What makes the Tour Modifieds at New Smyrna so special?
It’s the same thing that makes Speedweeks at Daytona a short drive away so special: it’s the start of something new.
“Big Money” Matt Hirschman has been waiting for this moment for almost three months.
Ever since the Turkey Derby, held in November at Wall Stadium, was cancelled, Hirschman and the No. 60 team have had the World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna circled on their calendar.
“Normally, when you prepare for an event, the next one is one to two weeks away,” he says. “With this, you have two months where you know what’s next. It’s probably the biggest preparation effort you put in all year… To go with the intention of racing five races in five nights and the travel involved, it’s always a big effort to accomplish that.”
Super Late Models rule the South. There’s no question about that. But the novelty factor of seeing the best Modified racers come down to Florida for a week to compete for a championship makes the Tour Modified division perhaps the star attraction this coming week.
“This is the only time of year that the Tour Modifieds race at New Smyrna or anywhere this far south,” Hirschman says. “This is a once-a-year thing. If you want to see Late Model racing, you can come here throughout the entire year.”
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It’s a special week for the teams, too. The five days of racing in Florida are a microcosm of a full racing season, complete with ups and downs, highs and lows, and a champion on Friday night.
“What happens in New Smyrna sort of stays in New Smyrna, because it is almost its own thing,” Hirschman says. “There’s times I’ve left here and didn’t race for several months. It’s almost more part of the previous season, because there is as much or more of a layover between this and your next race as there was from Turkey Derby to here.”
Of course, the racing tends to be pretty exciting, too. Last year in the John Blewett Memorial 76, Hirschman and Anthony Nocella dueled to the line in what’s likely one of the closest finishes in racing history. It was Nocella who came out on top after several minutes of video review. Even though he disagreed with the call by the officials, Hirschman remembers that battle in the closing laps for what it was: good, clean, hard racing.
“It’s just the way it should be,” Hirschman says. “If there was ever a race to educate young racers, or used as an example, that was it. Both of us could’ve tried to take racing room and crowd, and you possibly could wreck.
“It was just an absolute great race, and it was one where the outcome didn’t change my opinion of the race and how we raced.”
The Modified entry list, which has grown rapidly in years past, is even larger still in 2021. So far, over 40 ground-pounders are set to make the trip down south. The car count for the division has skyrocketed recently. One need not go far back to recall some rather lean years for the Tour Modifieds.
“I’ve been here before as a spectator, maybe just six, seven years ago, and the field was below 15 [cars],” Hirschman says. “That is getting pretty low and just doesn’t have the appearance of when you more than double that and put all those cars on the racetrack.
“Just the sight and the sound of a full field of 600-plus-horsepower Tour-Type Modifieds is impressive.”
Hirschman is one of the favorites to win the week-long points title. He’s been red-hot at New Smyrna his last three trips down, winning five of the last 15 Tour Modified races there, including back-to-back Richie Evans Memorial 100s the last two years.
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But Hirschman isn’t putting any more effort into this coming week than any other event–because he always gives the same effort.
“For us to win here, it requires the same preparation, execution that it does no matter where I race,” Hirschman says. “We have to perform at our best. We have to try to make all the right decisions, and be as close to mistake-free as possible.
“If we do that, we can win here against 40-plus cars, and we can win 30 minutes from home at our local track on a Saturday night… it requires that no matter what.”
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