2023: Roadmap & Intentions
Racing is one of those things that can be difficult to predict. Within a series or season you can have many ups and downs. Finish last one weekend, have the top spot on the podium the next.
Year to year this can be much the same; especially for grassroots drivers trying to work their way up the motorsports ladder as I am. As you get higher and higher on the ladder things get more difficult, of course. The competitors are more skilled (at least in theory), races get more expensive and seats become less available.
I’d like to use this post to be as honest and transparent about TAR and our 2023 plans as possible. Some things are certain and others aren’t. Our intentions are just those, intentions rather than promises or guarantees.
If you saw our last post on the TAR Race-Monitor ‘2022: In the Rearview,’ you saw that we accomplished some big things last year. ARCA approval to run all courses on the schedule, our first ARCA start at Iowa Speedway and a run in the Chili Bowl. These events were amazing to be a part of, but there simply wasn’t enough to fill out an entire calendar.
This is for a few reasons but predominately funding. Racing is expensive at all levels, but as I said earlier as a racer starts to toy with national, televised series (and really anything considered ‘professional racing’) the jump in funding is immense.
This year we face that challenge head-on as well, though we have been putting a lot of work into a weekly car to run as well for the weekends we are not able to fill with a larger event.
As you might have seen on social media, my dad and I have been building an IMCA Stock Car to run week to week at tracks close to home. In our area of the Midwest dirt stock car racing has a huge turnout and the races can even pay pretty decent if you can manage to run well. Not to mention the sheer number of tracks within an hour or two’s drive.
Having learned from last year, we wanted to make sure the 2023 schedule was not so broken up and this will help us do that in addition to providing some great weekly racing action for fans and followers.
On top of the IMCA Stock Car our intention is to run a pavement late model across Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa (and possibly special events outside the Midwest).
Some might see the late model as a step backwards from our progress in ARCA last year, but really it offers a good seat with competitive racing in order to gain more pavement experience as we work toward larger goals even beyond ARCA.
With enough late model experience, our hope is to jump straight to the Craftsman Truck Series within a year or two. This would be sort of a side route as opposed the traditional ARCA-first option, but after looking at the organization of the various series’ we think it is the right choice.
The late model is a more affordable option not only to race but also for travel while we build that pavement experience to earn a Truck license.
So far as we have made the jump to semi-professional series we have found that it really is a building process. Along with building my experience we need to build our partnerships, sponsorships and funding capabilities. It is a process that takes time and like all racing has ups and downs.
For everyone wondering what our year is going to look like I hope this gave some insight as to what is going on. We are actively working on the stock car for weekend shows and actively working on our sponsorship portfolio to help secure larger events down the road.
Thank you to everyone who has helped me get to this point. Many racers do not have the opportunity to get to the point even I have and for that I am very grateful. Let’s keep building together!
- Sincerely, the TAR Family