Ok Don hear me out...

I do have a horse in this race so I will tell you how it will effect us. We won't run any pavement races next year. Why??? Because it just made our pavement car illegal. You may ask why not make the dirt car legal to run??? Well now you are asking me to spend a few thousand dollars to make this happen..... Motor plate to move motor in dirt car, new bars ( and need a few till you figure out what the dirt cars need) shocks, plumbing, motor plate. All this with a pavement car that is useless staring at us... Is it a step in the right direction... Maybe, time will tell. Is status quo the right way??? No. I will agree with that. There are parts of this announcement that are progressive and I agree with. But when you ask someone in times as tough as this country is in to sit and stare at $20,000 that is now worthless, and then spend at least $3000 to run with a combo (dirt) car, I think you may and I say may lose more cars than you will gain.

But then again I can always take the advice of all the whiners on the computer and just not go... But is that the answer???

I would love to talk with people in BCRA, or Capital City or anyone on some holes I see in the rule that should be addressed before the smart ones take to the rulebook and make is more expensive than it already is. IM me and I would love to talk to some about this.

Another thing the best part of the new rule package and I mean the best part is.........NO TESTING FROM THE START OF THE SEASON TO THE END OF THE SEASON PERIOD. This should be a rule in all organizations!

That is not true, the BCRA did not make pavement cars illegal. You can still race your pavement car, you just have to get 55% left side weight and can only use one cockpit adjustment device, and run the spec RR tire.

If you choose to run a pavement car and a dirt car you will most likely have trouble winning an owners championship. The driver championship can still be won by utilizing two cars. So with that being the case I am not sure how you figure your car is illegal.

What you wrote about needed to do to you dirt car..... that is part of the problem (no offense intended). The thought process behind the changes is to get back to being a dirt organization that runs a few races on pavement. Take your dirt/combo car change the shocks, bars and front axle then go race. Don't pull the engine and change the offset from dirt, don't swap the rear end, don't do any of that.

What you are seeing is the first year of changes that hopefully will get the BCRA back to a single car teams being competitive and there are some holes that will need to be filled. The changes they made were bold, but with the attempt to not exclude anyone. As for how many cars will it cost v. gain, have you been to a BCRA pavement race lately? As Rick Faeth said in a board meeting, "could it really get worse?"

But in the end they did not make any car illegal, motors yes, but not cars.

I am sure that Rick Holbrook would love to hear your thoughts, his email and phone number are on the BCRA website. As I am the Capital City Midgets and working to progress the concept of ASCS Midgets in this area, I am always available and ready to talk.

Give me a call,
Rick
916-717-3122

interesting

again you made it illegal unless we are willing to spend money. The same thing you are attempting to not make us do. I will come by and see you at Petaluma to show you I am not just a keyboard jockey!!! I like a few of the rules but in this economy you have made it impossible to race pavement unless we spend money.

WOW....BCRA....
With Midget racing in California on Life support I do believe you just pulled the plug.

Its a shame that your Board and Officials are so affraid of competition and giving up some of their power at Co-sanctioned races that they kill midget racing.

With 8 midgets and 4 Focus powered cars promoters and Track Owners will be beating down your doors to book you....

Best of Luck to you

Honestly nor the Board or Officials are afraid, why would they be..... the membership was not supporting the shows. In case you missed it the group has been pulling about around 20 cars for their dirt races. But only about 3-4 for the pavement shows..... it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that the membership does not support the joint shows.

By the way, not that anyone has to answer to you but tomorrow night in Placerville we expect 25+ cars.

Once again, the idea is to get the cars racing on dirt back on the pavement. You must have missed that point in your desire to slam the BCRA.

With that said, I am curious why the BCRA would be responsible for killing midget racing by trying something new... following USAC's lead has put "Midget racing in California on Life support" (your words). So by definition by doing nothing you are allowing a sport to perish.

I would venture to say that this move is going to hurt USAC more than the BCRA, and based on your affiliation I am sure that is why you have issue with it. Keep in mind they have not outlawed any car, the DMS cars are still legal. They have just decided to move a different direction. Also based on your affiliation you are not even BCRA members... so why do you care?

In closing we took the Focus cars to Shasta to support Rick, and he thanked us. Your joint BCRA/USAC show (that you value so) was not that great of a show anyways, not like we made it any worse.

WOW, getting a little personal here aren't we. Rick, I have not had the pleasure of meeting you, but I applaud your efforts with the Capital City group. Too bad this economy has slowed your growth prospects some what.

I think there is enough blame to go around in the California midget scene, BCRA and USAC. As a former BCRA car owner, driver and YES official and as a current USAC member, I know the history here. NUTTY was making a personal obsevation which is what I did earlier in this post AND which is what IOW allows us to do. Maybe he worded his a little stronger than mine, but I don't know that I disagree that much. I can tell you one thing I am not anti any group. I will not speak for Marc and DMS because it is not my place, but from what I have witnessed, neither is Marc. If you saw how much time he has spent on the phone over the last two years trying to get cars to support BOTH groups you would be ammazed.

This move by BCRA has been in the works for sometime and I was hoping that BCRA and USAC would colaberate on these changes, but I guess not. YES these changes are major for pavement cars. I'm not the chassis guy, but these new rules are going make these cars very diffferent animals. Which is what BCRA wanted I guess, and making them pretty much useless outside California.

What I'm wondering about are the guys like DeGeorge, Bedford, Dickerson, Nichols and Chevello that all have newer or new pavement cars to compete with BCRA AND USAC. What are they to do? This was a crittical discision by the board at BCRA. and lets face it, some of the POSITIVE posts have been from groups that will gain the most, your club and Revolution Racing. I don't blame you at all, but I think some of these issues were not thought out well.

Was any on track testing done to see what effects this makes? How will it be enforced? Scales at the track for total weight are one thing, but checking left side weight accuratly? Again, I DO NOT KNOW, but as a former official, I would like some of these issues addressed BEFORE a rule was placed in effect. Maybe there was, maybe not.

There are a core group of people in BCRA that still believe that midget racing should be out of open trailers with Sescos and Pontiacs and there are those who want racing to be racing based on hard work and engineering and yes that does take money,but more importantly it takes PREPARATION, EFFORT and DESIRE. If all you do after each race is load your trailer go home and then not unload your trailer until you come back to the track at the next race you will not win no matter how many rules are created to level the playing field.

I wish BCRA all the luck in the world. I truelly want them to succeed because I like midget racing PERIOD.They have taken a very bold step and only time will tell what will happen. As for me, I'll stick with hard work and preparation because I KNOW for fact that money isn't the only key to winning.

Ryoung..I dont know you and you don't know me..My views and opinions are my own and have nothing to do with DMS..

I will respond to a couple of your points, even though I don't have to..
I have supported BCRA since the late 80's either by membership or pit passes be it stand alone or co-sanctioned races...

I never said that BCRA is solely responsible for Miget racing being on Life support, both clubs as far as I'm concerned have their Heads up their ***..
So when you say " Affiliation" I have none..I just want to see Midget racing survive on the West coast and spreading these 2 clubs futher a part will not do it..

Its great that "WE" will have 25 cars tonight, without 2 Clubs competing against each other, you will get that good of a car count..

In your comments you use the word "WE" alot...So, are you the mouth piece of the BCRA ?

I have comments about the Shasta race but Ill save them..Its nice that you supported Rick because he is a good guy...

In closing next time you want to speak to me like you know me, dont..

We = I am a member of the BCRA and it is a club, thus we.

Apologies if I offended you, but I read your previous posts about being a part of DMS (so it was not a stretch to think you have an affiliation). I have met Mark once and he is a nice enough guy and do not know him either (nor do I know his thought on any of this) but it was my belief that he is a USAC supporter and does not support the BCRA shows and I would suspect that this change did not sit well with him.

But let's not kid ourselves I am keenly aware of the BS that has gone on about boycotting shows that were not joint USAC shows etc. (i.e the BCRA opener at Shasta). That is what hurts midget racing in this area.

I assure you my post was not meant to be any more personal than you blaming the BCRA board for "killing midget racing in California" and calling them cowards (ok you said they were afraid of competition, basically the same thing).

Best wishes,
Rick

btw, feel free to introduce yourself or post your name so I will know who I am addressing.

I'am glad too see someone is is taking the right steps and getting midget racing back on track! One car for dirt & pavement!!!!!