OAKS — Two-time Big Diamond Speedway 358 modified champion Craig Von Dohren quietly left the weekly programs at the Forestville track early in the 2014 season and did not return to compete regularly.
Citing financial limitations, Von Dohren also plans to return this season on a part-time basis, but one of those appearances will be the program which promoter Brett Deyo will present at Big Diamond on Tuesday, May 5.
The Anthracite Assault is the lone scheduled midweek program on the track’s schedule next season.
The Anthracite Assault also will be the centerpiece of the Short Track Super Series, a tour which Deyo has expanded.
Previously modified races
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conducted in New York, the tour schedule now consistsof a North Region of New York events and a new South Region, sponsored by Schuylkill Haven’s Pioneer Pole Buildings, of five races in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
“We had a six-race series last year and our average car count for each event was 57,” Deyo said at last weekend’s Motorsports 2015 Racing and Trade Show at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. “It was the highest of any modified touring series anywhere.”
In the new format, drivers will compete for points in each region, but Big Diamond — the lone Pennsylvania track in the South Region — will be a special site because of its location. The northernmost South Region speedway, Deyo will allow drivers in the Anthracite Assault to compete for points in their particular regions, setting up two races within a feature.
“We’re pretty optimistic that Big Diamond’s probably going to be one of our biggest shows, being that it’s the only one that’s combined,” Deyo, a former announcer at Big Diamond, said. “We’ll have a great New Jersey group. We’ll have the local guys. We’ll have the Delaware cars. It’s going to be really neat. And then to bring the New York guys down with the field that Grandview (Speedway) and Big Diamond already have. it’s going to be really cool.”
Both big-block and small-block modified teams are allowed. The series requires different car weights, depending upon the car’s engine, in a bid to even the competition.
“What we do is we have tech stickers,” Deyo said. “You have to claim your engine combination on your car, so when you go over the scale, you know this guy’s got to be 2,270 (pounds) and this guy needs to be 2,600. Then, at the end of the night, we make sure you’re honest because we check your cubic inches. We haven’t had anybody lie because they know we check.”
That will attract drivers such as Von Dohren, who said he left Big Diamond last season because the handicapping format, coupled with an inability to pass cars because of the required Hoosier tires, proved too frustrating.
“They take a three-week (points) average,” he said. “So what people were doing was, if they’d win, they’d pull off the next two weeks and have a low average and start up front. I don’t want to race like that, but I give them credit. They played the system, and that’s fine, but that’s not how I like to race, and I’m sure the fans don’t like that. What was happening before was you couldn’t come from the back.”
The Hoosier tires were the result of Big Diamond’s affiliation with a sanctioning group, DIRTcar, but it raised objections to Big Diamond’s intent to book Deyo’s Short Track Super Series.
Promoter Jake Smulley chose to back Deyo, whose series requires American Racer tires. The move ended the DIRTcar sanctioning and voided the Hoosier tire requirement.
“If I am responsible,” Deyo said of the change by Smulley, “I think they’re happy about it because it seemed there was a lot of struggle with the Hoosier tires. Obviously, some of their top names got away from the place because of the Hoosier tires. It paved the way that he (Smulley) could have a big series race for the modifieds, and he could get the preferred tire back. And it was perfect timing for us because I was looking to get in there and he was looking to get American Racer tires back on the track.”
In return, Deyo indicated he really has one request from Smulley.
“I told him the Coalcracker track was awesome. That was a great race so if we could get anything close to that, I’d be happy,” Deyo said.