WHERE IS THE BEST PLACE TO START A NASCAR CAREER?

Source: Janet Peery for RacingWest
Date: 07/31/2008

Where is the best place for a driver to move up to say, NASCAR Trucks or Cup? NASCAR provides no rung in the ladder between racing the local track and the NASCAR Camping World Series but there are several series that do.

Series such as that provided by the ASA, ARCA West, Rocky Mountain Challenge and one of my personal favorites, the SRL Southwest Tour, has a lot to provide the upcoming driver that has left behind the go-carts at age 8, the legend cars at age 13 and the local track at age 16. And the beauty of the SRL Southwest Tour is it doesn’t take having a Daddy Warbucks to fund the driver.

The SRL Southwest Tour has survived even without the new Kern River Raceway opening. It has attracted drivers with names the fans recognize. Drivers racing the series are doing so with talent, not dollars. They are real racers, that save their money and work with an engine builder.

It is pure grassroots racing. The opener at All American Speedway stole the show. It was the race everyone was talking about. It was remarkable to see the drivers go lap after lap, side by side. NASCAR Southwest Tour Champion Craig Raudman holding off his friend and rival, MK Kanke. It was good stuff.

The SRL is the series to be in…and even better a big turn around for this series is coming. When the economy finally changes direction…this is the series that is going to spring like a rubber band drawn all the way back. It is ready to pop and when it does…it is going to be big.

The required cars to race this series are still out there and at reasonable prices. And although this affordable series doesn’t race the super-speedways like Las Vegas and California Speedway, what local touring series does? A driver wanting to move up to a bigger NASCAR series is better off getting acquainted with touring in this series where engines are built to last and can be bought at sensible prices.

And even though the SRL is not billed as a developmental series, it is in fact the purist of all developmental series, because in this series a driver races against talent alone and there is no shortage of talent where a drivers entry list reads like a whose who in racing. The SRL Southwest Tour offers a chance for new comers to race with passionate veterans, willing to share information.

It is affordable, it is recognizable, it offers good racing and it features stars and champions from local tracks and series, including NASCAR. The SRL is where drivers go to not only improve their racing career, but to have fun. And in the end, isn’t one of the most important things in life to have fun and shouldn’t promoting a racing career be fun?

There is no better place to start in the world of professional motorsports racing than in one of the local touring series…. and the SRL is one of the best.

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