That ST Esslinger possibly could be for less money than $22,000 but apparently that is what they are going to get for this series. The engine prices I have heard recently for an low end Esslinger that is competitive but yet "cheap" is around $22-23. I don't know of anyone running the cheapest Esslinger available. Maybe someone can clear up the exact price for us. Regardless, I'm still standing by my proposal that the engines cost no more than $10-12,000 considering the purse that is offered.

Regarding banning of current engines: Go back and read what I have to say about rebuild costs. Let's assume that you must rebuild the engine every 15 races. I have a fresh Mopar engine in my garage that has a bill of sale of $7600 for a rebuild that took place on the West Coast before I bought it. Nothing special was done to the engine for the price. A standard rebuild. That's $2400 short of a new engine according to my proposal. And BTW, this is the same money figure that is proposed by Kevin Miller of USAC.. this was heard on the D.O. radio show several months ago. If a new engine is available for $10-12, it would make sense to discard the current engine for the long run. AND LOOK AT ALL THE MONEY TEAMS THAT GET FREE ENGINES!!! YEAH... FREE ENGINES. Somewhere along the line the terminal cancer that is eating away at midget racing has to be stopped or we will never move forward. That is a fact. THE MIDGET RACING COMMUNITY IS IN MAJOR DENIAL RIGHT NOW! Yes, there will always be the 10-12 zillionaires following the National Trail, but if you look at the trend of midget racing in general across the country there are more deals going down than up. For example, the Wisconsin group has been in decline for 10 years now. did they see the end coming along the way? I guess not. I was totally blasted on the internet a couple years back for predicting what they are going through. If they would have listened instead of continuing on their merry way, maybe things would be different.

Regarding the pit pass and entry fees: I am hearing MORE AND MORE from owners and drivers at the tracks talking and OBJECTING to the scam that takes place at the back gate. Would somebody please step up and tell me what promoter has ever publicly defended this practice and gave some hard evidence of why they have to do it? I guess not!!! So all you people that are left defending some promoter doing this... you are speculating with no evidence. There are several promoters that publicly post on here and I have never read one word why this practice continues.