Tomorrow nite the URC 360 guys will race at Big Diamond Raceway wingless. This is part of a 4 race deal they scheduled this year at 4 different tracks. While it will not compare to what you lucky people in Indiana have, at least it's something to be charged up about. Some ARDC guys who have moved up and some Kutztown speedster guys will be there. Big D is not the best of tracks, but again it's better than nothing. Really hope it's supported and can grow. One tires of the winged normal around here and 5 or 6 trips per year to Indiana is all I can swing. Hope it's a good show. 👍

I'm gonna try to catch one of those shows this summer...
Also Eastern Storm, of course....

I am still amazed that some track or startup series hasn't jumped into some regular PA wingless racing in the last few years.

With all the weekly winged 410 tracks, the other few weekly tracks with winged 358/360 cars as the headliner, the 410 tracks that also regularly run 358s as a support class, the URC, all the racesaver tracks and the racesaver PA sprint series, etc there are hundreds and hundreds of active sprintcars out there.

If there are that many cars running regularly I have to wonder how many there are that have been parked the last 2-5 years due to finances..still sitting in the shop unused. At some point a low budget wing 410 team has to throw in the towel and decide that theres no point in spending 5-6 grand to rebuild one of their decade old 12 head motors. Decade old 358-360 motors themselves are still pretty equal with fresh stuff, but if they can't justify replacing the old Hilborn with 4 grand worth of Engler or DragonClaw during the next rebuild, and can't start twisting them another 800-1000 RPM like the fast guys do lately, those programs go from top 10 capable to field filler status in a couple seasons.

I realize they have the new crate motor nonwing series up there... but with a spec crate motor from a spec crate dealer with mandated carbs & everything and a spec transmission I don't see any current sprintcar teams converting. That thing will probably hit the exact same ceiling the Speedstrs did a few years ago. Nothing wrong with either class...30ish cars in existence with consistent 16-24 at each race is a pretty successful spec class.

But I have to think a steel block 1475# wingless track/series would be an immediate success. Theres already a pool of 200 or more racesaver-358-360 cars to draw from...and surely another 20-50 parked cars to recruit back into a game where motor rebuilds and drivetrain replacements last 4 times longer. Not to mention that without all the sheet metal a 550HP sprintcar doesn't really give up anything to a 700hp car.

And with all the chatter the Eastern Storm tour generates I know the fans would support more traditional racing. Glad to see the URC take a stab at a few shows. Hope it gets enough support to make somebody want to expand to 12-20 races next year.

There has been talk about a 358 wingless series for the past several years, but it's been mostly vaporware. The Super Sportsman wingless series that's been running at Path Valley is pretty good and has been slowly gaining strength. They had 17 cars last weekend.

One of the hurdles is the track size, most of the sprint car tracks are big fast 1/2 and it's tough to equipment and drivers to learn how to race wingless on a big track. We need a Bloomington or Lincoln park here in central.

Keep us posted.

Mark Bitner won followed by Carmen Perigo and Joey Biasi. They had 15 cars for this race.

Dad (Rick) and I put the 360 in and made the 5 hour trek over. Unfortunately minor motor trouble relegated us to the back of the pack.

First things first, we were treated with nothing but kindness and respect from all the URC guys. Hats off and a big thank you to them.

Big Diamond is a very nice track with almost brand new facilities. Not a bad place to watch a race at all.

We had many, many fans come up to us before the race and express how excited they were to see more non wing racing come to the area. From the pits, the grandstands looked absolutely packed. If grown properly, I believe Central/Eastern PA could have a strong base of nonwing racing.

Several of the drivers making their first non wing starts had huge grins plastered to their faces after the feature. I considered that a win as well.

All considered, it was a wonderful experience! Thanks to everyone who made it possible.

and with the majority of the field having little to no non wing experience there was only 2 cautions the entire night one for a flat and one for a spin on start of feature... a solid night that will hopefully lead to more nw shows in the area

Were going to Weedsport to check out the URC race. Theres a ton of good nonwing sprintcar tracks in PA just not in the traditional sprintcar areas of PA. It might be better to actually try to start a nonwing community away from the area which is heavy on winged action. If someone was to run a nonwing show at say PennCan in PA (perfect for nonwing sprints) I'm sure the place would be packed with fans even on a weeknight. I pray that they would drop one or two of the 5 or 6 support classes and run a low budget self starting sprintcar class instead. Self starting because the folks around here have no interest in watching cars get pushed off when they're big block mods just push a button and go. It would give me a reason to drive over the hill and spectate. I cant stand the Bigblock mods, over the years they've been all fubared up.