Originally Posted by LEADERS EDGE:
The reason there are more flips today is because guys aren't afraid to put a wheel or nerf bar into someone or someone runs overs someone else's wheel. You see very few cars crash today because they biked up.
A spec series doesn't make any sense to me. By having rules then you must have someone to enforce the rules and check all of the cars to make sure they are legal.
So you purchase or lease this motor, but then you run for a lesser purse. On top of that, you will then start pulling the bottom level cars from the regular field. Instead of having 30 cars, now you have 23-28 regular sprints and 15-18 spec sprints. I'm not saying some guys who run a mini or micro won't just step over, but you will lose some regular cars.
Lets say you are leasing the motor. That is $5000 plus and then you buy a used roller that costs $4500-$5000. You are roughly $10,000 in plus you need spares. Spares will run another $1500-$5,000.
You can buy someones complete car and sometimes all of the spares for between $15,000 and $20,000. Is $5,000 really the difference between running a sprint or not? With that money you have your choice of running 6 different tracks in Indiana. If the motor does perform as well as they say, then you can just take that $10,000 car and run the regular tracks anyway and for the same purse.
As far as saving money on the shocks and parts, come on; Kevin Briscoe, Jon Stanbrough, and Dave Darland all kick ass because they are great drivers, not because of the 6 clicks they put in the left front. I'm not saying great shocks don't help, but those guys all won before adjustable shocks. They help, but drivers win races.
The common refrain is:"We need to put the race back in the drivers hands". As long as there is a gas pedal in a sprint car, it will always be in the sole of the drivers foot. Meaning that the guy who can control his car the best on any given night, 9 out of 10 times is the winner.
I have to believe that Indiana is the toughest place anywhere in the country to weekly race a sprint car. With the rules(or lack of)abundance of tracks and availability of cheap second or third hand parts, It also thas to be the most affordable state to race a sprint car.
The fall out from all of this unfortunately also results in extremely low purses. Adding another class at a cheaper purse runs the risk of losing what little foot hold teams have now in terms of purse structure. If a track sees that it can get 20-25 cars and pay 75% of the current purse, the current cars could quickly become expendable and while you have lowered your costs by a few dollars, you have also lowered your purse by 25%.
I could be wrong and none of that would happen, but promotors are always looking for cheaper shows that can make the same buck.
We have it so good here compared to te other areas where sprints are run, we don't even realize it.
YOU DON'T GET IT! GET RID OF THE 410 HIGH DOLLAR ENGINE THAT YOU RACING FOR $1000 TO $1500 IN IND. AND RACE A ENGINE FOR $5600 A YEAR! NOT TWO CLASS'S ONE COST SAVING CLASS WITH OVER 700 HORSE POWER!:redflag: