I have been following USAC since 1968. A group of us from Michigan of around 6 to 10 have been supporting these guys since around 1973. We travel almost every weekend to see these shows. USAC has had some lean times before. The wing craze and outlaws of the early 80's really took a bite out of them and other things. Look at all the different clubs we have today all trying to make a buck. I hope they can keep the pavement races alive. Yes i was disappointed at the car count at Salem. Then i reminded myself that it would still probably be a good show and it was. That place along with Winchester are just flat ass scary. There was action everywhere in those feature events. even the heats were good. I just hope all the negatives about car counts won't cause a knee-jerk reaction in regards to the Old Timers event at Winchester.

I am afraid the knee jerk may already have started

Pat, you are right on about Belleville. I remember in the early 90's there was a guy staying in the city park, (sorry, I forget his name), open trailer, sleeping in he back of the truck and having the time of his life! As for the rest of your comments about the atmosphere at Belleville, change the name of the Belle-Villa to the Elephant Run, and you're describing the Chili Bowl today. Do you think 300 cars show up in Tulsa each winter expecting to win? They're there to say, 'I raced at the Chili Bowl' and have a good time.

Solutions? It's going to take some common sense, LOT'S of compromsing and no matter how big the sanctioning body, in this economy, sanctioning bodies are going to have to work together to get a decent car count. The Gold Crown at Granite City is a perfect example.
PowerI comes up with this race. USAC says, 'wow, wish we'd have thought of that, but how about a co-sanction?' Now, PowerI can either say, 'no, we do not do co-sanctions' (where have we heard THOSE words before?), and USAC immediately schedules against them. Or they drop their ego, and, VOILA, we have an event that people are talking about all year, and if promoted properly will continue to grow for years to come. When was the last time THAT has happened?
In the past years, it has driven me CRAZY when PowerI and SMRS have races scheduled 100 miles apart on the same night, with 20-25 cars at each track. How hard would it be to work together and have 40-50 cars in the pits?
As Don Moore has stated repeatedly, something must be done to bring the cost of midget engines down to the level that, maybe not the average working man, but at least a couple of upper middle class working men could put a team together and go racing. The number of people who would spend $30-$40K to win $2500 (or less) is rapidly dwindling. Maybe a Red and Blue division like they had in the 40's, where the Offies ran the red circuict and the flathead's ran the blue circuit needs to be looked into?
Love him or hate him, Don speaks from his wallet. How many on here who bash him can say the same?

As for television... USAC IS alive and well on TV. I was surfing the channels, and stopped on the off road truck racing. A couple of trucks got together, taking one out. In the driver's interview, he said, "We don't need that kind of driving out there. I'm sure USAC will have a talk with him." Maybe that is why we aren't hearing much out of 16th St. Maybe the off road trucks are going to be the premier division of USAC in the future?

USAC has one thing going for it that no one else has... HISTORY! I hope the powers at 16th and Georgetown NEVER forget that!

Yeah, you're probably correct. Between working 12 hour nightshifts (7pm to 7am), including every Friday and Saturday nights, getting my daughter ready for her first year of college, moving, being a 14 hour drive from Indy, etc...it has been tough to make many races this summer. The 3 trips I have made to Indiana this summer were for the 500 in May and 2 trips to watch my brother lose his battle with cancer.

And the races I do attend I actually pay for. Is it true that the 86 races you boast about have been freebies? Wow, that's awesome. There was a solid 15 years where I attended over 100 races per year, and paid for every race. AND, usually worked in some capacity, crew, drove, owned, push trucked, etc... So, can you describe to me what your typical night at the free races are? And leave out the part about shaking hands and talking to people.

I may not know much behind my computer in Minnesota, but I do know this....Your obvious quest for the presidency of USAC will not be successful as long as you continue to belittle everyone. Can you hear the respect-o-meter dropping?
David.

R

Racephoto1, One of my biggest gripes with USAC the past several years is they do nothing to promote themselves or advertise their races. I have been rather outspoken on this issue over the years. The Oswego race had a huge crowd because that race was promoted the way I feel all USAC races should be. They were talking about that race going to happend on Speed Report and Dave Despain from the announcement the race was on the schedule. The Palladium-Times, Oswego's daily paper is probably the smallest newspaper of anywhere I have gone in this country; but they promote auto racing in Central N. Y. better than a large metroplitan area like Phoenix, Az. does. I feel strongly all of the hype leading up to this race had nothing to do with USAC promoting this race, it was the people working for Kasey Kahne that prromoted this race the way I personally feel all USAC races should be promoted.

Some of my personal thoughts I have never shared on this board, when Manzy was sold I of course wondered what that would mean for USAC coming to Phoenix? Would all three pavement divisions be brought back to PIR? Could USAC run at Canyon Speedway to keep their presence in the Phoenix area? I believe they did run there years ago before I moved to Phoenix. There was some talk the IRL would be back on the Phoenix schedule in 2010, that didn't happend. So my dreams of the Copper Classic returning to Phoenix are just that dreams and now with the cars counts for pavement sprints and midgets in Indiana being so low I fear USAC could lose Phoenix as a venue. When the IRL schedule was announced for 2010 without Richmond everyone right away said USAC will also be gone. I held out hope that just like them being on the same weekend as Nascar in Phoenix the same could happend at Richmond. I guess we won't have that answer until the 2010 schedule is out.

Will a return to Oswego next year be as sucessful as this year was for car count and crowd? I can not remember when the last time the track at Oswego was resurfaced, it is badly in need of it. There was no grip for the Oswego race which led to no passing with the exception of Tracy Hines. Could this race have had a different look to it if USAC inverted the top six? I really don't know if that would have led to some passing, when I saw where Bobby Santos qualified I wasn't worried I had watched him come from the back on line at Iowa and expected the same thing would happend at Oswego.

I certainly don't know what the answer is to build the pavement car counts back up, I hope it happends, I am a pavement girl at heart. I have also been out spoken on here in the past about purse. An I strongly feel as long as it cost a racer more to race than they can earn the car counts will remain low. To maintain a National series you have to race for more than you can win locally and control the cost the best you can to run with the National series. Sponsors have and are walking away from all forms of auto racing, tracks are closing all over the country and purses are being decreased instead of increased. The Oswego competitors were notified the Saturday after the USAC race that the Oswego Classic purse was being cut, I heard on DO's radio show last week about a WOO purse paying $2000 to win less than last year.

USAC may not be aware of it but they took the blame for Oswego enforcing what they are now saying has been a five year policy to not bring food or drink into the Oswego grantsatnds. Brand new big yellow signs went up the Wed. before the USAC race, fans were told it was a USAC rule when they entered the track on Thursday. When Saturday rolled around the same policy was in effect and I am told security treated the fans extremely rude if they tried to bring anything in. The next week they were all apologetic to their fans. You should have seen the bashing that caused on my favorite supermodfied booard. When what I consider to be the premier open wheel division SC had just raced at the premier open wheel pavement race track in the country there was very little talk on the board positive or negative about the race itself, that is sad.

Back to topic, I feel the economic times play a large part in USAC's low car counts, I have also played observer at the handful of USAC races I get to a year. I have never once seen Mr. Miller go up to every car owner on pit road and shake there hands for being there. USAC needs there car owners just as much as those car owners need a sanctiong body. My observation over the years has been USAC driving their car owners away rather than embracing them. Hopefully this gets turned around soon.

Patti

Classic stuff guys! Well, if you guys know me and actually go to races, you'd see me standing in line just like everybody else to pay! That's usually where I hear the best news and rumors! Now, I also work a job that requires me to attend many races, but again, I'm not sure how that can take away credibility...? David - There's nothing wrong with being busy and not attending quite as much, except of course that it leaves one out of the loop. I don't see many Ohio State football games anymore, but i do check the box scores. And that's pretty much why it would be silly to think that I have a grasp on what Coach Tressel and his boys need to be doing...
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Spridge even buys his own cokes and hamburgers at the race track... seen it... been there. I was a witness...

That's cool, I stand corrected. If your job requires you to be there, do you get to expense report anything for a refund? It is a job after all. That's what I do when I have to travel for my job. If not, you should.
David.

Sooooo....is it your money or MMI's money? Just curious.
David.

Also, is it me or is this thread no longer "bumping" to the top? That's curious. Hope it doesn't disappear altogether soon.
David.