Andy Monday (10) made the 2 hour trip from Appleton to compete in AFF Round Five (Jeff Blaser Photo | Blaser Photography)

WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. (November 1, 2011) - It started with a meeting at a crowded Leo's Upper Dells Bar in Lyndon Station last December. Super Late Model Drivers wanted to return to having Dells Raceway Park as a place to race, and DRP officials were more than happy to try to bring back the division about which fans rave.

It ended with a new concept of doing business in the racing world, 40 different teams joining the Alive For Five Super Late Model Series presented by Advanced Engine Concepts and a capacity crowd during the fifth and final race of the year.

Not only did Super Late Model racing return to Wisconsin's Showcase Short Track in 2011, it made a huge splash along the way.

To get through that nine month span from inception to a wildly successful Championship Night, a long and arduous road was traveled by the DRP staff and several Super Late Model teams - headed by veteran racer Tom Lichtfeld of nearby Portage, Wis.

"I had a feeling we could do something, but I thought it would take more time and would seem slow in the beginning," Lichtfeld said of the process. "(Some Super Late Model Teams) didn't grasp the concept right off the bat. During the first conversations it didn't seem like everyone was grabbing a hold of it."

In the first meeting, DRP staff, led by promoter Joe Graziano, opened the door of conversation with the Super Late Model teams. Graziano let the teams know that DRP was more than willing to bring the class back in, but could not shoulder the payout which was necessary to cover the expenses for teams. From that point, the plan was set into motion.

What began as an idea that DRP simply would open the gates for Super Late Models and not provide a purse quickly turned into an idea that the track and drivers would work together toward funding the class. After two months of kicking around options and working through several math equations, the new business model was complete.

Dells Raceway Park and the SLM group agreed that the track would provide some funding and that drivers would provide the rest by brining their own sponsor to the table. Because of the cost of funding a SLM team, drivers requested a limited number of appearances on the season. A deal was struck for five races, and it was determined that a $1,000 investment from each driver would cover the cost.

"When they started off I thought 'how the hell is this going to work,'" said Jeff Storm, who has been part of several Super Late Model touring series' over the past decade. "I honestly didn't think it was going to be a good idea. But, obviously it was a great idea and it worked awesome."

In exchange for the $1,000 the track made some concessions for drivers. At each race each SLM team was provided with four pit passes (a $120 value) and two VIP passes (a $60 value) to be given to a sponsor free of charge. Additional pit passes and VIPs could be purchased at a discounted rate, and the proceeds would be placed into the SLM point fund.

The goal of the sponsor VIP passes was to place a heavy emphasis on taking care of the sponsors who aided the SLM teams in joining the Alive For Five Series. Each sponsor VIP pass granted access to the pit area and DRP's first class VIP tower. Sponsors were also encouraged to provide banners and literature. Each sponsor also had its logo placed in the SLM insert of the program.

Along with the track's support of each SLM sponsor, a gate contingency was provided for the drivers, as well. When a certain fan count was reached on nights the Alive For Five Series was a part of the program, a percentage of each ticket sold was placed into the point fund.

Perhaps most important, the track worked to cut the biggest expense of any SLM team - tires. Each race, with the exception of the first, was a two-tire race, meaning teams were only allowed two new tires and must use two other tires from a previous race. Those two new tires (a $250 value) were provided each time the competitor arrived.

A stipulation was put into place after the first race that any team could come in and pay a one-time fee of $250 to receive the same perks. Each driver who arrived for a race, and had the entry covered, received $430 worth of perks.

All money was kept in the hands of Lichtfeld, who set up a separate account for the SLM group and shouldered the load of responsibility.

"We initially wrote the $1,000 check to the (SLM group), but if you did the math on everything we basically showed up and raced and didn't have to pay a dime," Storm said. "You put your two tires on, which we did, and there were no pit passes (or other expenses)."

Cutting expenses was a big plus for Dennis Prunty, who had seven wins at his home track in 2010, a win in the Futures event at Oktoberfest Race Weekend at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway and an appearance in the Snowball Derby last December.

"I like the idea of cutting cost. You talk about the cost of racing and that's a big part of it," Prunty said. "You're better off cutting costs than you are tying to make money. You're going to spend money. The less you spend, the more you have and the more you can keep racing."

With the new plan in place, several drivers were eager to jump directly on board. Others, understandably, were hesitant to make the $1,000 commitment.

Lichtfeld was confident that enough teams were ready to make the jump to get Super Late Model racing back at DRP. After countless hours on the phone with fellow drivers, Lichtfeld received enough commitments to put on a show. However, he had no clue what had begun.

"I was hoping to get 20 cars there. I really didn't know," Lichtfeld said. "I was surprised on the play that it had, how many cars we got there and how many good cars we got there."

Among some of the competitors this season were former DRP Champions Kenny Reiser, John Zimmerman, and Steve Holzhausen, former Norway Speedway Champion Troy Nelson, two-time winner Dalton Zehr, former Lake Geneva Champion Jamie Wallace, 2011 ASA Midwest Tour Champion Andrew Morrissey and local driver and eventual Alive For Five Champion Frank Kreyer.

The car count started with 17 at the first event, raised to 21 the second event, then 26 in the third, hit 29 in the fourth round and ended with a solid 27.

Having top drivers compete in the series with solid car counts gave it a much needed boost; however, it took some persuasion from those who were in on the ground floor.

"We heard a lot of rumors about what we were trying to accomplish with the Super Lates," said Matt Panure, DRP Public Relations Director. "As a track, all we could do was place the information out there and hope it stuck. Thankfully, drivers like Tom Lichtfeld stepped up and led the charge. The racers' voices were a lot louder than ours."

"Some people wanted to race, but didn't grasp the concepts," Lichtfeld said of the business plan. "As they got into it, started thinking about it, and saw how it was working, more and more people jumped on board."

One of those drivers was Appleton's Andy Monday, who races weekly at what is considered the beacon of Super Late Model racing in the upper Midwest - Wisconsin International Raceway.

"I had heard a few things that, 'you're going down there to waste money, race for free and it doesn't pay anything, etc.,'" Monday explained. "That's understandable if people look at the purse and the payout on the top end. But when you really put the pencil to the paper and figure out what it's going to cost you to buy your tires and your pit passes to get in, versus what you're going to make up in the purse at the end of the night, the majority of the time it's going to be a wash unless you have a successful night."

As part of the plan a modest payoff was put in place. The winner received $500, second place received $400, third place received $300, fourth place paid $150, and fifth through seventh received $100. Anyone else who raced was not compensated beyond the perks they received upon entry.

Monday competed in the final event on Sept. 10. He was running in a paying position until he was involved in a late-race incident.

"It was nice to come down there and see what the deal was all about," Monday said. "We didn't make anything in the purse, but again, the entry fee covered the pit passes and the tires to race on for the night. Had the same thing happened at Kaukauna (WIR) we would have been paid $300 for 12th place in the feature and still had the expense of pit passes and tires. In the end we actually came out ahead (at DRP)."

For those drivers who did commit to all five of the races, there were plenty of chances to make up that initial investment.

"Yeah, you're racing for $500 to win but we ran good enough to make that $1,000 back," Storm said. "Five races for $1,000 are equal to doing one (big money show). You lose a lot less the way we did it at the Dells than anything else I have done in a long time."

Storm recorded finishes of third, fourth, sixth and first through the first four rounds - totaling $1,050. He also has a point fund check awaiting him, in which Lichtfeld explained all drivers who made the initial investment will get at least half of their money back.

"It goes back to what did you lose," Storm said. "Anyone who has done this for a good amount of time knows you don't make a lot of money racing. It's about trying to break even and get your money back. At the end of the day we're in the green, even without the point fund check."

For Dennis Prunty it was all green.

"I was lucky enough to have a sponsor for the fuel to get to the track. I literally did not spend any money beyond that initial $1,000, which was sponsored. To race a whole season and not have to spend any money aside from minor repairs to the car ended up working really well."

The same could be said for AFF Champion Frank Kreyer, who, with his win in Round One and four fourth place finishes, collected $2,100 on his sponsor's $1,000 investment.

There were initial concerns that the racing was doomed to suffer if the prize money was not bolstered. Those concerns were washed away during the first race when Kreyer chased down Nelson for the win on the final lap. Beyond that, racing in the final four rounds began to lean toward the aggressive, while still having plenty of side-by-side action to keep the fans enticed.

"My initial thought was that the racing wasn't going to be good because we weren't going to be racing for money, but the racing was a little too hard. I hope we can fix that next season," Prunty said.

Lichtfeld addressed that and hopes that topic will be worked on in the off-season meeting for the SLM group which will be held on Saturday, Nov. 12 at Advanced Engine Concepts in Green Lake, Wis. Other than that concern, and some rules clarifications, Lichtfeld said everyone walked away from this season excited for next.

"They were happy to have a deal where they were treated well," he said. "Even though the payout wasn't much, the cost of racing was lowered. Everyone made out at the end."

With the likelihood of a similar format and dates in 2012, Storm and others hope the concept will reel in more competitors.

"I've talked to (Nathan) Haseleu, (Andrew) Morrissey and (Chris) Wimmer and told them they need to come down to the Dells and do this deal," Storm said of his fellow touring competitors. "There was some great racing. We had a lot of fun."

Lichtfeld agreed. "I think it could be huge. It's on us now to find sponsors for more of a purse and to get more people involved. Our strength is in our numbers."