Joshua Sharpley

Six September events on the first-year United Late Model Racing Association have been cancelled with tour founder Jesse Stovall electing to shut down the southwestern Missouri-based series that never gained the traction he’d hoped.

“I tried as hard as I could to make something good for the racers and the racetracks and worked pretty hard at it, but it didn’t work out,” Stovall said in a phone interview

Stovall, a former Dirt Late Model Late Model racer and multitime regional series champion from Billings, Mo., launched the Super Late Model tour in February with plans for a 14-race season among tracks in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. The series focused on a hard-tire rule to cut tire costs with $3,000-to-win events from $14,300 purses.

Rainouts, bad timing and “first-year design flaws” contributed with the tour’s failure, a disappointed Stovall said, adding that the tour's basic tenets showed promise and gained support from drivers in a region that had recently been abandoned by the offseason shutting of the Lucas Oil Midwest LateModel Racing Association.

ULRA ran five events, four at Monett (Mo.) Motor Speedway, but cancelled three other July dates before officially announcing its closure this week.

The series attracted an average of 17 cars with a high of 24 entries on May 30 at Monett (Mo.) Speedway. Scott Crigler (pictured) of Alton, Mo., captured three of the tour's first four checkered flags, all of them at Monett, though series officials initially decided against tabulating points or crowning a champion.