div.) and this year have about 8 shows scheduled. They run similar rules to ISMA & MSA but allow big small blocks, aluminum blocks and run American Racer tires. That's not a bad drive for London area super fans to Auto City. I expect some of the ISMA guys to go to Flint after Delaware but wonder if it will affect the ISMA show at Sunset of Sunday Aug 18 if there is any carnage Saturday night. IMO, there aren't enough supers in existence to support three touring sanctions.