Originally Posted by davex:
I am a huge fan of sprint car racing but also like going to races and watching guys move up in their career to sprint cars. My question is this. How much does TQ midgets, AMSA mini sprints, Micros, etc. help when adapting to driving a sprint? Several UMRA standout drivers have adapted well to the sprints like past Bloomington Speedway champion Derek Schefel (sp?) and just recently Nick Spiedel (sp?) has made it look easy to adapt to sprints. Several have also came from AMSA such as Shane Cottle and recently Coleman Gulick. I think AMSA champion Jason Soudrette would do very well in a sprint as well. Several have also came from micros and adapted well to sprints. How much does it really help coming up through the ranks into sprints? Would sprint car racing suffer if guys could not get experience in other ranks first?
Obviously I'm biased....but this summary of a statement came straight from the horses mouth about 12 years ago. The horse being Tony Stewart...."TQ's are harder to drive than Sprints or Midgets, sure they aren't as fast, but thats just it, they dont have the power to pull yourself out of a situation and with the narrower wheel base, they react much quicker than anything else."
That being said, I'm not saying Dave Darland, BC, or Coondog couldn't get in my TQ and win.