Hoping for Good Old-Fashioned Beating, Banging Short Track Racing from New SRX Series

by Julian Spivey

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A new racing series called Superstar Racing Experience is debuting this weekend on Saturday, June 12 and I can’t wait to check it out because it looks like almost every thing a stock car racing buff could want from a series – short track showdowns on Saturday nights.
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The series, which was announced last June, was founded by NASCAR Hall of Fame three-time champion Tony Stewart, former NASCAR crew chief and team owner Ray Evernham, former NASCAR executive George Pyne and sports agent Sandy Montag.

The main selling point for me for SRX, which will be sponsored by Camping World for its debut season, was when Stewart compared it to the old International Race of Champions (IROC) series that ran from 1974 through 2006 (with a three-year hiatus in the early ‘80s) and featured drivers from the biggest racing series around the world competing against each other typically in a four-race season. In the early years of the series IndyCar drivers like Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt and Al Unser were successful, but for much of the series run it was dominated by NASCAR drivers, like Dale Earnhardt, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough and Mark Martin, more used to running stock cars around mostly oval tracks. Martin won a record five IROC titles, while SRX co-founder Stewart won the final championship of the series in 2006.

The great thing about IROC that will be featured in SRX is all the cars are prepared the exact same way, meaning each event is solely based on driving ability and talent – which is something I’ve been longing to see in a racing series since IROC folded a decade and a half ago. The cars in SRX were completely designed by Evernham and are said to have high horsepower and low downforce, according to an article in Racing News.
Another thing I’m excited for is seeing some of the drivers I pulled for as a younger racing fan who will be competing full-time in the inaugural season of SRX like Stewart and other former NASCAR Cup Series champions Bill Elliott and Bobby Labonte. The series will also feature former IndyCar stars like Paul Tracy, Marco Andretti and Helio Castroneves, who’s less than two weeks removed from his historic record-tying fourth Indianapolis 500 victory. Other drivers featured in the series include two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip and former Trans-Am stars Willy T. Ribbs and Ernie Francis Jr.

IndyCar star Tony Kanaan was set to run the full season, but due to other priorities that include running IndyCar oval tracks, will only compete part-time. The series will feature former Rallycross champion Scott Speed, dirt track legend Scott Bloomquist and former NASCAR star Greg Biffle as cameo drivers, as well.

Each track will also feature a local star trying to take the checkered flag from the SRX regulars like six-time Whelen Modified Tour champ Doug Coby at Stafford Motor Speedway in the season opener this weekend and five-time USAC Silver Crown winner Kody Swanson at Eldora Speedway on June 26.

The inaugural season will consist of six races on every Saturday night between June 12 and July 17 and will be broadcast on CBS with a fantastic broadcast crew that includes Allen Bestwick as lead commentor and Lindsay Czarniak, Brad Daugherty and Matt Yocum in other facets. Bestwick will be joined for two races each in the broadcast both by Dario Franchitti, James Hinchcliffe and Danica Patrick as analysts.

There are two things that have me slightly worried about this new series – the first is that I believe there’s a good chance most of the races could be dominated by the local drivers more used to the tracks and the second is that SRX could quickly be seen as the “old-timers” or “has-been” series based on the average age of 50, with that honestly being brought down quite about by the fact that Francis Jr. is only 23. Ribbs is the oldest driver in the series at 66.

For SRX to truly become similar to IROC it would have to bring in more active drivers from series like NASCAR and IndyCar in the future, which might not be quite so easy when it comes to NASCAR especially as it’ll be somewhat of a competitor to the series and it just might not be feasible for an active NASCAR driver to run a SRX race in one location and then make it to another race the next day in their full-time job. The perk of IROC is that it was almost always held, especially in its later years, on a NASCAR track during a weekend the sport was in town.

These are worries that won’t matter as much if the product on the track beginning Saturday night is good racing. I can’t wait to check it out – I’m hoping for good old fashioned, beating and banging stock car Saturday nights.