The Northern Lightning Sprint Association has 3 race nights in the books.
In 2013, the NLSA appeared to be on life-support for a good part of the season. Based on this season's car counts Manitoba's Open Wheel group are showing early signs of rebounding to respectability.
In 2014, car counts have been as follows,
15 Greenbush Race Park, MN
16 Devil's Lake Speedway, ND
9 ALH Motor Speedway, MB
The 9 cars in Morden are deceiving.
The average car count for ALH Motor Speedway last season was 9-10 which is on the mark. This does not include the Watermelon Cup which boasted a season-best 15 Sprints.
Some teams were unable to race due to mechanical/car issues from the previous night.
There will always be teams who opt out for personal reasons as well.
As I had suggested in a February post, NLSA 2014 Schedule and Other News, the Lightning Sprints would benefit, in the long term, from including 3 dirt tracks south of the border.
The big question mark which will be answered shortly are Red River Co-op Speedway's numbers. The NLSA's next scheduled race is there on Thursday, June 19.
Important keys to the future success of the NLSA in Manitoba are full membership participation and growth to sustain this class through the 2014 season and beyond.
It's still much too early to call, but based on what has transpired so far, the Lightning Sprint class appears to be headed in the right direction.
