Re: OT: 16 ARCA Cars entered for Springfield
 

ASA was a solid series for a long time. Wish there was still a place for a midwestern based tour like that.

Re: OT: 16 ARCA Cars entered for Springfield
 

ARCA Midwest Tour is the closest to the old ASA. Gregg McKarns does a great job with that deal - you might recognize him as the new guy at Angell Park...

The CRA guys are pretty solid also...similar body style and mentality.

What happened to ASA? I'm not a fender guy but didn't even realize it went away.

Originally Posted by Jrp4554:
What happened to ASA? I'm not a fender guy but didn't even realize it went away.

It's been gone probably 15+ years. It was sold to a guy with big plans but questionable financial resources. They had a race at Charlotte NASCAR track and he was unable to pay the purse. The track ownership stepped up and paid it, but that was the end...at least that's how I remember it.

Re: OT: 16 ARCA Cars entered for Springfield
 

Dave Argabright has a great book on Rex Robbins, the founder of ASA, called Let's Go Racing. Well worth reading. A big part of the ASA demise was TNN being sold. The new owners changed the brand, and racing was no longer needed. ASA had sponsor deals based on the TV contract. That pretty much did them in.

Re: OT: 16 ARCA Cars entered for Springfield
 

If you go back far in time. ASA promoted sprint car racing and the little 500. ASA was like the woo, was run by one guy. Rex Robbins and his family. He got old, sold off the sanctioning body. With some bad timing, bad management. The club went down hill. Also a lot of the stars of asa got old, stopped racing. Mike Eddy, Dick Trickle, Butch Miller, Bob Senneker. Also had a few young guns that I don't remember what ever happened to them, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace.
Growing up in Michigan, the club was the bench mark for pavement racing in the area. They set the rules that others followed. Like the woo does now. Having an ASA race at your local track back then was like having an WOO, Usac come to your local track now. Big crowds and a lot of good drivers.
Sorry to get off track from where this post started. My Neighbor was crew chief for ASA and ARCA back then. He like to chat about the good old days. lol ASA was like the allstars now, some middle level teams stayed there, others moved up ARCA, like some teams move up to WOO. Johnny Benson is an example of someone that did that.

One of my best friends was an ASA crew chief when the TV deal went away. Most of that team's sponsorship was based on views. No TV voided their sponsorship contracts. The real money was gone, poof. Prior to that there were a lot of guys making a good living ASA racing.

Re: OT: 16 ARCA Cars entered for Springfield
 

What about the ARCA Midwest Tour or CRA Super Series Late Models

Originally Posted by diversified:
the young drivers seem to be content to dump the guy ahead of them instead of passing them...

Kind of like the Usac midgets.....

I just watched ARCA highlights?? From Michigan. Those clowns were wrecking each other on the FIRST LAP! Nothing that I would call racing going on there. Holding your line appears to be illegal in that series, because no one did it. Yet that garbage has a TV deal.