I have nothing to go on here (haven't seen an AARN in a few weeks, and wasn't able to reach anyone when calling the speedway office this afternoon for some first hand info) but as a follow up to the Street Stock/Factory Stock discussion from a few threads below, I think I figured out something that may be old news to some... new news to others... and WGAS to the rest, but here goes: Looking at the 2023 Schedule posted on New Egypt's website, it shows that a division referred to as "Street Stocks" is in place for 2023, and specifically, on the card for 4/8 (this past Saturday), as well as 4/22, 4/29, 5/13, 5/27, and beyond. They had 13 cars sign in this past Saturday, and to my untrained/non technical eye, it looked like most could have been considered (at least appearance wise) as Factory Stocks... meaning, a car that was built using a street car as the basis, with safety/other modifications allowed, but needed to have stock sheet metal, stock frames, and other that would be consistent with what an average person might think of as a race car built from a street car. Looking at the same 2023 Schedule, it shows no events where "Factory Stocks" are included on the card, yet on New Egypt's website, rules for a Factory Stock class were just updated on 4/6/23. (Again, I could be wrong, but this is a division that I don't think was scheduled/has any scheduled dates yet on the 2023 schedule.) What I have sinced learned is that I was actually watching the Street Stock division, which up until now, I coudn't tell you what the difference is, and as you will soon see, I still may not be able to, and that's kind of a problem, not just for the average fan, but definitely for those who own cars, have recently built cars, or who were thinking about building a car. Doing a little research here, and looking at the situation reported a few weeks ago with (sadly) no 2023 schedule being released for Wall Stadium as of yet/ever(?), it looks like New Egypt is going to be adding a Factory Stock class this year, although as mentioned above, there are no dates currently on their 2023 schedule. While there are some similarity in the rules... such as "Street vehicles are used as the basis for a race car", the Street Stock rules as now written, allow for more modifications than the newly posted Factory Stock rules, although I think if you asked most fans, the terms (Street Stock and Factory Stock), and maybe even add "Outlaw Stock", or "American Muscle".... are thought of as the same. Reading through the current Street Stock rules, it kind of sounds like they might be in line with the Super Stock rules of the early 2000's, which is the class that was abolished at the end of the 2009 season and replaced (eventually) with a class that ironically was called "Street Stocks", which was supposed to be more of a real street car based/looking race car.... I'm pretty sure that the core of the original set of Street Stock rules (from 2010?) is long forgotten.... Like I said in an earlier post, if you live long enough you'll see this stuff repeat over and over.... Looking at the 2023 Street Stock rules,.. long time New Egypt fans are probably wondering if the cars of Richie Page, Mario Page, Ralph Gargulo, Big Al Cheney, Billy Bauer and even Big Ron from 2001 - 2009.... the cars that became orphaned when the new "Street Stock rules were announced in 2010, would actually be legal once again....
Anyhow... to wrap things up, I’m thinking that the addition of the Factory Stock rules is setting the stage to have a class where the 20+ potentially orphaned Wall “Real Steal Factory Stocks” might have a place to race, although it’d be on the clay instead of the asphalt. How many of them would consider running at New Egypt is an unknown, although some drivers (Jeff Carpenter, others) have won on both dirt and on asphalt. The problem that I see already is that although the terms Street Stock and Factory Stock might be interchanged by us less involved directly, they are two very different classes, and after attending the show on 4/8, I'm not sure how many of the 13 cars that signed in for the Street Stock class were actually Street Stocks, versus maybe closer to "Factory Stock." And I guess the next question is, will there be enough cars to have two legitimate, competitive classes? For those who haven't had enough yet  , or to those who might have an opinion, or some expertise to add, before you do, please take a quick look at the "differences" between the 2023 Street Stock Rules and the 2023 Factory Stock Rules: Street Stock Rules: https://newegyptspeedway.net/images/2023_Street_Stock_Rules_Revised131.pdf Factory Stock Rules: https://newegyptspeedway.net/images/2023_FACTORY_STOCK_RULESv2.pdf
|
