racerdog45: The picture you have in your signature line brings back great memories for me!

I know different drivers were in those cars through the years...but it is probably Rich Vogler in the Elder 55, and Tom Bigelow in the Armstrong 43....both of them were INDY veterans......long before the abortionized versions of the Champ Cars.


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INDY used to be the ultimate goal for open wheel drivers in this country. The steps needed to get there have been in place for MANY years......midgets, and then sprint cars at places like Dayton, Salem, and Winchester. Prove yourself there, and you got a shot at INDY....you didn't need to be running a 3rd different kind of car on a 1 mile or 1.5 mile paved track....those tracks were for the INDY cars only.

Dirt tracks of 1 mile were included in the National Driving Championship. Then USAC concieved the Silver Crown/Champ Dirt Car series..basically the start of splitting the dirt cars away from the championship trail...and they started to cut their own throats.

USAC started the huge divide between the sprint and midget drivers, and the road to INDY. They cut off the fan base connection, and they cut off the well known driver connection. Now, each May, a huge percentage of drivers are from foreign countries. The US born drivers have very little, to no oval experience, and no dirt experience at all.

The IRL started out as a great idea! Then, the owners stepped on their own wee-wees.....so now it's a foerigner series again.

These funky looking 'Gold Crown' cars are going to do nothing as far as getting the USAC/WoO/ASCoC, etc. drivers to INDY.