The Armstrong Mould Inc. racing team used a pavement and dirt sprint car. Here is a picture of both the pavement and dirt sprint cars at Winchester. The drivers are Tom Bigelow and Butch Wilkerson. The other picture is Greg Leffler at Winchester. This car won 16 USAC sprint car features in 1977 a record that still stands today.:checkered:

Bigelow is pushing -- note the haze of smoke off the right front, and also note the position of Tom's hands.

Prior to taking a sabbatical from sprint cars to run Indy cars exclusively (1977-1984), we only had one sprint car chassis while competing against roadsters and rear engine sprint cars. When USAC started running pavement again in the late 80s we were running part time with USAC (1987 & 1988) while running local shows, All Stars and WoO when they were close to home.

Towards the end of 1988 we converted a 87 Gambler dirt sprint chassis to run the pavement by installing a rear panhard rod, shortening the rear arms 2 inches, building a new front axle with coil over suspension and running much heavier brakes up front. Kevin "Pup" Huntley ran the car for us at IRP twice (his first two times on pavement) and finished 2nd and 3rd. This attacked the attention of Rich Vogler and a deal was struck to build a purpose built chassis for a Buick V-6 that Rich would provide.

We certainly cannot claim credit for being the first with purpose built chassis.

As far as the tire bill goes, at an average race we will use 2 sets of tires (RF, RR & LR). I believe the tire bill would be in the $1,000 to $1,200 range for the event. At the Little 500 practice/USAC race we used 3 sets all day so that would be in the $1,500 to $1,800 range. When you are racing for $5,000 to win it is :kookoo.

I would like to see a rule that you can run 1 new set of tires per pavement event. You can practice on used tires and install the new tires anytime during the event. This could be accomplished by stamping 1 set of tires for each team prior to hotlaps. The tires you have on the car (new or used) must always have a USAC seal/stamp.

This would even up the haves and have nots and may even increase the car counts if you can cut the tire bill in half to be competitive.

Thoughts???


Rob Hoffman

I agree 100% with Rob on this one. MSA supermodifieds have a similar rule, except after the first few events you are only allowed two new tires out of the three that get stenciled (RF, LR, RR). This does work to keep costs in check...and can make tire management interesting.

My only suggestion is to make the brand/stencil something that is not able to be counterfeited...i.e. a USAC logo or something. A lot of the tire branders use standard number/letter stamps that can be easily duplicated by anyone with a set of stamps and a propane torch.

Sounds good to me. I would think this would bring in a few more cars. :thumb

ITS SAD TO SAY ITS OVER! WE RACED READING PA.DIRT 12" WIDE WHEELS ON SAT NIGHT THEN DROVED TO NEW BREMAN PAVEMENT 14" WIDE WHEELS TO RUN A SUN. AFTERNOON SHOW SAME CARS WE CHANGED BARS GEARS AND WHEELS AND WASH THE CARS! ELDORA TOO NEW BREMAN OR WINCHESTER OR SALEM ASCOT TO SAN JOSE 305CI. ENGINES AND TIRES THAT YOU COULD GET 2 OR 3 RACES OUT OF! COST RR PAVEMENT $80 RF FRONT $65 LR $55 DIRT TIRES RIB FRONTS RACE THEM ALL YEAR $ 35 REARS $50-$65 A BRAND NEW ENGINE $4500 COMPLETE! AND WE HAD 30-35 CARS! NOW YOU HAVE TO HAVE TWO CARS A SEMI $ 50.000 ENGINES $200 TIRESkookoo

Rob,
Out here on the west coast,the USAC Western States Midgets has a rule that you have to run the same RR and RF tire for the entire event(practice,qualifing,heat and main event).We ran at Altamont earlier this season under this rule and only bought 3 tires(LR,RR,&RF) for the entire event. Only having to buy three tires is definately a whole lot cheaper than having to buy at least a couple of sets of tires.

I'm not going to say that this rule has really helped with the car count at the moment,but I believe that there are other factors right now that are affecting car counts,but it has definately cut down on the tire bill.:thumb

Duke,

I am one that remembers your "good old days". Our 305 engines back then ran about 5 to 6 shows (if we were lucky) before having to overhaul. We get 20 to 25 shows now. That 305 engine in 1970 that cost $4,500 would cost $25,000 in 2008 just due to inflation. But if I factor in the overhaul costs I will be money ahead after 2 years with my $40,000 engine.

Your $80 tire that you got 2 to 3 races on would cost $444 in 2008 due to inflation. I can only get 1 race on the current pavement tire but I am usually getting 2 to 3 races on the dirt RRs so I am roughly equal. We run the same front tires most of the season unless they get punctured or we have a rubber down racetrack.

If you want to complain about something lets talk about the purses. Today’s purse of $21,000 for a sprintcar race would have been $3,779 in 1970 dollars. I am not sure but I want to say they were a bit higher than that in 1970.

Yes you did have 30 to 35 cars but there were only 2 or 3 good cars and drivers that dominated the series. Now we have 10 to 15 good cars (sometimes many more!) at each event and it is extremely hard to predict the top three or even who will win on any given night.

As far as the haulers go, if you have the $$ and want to travel in style why not? But the last time I checked the size, expense, flashiness, etc of a hauler had no effect on how fast the car is on the track. So if someone wants to blow a sizeable portion of their racing budget on a hauler, good for them. It is their money and they should be able to spend it as they wish.

Sometimes a little perspective is a good thing.

Rob Hoffman

Most of the 1970 races had a purse of $6750.00

Far be it from me to dispute Rob Hoffman on anything related to sprint car racing. That would be a battle of wits I would be entering as an unarmed man. :doh: And, I'm not sure what time period that Duke and Rob are referencing, but I pulled out the old USAC Sprint History 1956-1980 and opened it to the 1969 season for no particular reason and found that year yielded 14 different winners (Jerry "Scratch" Daniels, Tom Bigelow, Larry Dickson, Charlie Masters, Greg Weld, Cy Fairchild, Al Smith, Larry Cannon, Gary Bettenhausen, Bruce Walkup, Lennie Waldo, Todd Gibson, Sammy Sessions, and Bill Puterbaugh) in 27 features. A quick scan of the '70 season shows 11 different winners, 11 in '71. These seasons were in the midst of the Larry & Gary Show dominance, still there were many more than "2 or 3 good cars and drivers". Other racing seasons, both before and after those noted here would show similar diversity. Again, this may not be within the time period cited by Duke and Rob. And I presume to make no particular point except that from my perspective as a fan, the 60's and 70's were great years (except for the primitive safety measures in force at the time) not only for car counts but for competition throughout the fields as well.:checkered: