IndianaOpenWheel.com Sprint Car & Midget Racing Forum





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otgracing17 (Offline)
  #11 9/16/22 9:53 AM
Most of the USAC team (race director, corner workers, etc.) work midgets, Sprint Cars, and Silver Crown Cars. Starting at the Bloomington/Haubstadt weekend at the end of April USAC is pretty wide open until early August. Week of Indy, Midget Week, Eastern Storm, Husets, midwest midget week, and Indiana Sprint week. Sprinkle in Lets race two, some one off Champ Car races, and special weekends with the sprint cars and midgets there is zero time off for the people who work in the series and drivers. The mid August gap gives everyone a few weeks including USAC to maintenance equipment and get ready for the rest of the year. Then from then on out you have Smackdown through the west coast swing.

On the team side I would say it is pretty tapped out. The difference between a lot of USAC teams and the Outlaws is the amount of teams that are able to hire more than one full time guy. Four or so teams are able to do this. A lot of other teams are either volunteer or guys that have regular jobs and make some extra money on the weekend. Right now most people that have a few weeks of vacation can make it work. I've had people help us during sprint week that raced all night with us and went to work the next day on repeat for the week.

To go to Ohio more than USAC already does is tough. You would have to replace something on the schedule. Where do you do this? USAC has a good relationship with Pennsylvania tracks and fans. This is also a pretty good money maker on the t-shirt sales side for teams from what everyone tells me which is an added bonus. The races pay better also and you can race in a pretty tight area similar to here. Midwest Midget week makes sense that gets USAC in between most midget hot beds. Right now the Atomic weekend could be rotated around Ohio a bit and maybe a night added eventually but again then the teams that follow the series find an added night to race and have to figure out how to logistically swing it in an already tight window.

There are a lot of variables here that would have to work out to make it happen. You would most likely have local support from the Boss teams which is a plus. Something would still most likely have to give. You could make the PA Swing less and hit a few on the way out or whatever but then where do you pull races from?
Likes: fish
revjimk (Offline)
  #12 9/16/22 1:07 PM
Originally Posted by JJMooney:
USAC ran a small tour through Ohio in June from 2002 to 2006?. It was called the Buckeye Nationals. Originally, the tracks were Attica, Fremont, Lima and Eldora. I went to all of them the first two years. The shows featured both USAC Sprint Cars and USAC Midgets. I thought the crowds were great in the beginning. Toward the end, I think the crowds had fallen off. Attica and Fremont had pulled out and only two tracks, Lima and Eldora, were left.
Sprints & Midgets both? Pretty sad that wasn't a success
Since USAC dropped their Eastern Midget tour, how about combining Midgets & Sprints for Eastern Storm? I would want to hit every race!
But midgets are better in bullrings, & there are mostly 1/2 miles in Eastern Storm tour... who knows?
Likes: TNRustler
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