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Subject: WDRL SHUTS DOWN SERIES
| | Posted by | Message | | CRAIG KELLEY | Posted on 2/5/2010 1:03:47 PM
SO sad to hear. Jim Wilson is one of the classiest and most honorable men I have ever known or dealt with in all of my years in motorsports. He will be missed, and I sincerely hope he finds some other way to bring his passion for racing to all of us. Here is the Press Release:
WORLD Dirt Racing League Closes Series
Gilman City Missouri
For Immediate Release:
The WORLD Dirt Racing League (WDRL) is sorry to announce that it will no longer have the Touring Series WDRL and is discontinuing business as such immediately.
We hated to have to make this announcement because of the loyalty of the race fans, race teams, and several racetracks that we have been fortunate to have races at each year.
We have a lot of friends out there that will be missed tremendously and we wish them all the best of luck. For all of these reasons it was a very hard decision to make said Jim Wilson (President of WDRL)
The WDRL was formed and started by Jim Wilson after NASCAR made the decision to discontinue the All-Star Tour after 17 years of operation. “I had so many drivers and a lot of promoters come to me after the word was out that the All-Star Tour would no longer be in existence and asked me to start my own Touring Series and keep the Dirt Late Model Tour going in the Mid-West. I decided to resign from NASCAR at that time and do it. “
“After working for NASCAR for 20 years the only way that I knew or even wanted to run a race program, was to run it professionally and with professionally trained officials.
We hired the best officials we could find to run the race programs at the WDRL races. I thank Mark Ludwig, Ron Streger, Art Daufeldt, Rusty Daufeldt, Phil Roberts, Chris Hansen, Dean and Shirley Howe, Mable McCuen, Eldon Wilson, Tom Lathan, Steve Pauley, Cheryl Huchinson, and Bucky Doren for their part of making the WDRL a professionally ran series. These officials didn’t all work with us at the same time, but were all instrumental in making the WDRL the best run short track series in the United States. In the 8 years that we ran the WDRL we never had one complaint of unfair treatment and never had one injury that was bad enough to turn in for insurance. That tells me that the officials were doing their jobs treating all teams the same and making sure the race cars were as safe as possible.
We lost our title sponsor, PolyDome in 2008 due to circumstances beyond their control and we were never able to pick up another. I thank Dick and Karla and Dan and Pam Johanneck of PolyDome for their 6 years of sponsorship and for all they have done for us and for short track racing through their sponsorship.
I thank Jim Groves of Iowa Illinois Taylor Insulation for his sponsorship for each year of the WDRL. They supported the WDRL from day one and Jim and Julie are great friends as well as being great supporting sponsors.
I want to say thanks to Lee Havlik and Josh Anderson of Chase Signs and Graphics for their sponsorship from the beginning of the WORLD Dirt Racing League and for all they have done for us and for racing. They are the ones that designed the WDRL logo for us.
I thank Hoosier Racing Tires for their continued sponsorship. I realize that our guys are spending money with them, but they have been willing to put something back. They have also been with us from the beginning.
We thank all of the sponsors of the WDRL. They have all been generous to our race teams and we appreciate that.
I want to thank the fans of the WDRL. We have received a lot of supportive emails and letters written to us and a lot of nice things said to us after races and we appreciate each and every one of those. We have some great fans.
We want to thank the race teams that have supported the WDRL and have run all over the Mid-West with us for the last 8 years. These guys have all been a pleasure to work with and have been willing to work with us in any way we asked them too.
Last but not least I want to thank the promoters and the race tracks that have supported the WDRL and have promoted WDRL races. We have been able to meet some new faces as well as work with some we’ve known for years and it has been quite a ride.
What Nancy and I are going to do is up in the air right now. I am too young to retire and am not even thinking about doing that. We have some irons in the fire and we will keep everyone posted.
Again thanks to everyone that has been involved in the WDRL. We hope you enjoyed this series as much as we enjoyed doing it.
People forget how much you pi$$ed them off as Race Director after a decade of retirement!
| | kriskrug | Posted on 2/9/2010 3:56:07 PM
Thats a shame!!!!!! Lots of great memories!!! Kyle Berk laping the entire field after starting in last place at I80 speedway is one I'll never forget!!!!!!!!
Not only is racing a sport...... it's a drug!!!
| | CRAIG KELLEY | Posted on 2/18/2010 7:37:09 AM
GREAT NEWS! GREAT LUCK, OLD FRIEND! Read below:
JIM WILSON PLANS WEEKLY RACING PROGRAM AT BETHANY [message #57080] Tue, 16 February 2010 14:16
RacinBoys.com
Messages: 1468
Registered: November 2007 Senior Member
FORMER NASCAR REGIONAL DIRECTOR PLANS WEEKLY RACING PROGRAM AT BETHANY, MO. TRACK
Gilman City, MO (Feb. 11, 2010) Jim Wilson, former NASCAR Regional Director,
announced today that he is planning a weekly racing program at the speedway in
Bethany, MO located within the Northwest Missouri Fairgrounds.
Wilson, who for 17 years was also the Director of NASCAR's Busch All-Star
Touring Series, later known as the O'Reilly All-Star Touring Series and is the
current President of the WORLD Dirt Racing League stated "Bethany has a great
facility for racing and we are looking forward to bringing another entertainment
option to the folks in Northern Missouri. We plan to have a very clean,
family-friendly program with special events during the season that will involve
and benefit several communities in the area." Wilson said currently, he plans
to conduct racing on Friday evenings and all racing will be completed by 10:30
p.m., unless delayed by unforeseeable circumstances, in consideration of those
living near the race track.
Race car classes currently being considered include Late Models, Stock cars,
B-mods, 4 cylinders depending upon the interest and availability of an adequate
number of race teams in each class. The weekly racing program will offer a
point fund for each class of cars with top contenders in each class receiving
awards and prize money at a season's end program.
A meeting will be held Saturday, March 6 at the Bethany Community Center for all
race teams to discuss car rules and other issues vital to the racing program.
.The Community Center is located at 105 n. 25th St. in Bethany, MO.
Wilson invites citizens and race teams to offer their thoughts and opinions at
the following forum created especially for this program at www.bethanyspeedway.proboards.com.
This forum will allow interested persons to engage in discussions specific to
this track and this proposed program. A website will soon be available at
www.bethanyspeedway.com
For more information, please email bethanyspeedway@wdrl.netor
wdrloffice@wdrl.net.
People forget how much you pi$$ed them off as Race Director after a decade of retirement!
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