Originally Posted by Backitin:
Why would I be excited and support something that's been rehashed for decades. Supporting winged cars does nothing for the future of nonwing cars. I know first hand because there wasn't such a thing as a winged car when I got involved in racing, the speed of the winged cars was embraced and now there is no Sprintcar racing in N.E, PA or much of the east coast. How bout a intelligent response, what a bunch of bull, I'm part of the problem for not settling for the crap they feed us.
A winged car aint even a sprintcar.
Oh, what the hell, I will play along...
It seems to me that your love of non wing cars has strongly influenced your bias against the winged cars, so much as to make a ridiculous claim that a winged car is not a sprint car. Well, bucko, it is. I guess because MLB uses wooden bats, and college uses aluminum thats not baseball either, right? Or because hockey players are now required to wear a helmet, thats not hockey either, right? Or because the NBA moved the 3 point line, thats not basketball either, right?
Supporting winged car racing is a no brainer in the development of gaining interest into the non wing world. Here is a shocker, your traditional-sprint-car-is-the-only-way thought process is only valid in one place in this country, Indiana. Even at that, winged cars are slowly starting to join the mix. The World of Outlaws crisscross the country, making stops in 26 states and 1 Canadian province on 94 scheduled nights with highest paying event last year being the $150,000 Knoxville Nationals. By contrast, our beloved USAC National Sprintcar series makes stops in 11 states on 47 scheduled nights with the highest paying event last year being the $50,000 Gold Cup (I think it was called). This would mean that there is a bigger market for winged cars, regardless of YOUR biased opinion.
Things evolve, the general public want to see speed. Winged cars provide that. Think I am wrong? Our local drag strip has maybe 50 people in the stands watching street cars run their bracket race events. Bring the NHRA to town, now the stands are packed with people wanting to see the 330 mph pass.
Think of it like this... The winged cars, specifically the WoO, is the State Fair while the non wing, specifically the USAC, is the county cotton carnival.
I do not mean this to be derogatory, just honest. When our indoor kart national event was on national television, aired by ESPN, there was very little smack talk and hatred from the asphalt/road course kart crowd. Why? Because our sport needed it. They embraced it, and used it to lure people into their type of racing.
It would be much better if you would take the opportunity to embrace that winged cars are being used to try to attract new people. Once you have the new audience then, please, by all means introduce them to the non wing side of it. But the last thing needed for OUR sport, the sport of auto racing as a whole, the sport we all love, the sport that is not considered a sport by anyone that does not know better, is for people like yourself to just say no to any and all types of marketable strategies.
I know (my opinion) that college baseball is a better product than MLB, but it would be stupid of me to disregard the MLB because they are the better marketable product. It would be foolish of me to turn away a new fan based on my own personal bias? What should I do? I should let them watch, let them become captivated by the sport, then say "you think thats cool, watch this."
Our sport needs all the help it can get. Besides, if you already have the channel on your tv, does it really cost you anything to watch it?