[captrat]

“Nationals” like so many terms have lost their impact with one exception. The non-wing world does need something and the labels are not as important as actually serving the competitors and fans. So here goes with some random thoughts.

1. 50 race schedule (sanctioning body to be determined) with thoughtful national schedule with reasonable travel. You need national exposure to attract sponsors and competitors, but do you really need to go to Idaho?
2. Schedule would be divided into sections. For example race 7 would be a special paying bigger purse beyond the standard. This race would be by invitation only to the top 40 in points with 5 promoter options, 2 day show. Races 14,21,28, 35,42,49 would follow a similar format with each race paying a bit more than the previous. The penultimate race would be a 3 day show with a purse equivalent to the total of the previous 7 shows, top 40 in points with 10 promoter options.
3. Potential tracks: Perris, Huset’s, Lakeside, Lawrenceburg, Kokomo, Haubstadt, Bridgeport, Bloomsburg, I-70, Terre Haute. Most of these are near large population areas, have adequate facilities or great tradition and provide wide geographic coverage yet not crazy travel.
4. Non wing racing should not emulate WoO but rather carve out its own niche. I wish the X-treme well, but my nightmare is that the non wingers become nothing but the undercard.
5. Know that I am spending others money, but it will be difficult to move forward without providing travel subsidies to teams, substantial end of season fund, and to pay back through the field. Purses where the money is so concentrated at the top for publicity purposes are seldom healthy overall.

In my former life we used to call this brainstorming where perhaps something valuable could be distilled from ideas which seemed to break with the long accepted practices.