450 hp for $15,000!
 

Would these fit in a midget? And would they be torquey enough for dirt racing?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/...fe77c3ee&ei=28

I wish the IRL still existed. Such great racing, compared to today's Indycar.

Re: 450 hp for $15,000!
 

The IRL produced breath taking side by side high speed racing, with incredibly close finishes that will never be duplicated. To top it off, many of the drivers came from a USAC background. It was awesome to see guys that I saw run Eldora & Terre Haute like Tony Stewart, Billy Boat, Donnie Beechler, Brian Tyler and other short trackers get a chance at Indy. Even Steve Kinser & Jack Hewitt got an opportunity. But the CART people, their big money sponsors and the media was against the IRL from the very start and the pockets of 16th & Georgetown were only so deep. Now it's just a memory.

Re: 450 hp for $15,000!
 

The racing was great in the IRL. Another problem is all the people who said they wanted to see short track stars run Indycars never went. I went to Kansas, Chicagoland, Kentucky, and Indy. There were no fans. I think they put on some pretty good races today. Would like to see a couple of more ovals.

Re: 450 hp for $15,000!
 

Staab told me he could have gotten a mortgage on his house and ran IRL Indy 500 but he knew he was past his best racing days. He tested, practiced, passed rookie test..


Indy's lost me, Really no familiar drivers. I've always needed to know a few who were racing and let the others make me know em or at least learn who they were by their ability for me to watch. Maybe if Kaylee and some others make it, I'll watch and get at least to Nascar status, Where I know a couple and a few others have made me notice them.

As for Midget engines, That team Swanson was on for Chili Bowl has a LS based system that Im told is half that of a Toyota or SR11 in cost. Reliability Im sure still needs worked out as neither finished.

Re: 450 hp for $15,000!
 

Charles, check out Ferrucci for ability. The guy is a gasser. Raced a midget at the BC39 and the Chili Bowl. Don't let the name fool you. He is American. Your welcome to join us on Carb day at the end of the backstretch. Watching guys dive under other cars at close to 230 MPH, into 45 degree turn that is only banked 9 degrees is pretty impressive to me.

Re: 450 hp for $15,000!
 

Now if only the other Indycar races were like that and not just boring parades.

Re: 450 hp for $15,000!
 

I've seen that in person. But the whole things changed, There were eight to ten guys I watched race at some point in sprints and midgets when I did. It was still a endurance race and not clone cars with 90% finishing and 80% on the lead lap at the finish.

Want me to come back, Put Larson, Bryson, Kofoid, Rico and Bayston out there.

Nothing is as it was 40 or more years ago. You will never see sprint car drivers move to Indy racing and only a few die hard sprint car fans care. Sorry, but Indy car fans are not longing for dirt track drivers to show up at Indy. It doesn’t matter what you or I want, those days are long gone. I enjoy watching great drivers race at Indy and great drivers at Kokomo or Eldora. They just aren’t the same guys but all are great drivers.

When I worked at Texas Motor Speedway (The IRL years) those Indy car races where far superior to any cup races!

Re: 450 hp for $15,000!
 

Lack of drivers from sprint cars and midgets and such is why a lot less people care about Indy. Nobody wants to see the greatest oval race in the world being driven at by a bunch of road racers who can count the amount of oval races they've done on one hand. Just like people would be a lot less interested in something like Monaco or Le Mans if the field was made up of USAC or NASCAR guys who have done little road racing.

Re: 450 hp for $15,000!
 

I quit when they went to the common car. Boring

Went to 86 CART/Champcar races
Went to 0 IRL races

Re: 450 hp for $15,000!
 

Once these diehard fans of big track racing see the non-wing sprint cars racing on the 1/4 and 3/8 mile tracks with all of the racing action they don't go back to the big tracks. Racing is changing on what type of tracks that the people want to see race. As more short dirt tracks have big money shows, this will fill the grandstands at these tracks. Maybe because it was an early race event, Paragon had the biggest showing of race fans ever at this track. I look for most all short dirt track tracks to do good in the coming year.

Re: 450 hp for $15,000!
 

I like how some of you guys complain about the cars being the same or clone cars, yet midgets and sprint cars are basically that right now.
Even the Chili Bowl, is almost that, minus a couple of cars. 370 cars and probably close to 90% of them are Spikes, that all look the same running either a TRD or SR11/x, unless it's a smaller team, that doesn't have the budget for one of them engines. Go to a national show and spike probably built 95% or more of the chassis there, and guess what? Besides the vinyl the cars have almost identical bodies too. Most sprint car races non wing or winged are the same. Crap most sprint car chassis are almost identical, even when it's built by different manufactures. For instance Triple X and Maxim, almost identical looking chassis, although the majority of one built in China.

Re: 450 hp for $15,000!
 

HaHa good one hoscalecody!:3:
As a big sprint/midget guy that has also road raced, in hindsight it would have been better if the IRL NEVER happened!!! Yes I said it. I loved it at the time just like you all did. For the same reasons you did. But looking at things now, with the momentum that CART had leading up to 1996 it could very well be that top tier openwheel racing would have been the premire American racing sport instead of NAPCAR. As it is now, you listen to your sprint car buddies and they all know what happened at "Bristol" or "Talladega" but they dont even know that IndyCar has a race at Iowa! THey know none of the drivers (How can you NOT like Helio or Kannan?) And to REALLY think that Dixon isnt "all that" is just being ignorant because you never saw him turn a lap at Kokomo... All it takes is to watch one race and see some interviews and now you "know" the drivers like you complain that you DON'T know them. But then they go and watch NASCRAP with a few sprint car guys but the rest have turned a lap at Paragon either....:15:

Re: 450 hp for $15,000!
 

I don't care about how big Indycar would be without the IRL, the schedule would still not have had enough ovals and the racing would still be terrible. The IRL was definitely needed.

NASCAR may not be as good as it once was, but it's waaaaaaaaay better than modern Indycar. And it's not even close. Even boring F1 is oftentimes more interesting than Indycar in recent years.

Best Indycar racing ever hands down. IRL. Chicago, Texas, Kentucky, man in the edge of your seat bravery. Even got to see them run at Michigan MIS. No crowd to speak of. Sad again. In my life I will probably not see that kind of racing rarely again.

Re: 450 hp for $15,000!
 

Agree 100%. The people who complained didn't support it. That is why there aren't many ovals today. No one wants to promote an event where people who say they want to see it won't go.
Same as the people who say they want higher non wing purses then don't support the higher paying shows. Didn't you go to Charlotte too?