VIEW FROM THE TAILGATE
by Carl
Rackoff
Well the first day of practice for the
2005 season at Riverhead Raceway has come and gone and from
my view, the Super Pro Truck division looks like the same as
all the other years. Some new paint jobs, some new bodies,
some trucks were left in the trailer all winter and some of
the trucks were rebuilt. Still the same truck division with
maybe some new faces.
I still do not understand why more of
the competitors choose to leave their Super Pro Truck home
or being in a division that they maybe running half-fast in.
I think that this division has a lot
to offer to both the track and the people who want to race
there. First thing is I would like to make everyone aware of
is I am not trying to tell the powers to be, how to do their
job or promote the raceway. I understand that they have
other divisions that also want more and more from the track,
but I am just trying to help the class that we are racing
in. Actually I think it's up to the racers to make a better
class of racing in their division and we as owners, crew
members and drivers should try to get as many of the other
racers or any newcomers to think about running in the Super
Pro Truck division. If we the teams in the Truck division
build up the class and have a good truck count every time we
race. We to will be able to get 20 to 25 race trucks on any
given race night /day
Case in point is when Bryan Sescila and
I decided to move up from the Blunderbust division to the
Super Pro Truck division. To consider moving up was a
no-brainer as we would be making the move to a division that
was both affordable and that we could be competitive in. Not
to say that it was easier to go in than maybe another
division, but just the next step.
As far as the track is concerned, I
think that they are missing the boat with this division due
to the popularity of the Craftsman Truck Series plus the
trucks put on some of the best races out there. In addition,
the Chargers, Late Models (which is still really my first
love) and the Figure 8's all look alike to the average
person sitting in the bleachers, but a truck looks like a
TRUCK! Something different and people love trucks. Many of
the competitors think that many of us went to this division
because it would be easy to win, WRONG! It is just as hard
to win or run in the top five as it is in any of the other
classes.
Nevertheless, this is just my views
from the tailgate.
Carl Rackoff
Want to voice your opinion, check out
our forum thread on this week's View from the Tailgate by
going to:
http://www.racerhub.com/forum/showthread.php?p=37864
Want to comment to directly to Carl?
E-mail him at
CRackoff@longislandjam.com.
