Big purse attracts top drivers to Batesville track
The modified division of the International Motor Contest Association has the largest number of racers in the world — more than 9,000 were sanctioned this season — and the best of those will be at Batesville Motor Speedway this week.
The Race 4 Hope 74 begins tonight with time trials, followed by three consecutive nights of preliminary action. On Saturday night, the 74-lap main event will pay $20,000 to win and $2,000 to start. With the most lucrative payback the division has ever seen — seventh place will pay $10,000 — it is one of the nation’s richest modified races.
IMCA modified weekly events typically pay $500 or less to win. Because of the purse for the Batesville race and added money throughout the week, track promoter Mooney Starr said drivers from around the nation are making the haul.
“We’ll be paying every nontransfer spot in every race through the whole week,” Starr said. “Each night the top eight finishers will qualify for the big race. Everybody after that will get a check, starting with $1,500 for ninth down to $200 for 30th. That’s good money for modified racers, better than anywhere else.”
Counting the main event, the nonqualifiers’ earnings and a special state’s and manufacturers’ dashes, the total purse is just less than $230,000.
Starr and Batesville Motor Speedway hosted the two richest dirt modified events ever with the Alltel 100, which paid $100,000 to win in 2004 and 2005. Starr said he started giving thought early this season to hosting another big money modified. He almost waited too long, but he received assistance from Batesville’s most famous racer: NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin.
“I had been thinking about it, but I had too many irons in the fire and let time slip saw,” said Starr, who is the general manager of Mark Martin Automotive. “I had never asked Mark for help, and he told me it was going to be difficult to get a corporate sponsor because their fiscal year ends in July — this was May or June. Mark agreed to help out with his foundation.”
The event will serve as a venue to spread the word about Martin’s new charitable foundation, the Mark and Arlene Martin Hope for Arkansas Foundation, which is used to assist children and families in need in the state with a strong emphasis on Batesville and Independence County. Sweet Manufacturing of Kalamazoo, Mich., also is a presenting sponsor.
Martin’s first time behind the wheel of a race car was at Independence County Speedway — on the site at Locust Grove where Starr’s track sits now — in 1974, which is why it’s a 74-lap main event Saturday night.
The inaugural Alltel 100 drew more than 300 modified racers, while the Race for Hope 74 figures to have less than 200. But Starr said the entry list will include the cream of the crop of the nation’s modified racers and will set the groundwork for what he hopes will be a yearly event.
“We’re only a couple weeks after the IMCA Supernationals, and it’s hard for most of these guys to take off a week twice in the same month,” said Starr, referring to the event in Boone, Iowa. “But the best of the best will be here, and you won’t be able to find better racing.”
Race for Hope 74
WHAT A week-long dirt race event for IMCA modifieds
WHEN Tonight through Saturday night. Grandstands open at 5:30 p.m. and racing starts at 7:30 p.m. each day.
WHERE Batesville Motor Speedway, Locust Grove
TICKETS Grandstand admission is free tonight, $20 for Wednesday-Friday and $25 for Saturday. Pit passes are $20 tonight, $30 for Wednesday-Friday and $40 for Saturday. Five-day pit passes are $125.
PURSE $229,725 total purse, including $150,500 for the main event — $20,000 to win and $2,000 to start.
RACING CARD Tonight: Time trials and practice; Wednesday-Friday: 15 10-lap heat races (top 2 finishers advance to preliminary feature) and 25-lap prelim feature (top 8 advance to main event); Saturday: State’s dash, manufacturers’ dash, 74-lap main event.