Dirt from the Stands by Greg Cybulski
TIME FOR CHANGE
There is a lot of instability in today's North Dakota sprint car scene and I for one don't like it. If you've read the internet message boards there are continual examples of drivers from Wissota unhappy with the way they have been relegated to third class status in the racing world according to Wissota. The Northern Outlaw Sprint Association (NOSA) itself is but a mere shell of what it was supposed to be and what it should have been. It appears that the politics of outside interests controlling the club have rendered it ineffective and outdated in the interests of all drivers and teams involved.
The number one draw in these parts is the NLRA Late Model Tour based in Grand Forks, ND. Established in 1988, a group of professional Late Model drivers and owners organized to help promote Late Model racing in the interests of the fans, drivers and tracks and to nurture and grow it into a sustainable entity. Now in 2004, the NLRA has become a major success story with growth not only in numbers of members, but growth in Tour dates. Tying in with Wissota makes them attractive for regional racers to run with who are racing for the Wissota National Points Title. This helps bolster car counts on the tour dates.
What would be wrong with a North Dakota based 360 sprint car organization who could race for their own points deal and be able to tie into Wissota to get better car counts and make the fans and track promoters happy? I'd go, wouldn't you? What the sprint car teams of North Dakota need to do is take a page out of the NLRA book of success and learn something from it.
Take care and good racing,
Greg Cybulski
