And my point is that you were in downtown Indianapolis. My interpretation was that you think dirt track fans are different than basketball fans. There are idiots everywhere these days. Its the policy to do that at every event there and I dont think that we are any different than basketball fans when it comes to public safety. The rules apply to all and that is fair IMHO

nevermind

Next year just run outlaw karts. Still help the big names find rides. With just the karts the track could be better, banking and prep. Air quality will be better and it will be good race

This forum very badly needs to limit the amount of characters used per comment. I'm more blown away by the amount of time some of these novelists took to submit a few cents.

I'll try to truncate my Facebook post on this subject:

Track prep STARTED at about 2 am the early morning of the event. They had to wait for the NBA game, and from what I saw, an additional local High School game that didn't end until well after midnight. So, give or take, bare concrete to racetrack in 14 hours. HUGE win in and of itself. Most doubted that alone in the events conception. I'm pretty sure the time crunch led to a FLAT surface. They just plain didnt have time to get it to any kind of banking. Sucks, but fair.

Air quality: Not really in anyones control. They had 80 racecars inside a building that was never designed to hold anything more than a ball game. Maybe a better way to allow vent time would be some tshirt shooting, beachball tosses, kiss cams, raffles.. ENDLESS time killers between races to prevent stoppages during green flag action.

Cautions were only a fault in the hands of the drivers. The kart guys took a long time to learn that nobody was going to win it in turn 1. Once they learned that they had to be patient, and not ride the berm, the frequency of cautions slowed down a LITTLE bit. The cautions in the midgets looked like more so of a stalling issue. They had to check up so much to stay off they guy in front of em, it would kill the motor and just shut off. Lotta drivers must've been frustrated by that.

I'd be excited to see what they could do with more track prep time next year. Id also be open to seeing micros and karts instead of the midgets IF the track size would remain the same.

Overall, the promotor said he was gonna invite 40 of the best midget drivers (A different arguement for a different time) to a race inside a basketball staduim on a dirt track in downtown Indy during PRI and pay the winner 10K. May not have been a slidefest humdinger, but I enjoyed seeing cars racing in the 'offseason'. Looking forward to next year!

As for the whining.. I'd totally be open to gripes from the fans in the future attendance of a Pacer game getting dust on themselves. Or whining from folks who had to deal with the traffic added by the event. Or someone who generally didnt care for the event complain just to complain about those noisy racecars.. But to see RACERS jump all over someone who stuck their neck out to put on an event for us racers and fans alike.. Just disappointing to say the least.

Dec. 13, 2015_Arlington, Texas: Anton Hernandez traveled all the way from Texas, thanks to Duck Investments, Custom Commodities Transport, Environmental Oil Recovery, H&D Honda Yamaha, Boswells Consulting and Warnkes Machining Co., to participate in the midget class of the Inaugural Bad Boy Indy Invitational at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Indiana . He is a 17yr old kid, first year in midgets, a true rookie. He was one of the last alternates to have been invited and he put the 37x AJ Felker Racing/Esslinger powered FSC Chassis on the outside pole. How badass is that? In addition, not to be intimidated by midget racing royalty, Anton set second fastest time in qualifying. Won his heat and finished second in the Dash. We were honored to have been invited to this lil arena where no one had ever raced on before, to represent Texas midget racing and he finished in front of 33 of the baddest drivers on the planet, so for us it was an awesome event. Yes, it had its issues, but what first time event does not? So take a deep breath, stop with the negative trash talking, dwell on the positives and stop being a destroyer. Anton’s first glimpse of the track was a huge smile, rubbed his hands together and said oh Yeah Baby, the Longhorn Shootout! Having just won the Longhorn Shootout and finishing second twice at the Oklahoma Outlaw Kart Nationals non-wing micro bullrings his calm confidence shown through. Not a cocky arrogance, but confidence he could make the feature. Little did we know he would almost set fast time had their heat not had the cautions it did. Anton went on to win his heat; finished second in the Dash which put the 37x AJ Felker Racing/Esslinger powered FSC Chassis on the outside pole. From the time we started in gokarts, I have always told Anton that the main thing he is trying to do is conquer the track. If you can get your car around the track faster than any other car, you will be successful no matter who is driving the other car. Well the track berm jumped out, got him and stalled the engine, which sent him to the back of the field. Restarting in the back, he got caught up in a pileup almost ending his night, but lady luck smiled on him. Again restarting in the back, he was able to advance forward to finish seventh. It was an awesome experience for me and I hope it was for the rest of the fans that came to support their favorite drivers. Thanks to the Felker Family (AJ, Michelle and Drake) for helping Anton. Thanks to Frank and Eric for all the hard work they put into the car at the shop and taking care of Anton at the event. Thanks to Sandra Felker for treating and feeding us like her own kids during our visit of the Felker Racing Facility. Thanks to Roger Oakes, Scott and Noah Key and Rick Bailey for their help and support. Thanks to the Indy Invitational staff for all the hard work they put into this event. See ya next year…Anton’s dad.


Maybe we should take a little time and look at this event through the eyes of the father of a young 17 year old kid that had the opportunity to watch his kid race with his heroes in a Midget event. Then somehow this race doesn't look half bad. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Racers will race anywhere.

I think those of you that are upset at us who aren't very happy with the event are making the mistake of assuming we are unaware of how difficult it was to prepare this event seeing as it was the inaugural one. I'm fully cognizant of how tough it was to get that place prepared, not through first hand experience, just via the common sense it requires to know going from basketball court to dirt track in less than 24 hours isn't easy. I give those guys that worked their tails off all night to get the place ready all the credit in the world. They deserve it. I could be wrong, but I think most of us are upset that we spent 20-55 bucks to go watch a caution fest that took roughly 9 hours to complete. Now, I completely agree that those who are acting as if they have the solution to fix the event shouldn't be given the time of day because nobody has a viable solution right now. I went in thinking that if I could see a race that wasn't entirely single file then I'd be happy. Well, I didn't consider the possibility of that many cautions, and yes, I'm not thrilled by having spent money to watch it. Again, I couldn't offer anything on how to fix it, and I give those workers a lot of credit. They tried, and it just didn't work. I just feel at this point, pessimism is realism regarding the inaugural event.

Very well said!if some didn't feel like in danger,why even think about packing knives into such an event? I seen nothing wrong with the process,maybe the time frame of gates opening versus hot laps time,but not the security process.

Here is the 1983 Silverdome midget race https://youtu.be/gt07DTsJZ0s

I found it interesting how this thread resembles the thread that we had when the show was announced. There was a lot of people who were all in favor of the event, and there were others that were more critical of the event based on its logistics. Now, we have people that are supporting the promoters and their effort, people that are still questioning their logistics, and now a third group of angry annoyed fans who will never go back.

My question is did the promoters do anything to learn from the mistakes of Kemper? Did they ask of the participants or fans about their experience. I too am just a keyboard jockey, but I was able to post the following thread a month ago. How many items did the promoters have to re-learn for themselves.

10/10/15, 10:29 AM #100
Re: Midget Races at Banker's Life

So, since the IOW PC police have determined that we can no longer question the logistics, timing, or promoters of this event, I guess I will try to join in and have a positive post.

If you have not found them a follow on Twitter, you should follow @indyindoors It is where the invites are being made, and where the invites are being accepted. The invite states that the acceptance has to be made through social media. It also interesting to see a couple of drivers campaigning to get an invite. On their twitter feed they have stated that "There is no set process/rankings for invitations. If you have a driver....make sure we know why they should be in. Anyone is possible." As it was mentioned earlier, some of the invites are for people that do not currently have a ride. It is up to the driver to find a ride, if they accept the invite.

Finally, I want to talk about some of the lessons learned that I observed from Kemper. 1. Since these building are not ventilated well, be very careful on what vehicles that you put on the track. When it came time to rework the track, they brought out this old diesel tractor that put out an enormous about of fumes. The same can be said of some of the old push trucks that they brought out to iron out the track. The air quality was actually worse after they reworked the track than before. 2. Build your track where every space can be a race surface. On Friday night they built a top berm on the track, this just killed the top groove. On Saturday night, they had the track go all the way up to the wall which allowed the second groove a chance. 3. Understand your seating chart. They tried to sell the seats closer to the action at a higher rate because they were closer to the floor. However, the seats that were the most desirable were the ones in the middle of the stands. 4. If you are going to sell tickets based on a seating chart, you have to have ushers. At Kemper, they had two different rates, but no ushers inside policing where people sat. On Friday, I bought the more expensive seats, but then moved to a different section to get a better view. On Saturday, almost everyone bought the cheapest seats in the house and then sat where ever they wanted. 5. Be prepared for down time, with letting the building fumes clear out and the farming the track, it seemed that the Kemper race had more downtime than a normal show. 6. Be prepared for a lot of cautions. It is a small track and there is going to be a lot of contact. 7. Remember everything that makes a good show at the local track. Everything that gets discussed on this board every month should be remembered for the indoor show. This is a new event so you will have some excitement, don't kill it by being an hour late on starting the show. Or if you ever want to have a second race, you have to pay the drivers.