[jjones752]

True, horsepower isn't everything; how much do you think an Isky (or Edelbrock) V8-60 put out on a dose of nitro, or even a 110 Offy for that matter? Still put on a good show. We do OK at Montpelier too in the entertainment department, and the race this weekend at Sycamore was a barn-burner. I betcha nobody was much over 200 horses either.

[DAD]

Originally Posted by Andrew S. Quinn I didnt think there were that many "tinkerers" these days. Been to many shops,and no lathe to be seen,and a drill press is the closest thing to a Bridgeport.No Tig welder in sight either. Most just buy parts and bolt on. Or take their cars to shops to be worked on.

Andrew

You ain't been to my shop!! I like to keep it all in house if I can, and if I can't. I taught AJ Felker to be the same way but as a student he is several steps ahead of the old teacher, his shop include Dyno room, Flow Bench, Serdi valve machine and Sunnen hone along with all the other breaks, shears and welders lathes and milling machines to accomplish what ever task needs to be done.

True we need more tinkers, and maybe hard time will bring a few more to the fore front.

Honest Dad himself

[DAD]

Originally Posted by jjones752 True, horsepower isn't everything; how much do you think an Isky (or Edelbrock) V8-60 put out on a dose of nitro, or even a 110 Offy for that matter? Still put on a good show. We do OK at Montpeleir too in the entertainment department, and the race this weekend at Sycamore was a barn-burner. I betcha nobody was much over 200 horses either.

Amen Jim

Lets hear it for the choir, excitement is relevant as well as speed. The track being small enough and the cars equal results in a good race. Some people just like a little bigger kick in the butt.

Midget motors and motorcycle motors will probably dry up in the future. I am proposing a viable option.

TQ's finally ran out of Crosleys, but the old 750 Honda is still hanging in there.

I am >>>>>waiting for someone to bring up the big fly in my ointment as I see it.

Honest Dad himself

[RickyBobby]

Originally Posted by DAD Midget motors and motorcycle motors will probably dry up in the future. I am proposing a viable option.

I see a bright future for motorcycle powered classes with the number of registered bikes absolutely skyrocketing in the USA over the last 15 years or so. More motorcycles means more motors.

"The 9.47 million registered motorcycles in 2012 in the USA.

Registered Motorcycles in The US sorted by date:

1999 – 4,152,433 – Registered motorcycles
2000 – 4,346,068 – Registered motorcycles
2001 – 4,903,056 – Registered motorcycles
2002 – 5,004,156 – Registered motorcycles
2003 – 5,370,035 – Registered motorcycles
2004 – 5,767,934 – Registered motorcycles
2005 – 6,227,146 – Registered motorcycles
2006 – 6,678,958 – Registered motorcycles
2007 – 7,138,476 – Registered motorcycles
2008 – 7,752,926 – Registered motorcycles
2009 – 7,929,724 – Registered motorcycles
2010 – 8,368,478 – Registered motorcycles
2011 – 8,810,650 – Registered motorcycles
2012 – 9.477,243 – Registered motorcycles"

source: http://www.howmanyarethere.us/how-ma...red-in-the-us/

[PatrickMead#13]

I'm finishing up my #13 as we speak and already looking at the pick and pull engine for my beast chassis in the shop. That car is going to be the cheap car that my dad may get some seat time in to most importantly, have FUN!! For us working guys out there, budgets are tight and for us tinkerers out there, building a cost effective better mouse trap is fun too. Am I going to beat a national midget with my cars, probably not. But I'll drive the wheels off of it trying if need be.... 😉

[Ken Bonnema]

Dad, You were talkin' about a fly in the ointment and I got one for ya. Shocks. My last Midget was an Edmunds Autoresarch Pavement Car with a Stanton Mopar. Had no buisness buyin' it but stupid is as stupid does. Anyhoo, it came with Penske Shocks and before the '05 season I took it down to Orange Show to shake it down. Wally Pankratz, Along with Jeff Wahl who now builds the Edmunds cars were there to give me a hand. Wally and I both took turns shakin' it down and then I pulled in and we replaced the Penskes with a new set of ARS shocks. Changing nothing else on the car, we went back out and picked up 4/10 /sec.Wally had it well under the track record at that point and even I got it into the low 13's. This was on a very green track with used Hoosiers. My point is that I did nothing more than to spend $2200.00 on some aluminum and valves to pick this up and remember, we were replacing Penskes which is a pretty darn good shock in its own right. Motorsports can really summed up with the following quote from the late,great Jim Shiels who before his untimely passing chartsd the history of Stockton 99 Speedway in Ca. It is as follows:

"If my fifty year Stockton research has shown me anything, it's the fact that every new division born to racing comes complete with 'cancer', and the day it's born is the same day it starts to die. Each new division is cheap to run, easy to maintain, provides lots of cars, crash and bang action, and attracts new fans, and then somebody says "let me improve that", "Let me upgrade this", " Let me add this", and very soon the cost factors are out of control and the division dies a sad death."

All of us who have been around this sport have seen this happen time and time again............

[DAD]

Ken

The secret in racing next to having a good driver is definitely good set up. We have been using shocks built by Corey and Chet almost since their inception when they were rebuilding, custom valving and selling Carrera Shocks. There is a big difference between expensive and price effective. We have shocks that are 10 or 12 years old. Once a year or when they get messed up we send them back to ARS. And for a fraction of a new shock they come back ready to race again. If they have made improvements in valve technology (and they sure do that a lot) they tell us about it and by doing it this way we stay on top of things without buying new shocks all the time.. Like the old guy said You will get my ARS shocks from me by prying them from my cold dead hands, they are just that good.

To have a successful race car we need >>>>>first a good driver, then we need a good handling well set up race car, followed by a good set of tires, then in forth place we have a well tunes smooth running motor. Without the first three requirements all the horsepower in the world is going to go up in smoke at the back of the pack.

A big reason for us looking at Midgets is the Mini Sprint people decided to outlaw cockpit adjustable shocks because they might cost a racer too much money. This coming from the mouth of guys that easily spend over the cost of good shocks on Body Wraps and other no go show boat stuff for their car.. Racers need options, if you want to look pretty at the expense of performance be my guest but don't "ASS"ume I feel the same way.

Rules need to be simple, to the point and easy to enforce. Montpelier has such a rule package.

Rickey Bobby said something about the growing numbers of motorcycles being imported into the USA, the problem with his numbers is that only a fraction of a percent of these bikes are the $16,000.00 pocket rockets that we as well as Dwarf cars, Mod Lite, SCCA formula 1000 and Drag racers are bidding for. The big number in bikes are the Mo-Ped type get me to work for a gallon of gas a week I hope type, and a big number of them come from China and very seldom reach 1000 miles on their odometers before heading for the scrap heap waiting to be sent back to China so they can melt them back down (in Coal Fired Smelters) and sell back to us dumb greedy Yankee's.

Honest Dad himself

[DAD]

"If my fifty year Stockton research has shown me anything, it's the fact that every new division born to racing comes complete with 'cancer', and the day it's born is the same day it starts to die. Each new division is cheap to run, easy to maintain, provides lots of cars, crash and bang action, and attracts new fans, and then somebody says "let me improve that", "Let me upgrade this", " Let me add this", and very soon the cost factors are out of control and the division dies a sad death."

All of us who have been around this sport have seen this happen time and time again............[/QUOTE]


Ken

That quote take a little while to sink in. It is indeed very true in many respects, however in-spite of this cancer the strong have somehow managed to survive. The best examples I can think of would be Sprint Cars, Midgets, Quarter Midgets and even the lowly little Go Kart. They may ebb and tide over the seasons, but just when things look hopeless something or someone come back and pulls them back up. I have seen it happen in Mini Sprints, I have seen it happen in Go Karts several times in my lifetime, Midgets are in flux right now suffering with this economy and lack of interest.

Thank God that Guys like Kenny Brown of PowerI , Harold Hunter of Montpelier Speedway and several other people around the USA who have come up with Ideas that somehow give a breath of fresh air back into class of race car that I so dearly love.

Honest Dad himself

[BrianBSU23]

hopefully not Brian and Harold will regulate the motor out of existence in favor of the people that pay their bills.

That is not how we do or will ever do business. We will always put the racer first over attempting to make a couple of quick bucks. We know short term dollars will not produce long term results. Our fans pay our bills by paying each week to see the show ours racers put on. We are lucky to have a great sponsor with the Midgets with the Leaders Edge who also sees the big picture with what we are trying to do.

Midgets are next at Montpelier on August 30th.

[Midget18]

Everyone just needs to come out and either race or watch the races at Montpelier. They are doing things right. They have been upgrading the track all year and the place is looking great. Midgets run on the 30th and the BOSS Sprint cars will be there Sept. 6th. The BOSS race will be one hell of a sprint car race to watch. I know we are looking forward to it