Indiana Open Wheel - Belleville

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I think for this to work locally it first needs to be approved at a higher level. If you look at who has been showing up for USAC, POWRi and Badger races, you will notice that the events with high car counts are many times a result of interclub exchange. Most of the high car counts in POWRi have been when Badger is added to the event. Same with USAC midget week. Those shows were padded with ARDC teams. The USAC shows at Sun Prairie have bigger car counts since you really have two organizations supplying the cars. This is not the way it used to be. Badger on a good night would have 30-40 cars on the ground. The USAC midget division used to be somewhat independent and would run races against USAC sprint and Silver Crown events and still have an impressive group of cars. For example, Years ago, USAC would run a 100 lap midget race on Labor Day at the Ohio State Fair against a USAC Champ Car race at DuQuoin, IL and both races had full fields of cars. But now we have pseudo type car counts that look impressive but they are really the result of 2 or more organization supporting the event. POWRi seems to be the only organization that can consistently have 20 or more cars but only if the race is within about 80-100 miles of St. Louis. Then you will see a handful of regular POWRi cars plus cars from the region such as Kansas, OK and western Missouri. I have some additional comments about the Montpelier shows but those are for another thread. The conclusion I would draw is that almost every organization currently needs the other to get qa decent car count which is not a very healthy situation.

@ Don Moore - I am with you on the motorcycle engines but it is hard enough trying to get stock block car engines in , most of the old guard really cringe when you mention motorcycle engines

Bottom line is Midgets need to be affordable to the dude or dudette toting a lunch pail to work everyday !

Originally Posted by Roy Bleckert:
@ Don Moore - I am with you on the motorcycle engines but it is hard enough trying to get stock block car engines in , most of the old guard really cringe when you mention motorcycle engines

Bottom line is Midgets need to be affordable to the dude or dudette toting a lunch pail to work everyday !

This is going right over the heads of most people on here, especially those that are in a position to implement it.

Originally Posted by DonMoore10:
This is going right over the heads of most people on here, especially those that are in a position to implement it.

This has been my experience also with the powers to be , some day it will come down to either compromise on were we need to move forward with Midget Racing or it fades into the sunset

The choice lies with every one in the Sport

Don, I don't see this as a big issue, gettng the motorcycle engine hooked up to the QC rear end, I've been doing some design work of my own, to be able to center the engine in the chassis, and drive off the crankshaft, and not need to cut off the gear box, but you do need a crank speed reduction of around 30%, to make the nose bearing in the rear end happy, which, also can be rather easily obtained, and not by a chain either. The gears could be removed from the trans, and that space would remain the sump, and the engine would not be hanging out the left side of the car. Just thought I'd throw it out there, in case someone would be interested. Bob!

This could be a starting point

Current USAC Midget Rules @ 1050#

Stock Block/Head/Crank 2.5 L @ 1000#

Under 1.5 L @ 900 #

This should be close to what would be needed to make each type competitive

You could make adjustments after some on track testing

Motorcycle engines huh ? sounds like a minisprint to me. :6:

Originally Posted by DonMoore10:
This is going right over the heads of most people on here, especially those that are in a position to implement it.

Kevin Miller once told us that Don Moore was complaining about not pumping engines, (we were at the Gold Crown) myself and Eric told him we had been pumping engines. We were then told to at least go out and look at the engines in the pits and see if any of them "looked big"!!
Thus, the above statement by Don is 100% correct!!:5::14::5::5

Originally Posted by DonMoore10:
I think you should have stopped after "against my better judgement"......:11:

I think a good question deserves a better answer.

The best way to restore Belleville Midget Nationals to it's previous high car counts.

1. Cooperation from all traveling midget sanctioning bodies including scheduling and championship points.
2. Two races prior to Belleville so it makes the long haul worthwhile.

---------- Post added at 2:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 2:37 PM ----------

Why not first address changes to the rules for engines that everybody already owns?

I would think a compression ratio rule would be a minimal cost to all existing car owners and would dramatically reduce the operating costs of current midget engines.

Originally Posted by Roy Bleckert:
This could be a starting point

Current USAC Midget Rules @ 1050#

Stock Block/Head/Crank 2.5 L @ 1000#

Under 1.5 L @ 900 #

This should be close to what would be needed to make each type competitive

You could make adjustments after some on track testing