[DAD]

J

If the Echotec guys want to race USAC National Midgets I think they should have a 500 pound advantage. Why do the USAC guys spend 3 or 4 thousand dollars for titanium brake rotors, bolts, brake and gas pedals, drive shafts, rear end shafts, and carbon fiber bodies? Should the back yard racer make the same expenditures to race for a smaller purse.

Right now I am not too sure but I bet for my dollar investment in a race car I get a much larger return on my money than USAC racers do (even the guys out front). Why change the bottom line by requiring me to buy these expensive parts and hire some slim kid I don't know to race my car. Right now it is a family operation and we and most of the people we race with would like to keep it that way.

We race 100 pounds over the weight limit (pretty close to the minimum weight set for the shaft drive cars we will be racing with) and do pretty good, sure I would like to loose the pounds but we also have a few people think that our extra weight is an advantage and have added weight to their cars.

If you need help in lobbying USAC to give the Echotec cars a great big weight advantage let me know.

Honest Dad himself

[Avon Open Wheel fan]

I know we are dealing with several different series and types of cars and engines for this race. This is something new for all of us and I know that all of the rules will not sit well with everyone. The main goal is to have an equal playing field for everyone and at the same time trying to allow everyone the chance to race with us. Right now we need to have this race and take notes and see what worked and what we need to look at for future races. I know we will have some rules that we need to change or some rules we need to add or eliminate all together.

Please continue the discussion on here and we will look at every comment.

[jjones752]

I won't have my car together so I have no stake in this, except maybe in the interest of seeing it prosper and continue, but earlier in the post it was said (paraphrasing) "if it's legal where you normally run, it's legal here"; wouldn't that include weight? Is anybody building a "DuQuoin D II Special", spending a grand on titanium bolts to win five hundred bucks? Why worry about weight at all the first time through? Maybe it would be better to weigh the top finishers after the race to see if some "handicapping" needs to be done for future shows. My guess is you won't find too many flyaway cars out there

[cbaumeyer48]

So DAD..... Why do you hate the terminology "Lightning Sprints"...??

[red70racer]

I'm Not certain how a trophy conversation drifted to a rules conversation
We will be there with our 1175 lb Ecotec representing BAM
For the chain gang that might not care for the shaft guys stinking up their show, we ran with the now defunct OMMS with a "national midget" along with others and got our butts whipped on many ocasion
It's not as much about horsepower as it is about setup and driver

[Airsys]

Not sure why their are any rules? It's about getting cars and drivers to the show. The size of this track it's all about luck of the draw, hugging the bottom of the track and hitting lap traffic at the right time. This is definitely a track that I would rather be lucky than good and doubt horse power plays a very big roll on who wins.

[DAD]

Jim

That ain't a good excuse to miss a race hustle hustle>>>>

Red

First I don't stay on topic real well Bill got on me all the time, but it keeps things interesting

Come on down and bring Johnny with you If we got together we could probably fix everybody's problems and maybe invent cold fusion or something and cure two or three diseases.

cbaumeyer

It ain't Lightning or Mini that erks me. The thing I disagree with after 20+ years is Sprint. Try a sprint tail tank on for size? Now try a Midget tank on can you tell the difference. What kind of frame did your race car start out as? Why put on aires and call yourself something you are not.

We were sitting around in AJ's Race Shop a few years ago shooting at Bulls and things. Somehow Lightning Sprint came up. He had a Sprint Car and a Midget sitting side by side, They complement one another's size quite well and you can see the difference. We got out the tape measure and started measuring everything on both cars, wheels, wheelbase, radious rods axles etc. What we did determine that if we so chose to do so we could call ourselves "THREE QUARTER SPRINT CARS" and would be right on the money. To me it seems like a no brainier we are in fact racing Midgets.

Airsys

I love rules. Apparently 3 rules did not work well at Tulsa. What I like more is guide lines. If we said you could not have more than 10 to 1 compression ratio that would be a rule but we could not check it at the track. So it is not a very good rule. I did not like allowing the use of aftermarket Pistons and valves and springs and rods in one of the Midget groups. But if a large number of cars allow it what the heck. That group also says no porting. We can check that. If The rule calls for stock pistons I can bore scope it and pretty well tell the difference between Wisco and Yamaha. It the rule calls for no porting I can check that too with a bore scope. In the case of the little Honda motor if USAC stipulates a restrictor then we should make sure it is in place. Apparently these little farts have some serious beans on tap. As far as the free pass on porting the Focus Midgets, we raced with them this summer and they ran real well, in fact much better than the USAC cars do, but they did not lap us or anything If that it what it take to get them up to speed I am for it.

Honest Dad himself

[cbaumeyer48]

Dad.... Ok, so we have a product ...it's a midget chassis, a chain drive 1000 cc engine....... Please keep in mind, when someone wants to market a product it needs to stand out, sound professional, it should have its own identity, the name should have some strength to it (sound is everything)....... What do you think we should be called??

[DAD]

Originally Posted by cbaumeyer48 Dad.... Ok, so we have a product ...it's a midget chassis, a chain drive 1000 cc engine....... Please keep in mind, when someone wants to market a product it needs to stand out, sound professional, it should have its own identity, the name should have some strength to it (sound is everything)....... What do you think we should be called??

Chris

I thought we were talking about a football game?

Lets see, you said we need a name that stands out>>>sounds professional>>>has its own identity. The name should also have strength to it because (sound is everything). I am going to have to look up that article I read written by that Canadian guy that argued this same point for the first time 10 years ago. He must have been your uncle because his reasoning sounds strangely familiar to yours. He hated "mini", too self deprecating, Maybe he was right there but don't argue that point with a "Mini Cooper" owner.

Using all of your criteria the best name I can come up with is "Midget".

The most important thing about a name is it should be accurate and concise. The names "lightning">"mini"> and "sprint" are way off base. If we were to race on the same program with Midgets also and something broke on a guys Midget the Midget owner would probably also be asking us if we had the needed part. Sprint car owners would not bother with asking us for help because they know we are not similar.

A fellow racer, Jim Jones hauls to the race track on an open trailer. The open trailer is the vehicle of choice if we are wanting to present ourselves to the general public. They bring about questions from the public and responses from the racer. He jokingly says most questions go like this, Hey!! where do you guys ride on them sand rail or jitney or any thing but a race car. Then he patiently explains to them what the vehicle really is and what he does in it and where he does what he does in it. I think for this PR work and advertising the promoter should at least give him a $5.00 break on his entry fee.

When this Canadian guy wrote his article I kind of shrugged it off because he was also pushing 750cc motors. I was secure with "mini sprint" as a name. Well a few people drank his "Kool Aid" and took up the crusade to change the identity of our race cars. After taking up the cause and defense of "mini sprint" I came to a startling realization. We are racing "MIDGETS" plain and simple. "Mini" did not need defending and "lightning" was a very poor adjective and non descriptive term used to describe a type of race car we definitely were not racing.

If you like wings and we do, the name would be "Winged Midget". The guys on the east coast have been using this type of race car for years. The claim that "Lightning Sprint" is the perfect name for the 1000cc motorcycle powered Midget race cars that we happen to race is simply not the truth and if any racer would spend just 30 seconds to think about it, it would not make sense to them also.

(Take note of the time of this response>>> that is what happens when you get old) Good Morning
Good morning Tim

Honest Dad himself

[jjones752]

Dad
Ain't gonna happen; in the middle of a Home Improvement blitz so the Pit Crew will be on board for the regular season.
People do seem to be drawn to the open trailer; I remember getting excited as a kid when I saw a race car out on the highway, going who knows where. Heck, I still do, on the rare occasion I see a racer bared to the elements.