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NCTS and Super Stock share the bill...somewhat appropriately! (Now with Pics)

Shadowracer · 2009-06-02T02:37:24Z

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 HistoryIts 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. ï¿½ Open rules meant some funky race carsSuper 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 IsenDon Beiderman wins at DelawareNow 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 ï¿½ 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, ï¿½ 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 Jacques04-Andy Farr from Mich, with "the Mayor of Sweaburg" Barry Harmer (number 26) in the background.Skeeter from LondonOne 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,...

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SS3

Jun 02, 2009 3:02 pm

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Nice bit of history, thanks Shadow.

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Shadowracer

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Jun 02, 2009 3:19 pm

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Wait till I add photos!
😉

CHECK OUT THE "SHADOW REPORT" GROUP ON FACEBOOK FOR LIVE RACE PICS AND UPDATES

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username

Jun 02, 2009 4:18 pm

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thanks for that shadow thats interesting how things evolved down there......bring on the photos....

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duken

Jun 02, 2009 5:23 pm

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I will only be able to see the tv coverage , looking forward to it and the Shadow Report this weekend !

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tigeraid

Jun 02, 2009 5:59 pm

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excellent article, Shadow, that brings back memories. I remember sitting in Dan Shirtliff's car when we visited him in the pits when I was like 7 or 8!

This. Is. Badass:

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