Well put Pat.
Most tracks that HIRED a sanctioning body to put on a race do not rehire that group if they do not make money.
People should look at it this way. A promoter hires a group -- whether it be USAC, UMRA, HOSS, IMCA, World of Outlaws -- to provide an entertaining program for which he can sell tickets. If they do not provide enough performers (drivers and teams) or the show is boring, that generally does not help sell tickets the next time.
Jim Morrison

If you're coming to New England (:-)), Thompson CT is the place. It's a real 5/8, and you can see that the shape is great. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...01605&t=h&z=16

OK, how about the James/O'conner race at Salem becoming a Silver Crown event? I wonder what kind of a field it would draw? How about the crowd?
My best guess is that, properly promoted, it would be a big hit! It might even prompt the Hoffmans to drag out their pavement "Champ Car."
:69:

The Silver Crown cars have ran at Salem -- it didn't go well.

I think from an owner/driver perspective, this is one of the problems with USAC. How many professional USAC teams are there really? Professional to me, means you make money at what your doing, sorry to break it to you, but aside from the teams with large sponsorships, your not going to make money racing USAC. The cars, tires, fuel, spares, hauler, hotels, food, travelling costs are too much. On top of this if you don't own your own stuff, you pay BIG $$$ to drive other peoples equipment. There is no way finishing top 10 or top 5 every night along with a few wins would cover even half of the expense.
USAC needs to cater to the regular 'joes' racing, not everyone has a Chevrolet sponsor, not everyones Dad owns a large corporation, some people race because they like doing it, not because they hope to be in NASCAR in 5 years (which by the way, I think the door was shut a long time ago, if BC cant stay,than no one can)
Everything is backwards right now, the cost to run a car is going up, and purses are going down.

"Regular Joe" racing is happening all over the place. So do you want a bunch of weekend warriors to be racing USAC (and not being able to travel, or race during the week, because of work), or do you want a core group of guys who are doing it for a living? I don't think any car owner expects to make money. I always thought the point of being financially successful in life was to be able to spend it on things like racing?!

Whether the NASCAR door is shut or opens at some point, USAC should not worry about "moving up" any drivers. The series needs to be healthy enough to sustain drivers, and when a young driver can come along and compete with and beat that stout group of professionals racing the series, they will get looks regardless of what the series does for them.

We're talking here about trying to make this series work for the guys like Darland, Coons, Hines, Jones, Gardner, etc. that deserve to make very good money at this level. Forget getting to any other level or people who buy their way into rides or something like that - money is not of concern to them. If the money is there, the prestige is there, and if it's affordable enough (with the rising purse taken into account) that these full-time teams can keep running, "regular joes" will also want to run because that's the challenge that every good driver wants to take.

Does that make sense?

Pat:
Oh well, there goes my brainstorm!
Just wondering what you meant by " it didn't go well". Field, crowd, racing?

Why cant a Danny Holtsclaw or a Jeff Bland, Jr., or a Kenny Niflis be able to have a shot at USAC? On any given day, anyone can beat anyone.

I have always been critical of usac. Yes we are in a very bad economic time, but this is when the local racers help you through. At several tracks, local drivers see all the extra cost just to get in the gate, and decide to take the week off. figure out how to get the local racers back, and it will revitalize the series. Right now a track is better to have a non sanctioned race because they will drawl more cars.

As for Salem - they had something like 12 cars show up