bigmojo5

There are many factors in the state of midget auto racing. Personally, I think better cooperation between the sanctions would be a great place to start. Where were the Badger and POWRi cars at Knoxville? How many USAC cars went to Tri-State for the POWRi race?

Where will those teams with five or six $40,000 motors sitting around race if more promoters lose money on midget racing -- whether it be USAC, POWRi, Badger, or whatever sanction you are hiring to provide entertainment to your customers?

Here's another thought. Maybe we go back to the concept USAC had in the 1970s. Midgets, with a couple of exceptions (one being the Hut 100), run on quarter miles, sprints on half miles and Silver Crown cars on miles. Champ cars ran on paved miles or bigger.

The need for more horsepower in midgets came when they started running Phoenix, Belleville and then the TV races at IRP, Salem and Winchester in the late 1980s. They went from a short bullring car, to a bigger track car. Maybe that's one important reason the Chili Bowl draws 250 cars or so. It's a short race track and chances are you won't blow your engine. (The most important factor is that the Chili Bowl has been built into the "must do" midget race in the world; and there's nothing else for racers to do in the middle of January.)

As for Salem, maybe it's time for those involved to realize that there's not that many more miles left on a track last resurfaced in 1977. I was last there two years ago and remember seeing a hole on the front stretch the size of my fist with dirt showing through. I also recall practice being halted back in 2002 while a hole in the groove entering turn three was patched and deemed safe enough to continue. Brad Sweet was competing in the Knoxville Nationals this year because a possiblity existed the Salem race would be cancelled. Maybe that possibility prompted some teams to travel to Grundy County Speedway instead of Salem. Or, maybe Grundy just paid more money.

There are plans for a five-eighths mile track on a reconstructed Salem Speedway, contingent, at least in part, on government involvement and funding. With today's state of the economy and property tax problems in Indiana and budget problems of the United States as a whole, I wouldn't be holding my breath on that gaining approval. It might be more likely to win an audition for the Blue Man Group before that happens.

I love Salem. I saw my first race there. Watched guys like Carter and Bettenhausen and Bigelow. Stock car guys like Darrell Waltrip and Bob Sennecker and Bobby Allison. A field of 20 cars piloted by top drivers dancing and darting across that asphalt surface for 40 laps is breathtaking.

I was saddened when it closed in the early 1980s and thrilled when it was reborn in 1987.

But, I fear the next race I see there will be on the original dirt surface that Tommy Hinnershitz won on that June day in 1948 when it opened for its first race -- unless something is done soon.

Jim Morrison