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2/16/08, 4:02 AM   #43
Re: USAC Silver Crown News !!
AlkyMadness
AlkyMadness is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 233
 

Wolfe,

Running the Big Cars on tracks smaller than 1/2 mile just isn't practical. These cars need elbow room to put on a first rate show.

As far as running at the IRL tracks, they already do (Richmond, Iowa) and have regularly in the past (Milwaukee). The new gen cars were supposed to run at bigger tracks like Kentucky and Nashville.

TG would not have to drop his Infiniti Pro Series. There is no reason that two races couldn't be run prior to the IRL event. After all, at Richmond, the USAC sprint cars run Friday night and the SC runs late Saturday afternoon prior to the IRL event (of course, this is where SC misses the exposure because it is usually hotter than stink and most of the fans are still in the parking lot tailgating).

Patti, great to hear Oswego wants in. Keeping the IRL tie-in, the best weekend would be when IRL is at the Glen.

But, you raise the spectre of the biggest ***** cards: purse size/sanctioning fees, and travel expenses. I believe this takes us full circle back to why the new gen cars were brought about. Venues were dropping them because there weren't enough paying butts in the seats (although I disagree with TJ that most of the message board complainers didn't support the series; on the contrary, I think most of us on the boards that cared enough to discuss the series were attending the events; but we are of a small number).

You could help the promoter and lower the sanction fee (which would probably mean a lower purse and lower car count; not good) or you can try to expand to the markets where money flows (as in NASCAR venues and crowds) to try and win new fans.

The sad reality is that the SC series might not be economically feasible to exist anymore. It's the old laws of Supply and Demand. But you can only drop your price so much in the effort of boosting demand.

Personally, as much as I'd love to see the SC at all of these new tracks, I think they would be best off staying in the Indiana region and becoming something that people will want to go and see. That's where the cars are and that's where the best fan base is. And who says they have to run at tracks only once a year? Run twice a year. Run two day shows. I know a lot of IOW faithful won't like this, but run with another top series. On pavement, Hooters/ASA/CRA. On dirt, there are a huge number of great dirt late model sanctions. These other series will bring in new fans.

Again, it's a challenge and I will be interested to see where this goes. At least they are doing something about it.