Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

I know the race is tonight and there wasn't a stellar turnout, But from what I seen in practice. It may be the best track I've seen the on. Cars running every groove on the track and not just either on the wall or huggy pole.

We'll know more tonight but I liked it!

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

How many cars are there?

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

I like Crown on the rocks. Maybe with a splash of root beer
:32:

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Originally Posted by wing410fan:
how many cars are there?

13

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

There are a few more tonight than Practice.

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

I always thought they would be good on this track. It looks almost like a little Langhorne.

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Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

You know me from my history here. I'm a positive thinking person and certainly not one who has a problem with USAC. With that said, 13 cars, with a freak show of a support class sharing the bill, may be an all time low for their one-time premier division. It's sad.

Jerry

Originally Posted by Jerry Shaw:
You know me from my history here. I'm a positive thinking person and certainly not one who has a problem with USAC. With that said, 13 cars, with a freak show of a support class sharing the bill, may be an all time low for their one-time premier division. It's sad.

Jerry

Freak show of a support show?

Sorry Just realized that I am replying to everything. Had ACL surgery today. A little stoned on all of the pain meds. The only positive of the surgery is that I did not have to make a decision on going to Belleville. It was made for me. Hopefully, I will be healthy enough to make Gold Crown. At least that is my motivation when doing PT.

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seems as though usac worked hard (I won't say destroying), ah, ah, let's say decreasing the champ cars from 50-60 plus to 13, and it seems the midgets are next from the looks of it. I gotta admit, i'm not wild about champ cars (its a shame what's happened to them though)/ but I am wild about midgets and I really don't know who to blame in respect to their decline? Yeah, i know, the quality is still there, but in my book, quantity's a big consideration too!

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Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Since you asked for thoughts here goes! When ever the subject was brought up over the years my reply was always NO!! The piss poor excuse for a guard rail they have there is my major concern! And damn, USAC stuck it to the fair board again, was there ever a question that the car count would be low? When the SC division was strong years go they would lose several cars when they went to the 1/2 miles. But I'm sure they were promised a good car count, and wham! You been USAC,d again!

This kind of reminds me of a meeting at Angel Park a few years back when Kevin promised 35 cars a night if they would let USAC in the door and kicked BADGER out, and we all know the rest of that story.

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Originally Posted by Jonr:
Freak show of a support show?

Sorry Just realized that I am replying to everything. Had ACL surgery today. A little stoned on all of the pain meds. The only positive of the surgery is that I did not have to make a decision on going to Belleville. It was made for me. Hopefully, I will be healthy enough to make Gold Crown. At least that is my motivation when doing PT.

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After watching those two heats, I definitely stand by that characterization. For crying out loud, the announcers could barely stop laughing to call their races.

The one plus is seeing the Silver Crown cars on this track. They are flying.

Good luck on the ACL recovery. My replacement ACL has lasted me 20 years.

Jerry

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Originally Posted by Jerry Shaw:
You know me from my history here. I'm a positive thinking person and certainly not one who has a problem with USAC. With that said, 13 cars, with a freak show of a support class sharing the bill, may be an all time low for their one-time premier division. It's sad.

Jerry

The freak support class are indeed pathetic with two drivers...one on the gas pedal and another driver on the steering and brakes. Poor Bob Jenkins is trying to be the utmost professional in the booth! As for USAC, they must find a presence on cable television and the internet for its three premier series. TV exposure would be a major boost for the owners, drivers, and track operators/promoters through familiarity for potential sponsorship. I love the USAC Live membership for the delay videos and especially the distant races carried live like tonight (raining all over northern Ohio, so races cancelled here). All of you should sign up and support USAC Live and Jack Slash. The cost is minimal, the production is excellent, and it really makes you want to venture out from your Indiana home to see new tracks. See ya at the races.

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Anytime Bob Jenkins wants to announce, They should let him announce, Instead of over the top. He is enthusiastic but within reason and pleasant to listen too.

No offense to Tyler he's much better than say Ocala and consistantly getting better, Sometimes he just needs to slow down and be correct and accurate, Let the drivers be the show. :)

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Tracy Hines wins Traxxas Silver Crown debut at Belleville in the "Hustle on the High Banks" over East Ballou Coons & Windom...

Only those 5 were on the lead lap.

It was a good show, but these things are supposed to be for long races. Why not 100 laps, to get tire wear and fuel load change into the picture?

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Congrats to Tracy Hines, he was flying. Bob Jenkins you are one of the best, it was a pleasure listening to him tonight. What announcing style, he builds enthusiasm intelligently and informs the whole time.

I have respect for all the teams that went to Belleville and took part. Was an interesting event on an interesting track. Was fun to get to see the race.

Support class was interesting but I don't think it tops the school bus figure 8 races at the Speedrome.

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Originally Posted by ThePurple73:
Congrats to Tracy Hines, he was flying.

Seriously, I think I just watched Tracy Hines execute a 50 lap qualification run. He was head and shoulders above everyone else, tonight. Very few cars or not, that was impressive.:6:
Jerry

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Hopefully the weather cooperates at DuQuoin this year, be interesting to watch Tracy there if he is hooked up like tonight.

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Originally Posted by ossuks:
Since you asked for thoughts here goes! When ever the subject was brought up over the years my reply was always NO!! The piss poor excuse for a guard rail they have there is my major concern! And damn, USAC stuck it to the fair board again, was there ever a question that the car count would be low? When the SC division was strong years go they would lose several cars when they went to the 1/2 miles. But I'm sure they were promised a good car count, and wham! You been USAC,d again!

This kind of reminds me of a meeting at Angel Park a few years back when Kevin promised 35 cars a night if they would let USAC in the door and kicked BADGER out, and we all know the rest of that story.

It's posts like this that will end USAC. Their supporters heads will explode after a good dose of the turth like this. Any bets on how many will be at Springfield 2 weeks from tomorrow? I'm saying the over/under is 22. I hope I am pleasantly surprised when I get there, but I know I won't be holding my breathe. Thankfully I do have a way to combat the USAC "aire" that they give off. I take a huge dose of reality and that is an immunity booster.

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Originally Posted by johnnythunderhead:
seems as though usac worked hard (I won't say destroying), ah, ah, let's say decreasing the champ cars from 50-60 plus to 13, and it seems the midgets are next from the looks of it. I gotta admit, i'm not wild about champ cars (its a shame what's happened to them though)/ but I am wild about midgets and I really don't know who to blame in respect to their decline? Yeah, i know, the quality is still there, but in my book, quantity's a big consideration too!

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You won't but I will. USAC destroyed this series with the New Gen pavement cars, pizzing off a lot of owners who bought into that misguided idea, Ignite Fuels, no rain dates, and just plain bad management on their part. Track Enterprises is the 100% absolute only reason we even have Silver Crown races at the three miles. USAC's brain trust is too busy chasing magic sparkle unicorns and pots of gold at the end of mystic rainbows instead of listening (really listening) to teams, drivers, fans and sponsors. As someone who used to be a huge supporter of USAC, they have done nothing over the past 15 years (at the least) to warrant much of any praise. They get involved in things and screw them up: Pepsi midget nationals at Knoxville, Angel Park, "rebirthing" the Silver Crown series, killing off pavement sprintcar racing, midget racing in general in their usual AoO. They are a parasite that attaches themselves onto other people ideas and eventually ruin it. That is 100% true in the case of Angel Park, the Pepsi Midget Nationals and mostly true for the Belleville Midget Nationals. USAC has done more to turn fans off and away then retain and grow their fan base.

They could offer Tp's in the silver crown division. That would save 7-8 hundred dollars for teams that only want to run a couple shows. Part of the problem is the sprint car counts are also down and those teams that used to also field a silver crown such as Hoffman and Fox don't do it anymore.

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Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

You guys can debate the Death of USAC all you want. Im going into my review of what I seen.

It was good, They track has the capability of muliple lines but the Cushion was so darn fast. Don't know if thats norm or from all the rain.

Id just make the whole event a doubleheader with the first two night of midgets on the small track Practice and TT on FRi on the big track for Crown and the nationals on the big. Followed by a fifty lap Crown race once the track is rubber ed down

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

A lot of short memories on this board, remember the stellar 16 cars POWRi had last Friday night. Poor car counts are not a USAC only issue.


I also remember a multi page thread about all the new tracks that Silver Crown cars need to go to. Supply equals demand.

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Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Does anyone know the final finish? Thank you in advance!

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Originally Posted by racegal:
Does anyone know the final finish? Thank you in advance!

TRAXXAS USAC SILVER CROWN RACE RESULTS: August 2, 2013 – Belleville, Kansas – Belleville High Banks

QUALIFYING: 1. Tracy Hines, 16, Lightfoot-16.856; 2. Bobby East, 10, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-16.949; 3. Jerry Coons, Jr., 27, RW/Curb-Agajanian-17.050; 4. Robert Ballou, 63, DePalma-17.068; 5. Shane Hollingsworth, 20, Nolen-17.211; 6. Chris Windom, 17, RW/Curb-Agajanian-17.274; 7. Kody Swanson, 25, Sachs-17.421; 8. Brian Tyler, 21, Team 6-R-17.502; 9. A.J. Fike, 3, RFMS-17.747; 10. Miranda Throckmorton, 33, Team 6-R-17.765; 11. Tim Barber, 28, Finkenbinder-17.983; 12. Dave Darland, 14, McQuinn-18.090; 13. Chris Urish, 77, Urish-18.672.

FEATURE: (50 laps) 1. Tracy Hines, 2. Bobby East, 3. Robert Ballou, 4. Jerry Coons, Jr., 5. Chris Windom, 6. A.J. Fike, 7. Kody Swanson, 8. Brian Tyler, 9. Dave Darland, 10. Tim Barber, 11. Shane Hollingsworth, 12. Miranda Throckmorton, 13. Chris Urish. NT
------------------------------------------------------
**Hollingsworth flipped on lap 24 of the Feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-50 Hines.

NEW TRAXXAS SILVER CROWN SERIES POINT STANDINGS: 1-Hines-244; 2-East-243; 3-Swanson-239; 4-Coons-235; 5-Windom-213; 6-Tyler-204; 7-Hollingsworth-182; 8-Fike-155; 9-David Byrne-127; 10-Bobby Santos-108.

NEXT TRAXXAS SILVER CROWN RACE: August 17 – Springfield, Illinois – Illinois State Fairgrounds – “Tony Bettenhausen 100”

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Originally Posted by Jonr:
A lot of short memories on this board, remember the stellar 16 cars POWRi had last Friday night. Poor car counts are not a USAC only issue.


I also remember a multi page thread about all the new tracks that Silver Crown cars need to go to. Supply equals demand.

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You mean the night that was sandwiched between an 18 and a 22 car night? Also, what does POWRI have to do with this? James "Jay" Carney aka Jonr would you kindly explain that?

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

HINES LANDS LIGHTFOOT’S FIRST TRAXXAS SILVER CROWN WIN AT BELLEVILLE

Belleville, Kansas…….Tracy Hines of New Castle, Indiana is a former Traxxas Silver Crown Series champion, but his ninth career win in the series on Friday in the “Hustle on the High Banks” at the Belleville High Banks marked the first for his car owner Mark Lightfoot. The win came in dominant fashion, as he posted “Fast Time” before wiring the field in the 50-lapper.

Hines set out from the pole and beat Bobby East into the first turn. Two early cautions set up restarts where East and Robert Ballou battled for the second spot as Hines sped away up against the cushion.

A red flag on lap 24 for sixth-running Shane Hollingsworth offered Hines’ biggest challenge, as he restarted after with East and Ballou hot on his tail. But as the laps wound, Hines became stronger and stronger, opening up a comfortable margin.

With traffic in front of him over the final handful of circuits, his lead was carved down, but Hines was never seriously threatened en route to the 1.848-second win in the Lightfoot Racing #16 Beast/Stanton Mopar.

“It’s really cool to win for Mark Lightfoot. We put a deal together a couple years ago, and it’s turned into a great combination and a really good relationship. To finally get him a win is exciting. I’ve run second here a lot of times, so I’m happy to get a win here, whatever division it’s in. It was definitely treacherous to run a big heavy Silver Crown car here, with a full fuel load, without lifting up against a curb three feet from a little guardrail. My right-rear bled down under the red, so I had to ride it out after that, but once we got some air back I could attack it harder. We have three good tracks coming up for us in Silver Crown, so we’ll see what happens,” Hines said.

East pulled away from Ballou in the closing stages, keeping pace with new point-leader Hines as he finished second in the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing – Chevy Performance #10 Maxim/Kistler.

“I think if we could have gotten out front at the beginning, we definitely were good enough to win. We could hang with him for stretches, but just couldn’t do much with him. We had some issues near the end of the race, so we’re happy to hang on for second,” East said.

Ballou rounded out the podium in the DePalma Motorsports – Radio Hospital #63 Maxim/Hampshire.

“I feel like I made some mistakes, because we had a really good car. It’s kinda disappointing to finish third, but I have to thank the DePalma family and Bob Hampshire, whose engines was really strong. We are starting up front and running well, but I’m still pretty inexperience in this stuff, and guys like Tracy seem to have Silver Crown pretty well figured out,” Ballou said.

Jerry Coons, Jr. came home fourth in the Rotondo Weirich – Curb Records #27 Beast/Wallace Toyota, while his teammate Chris Windom rounded out the top-five as the final car on the lead lap in the Rotondo Weirich – Curb Records #17 Beast/Wallace Toyota.

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Let the vitriol roll!

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

USAC has an opportunity to really have a special event here. Sure there could have been more cars, but to watch these drivers rimride next to the rail at the speeds they were running was priceless.
Belleville is a unique track just like the silver crown division. We were sitting on the top row of the grandstand behind the flagman and during hotlaps we were being hit by the mud off the track. The fans in this area are hungry for this type of racing. I thought it was great that they opened the front stretch gate before the feature started to let the fans go down to meet the drivers. There were a lot of dads like myself that took advantage of this. My two young kids were still talking about it this morning.

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Thank you winglessmd, for the positive comments, and for taking the next generation of racing fans. We could use a bit more optimism on here.

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Originally Posted by mr nobody:
You mean the night that was sandwiched between an 18 and a 22 car night? Also, what does POWRI have to do with this? James "Jay" Carney aka Jonr would you kindly explain that?

Dude, my pain meds have me on a roll. If you going to call me out at least know who in the world I am. Could it be more than one person does not like your ignorant rants. I get tired of people bashing USAC but yet they have binders on about other series that have issues. I also get tired of the SC faithful that think that USAC is trying to kill the series. If the gold crown cars would have worked, it had the possibility of being a huge series playing in front of huge tracks. Fuel sponsor for the series,how is that a bad idea. Taking the series to a new track, where it could be on the same weekend as an iconic race, how is that a bad idea? Maybe the problem is not USAC, but the crappy SC cars themselves.

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Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Originally Posted by Jonr:
Dude, my pain meds have me on a roll. If you going to call me out at least know who in the world I am. Could it be more than one person does not like your ignorant rants. I get tired of people bashing USAC but yet they have binders on about other series that have issues. I also get tired of the SC faithful that think that USAC is trying to kill the series. If the gold crown cars would have worked, it had the possibility of being a huge series playing in front of huge tracks. Fuel sponsor for the series,how is that a bad idea. Taking the series to a new track, where it could be on the same weekend as an iconic race, how is that a bad idea? Maybe the problem is not USAC, but the crappy SC cars themselves.

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If I have to spell it out for you I will. Jay Carney is the press seceretary for the President. He is known for deflecting the topic onto other issues that have nothing to do with the original topic. Also, ignorant rants? How are fack filled statements so called "ignorant rants" unless they are statements that you don't want to hear.

Lets look at the rest of your post shall we. Gold Crown cars would never have worked. Forcing owners to buy a new car and making obsolete half the chassis's that were out there isn't a good way to launch a new series or help an existing series. But wait, for those with massive amounts of money or the ones who mandated it but never had to buy them I bet they never considered that. Fuel sponsor for the series that mandates everyone run that fuel and that fuel only which (as has been stated on here) caused engine failures, overheating problems, and the maker never offered to help pay for engine retrofitting that had to be done to make the engines run properly. Again, more costs forced on the owners that was only around for one year before methanol was reapproved for the series. Taking the series to a new track, while a good idea, showed to not work out at all and actually embarrassed the series and USAC more then it helped. If you going to do that make it a two race swing so that more teams have a viable hope to make it affordable.

Since you see them as "crappy cars themselves" why do you even care about this to begin with? If I found something to be "crappy" I wouldn't give a damn what happened to it. That's why I don't concern myself with WNBA, Tennis, Golf, 90% of Olympic sports, The World Series of Poker, WWE, MLB, soap operas, of reality TV.

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Originally Posted by johnnythunderhead:
seems as though usac worked hard (I won't say destroying), ah, ah, let's say decreasing the champ cars from 50-60 plus to 13, and it seems the midgets are next from the looks of it. I gotta admit, i'm not wild about champ cars (its a shame what's happened to them though)/ but I am wild about midgets and I really don't know who to blame in respect to their decline? Yeah, i know, the quality is still there, but in my book, quantity's a big consideration too!

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$40K plus midget engines, turning motors 12-14K, purses that haven't changed since the 80's and 90's, semi trailers, super teams, pavement only cars, super soft tires, titanium, clutches and starters, ect. have all helped run the mom and pop teams out of the sport. I started driving midgets in the 80's and so did a lot of the guys I've worked for and with over the years, so I have a big soft spot for them. I owned my own **** and had an open trailer. We used to have organizations everywhere (Buckeye, MARA, SLMRA, just to name a few) and about 25-30 cars just about everywhere you went. Sure, a lot of them were older, but they weren't obsoleted overnight, like now. There were Cosworths, Sescos, Chevy IIs, VWs, V-6s, Gaertes, Eslingers and god only knows what else. We went from having a lot of cars at TH for the Hut, to having about 36 (IIRC) the last year we ran midgets (with the V-4 boat anchor with clutch and starter). The one constant? IMO, it was 16th and Georgetown pandering to the the big boys to make it more of an "elite" series. They never gave a crap about the little guy and they still don't. There's a lot more behind it than just that, but this is long enough already.

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Originally Posted by Jonr:
Dude, my pain meds have me on a roll. If you going to call me out at least know who in the world I am. Could it be more than one person does not like your ignorant rants. I get tired of people bashing USAC but yet they have binders on about other series that have issues. I also get tired of the SC faithful that think that USAC is trying to kill the series. If the gold crown cars would have worked, it had the possibility of being a huge series playing in front of huge tracks. Fuel sponsor for the series,how is that a bad idea. Taking the series to a new track, where it could be on the same weekend as an iconic race, how is that a bad idea? Maybe the problem is not USAC, but the crappy SC cars themselves.

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I agree with you when comes to the "experts" on here that constantly bash USAC, many times with false imformation, but I don't think they are crappy cars. I don't think there are very many people who are interested in owning or racing the ones they own. They are also not as appealing to people, and are a niche audience.I think it is real funny when people blame the people who run USAC now for the new pavement cars, when they changed leadership after that failed. It is tough for any series to draw cars like the old days. Take the Knoxville Nationals. I can remember going there and they talked of capping entries at 100 per qualifing night. Now they don't get 100 total. It is no ones fault, its just the way it is. The only way I see to fix it, is to lower the cost to compete in every class, but that ain't going to happen.

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

Jonr; Perhaps you should leave the defense of USAC to Brent. He's able to articulate his position effectively and without insult. When you attempt to blame the problems of the SC series on the "crappy" cars, you're not doing USAC any favors. Sadly, just mentioning USAC quickly polarizes any conversation. JMO

Re: Crown on the High Banks. Thoughts?
 

A big CONGRATULATIONS to Tracy Hines and Mark Lightfoot Racing on their win on the high banks at Belleville in the USAC Silver Crown Series!!!
Mark has worked very hard putting together a good Silver Crown program. It's awesome to see they finally got their first win together.