When did USAC Sprints become a support class? I hate this idea. I espically hate the potential conflict with the Belleville Midget Nationals.
It would seem that after this weekends Gold Crown that everyone (USAC, POWRI, Badger, ADRC, etc) would be working on ways to create more special events. The four groups should get togehter and create several "non-conflict" races. Belleville, Gold Crown, Fireman Nationals, Hut Hundred, USAC midget week, POWRI money week, etc. It was evident that there are still a ton of great midget cars. We just need to work on ways to get them all together. Not ways to hurt midget racing.
Ask anyone who was at the Gold Crown, and they will tell you what a great race it was. No one was complaining about the race format, No one was complaining about the admission price. It was just a great race that had everyone excited about midget racing. When I pulled in Thursday and notice that the amount of campers had almost doubled from last year, I knew it was going to be a specail weekend. Next year should be even better. This is the type of racing that we need to build on. Not spliting the talent because of petty ********.
Originally Posted by dkdorkboy:
Tentative Knoxville schedule has the non wingers on Saturday nite with 360 nationals finals.Good move ya think?
So, will they run three classes that night? This year they ran their weekly 410 winged cars with the 360 show. The pits were really crowded, even with no haulers. I don't see how they'd be able to stuff in another 25-30 cars. It's also going to suck having to unload/reload the haulers as well.
They are running a 'Prelude to the Nationals' race on Sunday night for winged 410s... so I'm guessing that Sat night will just be the E-D-C-B-A features for 360 Nationals and full USAC program. They unload the trailers and put them outside so fans can see the backstretch. An inconvenience, but for good reason!
I'll be there both nights anyway, so it is no big deal for me! However, the 360 nats crowd was much larger than the Sunday night crowd. After 3 nights of 360 races, their supporters and families were headed for home, while mostly the people staying all week were there for the non-wing race. I think that this could expose a few extra fans to the USAC drivers and style that we get to enjoy here in IN.
Terrible for a lot of reasons. Conflicts with Belleville, wings and no wings need different track prep, predict a lousy USAC show after the 360s wear out the track. Does this mean the new promoter at Knoxville is trying to make a name for himself by changing the program? I doubt you will get many more fans on Saturday with a split show but they may think they can get a bigger crowd Sunday with wings. Remember a few years ago they ran the non-wing cars from Osky on Wednesday with the first night of the Nationals and they had no track at all to race on and they never did that again. They just need two different types of track to put on a good show as was proven at Osky this year when they had a wet track for the wings and a dry,slick track for the USAC show and ended up with two lousy shows.
Part of this may be driven by the fair board trying to get another night of winged racing to make as much money in the 10 days of 360 and 410 Nationals as they can to cover the losses on their weekly shows. I just think it's a bad idea but you need to remember Knoxville is the Mecca of winged sprint car racing and most of the people still think that since the wing cars are so much faster that they are better. The first year of the USAC show at Knoxville I heard more than one person remark that they had never seen sprint cars race three wide. That pretty much tells the tale right there.
Originally Posted by ColoradoFan:
Terrible for a lot of reasons. Conflicts with Belleville, wings and no wings need different track prep, predict a lousy USAC show after the 360s wear out the track. Does this mean the new promoter at Knoxville is trying to make a name for himself by changing the program? I doubt you will get many more fans on Saturday with a split show but they may think they can get a bigger crowd Sunday with wings. Remember a few years ago they ran the non-wing cars from Osky on Wednesday with the first night of the Nationals and they had no track at all to race on and they never did that again. They just need two different types of track to put on a good show as was proven at Osky this year when they had a wet track for the wings and a dry,slick track for the USAC show and ended up with two lousy shows.
Part of this may be driven by the fair board trying to get another night of winged racing to make as much money in the 10 days of 360 and 410 Nationals as they can to cover the losses on their weekly shows. I just think it's a bad idea but you need to remember Knoxville is the Mecca of winged sprint car racing and most of the people still think that since the wing cars are so much faster that they are better. The first year of the USAC show at Knoxville I heard more than one person remark that they had never seen sprint cars race three wide. That pretty much tells the tale right there.
Vern Plotts
Vern,
I can't believe the track was prepared any different from the 360 race night on Sat to the USAC and 305 winged night on Sun.
But like it or not, it's their sand box and we have just been invited to come play. I ran their sometimes back when it was a non wing track in the late 70's, when I first started racing.....so I have had a pipe dream of some kind of Silver crown, sprint and midget weekend like the 4 crown...or even the gold crown......but I don't think Knoxville will ever leave their wing guys out, do to their faithful attendance each week of 305/360/410 drivers. I think you are right though of them changing the schudule around to get better attendance for Sunday.
I give up 