Originally Posted by nowingsjeff:
I was at Southern Iowa Speedway Monday for All-Stars and Tuesday for USAC. Monday's show was typical locked down winged follow the leader garbage. Yet the track prep was really good. They had a full field of winged cars run a lot of laps with NO DUST what so ever, NONE. I was really impressed by that. No dust at a winged race is very rare. So, I'm salivating all day Tuesday thinking how good USAC was going to be on a track prepared the same way. Unfortunately, as the USAC machines were idling around putting heat in the engines the dust was billowing behind and they weren't even on the gas yet!
USAC ran eight heats, with two of them being pretty good racing.The rest of them were OK, but the feature just down right sucked. It was single file on the bottom. The cars were lifting way early and coasting around the turns, especially turns 1 & 2. The stands were packed with winged people that were in the area because of the upcoming Knoxville Nationals. I heard several of them yell that USAC sucks. And in reality that night they did suck, but not because of the sanctioning body or its drivers, but because of the piss poor track. But to those winged fans it was USAC and traditional non winged sprints that was the problem. That's sad, but that was their perception and their perception is their reality.
When USAC is at Knoxville, Southern Iowa Speedway, Lincoln Speedway in PA or other winged havens a pattern has been consistent. That pattern has been dry slick piece of crap track conditions. I don't think its by mistake either, it's by design. Those tracks don't want their regular clientele to see that there's something better than what they see on a weekly basis with their winged cars. Plain and simple, they're scared. Scared their fans will want more traditional sprintcar racing. Something that they can't deliver as most of those winged guys refuse to run sans wings. That's why Williams Grove won't even book USAC, they know it's a better show than their weekly or WoO show.
My feeling is, before USAC signs a contract with these winged tracks in the future, there needs to be a clause in the contract about proper track conditions. If they can't do that, then they shouldn't race there as they aren't doing traditional sprintcar racing any favors. In-fact, they're hurting the sport, just like they did this past Tuesday with many of the people at Southern Iowa Speedway .
Also a shout out to both Robert Ballou & Dave Darland for calling out the track prep guy before the feature, but especially Robert as he really let them have it. I don't care for the politically correct world we live in, so I found his calling them out refreshing.
One of the funniest posts I've read on here in a long time!