This is in reply to all the UMRA Bashing and the bashing of The UMRA President and officials. I have given this a great deal of thought. My name is Tracy Anderson, I am VERY PROUD to say that I am Travis Stickels, the current UMRA President's sister. Travis does not know I am doing this and he will probably be upset with me. He always tells me to let things go, but I can no longer do that. For the past 5 years I have watched Travis pour his heart and soul into what he honestly believed was the best for the organization. During those 5 years I have watched him be sued, be lied to, be stabbed in the back by people that had always professed to be his friend but did not get their way, you know who you are!! I have heard him be called a cheat, a liar and a thief. Through all of this, he has held his head high and continued to work tirelessly for UMRA. The last straw for me was Saturday night at Anderson Speedway when the Jenmarco people told him that he did not care. I am going to tell you how much Travis cares about UMRA. June 10 2006, I stood in the driveway of our father's home beside Travis as the hearse was leaving with our fathers body. Shortly after the hearse drove up the road Travis's cell phone rang,it was a track promoter interested in UMRA. Travis took that call, he did not say where we were or what had just occured, he leaned his head on his truck and continued to work for the UMRA. After the conversation we drove to his home where we began to plan for our fathers funeral. That is how much Travis Stickels cares about the United Midget Racing Association and its members. Travis does not need me to defend him, but as I said I am a sister that is extremely proud of the man that my brother is, I encourage my son to look to Travis as a role model. I have said what I needed to say!! To Travis I am sorry if I upset you by doing this but it is time that people know just how much you care.
To Jenmarco, by your own admission you have no experience in the racing business, good luck! I hope that you find someone that will work as hard for your club as Travis Stickels has for UMRA but I doubt it.

[Sandy Lowe]

Hey Jon where have you been? I think the last time I ran into
you was at a USAC show at Anderson.

If you are ever at Lawrenceburg or Bloomington make sure and
stop by and say hello.

Sandy

[jontheturboguy]

Originally Posted by Sandy Lowe Hey Jon where have you been? I think the last time I ran into you was at a USAC show at Anderson. If you are ever at Lawrenceburg or Bloomington make sure and stop by and say hello. Sandy

Looked for you at Bloomington during Indiana Midget week and Indiana Sprint week.

I only found Pat.

:-(

[TQ2M]

Originally Posted by Sandy Lowe Billy, The rule was all drivers must be at least 16 years of age. It can't get any more black and white than that. However it happened (and it doesn't matter now) you competed the entire season at the age of 14. Before the 1994 season UMRA found out how old you really were, the membership took a vote, and decided that a rule is a rule. It didn't matter what color of car you drove, or what team you were affiliated with, they didn't bend the rules. Sandy

Sandy,
We were not told Billy's true age frorm the begining. Thanks for clarifying this.
Joe

[Larryoracing]

This is a fascinating post. Like it all...lol!, mainly because I like TQ's, although
I have only raced them twice and we have been running a FF Midget for the
last several years.

I can't see how opening up a new TQ series could hurt. One, it will either survive
or dieout and UMRA will attract or once again gain those new competitors or old.

Hopefully the new series would run at some new tracks that UMRA did not.

In any case..hopefully more exposure of the TQ's would result from the added
races, benefitting all.

1) It was my opinion that the reason TQ's lost favor on the West Coast was
because the costs of running one became prohibitive.

a) You would be amazed at how many people have said it would cost
you 20,000 dollars to have a competive TQ engine.

1) In any case if you can spend 40,000 on a midget motor, 20,000
on a TQ motor does not sound rediculous.

a) I'm assuming when all is said and done you could have 14,000
dollars in a FF Midget Motor if you bought it new.
All those hoses and fittings, fancy fuel pumps, fancy expensive
injectors and down nozzles and all the brackets, pwr steering
pumps, etc, etc, etc add up. Don't you agree?

b) Then just to be an idiot how much money do you think
some people put into their Dwarf Car Motors or Lighting
Mini-Sprint motors.

I'm willing to bet their are competitive motors out there reaching
20,000 dollars and more. I have seen a couple in the pits
and it is scary to look at all that money in some Lighting Mini
Sprint motor bays.

2) I have got the impression that the biggest difference between
a West Coast TQ and another sanctioning body is the size of the
engine. A West Coast TQ can have a maximum displacement
of 840cc. How many CC's does your TQ displace.?Other than
that I would expect most TQ racing associations would be similar,
except on the West Coast they have went to a longer chassis.

a) You might ask, why would they allow the chassis to become
longer..ie. the wheel base to be longer?


1) First question I would ask, have you ever driven a
TQ? If you have I would say it is the most dangerous
car I have ever driven. I think it is harder to drive a TQ
than a 360 sprint or a 410 sprint car. I have driven all
three. I thought the TQ was the hardest car to drive.

a) Thus the reason I feel the West Coast has gone
to a longer wheel base. It makes the car easier to
drive/not as twichy and more stable.

1) I would consider a TQ like a High Centered Jeep.
If you have ever tried to drive a short
wheel base Jeep at high speed rounding
a corner it wants to flip over . That's what it
felt like when I drove one. You just had
to be careful and not move the steering wheel too
much. They are very reactive.


Sincerely,

Larry Otani...I own a TQ and would drive it again if the opportunity
arose. Just don't think that opportunity will arise because
we are racing the FF Midgets and I see the team goin'
to full midgets and sprint cars in the future.

[Sandy Lowe]

Originally Posted by jontheturboguy Easy there ladies and gents. Lets all take a :redflag:and calm down. I'll give you my $.02 and tell you how I see it, and what I think needs to be done.

Jon,

I just want to say that this post was quite possibly the best I've ever read. All great points and all spot on. Maybe change is in the wind and you can "dust off the gear, freshen up the race car, and go racing."

Hope to see you at a racetrack soon,

Sandy

[TQ97]

I've been mostly quiet on most of this, and I will continue to be for the most part. Like Sandy Lowe and Joe Monroe, I grew up in this club. I met my wife in the UMRA, ran around with Tate and Collin Ambrose after races picking up tearoffs on our BMX bikes. Maybe I was too young and didn't see it then, but I certainly don't remember in the late 70's and early 80's all this drama. That very well could be because of Bobby Lowe and his time at the helm. It just doesn't seem to be the fun family deal anymore. Maybe there's too much $$ involved, or because we have so many races now and with costs, its hard for it to be a fun family thing like it used ot be.

Jon, you have some excellent ideas, but I found some errors. There were never 75+ cars at the Rushville Nationals. The highest car count was 61 in 2000. Also, according to UMRA rule book, bolt on cages are illegal and the Illinois group no longer races with wings, though for car count they allow non wing 600s. One major thing I don't agree with is your view of paying the President each night. The president makes roughly $2000 a year. I bet that averages out to about $1 an hour, if that. Figure 10, 5 hour board meetings, 2 - 5 hour membership meetings, all the time on the phone with promoters, club members, etc. I had a major part in putting the schedule together in 2003....trust me, it took a lot of time. Traveling to and from these meetings for gas etc. Every night at the track, regardless of who the president is and even though, according to the rules, they have no say in calls, etc, there is always someone there complaining to the president, while they are trying to focus on driving or what have you. I've been on the board, I've also been the treasurer, I've even been asked to run for president. I wouldn't even think about the latter, anyone who wants that job, deserves far more than their nightly stipend.

Jim - you bring up an interesting point. If TG would retire this year, and things change on the board, would that change the feelings of some people. ??? It's hard to tell but I doubt it. There have been other problems that didn't involved green cars too. A major problem since I've been racing with the UMRA has always been the consistency of the "calls". For instance, 4 years ago they instituted a "no cussing" in any way policy. That year, I was involved in an incident at Rushville in the middle of tunrs 1 and 2. Calmly got out of my car, walked over to the other driver, tapped him on the helmet, leaned into his cockpit and said a few choice words to him in a normal tone. An official happened to be right there with us. Now mind you, there was no way any fans could hear what was said. Didn't matter, I was DQ'd for the night of all points and $$. This year, I witnessed a driver get out of his car on the frontstretch at Rushville, proceed to stomp back to the pits all the while screaming cuss words at the officials standing outside turn 4. Not only could everyone in the pits hear this, most people on the frontstretch in that area could as well. The penalty for that driver? Nothing. One of the problems with that is it was a different official. Every one calls it differently. But that doesn't make it ok with me. I still feel wronged when I see a similiar situation not get called the same way mine did. My guess is that there are too many feelings like that.

Leadership - I can vouch on the story of Travis being on the phone as they took his father away. There is no doubt the dedication he has shown in running this club the last 5 years. And if anyone thinks it hasn't affected his driving performance during that time, they are wrong. That all being said, if anyone could pull off a new club, I do believe that Jenmarco could do it. I guess time will tell.

Opinions- everyone has one, everyone is entitled to one. That being said, I find a couple things ironic. All people who are for the new club, sign their name, or have ID's that are easily figured out (TQ41&84, etc). Most people, exception of Garrity and Gray who are against the new idea, keep posting in anonymity. Does that say anything? Not sure, but I found it interesting.

[jontheturboguy]

I thought for sure we had over 75 cars come to Rushville the year Bryce came along with every one from the west coast?

Hmmm, I stand corrected.

:-)

Also, wings or no wings - lets spice up the reward a little bit and have the guys in Illinois / Iowa come run with us.

[TQ97]

Actually, I just looked it up. I was wrong as well. The year you are referencing was 2000 and we had 61 cars each night at Rushville when Bryce was there. That followed up with car counts the following years in the mid to high 50's, which then started coming down into the 40's in 05, and now the mid 30's this year. The Shelbyville race I was talking about had 57. Sorry, I was relying on my memory and apparently I'm getting too old to do that.

One of the issues for the guys to come over from Illinois/Iowa is its about a 6 hour drive to most of our tracks. They came last year when we ran Danville as it was closer to them.

[Shawn]

Well written post, TQ97! A lot of good points that you've brought up. I also believe that a lot of UMRA's issues stem from people not being consistent. I'm not sure why that is, but I know it's an issue and has been for a few years.

I am guessing that if Terry Goff were to retire, it wouldn't change everything. Yes, they're the main topic of everything, but there are still issues that have been going on for a few years. So, would adding a house cleaning help? Well, who knows, but it might be too late. I think that would almost leave UMRA and the new series on even ground, except the tradition that the UMRA name brings. People will wonder if this new series is for real, or will work. However, at the same time, people will be wondering if UMRA is really changed for the better. So, which one do they go with? I guess we'll find out!

I also have to say that Travis is a good guy and has worked his tail off for UMRA. However, he can't do it all, see first paragraph. All of the fault shouldn't go on his shoulders, for sure. He's gotten UMRA into a lot of tracks that wouldn't have happened, if not for him. I don't envy him being in that position, but wish him the best when he moves on.

Lastly, I don't think there's any question that it should be non-wing, Jon. The series in Illinois and Iowa hasn't raced with wings for a few years. You did bring up some other good points though, Jon.

That's all for now...