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MOBERLY, MO (December 29, 2010) - A little late in coming but congratulations are in order to the 2010 Season Champions who competed in a relatively short racing year at 24 Raceway. Steve Grotz returned for a season's worth of A-modified competition at Moberly, led in points standings for most of the year and took the A-mod championship by just 2 points over Sturgeon's Matt Dotson. Grotz, from Quincy, IL did not win any feature race during this short season, but won the season points from consistancy by placing in the top five most of the nights and nabbing at least one heat win. In the B-modifieds, Holliday's Gary Wilson is the Points Champ by virture of his 5 top five finishes including a feature win, with Kevin Embree of Paris following 8 points back as the runner-up. For the fendered classes, Chad Walter of Clarence won the Championship in the Sportsman division, and Jerry Warren of Moberly is the 2010 Hobby Stock Champion. The 4 cylinder Hornet class had the other close finish with Moberly's Robert Winfrey getting the Points Championship over Devin Still of Anabel by, again, a mere 2 points. Congratulations are in order for these five winners and are long overdue for the 2010 season. Trophy or plaque recognition will be forthcoming. Rain and the wet grounds simply played havock with this season - so much more than previous years, and caused a shortened racing program. These points standings come from ten nights of racing with most classes getting in only nine events this season. Standings are final for the 2010 season point totals and can be viewed on the website www.speednetdirect.com under 24 Raceway. Now, for those wanting to know some facts: The decision has been made by a consensus of the ownership of 24 Raceway and based on current economic factors from the 2010 season, to not open for Moberly's 2011 racing season. Economics played the biggest part in this tough decision. This past season's lower participation by both drivers & fans (car count ran about mid-70's w/ fans in there at an average of about 300 adults per nite), coupled with 16 rain-outs or wet grounds/conditions too muddy for a program, took a toll on us. Sponsorships were down and also figure into the decision to not open. For the second half of the 2010 season, the racing was scheduled back to every other weekend and still had only one or two of those off-nites that were able to present a racing program. As a result, September's program was pretty much cancelled out due to these reasons, coupled with a scaling back in sponsorship support. Prior to the 2008 racing season, the car count was relatively consistant at 105 each night, and the crowd sizes were usually double in size at 600 or 700, as compared with recent years. When the economy begain to tank in 2008, the noticable drop in driver/owners fell for those two years to a nightly average of 81, then 80 respectively. And this average dropped a bit further in 2010 to what was mentioned earlier, largely due to the current economics of the area. The fans that come on a consistant basis are a great group and are very much appreciated, but as any entertainment facility knows, there could always be more. This racing business is all about disposible income being spent on a form of entertainment, and this helps to keep any racetrack as a profitable operation. The plan currently is to hold out the upcoming season and see what the economy does in the long run. We're just gonna take a breather for 2011 and seriously reconstruct our game plan, securing future sponsorships, special events, racing classes, payouts, admission pricing, class sanctioning, etc. The hope here is that 2012 can be the turn-around season, economically speaking, and come around to a more favorable picture for this type of entertainment. Another fact is that the racetrack is definitely available for lease this year on a signed lease as not only a racetrack, but as an entertainment facility and on an annual arrangement. It is a turn-key operation, complete with concessions & beer stand income, all track membership fees, all season pass income, use of mowing, grading & watering equipment, scale house, race class rules to glean from, etc. Over the years, there has never been any shortage of folks with suggestions as to how to manage a racetrack, and plenty of those folks have not been shy about offering their advice. Now is an opportunity for those with the ideas to step up and take over a fully operational & turn-key facility, whether it's a lease arrangement or possible sale. "Thanks" to all fans who came to watch, all the race teams that came out to participate, and especially "thanks" to all of the sponsors throughout this 2010 season, for their signage, sponsorship, and door prize donations. The fans, drivers and sponsors have all joined in helping to keep Stock Car racing at Moberly the family-friendly sport that it is. Here's hoping that "Dirt Track Racing at its Best" will return soon.
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