As has been pointed out in this space and others, the dirt racing season has been getting longer and longer each year. Racing has been running from early January to early December the last few years. That has left a month off for most teams that race for a living.
In 2024, the preliminary schedules continued to have racing from early January until early December. But one change from the past couple of seasons is March is no longer jam-packed with big money races, especially in the Southeast.
The main driver behind this is the weather. For the past several seasons, weather has wreaked havoc on the schedule. And with the schedule already full of events, many promoters were not able to reschedule many of these races. Some of these races were vital to the success of the tracks attempting to hold these events.
The month of March has always been a risky proposition for promoters. Even when the weather cooperated, there seemed to be a week where the temperatures bottomed out or that one weekend where it did rain or even snow. Promoters could find two or three weekends in March to hold races.
The weather is very cyclical. There have been a number of years over the last 25 years where plenty of March races would take place. The current pattern is lots of rain on March weekends. The promoters have adjusted for this season.
Roger Sellers, owner of Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, TN, would hold an event called the Tennessee Tipoff the first weekend of March. It was always the first big race of the season in East Tennessee. The event had been successful most seasons. In 2020, it was the last major event to take place before the Covid lockdowns went into effect the following week. Since 2020, the event has been plagued with rain outs. Sellers made the decision to not hold the event in 2024.
The number of races, overall, has dropped this year. It resembles schedules from a number of years ago when there would only be a few big races scheduled in March, then racing would pick up in April. Whether that trend continues will depend on the weather over a period of time. And if this March is any indication, to this point, the current schedule model will be in place for a few more years. Racing is just like the weather, cyclical and subject to change.
