ASA STARS platinum agreement off to solid start; 15 full-time teams?

Judgement will ultimately be rendered come the end of the season but with just over a month to go until the deadline to register for the ASA STARS platinum agreement, the national Super Late Model tour appears to have generated its intended response with the full-time program.

Revealed just before the weekend, ASA offered teams $65,500 in assets to pre-register for every event on the schedule. That comes at the expense of a $10,000 buy-in but that gives the series every opportunity to market to fans and media season-long stories and the potential of a deep championship.

The business model is similar to the World of Outlaws agreement of the same name, which provides tow money and contingency bonuses in exchange for exclusivity and committing to every race.

It’s not apples-to-apples but ASA has put up season long cash, in addition to purse increases, in exchange for up-front commitment. This is Track Enterprises president Bob Sargent and operations and marketing director Marty Melo working to establish a brand.

Again, the idea is that if you purchase a ticket or broadcast subscription for an ASA STARS event, this business model aims to provide a degree of certainty over what the consumer can expect. It also aims to make a championship battle deeper than the two cars the tour has generated over the first two seasons.

Time will tell how many stick around through the All-American 400 in November but a dozen teams have already been announced as taking ASA up on the platinum agreement. The series originally only planned on having 10 but chose not to cap that number upon receiving this much interest.

The publicized $655,000 total value number was the amount under the assumption that there would be just 10 teams. That number is rendered moot now if they really are over 10.

The registered teams announced thus far are as follows:

Billy VanMeter | VanDoorn Racing Development
Austin Nason | Nason Motorsports
Derek Thorn | Highland Motorsports
Chase Pinsonneault | Carson Hocevar Racing
TBA | Rette Jones Racing
Cole Butcher | Donnie Wilson Motorsports
Gavan Boschele | Donnie Wilson Motorsports
TBA | Donnie Wilson Motorsports

Privately, series officials say they have 15 teams signed and are just slowly trickling out the news.

Obviously, all eyes on the headline names of the industry with drivers like Bubba Pollard, Stephen Nasse and Casey Roderick plus teams like defending champions Anthony Campi Racing. How about Matt Craig and Michael Hinde? None of the races have NASCAR Truck Series conflicts either in the hope of attracting inaugural champion Ty Majeski for a second title run as well.

Still, this is a good start for a program that has a lot riding on it this season. The season begins on Tuesday February 11 at New Smyrna Speedway.