Ominous clouds rolled into Smoky Mountain Speedway just before the start of racing last Saturday night
Anyone who has followed dirt racing for any amount of time at all knows that weather related postponements and cancellations are an unfortunate, but somewhat common, part of the sport. But so far in 2021, a variety of circumstances causing races to not be contested on their scheduled dates seems to be picking on one national touring series in particular.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series has only been able to run two of its scheduled races since June 19th. During that almost one month time span, eight events have either been lost completely or moved to different dates on the calendar. As a result, fans and competitors alike have been deprived of highly anticipated action during the typically hot but otherwise agreeable summer months. And that’s not to mention the fact that this national touring series provides a great deal of live content for the MavTV network and the MavTV Plus streaming service.
Other circumstances have contributed to the racing interruptions as well. The traditional season-opening races set for the Georgia’s Golden Isles Speedway had to be moved to Florida’s All-Tech Raceway due to issues related to coronavirus as well as other factors.
Events originally slated for 411 Motor Speedway and Talladega Short Track located in Tennessee and Alabama respectively were moved from their original April dates to avoid conflict with the Karls Kustom Bristol Dirt Nationals at the Bristol Motor Speedway. Those races were then lost altogether when the supposed fuel shortages caused by the hacking of a major pipeline left many concerned about the availability of gasoline and diesel fuel for the weekend of May 14th and 15th.
Perhaps most difficult for teams was the loss of a pair of races set for June 25th and 26th at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minnesota. The forecast and the reality did not mesh on that weekend which made for a long haul for many racers with no feature laps ever being completed.
The LOLMDS had a big weekend scheduled for July 8-10 with racing set for Thursday at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, SC then two nights at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, TN. The three-race set was to culminate with a $20,000-to-win main event at SMS last Saturday night. However, the weather once again intervened and none of those races took place with the highest paying affair moved to October 8th.
This weekend has gotten off to no better start for the tour. Thursday and Friday events at Iowa’s 34 Raceway and Illinois’ Tri-City Speedway have already fallen victim to nature’s disregard for racing. A $15,000-to-win feature at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, MO is still set to go on Saturday night.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is hopeful of contesting one of its most lucrative sets of races July 20-24 at I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, NE with two of those features doling out $30,000-to-win and $53,000-to-win respectively on July 22nd and 24th. Two $7,000-to-win shows set to run as lead-ins to the bigger races are planned as well.
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