Special from Speed51.com – More and more dates continue to get added to the growing Summer Thunder TV presented by PFC Brakes calendar every day. One of the newest events to be added is the Summit City 100 for the ARCA/CRA Super Series at Fort Wayne, Indiana’s Baer Field Motorsports Park on Saturday, July 28th.
The live stream of the 100-lap Super Late Model feature at the 3/8-mile oval right next to Fort Wayne International Airport is one of just many ways that track promoter, Dave Muzzillo, is helping race awareness of his track and short track racing in general.
“Anything that can help short track racing is a good thing,” said Muzzillo. “Maybe someone will like it and want to go to the race track and watch some of our racing. Speed51.com did a race for us at Berlin and did a great job there so we wanted to continue it.”
Muzzillo, who also is the promoter for the Main Event Series and International Championship Auto Racing (ICAR), is trying to do whatever he can to grow racing in the Midwest, specifically at Baer Field.
Having Speed51.com stream a race at his race track is one way, but that falls in line with the more traditional methods of raising awareness.
Muzzillo also has some non-traditional methods as well, and he’ll stop at nothing – including blowing himself up inside a box – to make sure fans come back to his race track.
“Here at Baer Field I actually have a fan following,” Muzzillo said. “I know that’s crazy for a promoter to have a fan following, but I do.”
One of the crazy ideas Muzzillo hatched is the idea of the “Grocery Getter Classic” race, which is a 24-hour endurance race for normal street cars. The cars are not allowed to have roll cages or safety bars, must have the side and rear windows removed, must have a working AM/FM radio in the car and standard tires and interiors.
The idea is that whomever completes the most laps in 24 hours wins the race, and also a nice chunk of money.
Muzzillo explained that if 500 cars enter the race, which is the maximum field Mozzillo said he’ll have, the winner will take home $50,000. Currently, the winner of the race is expected to take home at least $10,000, and half of the field will receive money.
“RJ Scott of the Champion Racing Association was the very first entry,” Muzzillo said. “That was cool to get that type of support. So far we’ve had entries from Texas, North and South Dakota and nearly every state east of the Mississippi. I have 104 entries right now. I had 20 entries the first day.”
Saturday’s Summit City 100 for the ARCA/CRA Super Series can be seen live and free for premium members of the Speed51 Video Network as part of Speed51’s Summer Thunder TV series.
Fans who are not currently premium members can join for just $7.99 per month or $69.99 for an entire year and can do so by clicking here.
-By Rob Blount, Speed51.com Associate Editor – Twitter: @RobBlount
