NOTE- All B/W photos are scans from either programs or copies of PRN. All color photos were taken by myself.

CASCAR/NCTS...a Brief History

Its no secret that the Nascar Canadian Tire Series is a really HUGE deal for Delaware. Its probably the biggest and most highly anticipated event in recent history, and the stands are expected to be full. All this talk about the series coming "home" is not just overblown hype...in this case its the real deal.

Once upon a time, the Super Late Model division ruled the roost at Delaware. Russ Urlin, Jr Hanley, Don Biederman, Don Mallat, Bob Merrifield all were regular campaigners here in a period starting in 1978 or so. (before that, our late models were Limited Stock, and the big boys only visited about 4 times a season) Through the early 80s this went on, and the typical Friday night races at Delaware consisted of the Super Late Models, as well as a vibrant Street Stock division with so many cars it had to be split into Street Stock A and B. It was good times, but darkness loomed. �

Open rules meant some funky race cars

Super Late Model racing was facing 2 main challenges at the time. Firstly, it was getting expensive...too expensive for most regular Friday night campaigners. How could they compete with the likes of Junior Hanley on a regular basis without throwing more money at it than most teams could afford to spend? It got to the point where as soon as you saw that 72 car come in the back gate, everyone else might as well have packed it in for the night. The second problem was where to draw from. Always before, a Late Model was a Late Model no matter what track you went to. By the 80s, tracks were divided (as they still are today) and every place had a different rules package. The old formula of locals mixed with visitors was starting to go sour.

Tony Novotny, Delaware's promoter at the time, had dabbled with a common series and a common ruleset for Super Late Models called CASCAR, and the CASCAR Number 7 Lights Series was successfully run at Delaware, as well as places like Sauble, Barrie, and Checker Flag/Windsor. However, even as the series did fairly well, skyrocketing costs, and prize money that did not escalate at the same rate as expenses, left Super Late Model racing in trouble.

The Number 7 Lights Series years - Londons Dave Isen

Don Beiderman wins at Delaware

Now all this time, the Street Stock division was thriving, sometimes with almost 70 cars in the pits.

There were a couple of years of failed desperation tactics to try and bolster the Fri Night SLM fields at Delaware. Some of those tactics included opening up the rules completely, so that as long as you were going by the rules of your home track, then you were legal at Delaware. Another was offering up a 1st place prize of $1000, an unheard of amount � for a Fri nite feature. But still, fields dwindled and became less competitive. (occasianally going so low that they had to reneg on the 1000 and offer up 750 instead.) The big guns still came in the form of Tracey Leslie and Junior Hanley, but everyone else was relegated to the title of mobile pylon, and the crowds on the hill started to dwindle too.

In the winter of 1985 it was announced that the Super Late Model division was done at Delaware as a regular division, � just as the SuperModifieds had done a decade earlier. They'd still run, but only once a month or so for 100 lap races. On tap for Friday nights now was a new kind of car called a CASCAR Late Model, and the competitors were drawn primarily from the Street Stock A division. For the first year in fact it was hard to tell the difference, as the cars looked pretty much the same, but before long they began to look more like Late Models. The class was basically a throwback to something called the Diamond class that ran in the 70's - essentially a Limited Sportsman. With this new divison, some of the old timers from the decade previous came back to the fold, such as Doug Garner, Moe Merner, and Ken Johntson, and they came back to rub fenders with CASCAR LM pioneers like Steve Robblee, Ron Ling, George Wall, Mark Patrick, Doug Stewart and Bob Morris.

32-Steve Robblee leads 10-Jim Weirsma down the frontchute in Fri nite action.

12-Mark Patrick takes heat race checkers.

Suddenly racing was good again at Delaware. These races in the new divison were certainly not a given...often over half the field had a shot at winning. And the crowds started to come back. Stars were born in the form of Barry Harmer, Skeeter Betteridge, Brad Jacques and Andy Farr.

Brad Jacques

04-Andy Farr from Mich, with "the Mayor of Sweaburg" Barry Harmer (number 26) in the background.

Skeeter from London

One of the first times the CASCAR late models ran more than a 25 lap feature. Labor Day 1990. It was the McKerlie Millen 200, but they split the bill with the Super late Models that day. Each ran a 100 lap race. Junior Hanley won one, and Brad Jaques won the other.

And then the next step went into motion, as a few other tracks adopted the CASCAR philosophy as well, which was to keep costs down. 2 barrel carbs, and 8 inch tires were the order, and it was adopted by Ottawa, St Eustache, and the short lived re-opening of the CNE stadium. Of course, more tracks meant you could now have a travelling series, and the CASCAR General Tire Super Series went into motion, and we were then introduced to guys like Rob Neely, Kerry Micks, and Dan Shirtliff.

There were some amazing years and some amazing races. At Delaware, Scott Lindsay, Jim Patrick, DJ Kennington and Brad Graham emerged as stars, and in the Super series we were intoroduced to Duke Sawchuk, Al Turner, Ron Beauchamp, a reborn Speedy Jack Monaghan, not to mention a 2nd time reborn Earl Ross. There were a number of years during this era where the rules package for both Friday nights and Super Series were close enough that Friday nighers could run both, so the fields for big races at Delaware and nearby Cayuga were huge, with often a 20 car consolation race and the main event starting 36.

Glory Years - Cayuga approximately 1995. Fri nite regulars like Jesse Kennedy and Doug Stewart lock horns with 7-Sean Depius, 93-Alex Nagy, 74-Duke Sawchuck, 3-Dan Shirtliff.

Duke and Jim Lapcevich in the Tim Hortons car.

Who's this young guy?

Now, it didn't take long before the Super Series took on a rulebook all of its own...soon the Fri nighters couldn't make the field any more for the big races. While still respectable the fields shrunk a bit. But the competitors were taking it seriously, dedicating themselves to it and boosting the credibility. A Westen Division was born, so now competitors from Calgary and BC were part of it, and the National Series had begun to develop as a sort of Canadian version of the Winston Cup.

The rest is history. A few years ago, Tony Novotny sold his series to the big one: NASCAR. And the Canadian Tire Super Series was born.

And here we are.

So, on Saturday night, you'll look down into the pits, and you'll see all kinds of really big haulers for really big NCTS teams. A few million dollar teams there with the best equipment out there, multiple cars, and every team member with a spiffy uniform. But look down at the other end of the pits too - the turn 3-4 end. There you'll see the Delaware Super Stock Division, regular weekly racers, some with small haulers, some on old fashioned open trailers - guys in jeans and t-shirts. And all the cars looking like something slightly faster and more Late-modelish than a Street Stock...

...Pretty much exactly what the first CASCAR Late Models were 24 years ago.

Thats the evolution of Cascar from its inception right up to the NCTS, all in the same pit area....right where it all started.

And I think that's pretty cool.

;D