If it wasn’t for bad luck, Albert Francis wouldn’t have had any luck at all during the inaugural ASA STARS National Tour season.
He finished seventh in the final points standings with a best finish of seventh in the second race of the season at Madison International Speedway. From there, it was a string of DNF’s due to mechanical issues that plagued the Francis Engineering team down the stretch.
However, the silver lining from his 2023 season was the speed his No.33 began to show late in the season. He collected stage points in both stages at Toledo Speedway during the Glass City 200, then one race later at Winchester Speedway he qualified eighth and led 11 laps in the Winchester 400.
“There were definitely some ups and downs but I felt like we were starting to get it right towards the end of the season. We were building a notebook and trying to build some chemistry with the crew chief and the guys” said Francis on his 2023 season. “It’s been a rough year for parts failures but I think we were heading in the right direction.”
A former Jennerstown Speedway Pro Late Model champion and former winner in the Outlaw Super Late Model ranks around his home state of Ohio, he slowly integrated himself into template-bodied Super Late Model racing in 2019 before making the jump to full-time in 2021 and competing for the ASA/CRA Super Series title a year later.
As one of few family-owned teams that were a part of the Team Construction Winner’s Circle Program, running the full schedule came with its own challenge.
“Being that we are our own race team, we kind of didn’t have any notebook on anywhere. (Johnny) VanDoorn helps us out a lot but there’s a lot of racetracks they struggle at and it reflects on the notebook we have. It’s been mostly trying to build some notes and figure out what kind of adjustments I like at different places and figure some things out chassis-wise. I feel like if we could consistently finish races better it would’ve reflected very differently on our season, but just having parts failures doesn’t really show the year that we had.
“It’s not necessarily just the volume of the races because there were only ten races, that’s not a whole lot of races for us. Being that they are so far to travel to for some of them and you’re gone for three or four days for every one of them. It’s tough that way with lodging and stuff like that.”
A return with the ASA STARS National Tour is in the works for Francis in 2024. Newly-found speed late in the 2023 season paired with a more travel-friendly 2024 schedule has him looking forward to what the second season will bring.
“I really enjoy the schedule they have, I like everywhere that they go. I’m looking forward to knocking out the two Wisconsin races in the same weekend, I think that’ll be neat. I think there’s only one weekday race this year, so that’ll help out a lot.”
For more information on the ASA STARS National Tour, please visit the series website at starsnationaltour.com, or be sure to follow the series on social media (Facebook: ASA STARS National Tour | Twitter: @racewithstars | IG: @starsnational).
ASA STARS National Tour
The ASA STARS National Tour debuted in March 2023 for Super Late Model racing in America. Announced in October 2022, many of the best drivers in America will compete in the ten-race national tour with a minimum $100,000 point fund. The championship team will be guaranteed $25,000.
The ASA STARS National Tour is made up of three races from each of the regional pavement Super Late Model Series under the Track Enterprises banner – the ASA/CRA Super Series, the ASA Midwest Tour and the ASA Southern Super Series.
The Team Construction Winner’s Circle program has been announced as a part of the ASA STARS National Tour for licensed drivers/teams with perfect attendance. The program provides additional financial incentives to those teams who support the series.
Track Enterprises, a racing promotions company based in Illinois, will operate the ASA STARS National Tour. It announced the acquisition of Champion Racing Association (CRA) in January 2022 and followed that up with the purchase of the Midwest Tour in July. In October, Track Enterprises President Bob Sargent announced a partnership with the Southern Super Series, which set the table for the formation of the ASA STARS National Tour.
