A certain indoor race this weekend is running an ecotec midget class. Rules have been opened up a bit to allow some low dollar backyard ingenuity to compete with some $12,000 spec engines and such. Great idea right???

Rules have been posted on website for quite awhile. Other than weight, RR tire, and general engine platform rules there is a fairly open rule book.

After hotlaps concluded one of the rules was suddenly changed. The weight rule was reduced by 75 pounds. I have to wonder why.

Now a "sportsman, economy" midget platform which utilizes a production car engine...an engine that weighs significantly more than a national midget engine, suddenly is on the same minimum weight rule as PowrI and USAC.

Was it because the big name cherry pickers were upset that the 10 grand worth of titanium options on their cars meant they would have to add weight? Was it because somebody with a really low dollar car was way too fast in hotlaps? Does anybody know the reason this rule was changed between hotlaps and heat races? And why there was such a drastic change?

I know for a fact that there are guys who put together a very standard car, with no titanium, and light to average size drivers, who were at the minimum weight or 10-20 pounds over it.

Now instead of being a couple gallons of fuel heavy, they are 120# pounds heavier than some of the cars they will be competing against.

I think this is absolutely ridiculous. Don't make such a drastic change during an event. Don't let sportsman, econo type cars be as light as the fastest, highest budgeted midgets in the country. Everybody had every opportunity to read the 2 rules that pertained to the class well ahead of time and make their cars legal. And it has to be much much easier for a high dollar team to add a few pounds to a car than it does for a low dollar team to shave 100 pounds overnight.

I really want to know what IOW readers think about this. Wayne Davis I wonder how you feel about a change like this as passionate as you are about this type of racecar.