ARCA Midwest Tour competitors perform on Father’s Day at the Milwaukee Mile. (Photo by Stan Kalwasinski)

MACON, Ill. — Super late model asphalt racing moved closer to a unified national governing body on Tuesday afternoon.

Track Enterprises owner Bob Sargent and ARCA Midwest Tour owner Gregg McKarns announced in a joint statement that Track Enterprises will acquire the regional touring series at the end of this season.

Track Enterprises acquired Champion Racing Ass’n, ARCA/CRA Super Series, JEGS/CRA All-Star Tour and two other grassroots racing regional series from RJ Scott and Glenn Luckett in January.

Gregg and Angie McKarns will continue to operate the Midwest Tour through the end of this season.

In a video distributed to the media by Track Enterprises and the Midwest Tour earlier today, both Sargent and McKarns said the move plays well for the future of super late model racing.

“The Track Enterprises team has the resources to take super late model asphalt racing to the next level,” McKarns said. “Having said that, we’re still going to promote six, seven, maybe eight super late model races across the region and still be involved at that level. It’s a new day and a new stage in that aspect of the sport. We we can’t wait to see what will happen.

“They (Track Enterprises) acquired CRA and CRA and I had been talking for a while,” McKarns added. “It’s hard to be on the same page when you have different points of view and different business models. Bringing it all together under one roof will transform super late model asphalt racing into what drivers and teams want. There are so many different rule packages. It’s tough for a kid like Austin Nason if he wants to race in Berlin on a Wednesday night and then he wants to come race on our side of the lake, he has to make changes or he has to drive a different car.

“If you look at late model dirt or 410 sprint cars and they have that dominating fist that keeps everything on the same page and allows a driver to pick up their car and race from sea to sea “, continued McKarns. “It’s something we expect in super late model racing and hopefully it will be good for the teams and good for the fans.”

Sargent raised the idea of ​​a series of national tours for the super late asphalt models.

“This purchase is another step towards that goal,” Sargent acknowledged. “We have been vocal. We’ve had a lot of inquiries from teams, sponsors and promoters about a national series. We really want to move forward with the ideas that have been presented to us and our own thoughts. Obviously the story is important with what Gregg’s dad (John McKarns) has done with ARTGO, and the ASA tours and all the things the France family has done. There’s a lot of history we can build on, whether it’s Bob Harmon and the All Pro series, we want to build on the history of everything that’s happened over the years.

“It’s a new era and we’re bringing new ideas and courage to make our final product the best it can be for our fans.”

Sargent, who runs more than 80 races a year under the Track Enterprises banner, said the acquisition and move toward unifying super late model racing has a lot to do with timing.

“We were in the right place at the right time to form a good relationship, whether it was with Gregg and Angie, Ron Drager and the ARCA people, Tim Bryant (Southern Super Series), the France family, with Glenn (Luckett) and RJ (Scott) and all the sponsors that go with it,” Sargent said. “Now we are ready to bring together all the teams in the United States and all the manufacturers and try to create the best possible product for our fans.”

Sargent said bringing all segments of the super late model world together under one umbrella would help secure the future of this segment of the sport.

“What intrigued me the most was that nothing is broken,” said Sargent, who started promoting the races in 1985. “They are very successful entities on their own. Lots of history and much success. Everything is going well, but time always passes, but if we can polish it and add positive things, it is better for all parties involved.

“It gives us commonalities,” he continued. “If we put it all together and give the promoter a good product and they embrace us for bringing this show to their tracks, we can choose the best facilities and give the teams profitable rule sets that we work with. by using different committees we can bring it all together and have a great product for the fans on the tracks and on TV.

McKarns endorsed Sargent for knowing what is suitable for short-track racing.

“At the end of the day, Bob Sargent is a short track guy,” McKarns said. “I have known him since 2000 if not before. I have the utmost confidence in what his team can do. They are short-term people. Many higher forms of motorsport may not have people making short-track decisions, but we know they do there.