Central Arizona Raceway
Tech inspectors gets on same page in Arizona
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Getting the Central Arizona surface ready. (mikerueferphotos.photoreflect.com)
CASA GRANDE, Ariz. (Jan. 17) — In moving the Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout back to Central Arizona Raceway, operations manager Matt Curl along with business partners Chris Kearns and Jason Babyak aimed to make the miniseries as meaningful as possible. | Complete WWS coverage
Along with attracting one of the deepest driver lineups the event has assembled in years, the miniseries has brought together Dirt Late Model racing’s top technical directors on staff: Kenute Mausehund of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, Melvin Welch of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, Jonathan Clayton of the Curl-owned MARS Championship Series, and Ray Cook, the tech director for FloRacing Night in America and promoter of three Southeastern tours.
“We wanted to make a splash coming back out to Arizona,” Curl said. “You know, we had the intentions and the desire to elevate the Wild West Shootout in the stature of drivers. I mean, you can see the heat that's out here this year. So doing that, you got to make sure the playing field's as even as possible.
“So, we brought out Kenute from Lucas. Ray Cook came out from his territory. (Southern Thunder Super Dirt Series director and WWS race director) Kelley Carlton has his team out here as well. Melvin from the World of Outlaws came out here and Jonathan Clayton from MARS, too.”
With national touring action offering little downtime, bringing some of the sport’s most influential officials allows them opportunity to align on enforcement of the Unified Car Construction rulebook as teams continue to push the boundaries of Dirt Late Model engineering. That’s particularly important with Georgia-Florida Speedweeks around the corner with an array of national touring competition.
“To have that many people together to go over that, I do believe that leading the Wild West Shootout, the intentions are that the World of Outlaws and Lucas are starting to align in a lot more things,” Curl said. “And that's only better for the sport. For the Wild West Shootout to kind of facilitate that before the national tours get going is really neat. And you have a lot of national drivers here that you kind of go off of and kind of come together and have that. So it's been it's been really exciting.”
Curl emphasized that while he’s embracing the melting pot of officials this week that he calls “an all-star team,” the coming together of technical officials in Casa Grande started both national tours, Lucas Oil and WoO, offering its services for the six-race miniseries.
“Steve Francis called and said, ‘Hey, I feel like that it's beneficial if we send Melvin out,’ ” Curl said. “We had brought Kenute out to help us with some bodies. And Jonathan came out after the first weekend. So not all of them actually got to be all in the same day, but Kenute, Melvin and Ray did. Kelley and Jason, too. Having that team to be able to do that was good. We feel like that's enhancing the event. So, we’re committed to that.”
Curl’s officials assembled a tech line prior of Jan. 9’s opening practice to set the tempo the rest of the week.
"We did a tech line on the opening day of the races. It wasn't a huge one, but I wanted to like, ‘Hey, let's make sure that we start off in the box.’ And then daily we've made sure that we've stayed to that,” Curl said. “We’ve checked some things out. I mean, you know, the driver's responsibility is to try to be fast. So they're going to try to expand that box out, you know? And maintain it. It was very good to have the national tours represented on the first weekend. I feel like that there's a good direction.”
Among Curl’s all-star staff is his track crew at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway: Chad Bauman, Lewis Breeden and Cullen Breeden along with Reece O’Connor of Kokomo (Ill.) Speedway and Blade Kearns, a former track prep worker for USAC and son of miniseries co-promoter Chris Kearns.
“They’re fantastic, coming into a venue that was really unknown. I mean, to come here, they have worked their team,” Curl said. “Chad and Reece, Cullen, Lewis, and Blade, those five guys, they've been amazing. They’re here every day and they're watering at night, and they're grating throughout the night.
“I mean, like, people do not understand how much time they've spent here. So we're all worn out here on, we're all worn out here on Saturday. But we have a couple days left to really finish it strong.
“You know, we had long nights the first couple nights,” Curl continued. “It was my job as the operations guy here to figure out what to do at halftime. So we made some changes and on Wednesday, we had a really good smooth program.
Warm, mid-70s temperatures throughout the week in the Sonoran Desert have only added to the appeal, creating a more enjoyable experience for competitors, officials and fans alike after four years at Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park, where higher elevations meant colder weather.
“It’s nice to be back in Arizona. Listen, all the respect to Royal and Vado — it’s a state-of-the-art facility,” Curl said. “But when it snows, it’s tough to get people motivated to work. Here, our track prep team and our officials are motivated every day because it’s 75 and sunny. That’s a big deal.
“The fans are going to remember what it’s like down here. Our crowds have been great, the back-gate numbers have been strong, and we’re hearing more and more about people coming down just for the weekend. I think that’s only going to grow, and we’re excited about what the future holds.”
