Bo and Randi Lyn Butner have found a way to make sure bracket racers don’t spend New Year’s week sitting at home watching the calendar turn.
The Butners have joined Bradenton Motorsports Park co-owner Victor Alvarez to launch the New Year Resolution 5-Day Bracket Race, scheduled Dec. 29 through Jan. 2 at the Florida facility. The inaugural event will feature four consecutive $50,000-to-win races along with a pair of Tuesday shootouts.
The idea started during the DI Winter Series, when Bo Butner was at Bradenton driving Brian Corradi’s Pro Modified entry. A conversation with Alvarez eventually wandered from cars to bracket racing and what they believed could work at Bradenton during the winter.
“You know, car guys are drawn to one another,” Butner said. “Vic and I got to talking about cars, and of course that leads to talking about racing. Vic knows the world of heads-up racing really well, he knows everybody, and he’s got some good stuff going on at Bradenton Motorsports Park. It’s one of the best tracks in the country for all types of racing – definitely during the winter months. I said, ‘Man, we ought to do a bracket race,’ and he said, ‘Let’s talk about it.’ It just grew from there.”
Alvarez didn’t need much convincing. Bracket racing has long been part of Bradenton’s winter schedule, but he saw an opportunity to build something with a stronger emphasis on the competitors.
“Bracket racing has been such a huge part of Bradenton Motorsports Park, especially in the winter,” Alvarez said. “We wanted to go in a direction that was more racer-friendly than what we’d done before, and we felt we could do a better job. This seemed like the ideal opportunity for that, so we jumped on it.”
The five-day program opens Tuesday with a 128-car race offering a trailer to the winner. A separate 32-car Jr. Dragster Shootout will pay $5,000 to win, with additional payouts reaching the later rounds in both events.
Then comes four straight days where the key factor is $50,000.
Each main event will pay $50,000 to the winner, $10,000 to the runner-up and $5,000 to each semifinalist. Round money begins with third-round winners.
For Butner, the project represents a return to race promotion after helping organize the Southern Sportsman Showdown at Valdosta in 2021. This time, he believes the combination of Bradenton, Florida winter weather and a substantial payout gives the event room to grow.
“We love Florida, we love Bradenton, and I’ve raced there a lot,” Butner said. “It’s a great time of year and a central location. The facility is awesome, and we all want the same thing: for the racer to have the best time ever.”
Alvarez is already looking beyond the first one. His measure of success won’t simply be how many racers show up in December, but whether they want to return the following year.
“Our goal is for this to be the first of many,” Alvarez said. “I would love for it to be an every-year thing and to be talking about this race in 20 years.”
