From The Daily Item
SUNBURY — Just days away from signing a title sponsor for the 2007 season, The Daily Item has learned that the National Sprint Tour has folded, 11 months after it began.
Steve Kinser, one of the parties involved who helped acquire the NST assets following the death of series founder Fred Brownfield, will return to the World of Outlaws for 2007.
Brownfield was killed at Gray's Harbour Raceway in an on-track incident in June, one week after the series made its inaugural visit to Selinsgrove Speedway.
The Daily Item has learned from several sources that the Monday following that tragic day, Brownfield was set to sign a title sponsor for 2006.
"Fred was definitely a first-class guy and anyone who met him was better because they did," Selinsgrove Speedway promoter Charlie Paige said of his meetings with Brownfield.
Paige said he spoke with Kinser about a month ago looking to secure two race dates he had requested for the speedway if the NST was returning in 2007.
"If they would have been able to give me the two dates I was asking for, then the NST would have had a home at Selinsgrove Speedway," Paige added. "The speedway will still run five 410 shows in 2007."
Selinsgrove Speedway will go down in history as the only track where a local driver defeated a driver on the NST touring team.
"That would have been great marketing from our standpoint," Paige said of the wins by Mike Erdley and Lance Dewease. "As far as I am concerned, we had two helluva good shows."
Jason Meyers, a guest last week on the Open Wheel Today internet radio racing show that airs on The Dirt Track Channel Web site, said that following Brownfield's death, it was a group decision to keep the NST going. He went on to say that recently, four to five WoO teams had contacted the NST offices to see if there would be room for them to race if the NST continued in 2007.
Less than 24 hours after the interview aired, DIRT MotorSports issued a press release stating that all 'Mean 16' drivers would be returning for 2007. The World of Outlaws will be showcased on a television package in 2007 on ESPN2 and Speed Channel.
"It's really disappointing for the few people who were working so hard to make the NST go and are now left out in the cold," said Meyers, who drives for Elite Racing, a team formed between him and businessman Guy Stockbridge. "We were a group that stuck together and we made decisions as a group. Unfortunately, we were so close to the title sponsorship that for the most part, it's a bit of a surprise when the minority makes a decision for the majority."
"I just want to get back and relax and worry about my race team more than anything," the 20-time WoO champion Kinser said in a DIRT MotorSports press release. "It's no fun for me going to the races when I'm worried about scheduling and trying to run a race organization. I will definitely look at the racing part of it a lot different from the way I did before."
This is not the first time a rival 410 sprint car series has formed against the Outlaws. The United Sprint Alliance was around back in the 1990s, while the National Sprint Car League was formed in mid-2005 and folded by early December of last year.
In a press release on the NST Web site dated July 18, the parties involved that purchased all of the NST assets, Don Lamberti, Lonnie Parsons, Stockbridge and Kinser, "have every intention of carrying the series into next year and thereafter."
DIRT Motorsports PR director Chris Dolack noted that there will be approximately 85 races for the series in 2007 and that Kinser will bring both cars to the WoO series.
Calls to Brownfield Entertainment Corporation said the offices were closed for the week.
