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It's just a sign of the times. Because of gas prices and inflation that washington say's does not exist yet money for play is drying up. It would cost us $250.00 to get to the races at 35 and back. We need to look at ways to make mini sprints more affordable. Salem has switched to 1000cc this year also throwing the 600's out of a place to race. There are other tracks out there trying to siphon off the 1000 cc cars from both amsa and mmsa. I would say for the next 2 years or so we will try to stay closer to home and look for someone to help share costs with going to the races.
Indiana and ohio have always been the hot bed of 600 cc racing. Salem had about 30 to 40 cars a night 10 years ago and old 35 could do about the same and linton could get 20 or so. Most of these cars are still out there sitting with 600 motor still in them. Back in those day's the weight was 725lbs car and driver. This was great if you had a 95 lb driver, but sucked for the 200 lb man trying to race. The weight was gradually raised to what it is today to help the bigger person, and has helped a bunch.
A light 725 lb 600 can give a 1000 cc weighing 950 lbs a real run for the money on the smaller tracks. We use to run with the 1200 back in the day.
I can still remember aj running 5th in a feature at bloomington with a stock honda f2 aganist a bunch of amsa 1200 fire breathing orient express hand granades. The next time we tried to run with them was 16th street (a real bull ring) and they said we coundn't because we would be in their way, go figure. Anyhow what im trying to say is it's mostly all about weight. Drop the 600cc weight back to 725 lbs and raise the 1000 cc weight to 1000 lbs and you would probably see some kid winning a few races with a little old 600 cc car that is as old as old as they are. When the kid grows up all they have to do is get a bigger motor and keep on racing i have 2 old 600cc cars in my barn that would love to be out racing, but if i don't have a chance of winning i'll just keep on looking at them, (they don't eat nothing). If the rules changed i bet more of these old cars would get out of the barns and car counts would go up. We might also set a weight for 750 cc motor's at about 775 lbs and find one or two other cars out there.
We are the next step up from quarter midgets and when a kid makes heavy dad is looking for for other ways to start that race car. That is one of the reason i'm looking at back surgery now. A few laps around the track with a flooded "aa" could kill you. If your next move is to midgets or sprints why would you want to move to a 600 cc go kart and then start over again with set up etc. With this bad economy we could grow mini sprints. We are about the best bang for the buck out there we just have to promote it and get the word out.
We can do it with weight
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