SRL National a Valuable Alternative in Super Late Landscape

The ASA STARS national Super Late Model tour has earned a majority of the headlines over the spring but Ricky Brooks and SRL National keep plugging away in the efforts to provide a steady alternative in the evolving short track landscape.

Most recently, SRL National sanctioned Money in the Bank at Berlin Raceway, won by Cup Series driver Erik Jones against a stout field that featured Bubba Pollard, Derek Griffith, Carson Hocevar, Gio Ruggiero and one of the best weekly lineups in the Upper Midwest.

Seriously, Berlin boasts the likes of Evan Shotko, Brian Campbell, Boris Jurkovic and Kyle Crump amongst their regulars. It’s ultimately so very fascinating that after decades of talk towards a national pavement Super Late Model championship, that two of them have now emerged in a span of two years.

On one hand, ASA STARS has the leadership of multi-time national promoter of the year Bob Sargent and the infrastructure of the three prominent Mid-American regional tours in Southern Super Series, Midwest Tour and the Champion Racing Association.

On the other hand, Brooks is one of the most respected figures in the industry and a racer who puts together shows for racers, by racers.

For example, this is one of only two races a year that Shotko gets to experience a Brooks show but has come away impressed in each of the three visits between Money in the Bank and Battle at Berlin.

“It’s very smooth,” Shotko said. “It’s very well run, but he’s very strict, which I enjoy because everyone is on a level playing field. No one dares to come here and cheat with Ricky. I think that’s great. He runs a great show and I have nothing but good things to say.”

Brooks’ tech process is a slight contrast to say the handful of inaugural ASA races, which were somewhat marred by what some competitors alleged was a leniency towards some teams skewing their bodies. Like Shotko, Campbell says he appreciates what he sees as a cut-and-dry SRL event rule book.

“I wish this was the case everywhere, but there is no way someone brings something to the race track that’s not fair or cheated up a little or not getting checked,” Campbell said. “He doesn’t care who you are.

“He will bounce you. He’s going to talk with you to try to get you where you need to be but if you don’t get there, he’s not going to pass you. It doesn’t matter if you’re a SRL regular, NASCAR guy, it’s a level playing field for everyone and that’s what we enjoy.”

Bruce Nuttleman Photography

In some ways, it’s arguably unfortunate that the two promotional groups aren’t doing this together because their skill sets compliment each other tremendously but the sense of competition has also created opportunities for racers.

The only question is whether the status quo is sustainable, the two sanctioning bodies sometimes working in parallel or contradictory paths, but Brooks continues to feel it is a direction worth pursuing.

“I feel like yes,” Brooks said prior to Money in the Bank. “Some people talk about territories. I go all over the United States. Look at the back of my trailer and it says, ‘coming to a territory near you.’

It’s true that SRL, between the legacy Southwest Tour and the National series on the East Coast encompasses the entire continental U.S. SRL National is a joint collaboration between Brooks and Southwest Tour promoters Larry Collins and Brian Olsen. SRL National this year features the two marquee events at Berlin, the Rattler 250 at South Alabama Speedway in addition to races at Mobile and I-44 Raceway.

Recently announced was the Bill Bigley Sr. Memorial 128 moving from Charlotte County to the Freedom Factory. It’s something Brooks is putting a lot of emphasis on too.

“We got big goals for the Bigley,” Brooks said. “As long as I hit my goal for that, we can announce a purse for that, and we think that’s going to open some eyes.”

It goes without saying that Brooks is a unique personality type. He isn’t a stereotypical racing official in the mold of NASCAR, ARCA or even ASA stereotypes. He’s a blue collar, second generation racer, and despite some of the well-documented rough edges, short trackers like racing under Ricky Brooks.

That point is best illustrated by longtime crew chief Bond Suss, currently serving as general manager of Donnie Wilson Motorsports while also overseeing the pavement portion of Toyota’s driver development program.

Suss sees a lot of value in having both ASA and SRL continue to grow.

“100 percent,” Suss said. “I think it’s good for the racer right now that there is competition, right? It keeps both of them on their toes, makes them work harder and engaged with us. There are times, where us racers are reaching out to the series, not needing more but just wanting more organization. With the competition, it keeps both of them sharp.

“Ricky and Larry’s program is a little bit different, not quite as pit stop oriented as ASA, but I do think both have their place for sure. They both put on good shows. I think it’s an exciting time for Super Late Model racing.”

Bruce Nuttleman Photography

While competition is generally healthy, it has occasionally got messy with both parties working to acquire the same partnerships and endorsements or in a rule book that is starting to grow further apart. Brooks spent much of the past two decades working to create a unified national Super Late Model rules set but he and the ASA have started to disagree on issues like engines and body regulations.

Campbell, a former champion in both the CRA and at Berlin, says that’s potentially risky for the teams.

“You give people reasons to stay at home,” Campbell said. “Like right now, I can run for really good purses and not drive any further than 15 minutes from the house and I don’t have to swap over anything in my car, so Berlin is making that decision easy and the two series are kind of making it hard.

“But we’re evaluating everything that’s going on, we’re monitoring and we’re looking at going tour racing again in the future. But everything has to line up a little better than it is right now.”

Pollard is running for championships in ASA STARS, Southern Super Series and SRL National. He wants to support everyone, really enjoys racing under the Ricky Brooks platform, but is starting to get worn out with the schedule. That’s his one trepidation — that pavement racing doesn’t have the bandwidth to currently sustain this many events.

“I think both series are doing a great job and I want to support both of them,” Pollard said. “It’s tough though because next week we’re supposed to go to (ASA) Milwaukee and we want to support Tim (Bryant’s) two (Southern Super Series) races (in North Carolina) and then go back to Missouri. It’s impossible unless you do this full-time.

“We’ve been lucky to have a family business that lets us race a lot this year but how are you supposed to do this as a working guy? How is a regular guy supposed to do it so sometimes you have to pick and choose your battles.

“I want them to have 30 cars every week, every race, both series, but that’s going to come to a head in the next couple of weeks. Someone is going to suffer, probably, but I hope it doesn’t.”

With that said, Brooks currently envisions growing SRL National beyond its current eight race slate. That growth may include a more traditional points format as well.

“We’re going to 12 to 14 events next year,” Brooks said. “We have pretty much made our minds up on that. Time will tell on the points format. We’re pretty happy with using earnings as a ranking system, but we’re looking at a lot of different options.”

But mostly, Brooks is just very proud that racers have chosen to support his program, especially knowing how many options they have these days.

“We as a group, Larry, Brian and myself, take a lot of pride in what we do,” Brooks said. “We do our homework before we get here. We want it organized. We don’t want racers wondering what will happen. Even on a race weekend, we’re looking ahead like when it rained at Mobile, we had a backup schedule already prepared.

“Everything comes down to preparation. Racers wants consistency, they want good officiating and good tech, and that’s what we pride ourselves on.”

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