I own the BOSS (non wing) and FAST on Dirt (410 winged) tours
When I began racing sprint cars in 1999, I lived in Ironton, Ohio which is literally on the Ohio river alongside Ashland, KY and Huntington, WV.
When I had my car in the driveway, random people would stop to look at the "sprint car" when it had its wings on. BUT, if I raced at Lawrenceburg and the car was non winged, people would stop and ask what I wanted for my "rail buggy" because they wanted to play with their buddies in the strip mines.
So I moved an hour and a half north to an area that was well known for WINGED sprint cars (Chillicothe, Ohio). Nobody here in Chillicothe has ever called my sprint cars "rail buggies". But while out working on it, seasoned LOCAL race fans would see my car wingless and the comment would be "I didn't know you had a MIDGET"!!
My point here is that winged racing is understood and known pretty much coast to coast, north to south, and even around the world. The wings are a giant identifier.
This allows winged series to draw in corporate sponsorships and command interest from a LOT more people. Sadly, non wing racing has been in small pockets for many years. There was a time when it was pretty much JUST Indiana and California. I started BOSS in 2011 to try to change that in Ohio and surrounding states. Since then, WAR, USAC East, and several limited non wing groups have popped up. But it may be too late to keep non wing on par with wing money.
My HOPE is that the new WoO non wing deal HELPS bring much needed interest into the non wing market, which would help all the other non wing tours.
As a promoter, after 11 years of BOSS, I have to call and ASK tracks for dates and work hard to build a 22 race schedule. After 4 years of FAST, I don't call any tracks to ASK for dates, they call me. The price tag is $3,000 higher for my FAST wing show and I have literally been turning down dates.
Shameless plug here: FAST season opener March 26 at Atomic Speedway ; BOSS season opener April 23 at Montpelier Speedway.
Thank you for your insider's perspective. Like it or not I believe you're spot on. My favorite type of race car will always be a traditional, non-winged, sprint car. However I know I'm in the minority.
You laugh because I'm different. I laugh because you're all the same. Copied from the back of the #16 supermodified.
You know how I feel. I don't even want to go to a track that runs both on the same night as the track goes bad except for the crutches.
Always loved BOSS and Waynesfield for runing Non wing in Traditionally wing markets. Sad to see waynesfield not be weekly but glad it's still running. A couple of my favorite races of BOSS I seen were at Millstream with dean jacobs and jac and sheldon competing. The Montpiler races and my first was the one and only non wing race at Southern Ohio raceway.
This allows winged series to draw in corporate sponsorships and command interest from a LOT more people. Sadly, non wing racing has been in small pockets for many years. There was a time when it was pretty much JUST Indiana and California. I started BOSS in 2011 to try to change that in Ohio and surrounding states. Since then, WAR, USAC East, and several limited non wing groups have popped up. But it may be too late to keep non wing on par with wing money.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but my feeling is that there's more non-wing as a total than there has been since the early-80s. I think people discount the effects of fairly recent safety improvements on hobby racer's willingness to run non-wing. I mean you don't have to look very far back in pictures to see cars with seats that no one would run today.
