[onthegas7j]

i was wondering if the burg would hold the SC cars... I do like your Lincoln idea... ALOT... hell i'd make the trip home to illinois for that weekend of racing lol....

[micro94]

Id love to see the days of 50 some Silver Crown cars trying to make the Hoosier 100!It used to be an all day thing for myself and my family when I was young.We would take the grill's and frisbee's and be in the infield all day long.That was great times I will never forget as long as I live.To see it happen again would be AWESOME! I really dont know what sort of payout they have these days but when they had the split and the BigCar series it seemed they was getting alot more cars than USAC at that point.Jason McCord is part of USAC now so why couldnt someone let him have a go at it again?He did it before with not much money or sponsors to work with so what exactly would it take to get these guys that still have dirt SC cars out of those garages?They dont need to run on pavement as far as Im concerened but maybe for the brickyard weekend.They are here for the Hoosier 100 then also.It would be a good start for USAC to actually reschedule a race I believe also.They havent ran the Hoosier 100 for 2 years now.Whats up with that?

[onthegas7j]

actually they got the hoosier in this year... i say they need to bring the hulman back, instead of running the silver crown cars at ORP on Thursday why not run the fairgrounds? I do like the asphalt program they have tho so that leaves me slightly less open to that idea, but what about the Moto GP weekend? hell dont matter to me i just want to see the division grow into what it was not in the 60's and 70's but the early to mid ninties... guys like rocky hodges ron shuman jeff swindell alot of the wing guys were runnin the Silver Crown cars you had 40 to 50 cars at just about every race... I remember one year at Duquoin they have 23 cars in the last chance race... now adays thats a feature... they had something like 55 show up at Springfield one year... we need to bring it back to that kinda racin

[dirtnonwingfan]

I think I remember that Springfield used to have all three the weekend of the Dirt Champ race. Midgets and sprints at Lil Springfield and Dirt Champ at the Fairgrounds. As other posts have noted, there are several other tracks around Springfield. How about midgets at Macon on Friday, Dirt Champ at the mile Saturday afternoon, sprints at one of the close tracks Saturday night. You could even do a Sunday sprint/midget double somewhere if you wanted to. If I win the lottery, we could even have a double show somewhere on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Little travel for teams, little travel for fans.

Work a deal with hotels, promote "take a team to breakfast" through the local radio stations to save teams some money, get drivers and cars into the area a few days before to do interviews on TV stations, talk Tony Stewart into doing a spot saying "I came from USAC midget/sprint/Silver Crown cars and went on to become a NASCAR star. Come to the races at Springfield/Jacksonville/Macon/Lincoln/wherever and see the stars of tomorrow. Sponsor contests to give away tickets, have driver autograph sessions which are announced in advanced and on time with all drivers having hero cards, have a deal where a fan gets a free pit pass if they buy pit passes for X# of members of a team, offer package deals like I think THAT and the Indy Mile used to do; ask IOW members for other ways to help the teams and fans. Do anything except sit on your butt and assume you don't have to promote (or that your job is just to sanction, not actually help put fans into the seats), that fans are just dying to purchase your product and you don't have to do anything.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

[Mud Packer]

Originally Posted by dirtnonwingfan I think I remember that Springfield used to have all three the weekend of the Dirt Champ race. Midgets and sprints at Lil Springfield and Dirt Champ at the Fairgrounds. As other posts have noted, there are several other tracks around Springfield. How about midgets at Macon on Friday, Dirt Champ at the mile Saturday afternoon, sprints at one of the close tracks Saturday night. You could even do a Sunday sprint/midget double somewhere if you wanted to. If I win the lottery, we could even have a double show somewhere on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Little travel for teams, little travel for fans. Work a deal with hotels, promote "take a team to breakfast" through the local radio stations to save teams some money, get drivers and cars into the area a few days before to do interviews on TV stations, talk Tony Stewart into doing a spot saying "I came from USAC midget/sprint/Silver Crown cars and went on to become a NASCAR star. Come to the races at Springfield/Jacksonville/Macon/Lincoln/wherever and see the stars of tomorrow. Sponsor contests to give away tickets, have driver autograph sessions which are announced in advanced and on time with all drivers having hero cards, have a deal where a fan gets a free pit pass if they buy pit passes for X# of members of a team, offer package deals like I think THAT and the Indy Mile used to do; ask IOW members for other ways to help the teams and fans. Do anything except sit on your butt and assume you don't have to promote (or that your job is just to sanction, not actually help put fans into the seats), that fans are just dying to purchase your product and you don't have to do anything. Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Be careful Frank, you are starting to sound like a promoter. Sargent will have USAC start sending you PM's and have your house staked out. People like you could be construed as dangerous.

[bloard]

As someone who's been close to diving in and buying a dirt SC car the thing that keeps me from pulling the trigger is engine cost to race dates ratio. I just can't justify spending what it takes for a competitive engine and keeping it fresh for only 4 race dates a year here in the Midwest with one or two probably going to get rained out. Sure, I could use it for asphalt but I don't want to run asphalt. I'm not saying that a few more races would make a huge difference, but there's just not enough opportunities to use it.

I wish engine specs were similar to something else I could run more often. If you could drop a SC engine into a sprint car then you would see huge interest in the series. Heck, just have aluminum blocks so you could run some slick short track non-wing races against 410's to get a few more nights out of the engine. You'd see tons more cars if all you needed was a roller. I don't care what the engine specs are, but you either have to run more races to justify the cost or have something else for me to put it in week in and week out.

Again, I'm all for SC cars having a unique engine to set them apart. But if you are going to do that then you need more races. There are many potential car owners like me sitting on the sidelines wishing they could justify a way to dive in.

I might be in the minority, but as someone who's looked at it really hard a few times, that's what's holding me back.

[ryoung99]

If they had a couple of dirt races on the West Coast I would put one together as well. Hell I own an offshore race boat that I can only race a couple of times a year, why not own a SC car too.

2-3 races is all I ask, Sacramento Mile, Perris, and Calistoga? I would find good young West Coast talent to drive it, kids like Dillon Silverman, Kyle Larson, etc. Given them a chance at the big time, and if they brought some sponsor $$'s they would be welcome to take the car back east to race it.

Run support races every time there is a Silver Crown race near by. Dritnonwing has a very damn good idea with Springfield. There is Macon, Lincoln, Shepps, and Morgan County all well within an hour's drive of Springfield (Spoonriver is just over an hour as well as Peoria). Run some support races at Morgan County on Friday night Nonwing sprints run there already (for now, not sure in 2010), and run Lincoln in the midgets the day of the race at Springfield.

This same scenario can play out anywhere the Silver Crowns run. Newton, IA is another place where they could run Hawkeye Downs, Indianola, or Knoxville the days leading up and night of that race.

The fans are also responsible to spread the word. Better payouts and double dates for the dirt tracks. These are all great ideas and definately worth looking into. If anyone at USAC is even remotely looking at this thread I would provide help and I am sure I can guarantee others on here would help as well. I am very affraid the Tony Bettenhausen 100 is in the final stretch of being on the schedule. The crowd was dismal in the stands. With only 27 cars in the pits there is only one race. Fans in and around Springfield are not use to paying $20 for one race. One good thing was NO ARCA TRUCKS. But only seeing the Silver Crowns on the track for 100 laps is sure a huge downer.

[illiNOISE]

Originally Posted by dirtywhiteboy Better payouts and double dates for the dirt tracks. These are all great ideas and definately worth looking into. If anyone at USAC is even remotely looking at this thread I would provide help and I am sure I can guarantee others on here would help as well. I am very affraid the Tony Bettenhausen 100 is in the final stretch of being on the schedule. The crowd was dismal in the stands. With only 27 cars in the pits there is only one race. Fans in and around Springfield are not use to paying $20 for one race. One good thing was NO ARCA TRUCKS. But only seeing the Silver Crowns on the track for 100 laps is sure a huge downer.

I've said this before, but I still think a good way to stretch the program at Springfield would be to shorten the feature to 100 killometers (which I think would work out to somewhere in the 60-62 mile range). Split the field after time trials into two 19 or 20 mile straight up qualifier races. Fans would still see 100 miles of racing, and I really don't think that shortening the feature to 60 miles really changes its fundamental nature. Drivers would still have to deal with a substantial fuel load early in the race, and would also still have to manage their tire wear.

As for double dates, how about running the Crown cars on the dirt at Tri City on a Friday night, then on the pavement at Gateway on Saturday?

[openwheelKT]

I’ve thought the engine specks were the big draw back the last few years. If you are only going to get to run the car 4/5 times a year (talking dirt only), would you buy in? The only teams you see out there are the ones that already have the equipment. How many brand new teams have you seen lately? Sure there have been a few, but not many. It seems like when a new one is added that an old one drops off….or doesn’t run all the races I think the key is to come up with something that can be run in the sprint car too. As was said, if you just have to buy a roller, then I think a few more teams would be interested. If the engines and schedule stay the same, more cars aren’t going to show up.

As for the track issue…. Going to a track is a two way street. The tracks have to actually want the SC cars. Take Knoxville for example where the SC cars have run before. If USAC really wanted to go there, but Knoxville isn’t interested, it doesn’t matter how bad USAC wants to go. If a track doesn’t want them and doesn’t think it can make money, then it doesn’t matter. I’m all for them going to several more tracks, but they have to be wanted. More work probably needs to be put in, but it is what it is right now. The IRL is facing the same issue with ovals. People complain there aren’t enough ovals, which I agree with, but there aren’t that many ovals out there that want them right now. So, do you road race or have an 8 race schedule?