Drag Illustrated Issue 142, March 2019 | Page 62

DIALED IN SUPER BOWL OF BRACKET RACING recalls Earwood. “It’s one of those races that still gets talked about around here all these years later, but for the times and for this point of the cycle, the SFG Super Bowl event was huge and we were very pleased with the turnout.” There’s certainly reason to be enthused about the health of big-money dial-in racing, especially considering racers who pre-entered for the Su- per Bowl of Bracket Racing dished out $799 in advance, while others readily parted with $950 at the gate for a weekend passage to compete for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition to the hundred grand to win up for grabs daily Fri- day through Sunday, the event paid tremendous amounts of round money, with no fewer than 18 sponsors coming on board to support the event. As for the match-up format of eliminations, door cars and dragsters are compiled together in one giant class, although the two are separated for as long as possible to bolster parity. Many racers en- thusiastically traveled great distances to compete for daily payouts of this magnitude. “We had racers come from Canada and the Midwest, as well as from states all up and down the Eastern Seaboard, with many first-time racers visiting Rockingham,” says Earwood. Sometimes it takes mega events like this to fill the pits, especially in the Tar Heel state. “The North Carolina racer is a unique individual because they have so many choices,” Earwood explains. “We have 18 tracks in this state and a total of 22 tracks within 2.5 hours from where we’re sitting.” As far as the high-dollar bracket racing model goes, Earwood is optimistic about the future, but warns there’s a limit and reiterates that everything goes in a cycle. “George Howard and I started the B&M Series in the early 1990s and we did the Mil- lion Dollar race for a number of years, so I’m used to doing these type races, but that’s been 20-plus years ago and there got to be too many of them and it ran its course,” he recalls. Incidentally, the SFG Super Bowl of Bracket Racing was Rockingham’s most heavily-attended event of 2018. “It was certainly great to have a race like this back at Rockingham, but I have to warn anyone that puts on these type events to not get greedy,” cautions Earwood. The case has been made that despite popularity and racer support, the recent frequency of these mega-payout races can put a strain on the partici- pants if the market becomes flooded. “How many working-class racers can afford to take off five days from work and pay a hefty entry fee and travel expense?” Earwood wonders. “You’ve got a certain amount of touring pros and it’s all they do, but in order to make these things work, you’ve got to have the serious weekend racer and he’s a guy that’s either got his own small business or has a successful job and he can only do this so many weekends out of the year. It’s my belief that there will be less of these type races in 2019, but the ones they have will be very successful.” SFG Promotions will return to Rockingham this season, as well as a host of other venues, including U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan, which will host the inaugural SFG 500, which pays an unprecedented $500,000 to win. “This will be the highest paying drag race in history!” exclaims Riley, the event founder. DI DI DI DI DI DI DI DI DI DI 62 | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com Issue 142