[openwheelfan1]

This is going to be kind of long, so I apologize in advance.

My wife and I attended the ISW finale at Tri-State Saturday night. It was only our 4th race in about the last 10 years. We are not new fans however. During the 70's, 80's and 90's we attended hundreds of sprint, midget and Silver Crown races at venues all over the country. Since it had been since 2008 since we had last attended a USAC sprint race, we were struck by several things:

1.) I am all for safety...we lost SO many drivers in the early years. With that said, I hate the fact that so many cars have just a 6"-8" opening on the right (crowd) side that the driver now looks through. And many cars now have a high left side too. Being able to see the driver was a big part of the excitement of going to the races. I am disappointed that today's youngsters will never be able to see the drivers at work.

2.) People on here complain to high heaven about the "tractor show" or "tractor parade" at Tri-State Speedway. Obviously, these folks never sat through an hour of track prep after qualifying and again before the feature at Terre Haute during the 70's and 80's. It was NOT uncommon for hot laps to begin at noon and the feature to checker at 5:30 or 6 PM. Tri-State admitted to "dragging their feet" a little and we still walked out 4 hrs after hot laps started.

3) What happened to interviewing the top qualifier? Are drivers too busy to be interviewed now? Or is it just that Tr-State doesn't interview anyone? Get the drivers out in front of the crowd!!

4.) From what we saw, the average age of the crowd in the backstretch grandstand was probably well in to the 40's. We saw very few people in their 20's and even fewer children. IMO this is very concerning for the future of the sport.

5.) Today's racers certainly are more physical with there equipment than the racers of the earlier era. Bumping and banging seem to be just a part of it today. Years ago that would get you a severe talking to if not worse from the officials, and certainly an agitated discussion would occur back int he pit area.

I am certainly not saying that we should go back to the way things were in the 70's and 80's! It was a dangerous era and too many great drivers were lost or severely injured. I do believe though that for the future of the sport a way needs to be found to contain costs and get more young people involved and attending races.

Steve