Big Changes For 2005 At Riverside Speedway : Raceway Media

Riverside Speedway owner, CJ Robinson announced today that several big changes will be happening at the New Hampshire speedplant in 2005. Robinson explained that much thought and planning has gone into these changes. "We have not jumped into the new format fool-heartedly explained Robinson. These decisions were made in the best interest of all parties involved including management, race teams and the fans."

One of the major changes will be in the reduction of events run in 2005. The number of events on the 2005 calendar is thirteen versus the twenty scheduled last year. According to Robinson's statistics, only a little more than 50% of his race teams ran the entire 2004 schedule. This is even less than the year before. The reasons given to him by the teams, lack of money, and the need to spend more time with the family. "We are going to try and help meet the racers needs better in 2005 by shortening the number of race dates. This should help each team budget better financially, and allow families to schedule other quality events besides racing." We are carefully choosing our race dates for the 2005 schedule, and hope to have it etched in stone by the first part of December."

The next big change on the schedule comes with a lot of pain to the track owner. In 2005, the Tiger / Sportsman and the Dwarf cars will not be part of the plan. "Eliminating these two quality divisions was the hardest decision I have had to make since I've owned the Speedway" stated Robinson. "These are some dedicated drivers that have done their best to support Riverside, but unfortunately it is time for a change." The Tiger / Sportsman will be replaced by the Late Models as the premiere Saturday night division. There are several reasons for the change, but the main one come from the fact that financially, the Track can only afford to pay the purse for one premiere division. After having the Tiger / Sportsman as the premiere class at Riverside for the past few seasons, it was quite evident that the division never really caught on with the local drivers. Less than a handful of locals attempted to compete, and many of those did so on a part time basis. "We were relying heavily on cars from Thunder Road, and very few of those cars attempted to race at Riverside. Most of the season, the car count was less than double digits. "Don't get me wrong" said Robinson, "We appreciate the effort of every driver that competed in the Sportsman this season, there just hasn't been enough local growth or interest, compared to what has been happening in our Late Models." The Late Models were dropped a few seasons back in favor of the Tiger / Sportsman, hoping the more affordable division would grow into a stronger headliner, and meet the needs of our local racers. This has not been the case. Riverside has had significant local growth in the Late Models as they slowly were reborn at the track with a limited schedule. Late Models seem to be catching on as several local teams are preparing to return to the track, adding to an already growing group, and they are anxiuosly awaiting the rules package that will be announced on Sunday, November 21st, at the Cabot Motor Inn, Lancaster, New Hampshire. "It is very sad to see the Tiger / Sportsman leave, but we are hoping that some of these drivers will return in the Late Models." Defending Sportsman champion, Mike Bailey has already purchased a car for the 2005 season. One other good point made by Robinson is the fact that the Riverside Tiger / Sportsman ran on the same rules as those at Thunder Road, thus assuring his cars still have a place to race on a weekly basis.

"As far as the Dwarf Cars, it was strictly a numbers game. The Riverside Dwarf Cars had always been a self supporting division until 2004. When the group split this past season, so did the car counts, leaving Riverside with just a handful of cars attending each of their shows. We hope that this organization can regroup and pull back together, because there are some great competitors in this class. We are also hoping that some of these drivers will look at moving into one of our regular classes for 2005."

"Another change is the return of the foreign cars in the four cylinder Street Stock class. We have a good core of drivers already, but there are a lot of foreign cars in our Enduro division, and this will allow them to move up without a lot of expense. This decision has been very well received, and we are looking for the class to grow significantly in 2005."

Several other changes are forthcoming for the 2005 season. One big new change will be that all regular Saturday night divisions will be required to have a scanner in their racecar. This will be locked in on one frequency. This will allow the race director to talk directly to his drivers for restart lineups, and when the caution comes out. This should help save on equipment and shorten the time it takes to realign the field on cautions.

There will be a new point system and a new handicap system in place for the 2005 season as well. The new system will hopefully keep more excitement in the point chases, something that has pretty much been lacking outside of maybe one class each year. The handicap system will now favor the drivers that run on a regular basis. In the past the system allowed drivers to miss weeks, but could still get their handicapped positions upon their returns. This will change for next year, and hopefully will be a fairer system for all involved.

Riverside Speedway is looking to take care of it's own in 2005, as it will concentrate on returning to a popular Saturday night experience for the race teams and the race fans.

The drivers rule meeting schedule is as follows: Street Stocks - 12:30-1:30pm, Super Stocks - 1:45 - 2:30pm, Late Models - 2:45 - 4pm

Since there are very few, if any, rule changes in the Enduro classes, no rules meeting is scheduled for them.

For more information on Riverside Speedway, call the track at 603-636-2005 or log onto their new website at www.riversidespeedway.org. Information can also be obtained by contacting General Manager, Dick Therrien at 802-626-9617 or e-mail him at dprdick@charter.net.

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