1st. Im not a fan first, I myself race.. and have ran an upright a time or 10.. Never dabbled in midgets because I figured if I was gonna spend that kind of money, it would be on a sprint car.. 2nd. Nope, personally I dont care if you add to your "collection" or not.. I just find it a little funny you complain so much about the cost yet break out a midget that is capable of winning usac shows for a 700 to win gig, then want to some how justify getting the car counts higher by adding cars to the line up that have NO business being there.. Yes for the 10 millionth time on a small track yea, its possible.. it is what it is.. we can argue it all day long. Has to be a reason they DONT do this often at all..

and to the other guy who posted how he thumped them in his heat.. if you read previous posts on it, we agreed on small tracks, its the 1/4 and above that im talking about.. Show me a 1/4 mile or larger that a minisprint beat a full blown midget.. and not because of part failure.. I mean plain out run one.. again, call usac or power I.. ask them..

Why don't you give a rest 9racing, if you don't want to take your mini and run with the midgets then stay home. I race at US24 all of the time and unfortunately didn't get to see the race, but I heard the whole night was pretty exciting. Congrat's to all of the winners that night. Actually what were the times of the 600 Non-wing compared to the midgets?

I'm not quite getting it with 9racing. He wasn't at any of the shows, he thinks teams like mine can go out and buy cars at the drop of a dime and those that have seen the competition of a mix of various midgets overwelmingly endorse this type of racing.... and why don't you tell us who you are? If you're hiding behind one of your expensive $40,000 midgets engines that are being out motored by a cheap cycle engine, i can understand your frustration. If you read a previous post about the racing at US24, there was an expensive state of the art Esslinger that couldn't catch the cheap cycle engine. How 'bout that!!! With midget racing in general on the ropes, we need fresh ideas to pump some life back into the sport. Here is a format that is working and could be part of the saviour of midget racing. Let's keep an open mind. Yes.... It's hard to let go of what we know as tradition, but time moves forward and we need to look at new ways to get midget racing back on track. Is it that the establishment feels threatened by the success of these races?

The races Saturday night were run with NO TIRE RULE, REASONABLE PIT PASS FEE, NO ENTRY FEE AND THERE WAS A RECORD CROWD TO SEE THE COMPETITION... and there were 21 midgets there and that's more than the USAC show at Columbus, OH drew on the same evening.

Sounds like a winning formula that needs to be explored and nurtured.

Quite possibly the future of midget racing is mini sprints. I raced at 24 saturday as well. We had a great night and enjoyed the big crowd and tight competition. Last saturday night was the third time this summer we raced with the midgets, at no point did we see a midget that couldnt be beat.

I think there is a place for a run what you brung type of deal. I don't believe it has any place in USAC or Powri, but there isn't any thing wrong with it.

I watched the Mini's take it to the Midgets at an All Star show in the early 90's, but as they say:That was then and this is now. The Mini's haven't really changed much since then and the Midgets are at least twice as good today as they were then.

Like anything else; perception is what it is. If you percieve the Minis are as good as the standard midget, then that is your reality.

My personal belief is that if you ran a series combining both in a run whatcha brung style, the midgets will assert themselves fairly early and it will be hard for a Mini to win more than 10 percent of the shows.

In todays world of car counts over quality mentality and the state of Indiana being as Sprint car heavy as it is, then if you want to have a Mini/Midget combo group; I say go for it.

My question is: How many races will it take if one type of car is dominant over another style before those with the style of car that is being beaten starts to complain that it isn't fair and they go off and start running somewhere else because they can't take it.

At this point it is starting to appear that Don is the Steve Lewis of this type of racing. C'mon Don; stop bringing you're superior cars over and picking on these low buck guys who just want to have fun. You have a whole stable of cars verses these guys who just have what they brought to the track. (Amazing how quickly the tables are reversed)

I don't know who had the Esslinger there, so I may be wrong; but without seeing the full results it appears that the team with the best funding won the race and runs upfront at every show such as this. Seems to be a common story in racing.

Kinda like the old adage, money talks, and BS walks? Bob

hahahahaha On the Steve Lewis mentality. We have run three of these combo shows so far this season and everyone who has seen or participated in these events has given it a thumbs up. After the first event at Twin Cities there was a thread on IOW with a lot of participation from race fans who were in the stands watching that event. All of them gave the racing a thumbs up.

The only nay sayers that have come on IOW doubting the validity of these race meets are the ones who haven't seen the racing in person. I have not heard, read or talked to one person that was in attendance at one of the three races that didn't endorse the racing that took place.

Scott, contrary to what you think and you weren't at any of these events, these are not slam dunk events for conventional midgets. We ran used tires (a RR that had several races on it, paid a very low pit pass fee and no entry fee). I am not going to give a blow by blow account of what took place at these events, but I will tell you that these races have not been about who spends the most money. In fact overall I spent the least amount of money for the US 24 race than just about any race I've ever entered. The US 24 race was not about money, superior conventional midgets or the Steve Lewis mentality. It was about driver and car setup. In fact I thought going into the feature that we had about a 5% chance of winning based on what I had seen so far for the evening. The competition was tough to say the least. Shane Cottle was just in front of us and there was a major battle for position for seven laps in the feature. Neither Shane or Jacob Wilson could shake out the minis in front of us. But after the tangle, Wilson seemed to rise to the occasion and did a superior job of reeling in the mini. They battled for several laps and finally he got the lead for good. The fact is that Jacob's driving, his bro Clint turning the wrenches and advice from Mike Cray via cell phone on setup.. the three of them combined got the job done and we won. It was not a walk in the park. Furthermore, Cottle, who was involved in the wreck, went to the tail and there were 13 laps left of racing. If it was a walk in the park, Cottle would have driven past everyone and won the race. That didn't happen.

Is this even serious? Don is happy because he's found races he can win, and the guys he's racing against are happy because they are just micro guys who want to have fun, and shoot, they're not supposed to beat the full midget anyway. BTW, 13 laps to come from the back on a track like Logansport is not very much time. The place is tiny. And why was this big super-team with the Esslinger not named? Come on, Don - with the right driver in the car, the best car can always be beaten by an inferior unit.

I think it actually hurts the grand scheme of things when full midgets will go and race for such miniscule purses after begging for larger payouts.

Uh... Were you there? Apparently not. That makes three nay sayers on this thread who weren't there drawing negative conclusions about what took place. Mind telling us who you are? I don't know anybody by the name of Quiktime3.

Just for your information only, we won as much cash as the THIRD PLACE FEATURE CAR at the USAC National event at Columbus, Ohio held the same night. and if I'm not mistaken, we won MORE money than the THIRD PLACE FEATURE CAR at a POWRi event and I didn't have to travel 500+ miles each way to participate.

---------- Post added at 03:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:26 PM ----------

Jerry Coons Jr. drove one of my cars at an ARDC race at Grandview Speedway, started 18th, and was in the lead by the tenth lap AGAINST ALL CONVENTIONAL MIDGETS. Have anything else you'd like to put a spin on?

What did 3rd pay? Was it as much as the USAC and POWRI show?
What did it pay to start.

A Devils advocate argument could be made that this is no different than a Lewis or TSR deal. A $23,000(When it was new) high upkeep motor used to win $700. Against a bunch of smaller teams that don't have that kind of budget.

Actually, the motors' cost used was probably still more than some of the others whole operation. Then on top of that, a top USAC shoe and crew chief was brought in to do the driving and spin the wrenches. I don't know Don; sounds pretty much the same to me.(This generations Lewis/East/Stewart if you ask me) It's all a matter of situation and perception.

Like I said, If promotors go for it....why not.