[photoman]

Bring on the Super Modifieds

[CTtoPA]

USAC decided to support that TORC series and quarter midgets. It appears they would rather have their fingers in everything and have control of nothing. Good luck to them!
Posted via Mobile Device

[usac99]

Originally Posted by CTtoPA USAC decided to support that TORC series and quarter midgets. It appears they would rather have their fingers in everything and have control of nothing. Good luck to them! Posted via Mobile Device

Very well said !!

[#1jackhewittfan]

either make the rules much tighter or make it run whatcha ya bring style rules.
Posted via Mobile Device

[9racing]

Originally Posted by Graham08 I made it to Spartan for their last race. I think the biggest thing they're doing right is running the M55 right rear tire. I spoke to a front running car owner, and he said his average tire bill is $175 per night, with the start money being $250. If you don't crash or break, it is almost a break-even proposition for the night...which is a lot more reasonable than having to finish the feature in 3rd or 4th to cover your operating expenses. They are getting two nights out of a right rear tire with no falloff in performance. No wings, and a short track also help guys to be competitive without going broke. I am hoping to get my ducks in a row and be a participant rather than a spectator there next year.

close, but not so close.. $250 to start minus $175.. $75 will probably cover 2 to 3 pit passes assuming the driver isnt a one man crew, your getting close to budget right there.. Then figure in, Fuel.. say 30 gallons of methanol as an estimate.. 2 bucks a gallon.. $60 bucks.. Oil.. I know my ride held 9 quarts.. 4 dollars a quart.. and a filter roughly $50.. Diesel to get to the track or gas at 3 dollars a gallon.. list goes on and on.. now if you live next to the track might be a little closer to target, but by no means even close to breaking even.. list goes on and on.. gear oil, assuming u change gears unless u hit it on the head first time out.. Motor and car maintenance.. food, drink yadda yadda yadda.. and last expense a large roll of extra soft toilet paper to clean your self up from all the "close calls" the car had while trying to get in the show to get your 250 bucks.. while I will admit 175 dollar tire bill sounds enticing, still a long way to go.. I do like the ideas coming from them though.. someone is stepping up to try it..

[1121]

Let me weigh in as a pavement car owner/ driver. For those of you that don't know me, I run a car I built myself, an engine I built myself, and I pull an open trailer with a eight year old pick-up with 350,000 miles on it. Needless to say, I'm on a budget. I've discussed before that I run pavement for less money than I can run a weekly Indiana dirt show, so we won't go through that again.

Scott is right; the biggest obstacle in pavement racing is the tires. And HOSS, AVSS, Must See Racing and USAC all have one thing in common. None of them limit the number of tires that you can bolt on a night. Yes, you have to run the feature on the same tire you qualify on, but other than that, you can bolt on four new biscuits every time you go out.

After the recent USAC/ Must See Racing double header at Salem, I was asked why some of the Must See Racing Teams didn't take off their wings to get start money for the USAC show. Well, it's real simple, TIRES! USAC runs different compounds then the other series. For a team to run both, they need to come up with three different tires.

There are plenty of pavement cars out there. And there are owners such as myself that would love to run more non-winged stuff. But to go buy three new tires to just try it is ridiculous. I would think the various series could work together with Hoosier to make the same compounds work on all corners. Plus, I still feel a two tire a night rule such as MSA uses over in Ohio would work great.

Tom Paterson
HOSS Sprint #11

[openwheelKT]

Originally Posted by 1121 There are plenty of pavement cars out there. And there are owners such as myself that would love to run more non-winged stuff. But to go buy three new tires to just try it is ridiculous. I would think the various series could work together with Hoosier to make the same compounds work on all corners. Plus, I still feel a two tire a night rule such as MSA uses over in Ohio would work great. Tom Paterson HOSS Sprint #11

That seems pretty logical to me. I wish owners had more of a voice in what's going on. Set the tire rules, if a company wants to participate, then do so. If not, other companies make tires.

[Pavement Dave]

The trouble with a lot of the series right now is that they have contracts with Hoosier for the exclusivity. Hoosier in return kicks in a little bit to the point fund. Hoosier doesnt want to hear a series say they are going to a 2 trie rule a night or limiting how much teams can test. Hoosier after all is wanting to sell as many tires as possible per night and have made an investment with each series through extra $ or adding to these point funds. The compounds many sereis are using right now could be harder to get more out of the tires but I'm sure Hoosier discourages this. In my opinion the Tire companies are the real EVIL and why the cost is so high to compete on pavement. A smart pavement series would NEVER sign a contract with Hoosier and open the tire deal up to Goodyear and American Racer. It would keep pricing competitive for starters.

[davidm]

One thing I never understood with pavement racing was the need to run so much practice race day. When I worked on a Late Model team we would get to the track at Noon. We would run three or four 15 to 20 minute practice sessions, burn up $450 in tires, bolt on a new set run TT's at 5:30 and race at 9 or 10 PM on a track the was 20 to 30 degrees cooler then what we ran 100+ laps of practice on. And I don't think we ever won more than $250 for a couple top ten runs.

On dirt if you get 5 or 6 laps of practice your lucky!

[dadams17]

I agree with many points everyone has said here. Expenses are the biggest reason it is hard for many of us to travel around and hit up these races. I love racing just as much as anyone on here and probably more but why would I want to try and race my car 7 times a year and lose an average of 2k atleast each night. It is impossible to forward your career with that amount of races so it makes no sense in blowing money like that on a hobby. I'll go buy a go-kart if I want to spend money on racing and race it every weekend and have a blast. Racing is racing, it does not matter what kind of car you are in in my opinion.

With that said, if the expenses are not going to come down, why not raise the purse? USAC has been paying 5k to win since my father was racing in the mid 90's. If you want to see the best sprint car race in the world go watch the Little 500. Not only is it the best race by far, it also pays 25k to win. How about 10 or 12 of those a year? Anderson, ORP, Mansfield, Toledo, Irwindale, Richmond, Iowa, Bristol?, and a few other nice tracks around the country. I think you'd have one hell of a series. The Little 5 had around 45 cars this year, sanction it by USAC and bring the other few from there and 50 cars at each of these tracks with 33 cars starting will be the biggest pavement racing going. Then combine it with all 3 series and have a separate dirt series for each. Pavement champion plus dirt champion equals your national crown champion. Perfect stepping stone into Indycars which is where every openwheel driver should have a goal of being.

This is just a dream of mine and if no one jumps on it, when I get enough knowledge and experience at a business standpoint I'll do it. USAC needs to get back to it's roots and bring openwheel racing back to life. We want to win the Indy 500, not a TORC series race. Don't give up on it, work on it and bring it back to where it should be, used to be, and better than ever.

Donnie Adams