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kdobson 9/13/18 3:09 PM

Jacksonville Midgets
 
As we've been preparing for this Friday's (and originally last Friday's) Herb Barlow Memorial featuring POWRi Midgets and Micros along with MOWA sprints and a big Street Stock race... we've sort of been taking a fresh look at our weekly program for next year.

We were wanting to add another open wheel class to our 305's and Micros to add to our rotation. A few weeks ago I put out a feeler on our FB page about going to a crate non-wing class - which was very well received. The underlying concern is not raising our weekly ticket price above the current $12 while adding something other than what some would consider another support class.

Last week we shifted gears and reached out to various people in the midget community thinking it would be better to race cars and motors that already exist instead of creating an entirely new class for racers to throw money at. We have slowly put together a rough plan to run National Midgets as a part of our weekly rotation on weeks where there is not a POWRi or USAC event in the area. This class would run roughly 10 nights per year in addition to our normal 3-4 POWRi events.

In order to fit this Midget class into our current purse structure, it was going to need some outside support. Having received commitments for probably 80% of what we felt we needed to make it work, this plan is far enough along to send up the trial balloon for input from others we haven't visited with.

Here's the current thinking...

1. The class would pay $1,000 to win - $150 to start.
2. If you have won 2 POWRi or USAC features in the past year - you are not eligible to race.
3. Engine Rule: 4 Spark plugs per car.
4. Direct drive only.
5. POWRi Tire/Wheel Rule.
6. Other than that.. have at it.

Feel free to text me any comments or thoughts to 217-371-3653 or catch me this Friday at our show in Jacksonville. We feel like we have one of the best Midget tracks in the Midwest and our fans seem to enjoy the action National Midgets bring. Why not do it a little more often mainly for fun.

See you Friday Night.

Ken Dobson
Jacksonville Speedway

SoIllSprinter 9/13/18 3:30 PM

Re: Jacksonville Midgets
 
Progressive thinking. I think it is a really good idea, give the low buck, higher aspiration type racer a few nights with a real competitive opportunity.

kdobson 9/13/18 9:17 PM

Re: Jacksonville Midgets
 
I've had a couple of texts asking about points. I don't view this as a series or championship. There are already a couple of those to chase. We might not even keep points. Not looking for a big fish/small pond resume building type of thing (although its starting to sound like the pond might be pretty good size with some good talent). Two goals here... 1. A place to race the midget and have fun and try to win a race and 2. A little bit of driver/team development in an environment without a lot of stress.

When family, or a hurt motor or other commitments make you need to take a week or two off... Take a week or two off and come back and race it when you can.

chathamracefan 9/13/18 9:51 PM

As a fan I like this. Would be inclined to show up on a “regular” show night. Enjoy all the classes but I’d think this class has a chance to draw a good car count on a consistent basis and put on some good racing.

Jracer2m 9/13/18 11:27 PM

Re: Jacksonville Midgets
 
I think this is great idea. I love midgets, Love watching the racing they put on, but as a car owner the cost to run a national midget and be competitive is just insane. We race the 29 on a extremely limited budget, most of the time just the chilibowl, so traveling is a rare occurance. This is right in the backyard, Home of the only weekly open wheel track in illinois. Great idea, also with the open rules, the guys with the old geartes or fonatans laying around collecting dust. They can bring them out and compete. Kudos to Jville! Gonna give alot of open wheel fans something to look forward too. Count me in!

Slider20 9/13/18 11:42 PM

Thank god. I thought you were about to make some of these mini sprint guys get all excited 😂.

WardRacing33 9/14/18 12:31 AM

Does anyone know how similar or different this is compared to what they have done at Montpellier Speedway in Indana? Seems like they have a point system, but they have good sized competitive shows...Not sure on their engine rules.

Chris Baue 9/14/18 2:49 AM

Montpelier is all inclusive meaning national, d2, and NW Lightning sprints that fall under d2 rules are welcome and compete against each other. I’d guess we averaged 25-29 cars per race. Seems to work out well competition wise....

What day of the week will this new deal be on?

kdobson 9/14/18 7:20 AM

Re: Jacksonville Midgets
 
I'd say it's both similar and a little different than the successful class at Montpelier. The main difference I see is that we aren't trying to even out performance between different cars (National, D2, Lighting). Ours would be basically an open motor midget class without handicaps based on what motor you bring. I would call it primarily a national midget class. I'm not sure of the current breakdown between nationals, D2's and chains at Montpielier.

The Montpelier program is very successful, but not really what we were looking to do. During the decades we ran 410 winged sprints weekly.. and carrying over to our MOWA series we have a tradition here of a little bit of 'run what ya brung'. Open motors. No scales. Little tech. Kind of the opposite of the trend.

Hoping it drives a little shade tree innovation because I don't see anybody building an over-sized or otherwise illegal Toytota, SR 11 etc just to run this $1,000 to win class that they aren't even eligible to race in after they've found some recent success Nationally. But as for that old push rod collecting dust? Do whatever you want with it.

We primarily race on Fridays with some Sundays.

jabeasl 9/14/18 9:43 AM

Re: Jacksonville Midgets
 
I love this idea. We have run the Montpelier show a few times and had a good time with it but it's a long haul to get there. Thank you Jacksonville this will be great!


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