I wasn't there so I won't post anything negative about it that hasn't already been said,
Its not the first flop. Twas Night before Midgets back at Kemper tanked bad. Said second night was a bit better racing.
One thing I've notice is event promoters and facility staff seem to have no direct contact during a event. Doors never opened, or closed before a feature etc.
Last Indoor I did was Du quoin 2012, was lucky it was a 45* rainy day and the back garage door which is 35ft tall remained open. Only had about a ten minute period during consi's where fumes bugged me at all and the racing at Du quoin Indoor was spectacular.. IF YOU DID LAST NIGHT, DO NOT LET THAT DETER YOU FROM DU QUION.
I seen a several video clips from last night and noticed several things. One, The infield was too skinny and provided no different lines for the corners other than the berm. Two, No banking whatsoever. Three, I said in a Du quoin thread that they don't need two classes with 40-50 midgets the late finish proved that.
Given a couple days, Some more clay and a couple cars to practice. I think they could have made a racy track.
I seen Powri posting lineups etc and seen their push trucks so can't say they're not experienced. I bet they all worked their arses off. The failure as I see it was mostly not enough time and planning to setup a race-able track.
Du quoin I seen three wide, sliders and excellent racing Single groove for a couple laps but it widens out quick by lap 30 of the 40 lap feature they were three wide and cushion was on the wall in the center of he corner. Keep a couple front and back doors open. People are dressed for winter anyway and GO, HAVE FUN!
Some other neat things about the Indy Invitational
1. Kevin Swindell was there in attendance and was named Honorary Starter.
2. They couldn't talk his dad into racing thus giving the win to someone else.
3. A D2 Midget made the race driven by Chett Gehrke outrunning several super class Midgets thus proving that small tracks take away the Mega Horsepower advantage, (maybe a little extreme example of that theory)
4. The track surface held up actually really good.
5. The racers hopefully took home a lot more money than they did at the Kemper Race.
6. My buddy AJ Felker managed to get two cars in the show with Brady Bacon and Anton Hernandez. Antone won his heat and was running 2nd in the main until a berm caught him. This 16 year old has the makings of an excellent driver.
Unfortunately it takes a massive air exchange system for these events. They added some over the years at Tulsa and the RCA Dome had a large air exchange system to bring in fresh air and keep the Dome inflated.
At least they tried something. If it would have worked it would have been the annual kick off to a month of must see midget races.
My son and I left early in midget b
Main 2. The feature ended when we were 2 Milan outside of Springfield IL. 3 hours for 1 B and 2 features. At least we had some laughs over it.
I will say if they could figure out how to put some banking in the corners to get guys to run outside line they might have something decent.
Originally Posted by MEAT:
That's a shame that city officials want to get involved. They should take every opportunity to make revenue off a venue that they can considering they are still paying for the RCA Dome.
When you live in a society run by insurance companies you will have that. Can you imagine the lawsuits if someone died or was injured?
Yes, last night was disappointing, but my expectations were set appropriately for a first time event with so many questions.
Yes, the red flag delays for fumes were frustrating. Personally, I thought it was fine, but I'm not responsible for the health and well-being of all attendees. My job isn't on the line if I allow them to keep racing even though levels are getting high. The fire marshal was doing his/her job and we should all be grateful that he/she was.
We didn't stay past the B mains. It was late and frankly, we were all over it by then.
The day wasn't just about racing though. We got to hang out with so many of our racing friends. It was like being at Bloomington, Putnamville, Haubstadt or Kokomo on a regular summer racing weekend. Without the event yesterday, we wouldn't have seen a lot of our friends until March. That was the true highlight of yesterday.
Hopefully the event returns next year with some tweaking. If so, we will be there. Congrats to Kyle Schuett on his first midget win. Watch this kid - he's a good one. And shout out to Chase Briscoe on his 3rd place finish. Awesome job!
Like so many others, we left before the B's. Actually, we left after the second yellow of Heat 5 when it was clear that no one was going to venture off the pole, even after the outside was loosened up and watered. It seemed like an odd time to do track prep, especially following the inexplicable red during Heat 4. Had they explained at that time the the real reason for the delays was due to the CO levels we may have tried to tough it out for a little longer but I doubt we would have hung on to the bitter end. Incidentally, they DID try to ventillate the place; I spoke to one of the ushers and he said they had every door in the place open. I don't know if that was true but I did pass a big industrial fan in an exterior doorway on my way to our seats, but it was blowing IN; may have worked better if they were oriented to blow fumes out, not try to bring fresh air in. If every fan in the place was pointed in that may have only served to trap what carbon monoxide was already inside. I know the stuff's tasteless/odorless/colorless but the "fumes" didn't seem nearly as bad as DuQuoin, Tulsa or Ft.Wayne. The quality of the racing's another story, but that could be fixed.
