Interest In A CA or West Coast Sprint Week?
 

On th SCRA message board there has been much discussion lately about trying to get a CA Spint Week, either for 360's or National USAC 410s

Do you think there would be any interest from car owners, drivers and fans from the midwest to have a CA sprint week.

Already in Spring they have dates in Az, Las Vegas and Perris. In the fall their is the 3 day Oval Nationals and one night in Tulare. (Also the midgets have five dates close together centered around Turkey night with a $10K to win feature at Ventura.

Suggesions have been to cancel Las Vegas, (nobody mentioned AZ or forgot about them). Than to run Fri at Ventura, Sat. at Perris and Sunday at Victorville.

The following week run at Santa Maria Fri, Tulare Sat and Sunday at Hanford.

Maybe an early Spring. late winter date would work before the racing gets started in the Midwest.

Personally I have no problems with a Las Vegas date as it is on the way to CA, plus it is a cool city to visit. They normally run on a Wed or Thur so it would not conflict with any CA events.

What do you guys think? Is it doable? Would the midwest teams support it. Would any fans come out while it is still cold in the Midwest.

Thanks for any input!

Maybe Spridge could chime in, he's seems to have the pulse of the sport.

Re: Interest In A CA or West Coast Sprint Wee
 

I would certainly come out from Springfield, Illinois. I would strongly support dropping Las Vegas. Would really like the opportunity to see several new California tracks.

The selling point for me would be to have a schedule similar to Indiana Sprint Week rather than having large gaps between races. This year ISW had races on Friday-Sunday and Tuesday-Saturday. While Tuesday wasn't an official ISW race, it was a sprint car race with over 20 sprinters and a good crowd. A lot better than sitting around a motel room.

Another suggestion would be to hold the support classes to a minimum. I know times are rough, tracks aren't making much money, and all the other very real problems. However, these would be special shows and I doubt if many of us Midwesterners would be disappointed if we didn't see 3 or 4 stock car classes.

I hope this happens. I don't think many of us would rather scoop snow in the Midwest than watch sprints in California.

Re: Interest In A CA or West Coast Sprint Wee
 

This year will be my eleventh Oval Nationals in a row at Perris Auto Speedway. I can tell you there isn't anything I want to do more in early November than attend real sprintcar races at Perris.

The 3 day format at Perris is awesome, but I would love to see additional races & race tracks when I'm out there. It would be cool if Ventura would run Wed night before Perris with their normal 360 or midgets or both, then have Victorville run that Sunday night. Five races in 5 days would work for me, even if the Ventura & Victorville races weren't USAC National events. There's a lot of out of state traveling fans for the Oval Nationals, so adding these races would be good for them & probably help sway even more people to come out for those events.

The way USAC has the schedule set up now with Perris, Thur, Fri, Sat & Tulare one week later for only one show is vacation time & dollarwise prohibitive for most fans that travel to attend both tracks.

Jeff Kohler
Mechanicsburg, PA

Re: Interest In A CA or West Coast Sprint Wee
 

It's a tough draw out there for week day shows because of traffic, many fans can't make it to the track after work.I know the crowds are lite Thursday and Friday for the Oval Nats.

But it would work great for us travelers.I always wanted to do the Narc deal when I followed wings but it always fell around the 4 of July and there were to many big races in Pa and Ohio:32:

Make um in early December late January and I'm there:22:

Re: Interest In A CA or West Coast Sprint Wee
 

Glad to hear there is some interest.

Oval Nationals is a great event, and it is not likely to be shortened. Ventura would probably never race during the week except for a Friday, but they did for Thursday Night Thunder. But even those awesome races were hard to get a crowd at 5pm

There was thought for a Fall CA sprint week, but there is alot of big races all over CA (Calistoga Vermiel classic 2days, Gold Cup at Chico 4 days, Trophy Cup at Tulare (2), JW Mitchell Classic at Ventura, Turkey Night, Glen Howard to close out the season at Perris. And by this time of the year, some of the budgets have been exhauseted in CA and I'm sure in Indiana too.

I know the fans from out of town would love a sprint week in conjuction with the Oval Nationals, but it would be hard to schedule midweek races in CA.

For car owners, would they prefer a fall or spring sprint week. Would USAC be willing to skip the FL races to save some traveling expenses for the teams, or is that market important to them. If I lived in FL, I sure wouldn't want to see those races go.

Do you guys even think a sprint week is feasible?

It would be cool if they could get some TV and big sponsors, but with Amsoil sponsorship it kinda limits the possibitly for some big sponsors like lucas or slick 50 to cover the costs.

Re: Interest In A CA or West Coast Sprint Wee
 

USAC had Lucas as a title sponser before. They did a couple of Lucas Oil Motorsorts Hour from the PAS but for some reason it is all Amsoil now and no more TV

Re: Interest In A CA or West Coast Sprint Wee
 

For this to happen, racers and fans out west, have to want it to ha ppen. Midwest racers and fans use vacation time for Fla., Pa.- N.J., Ind. sprint wk., Ind. midget wk. plus two trips out west. USAC-CRA had three drivers but only one car show for Ind. sprint wk. I thank those who came to race, but thats not a very good trade off. You will need to have racers, fans, and the racetracks, to race on days other than Saturday. I hope to see it, but I`m not holding my breath.

Re: Interest In A CA or West Coast Sprint Wee
 

Some of the greatest racing times I ever had was taking in the Western World at Manzanita one week end then traveling to Ascot for the Pacific Coast Races during the following week and week end. It was great.
Plus you had anything under the sun you wanted to do in LA and Phoenix.

I think a Sat-Sun Mon at Ventura then Thur Fri Sat at Perris would be a good week of Racing in California.
You could have a few nights off mid-week to do some things, plus still only use a week of working days. Having just the two Tracks means only two hotels and would allow more time to do tourist things if desired.

Someone in Phoenix needs to build another Manzanita!

They always had the coolest looking cars out west - Like the Gas Chem car-The Bill Krug 9-98, Blue Sparkle Gibson Robbins 2, Red Crush #14 and many others.

Lets do it again!

Re: Interest In A CA or West Coast Sprint Wee
 

I would like to see a 3 or 4 race California Sprint Week that runs right into the PAS Oval Nationals. Take the top 5 from Indiana Sprint Week and the top 5 West Coast driver's from the Cali. Sprint Week, and on Thurs. or Fri. of the Nationals run a challenge race for a nice purse...and say 5,000 to win.....:22:...

Re: Interest In A CA or West Coast Sprint Wee
 

Thats a good idea Mr. Pine. Building on your idea: could be a twist where you take the top 10 in USAC points and the top 10 in SCRA points and
have a special race where it pays at least $5,000 just to make that 20 car feature and say $ 25k/plus or more to win. Would add to the over all racing through the year. Some company or companies could get some great advertising for supporting the special race by getting the mention all year long at both organizations races.
It would be another good way to incent the divers for taking part in the organization. Maybe a version could also be held at ISW like a mid-season challenge where the top two are locked into this special race.

Re: Interest In A CA or West Coast Sprint Wee
 

the thread on scrafan talked mostly about the 360's doing a sprint week due to the high number of cars that ran on one particular saturday a few weeks ago. i'm not discouraging a "usac national california sprint week" but the problem that i see is that the west coast fans and drivers want it to happen during the summer...at least i do (i'm from california). there hasn't been much racing to go around this summer and i feel that's what many west coasters want to see. understandably, it would make it near impossible for anybody from back east to come out at that time. what makes it tough here on the west coast is that the drivers don't do this as a profession where they are racing four nights a week. many of them go to school or have jobs which makes it tough to get time off, especially in the fall months.

it wouldn't bother me to see the california sprint week to be 360's as long as many of the 410 guys found rides. the 410 idea is obviously ideal, however, it's much tougher to pull off. the promoter at santa maria, chirs kearns, has been vital to the 360's success here on the west coast this past year. they are growing in popularity pretty fast. there has always been good car counts at ventura (30 or so). now with the usac 360 program growing to about 25 cars, and victorville getting 15 or so, it's safe to say that a 360 california sprint week would draw 50 plus cars.

just my left coast POV,

MJ

Re: Interest In A CA or West Coast Sprint Wee
 

Why should the midwest teams go out west again when the west coasters won't come out east. If you want to make it just for the west coast teams that would be fine.

Victorvill runs a open engine rule about 75 percent of those guys are 410's.
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Re: Interest In A CA or West Coast Sprint Wee
 

good point ronnie, i forgot about that.

racing is a hobby on the west coast not a profession. i would love for there to be opportunities to run four nights a week out here, but the sad reality is that there isn't.

MJ

Re: Interest In A CA or West Coast Sprint Wee
 

Las Vegas Speedway Dirt Track Shows Both March 2 &3 2011 dates as WOO .Whoever wanted USAC off , got there wish. For past two years I enjoyed seeing both series at Las Vegas .