Looking through my twitter account today I saw a flyer for Powri national midget series at I55 in Pevely Missouri this weekend. Now I also saw plenty of ads for the Belleville Midget Nationals. How can this be? I understand that these are 2 different sanctions but Belleville is supposed to be the crown jewel of midget racing. Why would you schedule against it? IMO, this does nothing but hurt both races.
Since I was a kid, Belleville has always been a "bucket list" race for me. I haven't made it yet but I still hope to if midget racing doesn't destroy itself first with stupid moves like this.
Just an opinion here
You've got 2 different race modes. Belleville is big, wide & fast. It eats engines so you're going to get the USAC teams chasing points and the smaller team chasing a payday. If memory serves me it pays $400.00 to take any green flag and $1,000.00 to start
The other group of racers will race at Pevely it will be less stressful on engines and chassis
According to Mapquest it is 473 miles between Pevely and Belleville. I don't think there will be 1 car not go to one or the other race
I've never been to Belleville KS, I have been to Pevely. The midgets will put on a great race at Pevely
As you, Belleville is on my bucket list and I had plans to get there this year. There is a 50% chance of rain so I moved it to next years calendar
I will be at Pevely though
Originally Posted by flagboy55:
Looking through my twitter account today I saw a flyer for Powri national midget series at I55 in Pevely Missouri this weekend. Now I also saw plenty of ads for the Belleville Midget Nationals. How can this be? I understand that these are 2 different sanctions but Belleville is supposed to be the crown jewel of midget racing. Why would you schedule against it? IMO, this does nothing but hurt both races.
Since I was a kid, Belleville has always been a "bucket list" race for me. I haven't made it yet but I still hope to if midget racing doesn't destroy itself first with stupid moves like this.
I don't think you will find any at Pevely that would of gone to Belleville. there will be some at Belleville that would of gone to Pevely but the car count at Pevely should be fine.
The midget clubs probably do not have much to do with this schedule conflict. Belleville date is tied to the local fair there and Powri is running with WOO which I am sure set the date there.
The racing at I55 last year was awesome in both divisions. It is a race I want to hit. Going to watch weather, may go to one or the other or I55 Friday Belleville Saturday.
My post was not intended to slight the program or the racing at I55. It too is a track I hope to see some day. From the highlights I've seen it looks awesome. Often on IOW folks are lamenting the the somewhat withering state of midget racing. I'm of the opinion that a schedule conflict like this does not benefit midget racing in the least. I believe midgets need a race like Belleville, a real national event, like the world 100 for late models or Knoxville for sprint cars. I know someone will say you have the chili bowl, but that's a unique situation in my opinion that has a novelty aspect to it. One of you guys noted that there was considerable distance between the two, and quite frankly, I've grown weary of the whole motor eater argument. I think the sport benefits from an event that disqualifies excuses; instead turning it into the mindset that if I run one big track this year, it's going to be the Belleville Midget Nationals, and if I don't, I want to go watch. And a race that every midget fan in the country tries hard to go see. Doesn't midget racing need a destination race? I think it does, and Belleville has the history and tradition to do it. Belleville is still a bucket list race for me, but when you have the 2 biggest midget sanctions racing at different venues on the same days, well it drops a few spots on my bucket list
Originally Posted by flagboy55:
My post was not intended to slight the program or the racing at I55. It too is a track I hope to see some day. From the highlights I've seen it looks awesome. Often on IOW folks are lamenting the the somewhat withering state of midget racing. I'm of the opinion that a schedule conflict like this does not benefit midget racing in the least. I believe midgets need a race like Belleville, a real national event, like the world 100 for late models or Knoxville for sprint cars. I know someone will say you have the chili bowl, but that's a unique situation in my opinion that has a novelty aspect to it. One of you guys noted that there was considerable distance between the two, and quite frankly, I've grown weary of the whole motor eater argument. I think the sport benefits from an event that disqualifies excuses; instead turning it into the mindset that if I run one big track this year, it's going to be the Belleville Midget Nationals, and if I don't, I want to go watch. And a race that every midget fan in the country tries hard to go see. Doesn't midget racing need a destination race? I think it does, and Belleville has the history and tradition to do it. Belleville is still a bucket list race for me, but when you have the 2 biggest midget sanctions racing at different venues on the same days, well it drops a few spots on my bucket list
I see where you are coming from... it may be though that Belleville is too big of a track requiring too much motor to be THE destination track/venue. Add me to the list of having the Belleville Nationals on their bucket list.
If you are on a Engine deal and a Hoosier deal you can win Bellville and break even!!! You can run 20 + smaller events and refresh your power plant or you can run Bellville and refresh your power plant... But, if you are a spectator, Bellville is amazing to witness.
If every track and every sanctioning bodies would schedule around everybody else's schedule there would be no racing. Number 1 because the fans would have to travel several hundred miles to watch a race with not having options closer to home making their cost go up. 2 tracks would go under because they wouldn't make any money only running 3 times a year. Now it would be nice if tracks within 150 200 mile radius would work together for a special event at each track once year instead of raising the purse to try to take cars away but that's a whole different story for a different day
First off, there are many cars at Belleville that would have been at I55 any other weekend, and conversely there are a couple of cars that would have been at Belleville. (Zach Daum being the biggest name). Belleville High Banks is one of the crown jewels of midget racing. The speeds at that track are amazing especially in a midget. POWRi is the SUPPORT class at I55 this weekend. They are on the track so the WOO Sprint cars can get prepared. There is no reason for POWRi to book itself as a SUPPORT class against one of the crown jewels other than spite.
I doubt powri had the choice to race pevely any other weekend than the world of outlaws weekend. Why not be a support class to world of outlaws? Huge crowd you can show people what midgets can do. I don't see how this is bad for midget racing? Both races will have full fields of cars I think.
