Leader

I kind of liked watching AJ> JP>Parnelli>the Unser's>Mario>The Benttenhousen brothers and a bunch of other guys of the later age racing one another side by side, running ChevyII's> Falcons>Porsche's>Sesco's and even VW's. Using skinny little tires> roll bars>shoulder holsters to hold them in place and respect for one another's ability. Those guys could flat drive a race car. Times have changed>>>good racing does not really depend only on large car counts. The car counts help protect the promoter. The fans that once filled the grand stands are gone for good>>>>they have been replaced by fans who love to race, and they are in the pits. Skinny tires do make a difference>>>>if you can't get the Horsepower of that cheater motor to the track because the tread width is too narrow>> all of a sudden the race is in control of the driver and experienced set up man. The cheaters are those guys in the back burning up their hard skinny little tires.

There is another post on IOW about a TQ race that looked like a freight train and about the racers in the bunch did not appreciate some young gun out there racing with them and threatening to mess up their paint jobs and chrome work>> those complainers belong in the grand stands where they belong. If you get the cars to be more competitive with one another and passing and jockeying for position who knows you might get a better front gate turn out.

Now that we have the Horsepower Numbers of the National Midgets Bumping 400+ horsepower isn't it is about time they come up with a 15 or 16 inch right rear tire to help the racers hook up better.

Honest Dad himself

I think you are confusing the glory days of Lil' DAD with the glory days of midget racing. Midget racing was already in decline as far as the amount of cars and races when the era you speaking of came around. Technically speaking though......there has never been at any point in time in this sport as many open wheel cars and drivers as there are right now.

Instead of sitting at home on your phone and pointing out what everyone who doesn't think like you is doing wrong.....why not go to one of the 9 races that have been held during the course of the past two weeks. I think you'll find a driver or two in the mix and enough cars and fans to satisfy any promotor.

Why is 16 to 24 DII cars a good count and encouraging but the same count in National Midgets a sad sight?

I've got news for everyone.....1000's and 1200's aren't new classes and the stock engine or restricted platform is now at least 15 to 20 years old. More than enough time to gain traction and have 30 to 40 car fields.

By the way....all of the motors you mentioned from your youth....were the "Cheater" Esslingers and Geartes of their day. They were exotic and expensive for their time.

I think it's great that 35 Speedway is doing an open wheel class. I have talked to them some and if I had a car together that met their rules or they would have a show that allowed a national midget to compete...I would gladly be a competitor there.

dad, what about the guys that don't have 400hp national midget motors like myself and a few others in this area. if some of the mini series would let us run we would have a car to run to get our feet wet and then if we want to move up after some seat time we wouldn't have to buy a whole different race operation. I owned a mini and I had more invested in it than what I do in my midget. just saying.

leaders edge if you got a car together bring it to union county

Bear

I am all for it. I haven't been trying to pick a fight with anybody. At this point in time we have things preventing us from racing>>>much as we would like to be racing. There is no reason that Ecoitecs>>motorcycle Midgets>>and even slightly outdated Midgets can not race together in a very competitive fashion. The edge racers have always used is MONEY. There are guys racing at Montpelier with very expensive equipment. They run up front>>>there are guys racing with less expensive equipment they run in the middle of the field>>>and then we have guys that run in the back and have just as much fun as the guys racing for the win.

When I say cheater motors it is really a mini sprint jab at some racers. Our motors are already developed to the point that if we were National Midget size the Horsepower would be around 500 Horsepower. However we have racers not winning that insist that the racers in the front are racing with cheater motors and in fact several may be doing so>>>but that is not the reason that I believe brings about their success.

Thank you guys for inviting Leaders Edge over to race with you guys I hope he takes you up on the offer. We have factors preventing us from racing right now if we could we would but that does not prevent me from wanting to improve the class of racing that I care most about.

We have moved to the position now that Kenny Brown of PowrI has helped form a Division II Midget class. That is great for the sport and should be very successful. I would like to think that perhaps I may have helped in a small way of bringing this about...The person that brought this about was and is Wayne Davis down in Florida. Several years ago Wayne and I had a very lively discussion on IOW about the term "Lightning Sprint" he was all for it and I was and am all against it. After debating back and forth for almost the whole winter I think I finally convinced him that the "Lightning Sprint" was actually a Midget. I think I also managed to convince him that 1000cc Midgets and 2400cc Midgets were also very competitive with one another and that they could and should race together in the same class.

When Harold at Montpelier formulated his class for Midgets he decided to handicap the full Midgets by allowing them to race on only a 10" wide right rear wheel rim and allowing the lesser cars 12" wheels and no weigh restrictions. I have raced up their several times and have yet to see the tec guy pull out a $30.00 wheel gauge like used on wheel balance machines to check rim width>>not that it would make much difference.

We have come to the point that now motorcycle midgets and stock block automotive midgets can and do race together.

Now what I am proposing is can we make it so that motorcycle midgets, stock block midgets and even midgets with purpose built racing engines could race together. Kenny Brown in his Genius has found a way to even up the purpose built motors from the very expensive purpose built motors>>the answer is simple race on smaller tracks and because the state of Illinois is full of fast little bull rings 1/4 mile and smaller his series has become a big success. You just can not beat Money and Horsepower at Belleville Kansas, BUT at Belleville Illinois Horsepower is not necessarily King.

We have a lot of old Midgets sitting around Indiana that can't come up with enough Horsepower to run USAC and or PowrI. Or many racers cant find time or money to travel a great distance to a race. Many of the racers in Division II think that it would be unfair to allow these more powerful motors to race with them >>>In fact really that difference doesn't concern me too much but to appear to be more fair why not handicap them to make the other racers feel better about them racing with them and what better way than to use a smaller tire on the drive wheel. Some of the best racers in recent history have raced on small tires and put on some very exciting and talked about race's. Why don't we try it? The professionals require more tire to race on but why does the semi-pro racer need the same tire. At Montpelier there are drivers racing with them right now that could use a 10" tire to its it's maximum. They had to when they started out. A lot of the division II drivers are just starting out. If they would learn to race a lower horsepower Midget on a 10" tire seems to me that when they moved up to the pro's that 12" tire would feel much better to them and they would possess much better throttle control already.

Car counts are better today than back in the 30's--50's that is because as the casual fan has left the grand stand the more avid fans have taken up racing themselves. Many Midget and Mini Sprint races are boring to those of us in the pits imagine how it looks to the crowd. They turn into a giant freight train. How can we get the cars racing side to side again to entice more fans to come back to the front gate?

Big Salem has always been classified a follow the leader race track for Sprint cars>>>there just wasn't any place for them to pass, if you dropped down out of the grove going into the turn it was a very good chance that you would fly over the guard rail on turn exit and that wasn't good. They could not get a field of USAC cars. Just watching a non wing Sprint Car race at that track gave me an extreme case of "Butt Pucker" I don't miss them racing there. >>Along came the winged sprint cars those guys could drive all over that big old high bank track and racing became exciting and a lot less dangerous, and fans in the grand stands are now increasing.


Honest Dad himself

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Jimmy Caruthers doing what he did best>>>>> check out the right rear tire. These racers raced close and learned to drive their race cars.

Honest Dad himself

We were there at Waynesfield last saturday , Had a blast 30 cars we never see that back here(east coast area)...
The whole field was real competitive , I only saw 3 midgets also they were pitted down by us and I beleive all focus motors .
I think the way things are right now , it works , so Dad quit trying to chang things , leave it alone , you are just going to make the water muddier that it already is .
We drove over 500 miles to come play won the second B main,started 18th and finished 9th.......with a brand new car and a track we never been to.
That says alot about how competitive these cars are , so we are coming back at the end of july for 2 days to have more fun .

Drivers of equal caliber today run just as close and have just as much car control as drivers of any era past. 2 inch tires or 20 inch tires....it doesn't matter.