Freddie Query Tasked With Blending Rules for ASA STARS

Freddie Query is beginning to get acclimated in his position as ASA STARS Super Late Model competition director.

He joined the sanctioning body last month prior to the Redbud 400, attending that race primarily in an observational role but is now starting to take charge over what needs to happen when it comes to a national tour that effectively blends Southern Super Series, Champion Racing Association and Midwest Tour rules together 10 times a year.

The Dixieland 250 on August 1 was his first such race and saw first-hand what a challenge it would be for a race in Wisconsin where racers are accustomed to using a two-barrel carburetor package as opposed to the four-barrel commonly used in the lower Midwest and Deep South regions. It’s the biggest challenge a national championship will need to overcome and it’s one the longtime racer and crew chief is ready to face.

“Well, they’ve titled me competition director,” said Query at the Dixieland race. “I’ve learned that competition director wears a lot of different hats at a lot of different places.

“Basically, my job is working on the technical end of it. I’m not the tech chief but I’m basically working to rewrite the rule book for 2024 and try to get some continuity between all these different regions. We’ve already implemented quite a bit and it seems to have worked well this week. Everyone seems to be pretty happy with what’s going on. There were quite a bit of different motor combinations and everyone was pretty equal.”

To that point, Query wants to take it a step further in 2024, where the national tour will lead the regional tours as opposed to the other way around.

“We hope to have the rules out by (the Winchester 400) and we want the national rules to set the standard, basically what the CRA and Southern Super Series, and what the SRL was, and just try to blend that into this area up here (Wisconsin) because there are so many good racers, cars and people and get them involved.”

It’s a tall task because the Wisconsin Super Late Model scene is one of the healthiest short track regions in the country and they are doing it with a rules package different from the rest of the country. To that end, Query says he doesn’t want to disrupt what the Midwest Tour is doing successfully but to instead streamline a single package for those wanting to chase full ASA STARS points.

“There’s nothing broke about the ASA Midwest Tour,” Query said. “We’re not out to change any of that but there will not be any two barrels involved in the national tour.”

During the drivers meeting for the Dixieland 250, Bubba Pollard said a national championship needs to run the package used by a majority of the country, and that’s one used by the Southern Super Series and CRA.

“This is not going to be two-barrel racing,” Query added. “Bubba said it best in the drivers meeting. He said this is a series where everyone needs to put on their big boy britches and that’s what this is.

“This is for the elite group. So if you don’t want to spend the money to get what you need to run this series, it’s not going to be for you. But the flip side of that is, if you’re an up and coming racer and you want to run against Bubba Pollard and Ty Majeski, all these top of the line drivers they have in this series, and you’re able to do to that, it’s a big deal.”

Query says he intends to make some tough decisions regarding the blended rules package and then it comes down to strict enforcement. He conceded that there has been a lot of things up for debate in post-race technical inspection this season, and he wants everything to be clear before it even gets to that point.

“I have to be firm, clear,” Query said. “The rules are written. There will be some rules amended in the next couple of months. There are some things in there, that don’t need to be in there.

“These are the top of the line teams. They don’t have to have what I call the kindergarten rules for lack of a better phrase. They know how to race, what to do with these cars. They’re extremely smart.”

Query said he made a tough decision in the days leading up to the Dixieland 250 but it also netted the field seven more cars.

“It may not have been the right call, and I got all the input I could as it affected the Midwest guys, but it put seven more cars in this field,” he said. “It wasn’t a speed advantage, and everyone needed to know that. It worked for us because no, when we get ready to work with the motor combinations and stuff for next year, we know more now than we did before.”

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