[DAD]

Jim

I never thought about it before but the open trailer is one heck of an advertising tool. An old promoter that used to run Brown County Speedway in Southern Ohio brought it to my attention. He said he loved race cars on open trailers and was thinking about paying a $50.00 bonus for any car winning one of his features that came to the track on an open trailer.

With Radio and TV time being so expensive now days and Posters being out dated the open trailer guys are the best form of advertising that a race race track has, and I am serious that promoters should make some incentives for the guys hauling on open trailers. Big old cracker boxes hauled behind Pick Up trucks are everywhere and people pay them little attention but that one lone race car sitting on an open trailer does seem to draw all the kids to the side of the car as they pass on the road or to your trailer when you stop for fuel.

Remember that sign that some people put on the back of their trailer "Follow Me to the race track"??

Honest Dad himself

[cbaumeyer48]

Ok..... First, lets ease up on the uncle statement..... Mine passed away 2 yrs ago from a heart attack (still rides on the side of my hood, looking down on me from time to time). Good points , yes we are midgets! So how do we name the series? Midwest Division Two Winged Midget Series?? (Too Long) ....Midwest Winged Midget Series?

I agree, as a kid, when we drove up hwy 41 headed to Haubstadt , I got excited to see an open trailer with a car on it at the petro station. But in today's market, just not feasible. You want to get some fans to notice us and come watch the show..... Be the show!.... PR is where it's at! We did 2 car shows (one at Viking Assaults event, one at Shriners fest), I also set up a display at the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival on the day of the Tri State Speedway race. Each event we placed over 100 children and even some adults in the seat of the car while the parents/friends snapped a pic or two. Many of those people asked when and where we raced these cars. Some of those people came and talked to me in the pits after that nites event. If we all get out there and spend a few hours with the public, it's amazing the results!.... But we need to come up with a more simple name for those people to remember us by!!!

[jjones752]

I think you nailed it; Midwest Nut Club...

[DAD]

Originally Posted by cbaumeyer48 Ok..... First, lets ease up on the uncle statement..... Mine passed away 2 yrs ago from a heart attack (still rides on the side of my hood, looking down on me from time to time). Good points , yes we are midgets! So how do we name the series? Midwest Division Two Winged Midget Series?? (Too Long) ....Midwest Winged Midget Series? I agree, as a kid, when we drove up hwy 41 headed to Haubstadt , I got excited to see an open trailer with a car on it at the petro station. But in today's market, just not feasible. You want to get some fans to notice us and come watch the show..... Be the show!.... PR is where it's at! We did 2 car shows (one at Viking Assaults event, one at Shriners fest), I also set up a display at the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival on the day of the Tri State Speedway race. Each event we placed over 100 children and even some adults in the seat of the car while the parents/friends snapped a pic or two. Many of those people asked when and where we raced these cars. Some of those people came and talked to me in the pits after that nites event. If we all get out there and spend a few hours with the public, it's amazing the results!.... But we need to come up with a more simple name for those people to remember us by!!!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>"MIDGET">>>>>>>>>>>"WINGED MIDGET">>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

We don't have to be trick with the name. All we have to do is name the darned product with an accurate name. A name that has been around a long time and has "T.O.M.A." Top of Mind Awareness (a term that the TV guys used to say I had because I spent so much "MONEY" with them.) If a person said DAD's in Louisville Kentucky everybody answered "No Muff Too Tuff" TV worked well for Mufflers but that slogan became synonymous with Dad's>

Maybe in the outside world Midget is not a well known term in fact in these days of political correctness it is even frowned upon. In the racing community in general every body and every promoter knows what a Midget is. Much easier to sell a Midget Race than sell a "Something almost kind of like Sprint car" Race. If promoters like Wings then we are "Winged Midgets". If we need more cars include the shaft drive guys. I think we can co exist and have a lot of fun racing together. I bet if they tried wings they would also enjoy that form of Midget racing also.

Simple is always better. Engineers call it "Elegant"

I hope you guys will be able to make the D II Midget Race at Du Quoin? The D II is Wayne's from down in Florida Idea. I had nothing to do with it, I simply borrowed it for a short time until people get used to Midget by itself with no or few qualifiers in front or behind it.

Honest Dad himself

[cbaumeyer48]

Jim.... If you've never been to the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival.... Take a few days off the first full week of October!!.... 2nd largest street festival to Mardi Gras.... Been in existence for over 80 yrs!.... Look it up on the net!!

[cbaumeyer48]

How about G2 Midgets??

[cbaumeyer48]

.... Or GX Midgets???

[Wayne Davis]

Midwest D-2 Winged Midgets or MD2WM....The ONLY reason I call it that is because we are not at a "NATIONAL" level ...YET!!! If all our small groups REGIONAL series could come together and form a NATIONAL group how big could it be....whether you ran with a wing or without we are still a CONVERTED midget that uses different engines.

Look at the #'s...all of us playing second fiddle to the "national" guys when you could have our OWN national style of races....Look what the ASCS has done...9 yes NINE different regions...USCS 7 different regions.

Like it or not like it the D-2 is just like most organizations across the US that are a 2nd tier and that my friends are what we are "AS OF NOW"!!!!!

The word "sportsman or mini" very much labels us as in the minds of most fans. We can be a NATIONAL organization with regional groups if you open your eyes and look DOWN the road and not just right now.

We can have a "NATIONAL" race in the different regions that would count toward a "NATIONAL" Champion. Winged or Non-winged we can all be the same...We Are The Same...

Each and every club or series would still be THEIR series but the #'s would grow so we can get Corporate America to look at us if we were 300 strong as a groups instead of 8-10 individual groups 25-30 strong.

We are doing this right by discussion it here on IOW and elsewhere...might not happen this year or even next year but if we continue separations we will still be tasting scrapes.

[DAD]

Wayne

Amen said the choir.

You have become a true Disciple to the cause for the right of all Midgets to be called by their rightful name . We don't have to hide behind some silly pseudonym to try to hide our true identity.

We are still working on the name thing. To me "Midget" seems natural. We have expensive very fast midgets and we have not so expensive fast midgets. We would only need to use a pre-fix if we manage to get a big old sponsor on board.

I am not for national rules >>>>perhaps a national guide lines. Every group is a little different, to me that is refreshing. I can remember a lightning sprint guy complaining about sand and his short lived chains. His condition is different than ours. We have Midget cars all around us. Some chain drive and some shaft drive, all we have to do is get them somewhere in the same chapter of the book and work on the page later.

I was out a AJ's last night shooting the breeze and invited him to Du Quoin to help out. Looking around at all the Midgets, Sprint cars and a flock of TQ's I realized that yes even TQ's could run DuQuoin as the rules are written They would probably have to have drivers my size to make weight and them maybe overload springs.

Honest Dad himself

[jjones752]

Y'know, there are all kinds of Sprint Car groups out there; USAC, WOO, ASCS, MSCS, Must See, RaceSaver, and on and on. Wing, non-wing, 410, 360, 305, yadayadayada. I think Pappy Weld even built one with a transverse-mounted engine (I'm not going to call it a "Sidewinder, that'll go down a whole other rabbit trail). Was it chain-drive? Hmmm.
My point is, they are all Sprint Cars, because they share things in common; wheelbase, tread width, wheel size, construction practices.
using this logic I submit that a tube-framed, open wheel race car with a 60's to 70's inch wheelbase, 65 inch track on 13 inch wheels is a Midget. There may be other qualifiers needed to differentiate specific groups. But it's not a bad time to draw a line in the clay. Let the 10-inch wheeled sidewinders have Mini Sprint if they want it; we won't be needing it anymore...