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Brad Martel (Photo: Courtesy Brad Martel)

When news broke among Thompson Speedway competitors on Dec. 27 that track management would be cutting purses for its NASCAR Whelen All-American Series divisions by 75 percent for the 2020 season, the reaction for many was of anger and disbelief.

Brad Martel, a crew member with a longtime Late Model team at the track track, decided that instead of individuals venting, it was time for competitors to organize and try to help themselves.

Martel, who works on the Late Model team owned by Jeff Hartwell with driver Woody Pitkat, was part of arranging a meeting with competitors not long after the announcement.

“The information got published by the track … and my car owner kind of reached out to me and said ‘This isn’t looking good, what are we going to do?’ I know a lot of people in racing, either from the track or working on prior cars before I was with Hartwell. And I don’t think anybody wants to see us not race at the [oval] track. … So after a couple of days of the ‘What do we do’s?’ I figured I’d pick up the phone and see if we could get somewhere.”

Martel’s initial philosophy was that competitors working cooperatively with the track to improve issues was better than just venting anger at management.

“What the letter said and what the message needed to be, there may have been some gaps in between,” Martel said. “I took a hard look at it and thought ‘What is the real message here? Is it really what’s in black and white or is there more to the story?’ I reached out to [Jon Hoenig] and I said ‘I’m not a guy that’s looking to throw stones at you. I’d like to have a conversation, I’d like to have some constructive conversations, if you’re willing to listen.’ I said ‘Maybe there’s something that we can all work out to make this work for everybody.’”

Martel said 21 people attended the first meeting held with a follow-up meeting attended by 47 people.

“At that point I said ‘Let’s have some divisional meetings.’” Martel said. “All the different divisions are in a different economical climate. What Mini Stock guys think will work doesn’t necessarily carry over to the [SK Modified] guys. That’s kind of what I’ve been doing.

“I’m doing this because I want the racers’ voice to be one voice and we need to know what that voice sounds like so we can have constructive conversations with the track. I don’t promise to anybody that I can make anything happen. I just say ‘Look, I hear what’s being said, I’ll take your biggest axes to grind back to the track and see where can we haggle or barter to get there.’”

Martel said a major part of the meetings has been creating a plan where each division as a whole can work to increase purses through finding sponsors to supplement what the track is already paying.

“A couple of the divisions are saying ‘Maybe we can make the purse structure better by going out and reaching out to some of the contacts that we have to do that.’” Martel said. “I’m not saying that all the divisions are on board with that, but some of them are.

“The message that I start with is that we essentially have three options. We can not race at Thompson Speedway. We can race for the purses that are offered and the conditions that are offered. Or we can opt to make it better. How we can make it better is however these guys decide to do so. That’s what I kind of keep going back to with folks.”

Martel said the cooperation from track management has been positive.

“I think it’s just going to be making sure that we have a structured plan to move forward so that it doesn’t become a folly,” Martel said “I think the engagement is good for the most part as far as racers being interested in what’s going on.”

Thompson Speedway general manager Terry Eames has met multiple times in recent weeks with Martel and track management is on board with working the organized group of competitors.

Historically in stock car racing organized competitor groups have been looked at negatively in most cases by groups overseeing events. NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. fought mightily against any sort of organization by competitors in the burgeoning years of the sanction. But recently the top of the sport has seen owner/competitors organization as a positive. NASCAR works together at the top levels with the Race Team Alliance, which is a not for profit group organized by top-level team owners.

“NASCAR is very comfortable in engaging with the teams via the RTA,” Eames said. “I think similarly it’s a different age. We’re asking these racers to understand that the math has to change to keep oval track racing alive. I think we’d be foolish to rebuff them just because they’ve organized. Why should we be afraid of it? So far it brings nothing but positive to us.”

Eames said is on board with the plan for divisions working to increase their purses through support they find on their own. Eames said the track would also be on board in modifying the purse structure currently being offered by the track, which will pay the top-10 finishers in divisional events at the track.

“It’s not going to go into a general fund,” Eames said. “If the Mini Stocks are really good salesmen and they raise $10,000, that $10,000 will go to their purse. We have expressed that if they want to spread the money that we’re offering in purses around differently and we’re convinced that they’re all on board, it doesn’t matter to us if we pay to 15th or 20th. It’s up to the racers.”

Said Martel: “Going forward I think a big part of it is that we as racers, we need to feel that there’s a partnership between the speedway and the racers. That’s what I’m trying to do. Can we get enough people to work together rather than have the ‘Us against them’ attitude.”

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