I've read your previous post and understand your argument regarding current engines. Somewhere along the line, something has to give regarding the current makeup of a midget. The current model, despite the success that is happening in ARDC and POWRi, is not working and if that model continues, the sport of midget racing will eventually die. That's quite obvious when you survey the entire picture of midget racing from coast to coast. Is it growing... no. Is it declining.... yes. We can debate that till the cows come home but just reading the posts here on IOW suggests that many fans are growing tired of the product or lack of it (let's see...will 2, 5, 10, 20 cars show up tonight ).

Two things about the fans today: They want to see large car counts at races. Yes, many years ago car counts were around 18-20, but that's not working today. Secondly, it has been proven here on IOW in an unscientific survey that fans don't care about how fast a midget goes around the track. They want to see good side by side racing and keen competition.

Now regarding the Ecotec engine for around $10,000: I just read last night of a race team who has their midget engine for sale in the classifieds and they are claiming they spent $12,000 on a rebuild. I know of these people and I don't think they would put that in the ad if it weren't true. I have a bill of sale here at my house for a rebuild of over $7600. I also currently own 4 midget engines, so I'm also part of the mix.

Now, you very well know that midget engines do not last forever competitively. They must be rebuilt. That is part of the problem. Some have to be rebuilt after only a few races. The bottom line is they are not going to last forever without putting a significant amount of money into them. Yes, I understand that you are rebuilding an engine by yourself, but IMO most teams are not doing that and don't have the capabilities to do that work. So, for example, if you own a Slinger... it's got to be shipped to CA and back to where ever. Even more expense.

Let's assume that you have an engine and it needs a rebuild. It's no longer competitive. So what are you going to do with it? You either spend the money to rebuild or it sits in your garage and you try to sell it for a price minus a rebuild charge. So it's not worth very much in it's present state. Here we go with my point: You either spend $7600-12,000 (insert ur own figure if you want) or you could buy a new engine that's supposed to last for up to 100 races for $10,000+ and use over he counter parts, saving even more money in the long run.

What are you going to do with the old engine? Well... the automobiles that we drive are somewhat in the same boat. Declining value each year. What are you going to do with them when they wear out? Same thing. You provided a large money figure that would be spent on new engines. Well... that same amount would be put to a new engine that uses less expensive parts and lasts 20 times longer. This sounds like a win-win situation to me over the long haul. Much cheaper engines and maintenance equals more race cars in service, more revenue for track owners and larger car counts for the fans.

When I first started watching midgets race they had 110 Offy's. That's a long ways from the current cubes of 166+. Is the racing today any better today than it was back then? Well... some people would say yes. I would have to say there is no difference. I enjoyed it back then and I enjoy the present cars also. Is a more powerful engine going to put more fans in the stand. I don't think so. Will more cars at the track and better racing side by side do it. Yes.