I replied to another thread about the SC cars but wanted to mention it here as well. We have secured the resources to finally go Crown racing. We were in attendance for the Hoosier Hundred to try and get some info from the guys and see how the ethanol thing is going to workout. Needless to say it wasn't what we wanted to see. All I can say is that things will have to take a major turn for the better to make that kind of investment. I think the feature started 21 cars and 10 finished. Out of the 11 DNFs I beleive over half were due to engine problems. I seen TSR cars having trouble just driving thru the pits for hot laps. I think Tyler blew a motor completely. Numerous others were unable to finish due to overheating problems. The racing itself was poor one groove follow the leader. Mainly because the last 75 laps were all green since there's no need for a fuel stop. Or maybe cause they couldn't talk anyone into putting anymore ethanol in the tank. The attendance was a little low. People have mentioned the ethanol didn't have an effect on that. I agree, but with the problems that have arose it will certainly effect car counts, which will have a dramatic effect on attendance from here on. We really want to go SC racing and hope things improve but I do worry that something major will have to change for that to happen and that would involve someone admitting there's a problem. Since the Sprints are USACs bread and butter I'm sure things will be resolved before they implement it across the board but I'm not sure the big cars will survive that long.

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Don't bet on it.

USAC doing something sensible, yeah right.

Here are a few facts...as I like to only respond to those, and not speculation or interpretation:

The initial test, and 100 lap Silver Crown feature at ORP for the Hall of Fame classic, all went very smooth were zero reported problems from fuel.

There were a few, and a very few, who feel they did not get their fuel set-up right for the Hoosier 100. These teams we have been in discussions with and know they have homework to do. This was and is expected with any change. We are closely monitoring the situation with teams and are working on a test day at a dirt track prior to the next dirt track event.

USAC Silver Car owners will receive free fuel for all racing all season.

USAC has added to the purse structures to guarantee a starting pay of $700 at each Silver Crown event.

We have been in communication with many teams who did not compete in 2012. Nearly all teams stated directly to USAC it was not because of fuel change, but because of economic conditions of sponsors or business. This is a trend we have seen throughout all forms of racing in the US in the past few years.

USAC IS NOT MANDATING ENTHANOL FUEL IN SPRINT CAR OR MIDGET RACING IN 2013. We have offered $10,000 bonus's to the top USAC team in National Sprint or National Midget series who uses Ignite Ethanol fuel to get a Top 10 finishing position in our annual points.

Thanks for your passion for our sport! By voicing your opinions, we know that we have a caring and concerned group of fans. We respect your opinions and always desire to hear your voice.

THANK YOU Kevin, for a long time we have heard that no one from USAC looked at this site because it is full of gossip and stories, and admittedly probably 75% true, but on this subject it is mandatory to hear from the man at the top. I hope you know that most all of what is said on here is to hopefully save a historical series, and to be helpfull in doing so. The Hoosier 100 means so much to me, i was probably there in my baby blanket 59 years ago, being that it was also my Dads favorite race. All of us on here hope that changes can be made to smooth the waters, to regain car count and thus fans. Once again, Thanks for keeping an ear to the fans, all the best, bob.

As Bob stated, we do thank you for taking our concerns into account and we do all feel very strongly about this series but I must respectfully disagree with you. The fact is a large majority of the teams are struggling to make sense of this. We feel we have been thrown under the bus while others pockets get larger. Im sure you are aware of the huge redesigns of our current systems that are needed and will surely throw a small bone our way to seem to satisfy the current crowd . I am a common guy who knows where true racers come from and some of your answers make me question if you haven't lost touch with that. In my passion for this series and the good of what usac had represented, I have found that your so called "economically depressed" missing cars across the country aren't as depressed as you think but rather most do not Believe in the direction this series has gone and cannot make dollars and sense enough to make the sacrifices we all make with family and work to support this direction

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In my experience watching the sport in multiple forms, a car owner would say one thing and then within a week stab a guy in the back and say he never said such thing if it serves his interests. Don't believe me? Look at Indycar the past couple weeks.

I'm a design engineer on diesel engines, so I really can't relate to the moaning because designing for the differences of bio-based fuels was started across the industry almost a decade ago and that information is readily available, and engine builders in auto racing should be intelligent people. So can you or someone else please with knowledge of this illuminate this to me, what changes are being made to the current systems?

So I have taken the time to read this entire thread, and I apologize that I have not taken the time to respond before now, but a lot has been going on in my little world that has had to take precedence.

After reading all of this, I do think that a lot of good points are made, but there are others that are made based upon assumptions. I will try to address as many of these concerns as I can, and as honestly as I can.

In February- I posted on here honestly about OUR experience. At that point in time, we had tested the fuel with the only adjustments being: nozzles & fuel settings, and making sure that our engine was near their recommended compression ratio. At that point, we didn't have any heating issues, or really any engine issues.

Between then and now, we have ran an additional fuel test at Lucas Oil Raceway, the 100-lap Hall of Fame race at Lucas Oil Raceway, and the Hoosier Hundred at the Fairgrounds. It is comical to me that people believe others should instantly be all knowing, and have everything calculated to the penny on what to expect with this fuel change. At one point, it appeared that only nozzles and fuel settings would be required. Now, it is obvious that will not be the case. Yet, it is just as funny to watch people that assume things, and believe it to be the truth just because no one has corrected them, yet.

So, I'd like to play a little bit of Devil's Advocate, and address some things:

1) Low Car Counts:

There were 19 cars at Lucas Oil Raceway (would have been 21 but Taylor Ferns had a conflict with a Stock Car race that was rescheduled, and Johnny Vance broke down on the way to the track) and 22 at the Hoosier Hundred. The generic assumption on here seems to be that was all caused by a new fuel being introduced.

Lucas Oil Raceway: Did anyone else know that the President of USAC chose to cut the Lucas Oil Raceway purse a total of $6,850 across positions 1-18? I had an hour+ phone conversation with him discussing how that couldn't do anything but hurt the situation, especially considering the concern among competitors about the fuel. But, he said USAC would lose too much money, so the competitors bit the bullet.

Hoosier Hundred: It did seem as though car count was down due to concern and a level of unknown about the new fuel. But, there are always other factors. Santucci talked at the end of last year about not racing Silver Crown this year anyway- before anything was known about ethanol. The #65 was stolen. The Baldwin #5 was rumored not to run anyway- based upon the amount of work required for just 5 dirt races (when they could just race their Sprint car). Also- I can't remember if the #97 car has even ran since the cage was hurt in the great dust storm at Terre Haute last year. The Klatt #6 didn't run, but Bobby is driving for TSR- I don't know, there could be more to their story too- but I haven't called to ask their exact reason- has anyone else?

2) High Rates of Attrition:

19 started the Lucas Oil Raceway feature, 13 finished. Brian Tyler broke a rear axle, I saw David Byrne's crash in turn 3 (not sure what caused it, but glad he was ok), mechanics from RW said that Jerry had a radiator that cracked and let all the water out, and their DNF was nothing fuel related. I'm not sure what exactly happened to Kite, Berryman or Beechler? Anyone else know for sure?

20 started the Hoosier Hundred feature, 10ish? finished. I don't know what happened to all of them who didn't, but I know that Dave from USAC did talk to each of the teams as to what caused them to drop out. Has anyone called him to ask? Or.. just assumed it was fuel.

Darryl has asked me to inform you that Brian Tyler DID NOT lose an engine at the Fairgrounds, but as a team we had a mechanical oversight on our part. The main Oil Line feeding the pump came loose, and we can only assume that we didn't have it tightened properly. His water temperature was under 190 degrees when his race ended near the halfway point, and there is zero chance that he didn't finish because of a fueling related issue.

3) (The Assumption) That Ignite is the problem: Risking everyones engine and Investment for their own profit.

Does anyone on here talk to Ignite? Has anyone talked to Reggie, or Jay, or Bruce, or Dan after the races and got their opinion? Or does everyone just assume they have malicious intent to make a profit regardless of the consequences to anyone else? This is not the case.

They have expressed their concern, especially after all of the complaining on here and what took place at the Hoosier Hundred. They have talked to Dave from USAC, who has talked to the teams individually.

4) Engine Temperature Issues-

Water Temp- Yes, there were a number of cars that ran hot at the Fairgounds, I'd say most all of them. I know mine was hotter than we'd like. Is the fuel the sole thing to blame for this? If people tried to richen their fuel settings to cool the engine (like you would have for Methanol), did they just assume that was how ethanol worked? Because after talking to a number of competitors, it seems like being too rich with this fuel can actually make it run hotter.
*Also- after talking with Dave, a number of teams have reported that radiators were found to be completely packed with dirt.

Oil Temp- I've heard a lot about everyone's additional cost of adding oil coolers, and I'm not saying that adding those is a bad thing- but did anyone on here actually measure their oil temperature when they ran Methanol? To know what the change in fuel has actually caused in difference in temperature?

*Please remember- this was the first time anyone had any real experience running this fuel on a dirt mile. Yes, there has to be some learning curve, but I don't think that a solution is beyond reach.

5) Costs vs. Benefits-

This whole switch to a new fuel needs to be constrained by one thing: that the benefits to the competitor outweigh the costs they face to switch.

People are blaming Ignite, but is that really fair? Do they create the purse structure? Did they cut that money from the Lucas Oil Raceway purse? Do they plan to cut a total of $3,100 from positions 5-19 for the upcoming Iowa Speedway race? NO. USAC's President did, and does. Like I mentioned before, I spent an hour+ on the phone with him, discussing this particular issue and the plan & purses for the entire year. Turns out, we will actually race for LESS money at Iowa and Lucas Oil Raceway then we did last year.

USAC cuts our purses because they don't make any money on the races that they promote. Apparently, that is supposed to be the competitors fault, and has nothing to do with their poor, poor job of marketing. I went to a double-header USAC Midget show in North Carolina and raced in front of 500-600 people (generous) each night. Two weeks later, I went with Must See Racing to FL & AL, and raced in front of 4,500-5,500 people each night. If USAC is spending soo much money on marketing to get fans that they can't pay their competitors, then where are they spending it? Wherever they are now obviously isn't working.

People blame Ignite, but unless you attended the fuel meeting held at Team 6R's shop, and left your email address, you wouldn't know that Ignite Racing Fuels, Team 6R Racing, and I have been working together to generate sponsorship- local in Iowa and directly related to Ignite & Ethanol's participation in our series, to create additional tow money to be paid directly to each team that participates. (Without any help or incentive from USAC).

Ok, now to clear up a few issues of my own...

Team 6R Racing did not have a big stake in this ethanol sponsorship- like a few of you apparently believe. They heard about the sponsorship going through regardless, and rather than stand by the wayside and watch the series die- they have made every effort to save the series, and work with the one company that is actually trying to save it. Jet Star, Inc. - the trucking company, does truck the fuel to the track, for USAC. In the world of trucking, taking one load for a total of 9 trips in a calendar year, would not be considered a huge gain- but more of an effort to provide a service that USAC couldn't alone.

It seems as though people are upset that I provided "misinformation" to this board. What I provided was what I knew at the time that I posted it, based upon what experience we had at that point. Yes, I experienced some heating issues in my Team 6R Racing #19. At Lucas Oil Raceway, we had water temperatures above 200 in practice and qualifying. We took that panel in front of the nose out for the feature, and ran 160-165 degrees for the entire 100 lap feature. At the Hoosier Hundred, we were above 220 degrees in practice and qualifying. We did not have a way to get more air to the radiator with our dirt car, so that was not an option at the track. We adjusted the fuel settings as best we could, and ran 240 degrees at the end of the feature. (In the early stages of the race, I was able to get my engine temperature to drop 30-40 degrees under each caution by running over the top of the wet surface on the outside of the racetrack. Now I couldn't see behind me- but I know that no one in front of me was doing this).

Going Forward- we plan to look at options to increase the amount of air to our dirt radiators: 1) reworking some of the sheet metal to direct more air directly into the radiator box. 2) modifying the bracket the radiator sits on to change the angle of the radiator and create a more direct flow through the radiator itself. 3) purchasing a $50-70 12" Electric fan to pull more air through the radiator (something that every other series/car that runs Gasoline or Ethanol already does).

Those are about all of the issues from this thread that I can remember- if I missed any, please let me know!

Thanks,

Kody

I for one do not know Kody personally, but that is a great post !!!!