Commentary By: Langley Austin ~ langley@race22.com

The Hampton Heat 200 is a bust.

That's what we learned late yesterday evening when little over 20 NASCAR Late Model Stock Cars took to the track to qualify for a $15,000 to win race that boasted a purse over $51,000. Sure that's a lot of money and sure every racer all over the country jumps up and down whining that there isn't enough "Big Money" races, but

when there is one .... where are they at?

$15,000 to win, $15,000 to win .... Are you Serious??? Less than 30 cars show up for what would fall into the category of the second or third biggest race in the country for Late Model Stock Cars and yet there is nobody there to compete for it.

When the race was announced early in the year we heard about names like Frank Deiny, Jr., BJ Mackey, Matt McCall and other top notch regional drivers who were throwing there name in the hat to come get a piece of the over $40,000 in posted awards ... yet I can't find anybody with even similar last names in the qualifying rundown from yesterday.

I've been reading one of the regional message boards about the disappointing car count and rightly so, but some of the stuff that's being said is just crazy. First off, the track layout and how "tough" it is to race on Langley Speedway doesn't have anything to do with it. The racers who race the big races aren't amateurs, these are professional racers ... they may not be Sprint Cup racers, but no one can tell me that Mackey, Deiny, McCall, Philip Morris, Jamey Caudill and others aren't professionals.

Secondly, who needs a three-day show(not two) if you are an outsider and would need to practice and that means you've got to get your crew to get off from work for at least two days and maybe three. As a team owner, which a lot of our regions racers are their own team owner or at least a partial owner and they have to budget to go to a race like this especially for three and really once it's over and you sleep in your hauler or in a motel room you are traveling back on Sunday. That's too much for a race not of the magnitude of the Bailey's 300 or to the enjoyment of the Myrtle Beach 400 .... I mean who does want to race at Martinsville and who doesn't want to take their family with them to Myrtle Beach?

Another comment on Martinsville ... one of the people on the regional message board I was reading questioned the three day show and was asked "Is Martinsville a one day show?" ... Are you Serious? Comparing Langley Speedway, a beautiful track off on the coast of Virginia to a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series sanctioned track? You have got to be kidding me ... Langley Speedway doesn't compare to Martinsville in anyway.

Don't get me wrong Langley Speedway is a great track, but I don't think any track that far away from the center of Late Model Stock Car racing(the Statesville, Mooresville, Charlotte area) has a chance of drawing a better field of cars. If this race was being held at Hickory Motor Speedway paying this kind of money, they would have easily had 40 cars, but there is no prestige in the "Hampton Heat 200", sorry that means nothing to the average Late Model Stock Car racer ... the Bailey's 300 does.

The biggest challenge that Langley Speedway faced this weekend aside from the long trip out to there was the fact that the race was being contested on a weekend when all the NASCAR Late Model Stock Car tracks are racing on including the big three that they had a chance to draw from; South Boston, Motor Mile and Southern National. Another problem with these off the wall "Big Money" races is racers don't really race for money, Davin Scites being the obvious exception.

Racers will constantly whine that their hometown track doesn't pay enough to win, finish in the top ten or start the race, but rarely do you see those same people stray away from their hometown track. They don't leave their fans(all three of them) and they race because they love racing, not because they can make any of their money back, because the bottom line is even racing at Motor Mile every weekend for the $5,000 to win you can't make any money. Ask Philip Morris, he's made $30,000 in purse money from the last six races and I would venture to say he's almost got his money back from switching to the Dodge engine and testing every time they change the rules on that engine ... well, maybe.

Racers don't race for money, they race for trophies, they race for pride and they race for the love of racing ... nothing more, nothing less and over $40,000 in posted awards won't draw them .... OBVIOUSLY!