Originally Posted by Charles Nungester:
It always amazes me the number of people who try to convince me to go to things I don't care too.
I actually fell out of Winged racing love. Not the other way around. By the second or third year of my being able to travel. Several Indy tracks had gone Wing mostly and that included Indiana names like Randy and Kelly Kinser, The blands, Huntley, Briscoe, Gordon, Shields, Amati and a few others, not to mention the Ohio Contingent, Jacobs Dean and Kenny, Haud, Reed, R Duncan, Kane, Hewitt and many more. I traveled all over Ohio and Indiana to watch em.
Hoosier Fall Classics were epic don't miss events. Brought in many stars from across the country and yet our locals could compete in many cases and win.
Mid 90s happen and half of those are running few and far between, Drivers retiring. All Stars spin off into regional s with A couple stars in each. By 2010 there wasn't a semi local winged racing star running Wings.
So in essence the sport left me as the closest star in it isn't within a hundred miles. or regular participant in it.
I've always felt a good long green feature in wings is just as good as any. But the heats if the track isn't wide and two groove often have nothing to offer but another hot lap session.
I don't have a Michael Fischesser or Moffatt Garrett or Gaines, Tmez to go watch at the Kings royal anymore. Doesn't mean it's not still a great event, I means I have no connection to it.
Indiana tracks also have few running Wings and racing at home. I've been told by many that if they could turn a $$ profit from it they'd have winged shows. But the belief I have is they dont' because they can't. Kinda like the LM's have become, Three or four series going and a few tracks trying to get two heats worth of cars unless there's 20 to win or more on the line.
I thought the feature at Kokomo was great, Larson could kinda be considered local and even though Peck left to pursue Wings, WHo could ask for more than that battle.
What happened first? Did Indiana tracks go non wing or did the drivers leave?
I had a car back in that era and I remember the tracks going non wing, with one reason & maybe the biggest one was they could have a lower purse. One promoter you & I both know personally told me that wings were killing him & the NW guys would run for less. Heck and that’s still the case a lot of times, many times it seems a show that pays less will have a fair amount more cars than a competing race that pays more.