Spot on Stevensville Mike. Very well written and I agree with all of it. Thank you!

You can check out the current state of pavement sprint car racing in Indiana for yourselves with a stop at Baer Field Speedway tonight (Saturday) when HOSS opens the track's season.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, the rumors of pavement racing’s demise are greatly exaggerated.

I was going to just let this thread die as I was too busy to comment, but after getting rained out twice (Spartan and Baer Field) this weekend, I decided to take the time.
There are three groups running Winged Pavement Sprint Cars in the mid-west, HOSS, AVSS and Must See.

Spartan (Michigan) runs non winged pavement every other week. And USSA is a non winged group that is starting up. Plus there is the Granddaddy of them all, the Little 500. All these groups, as any track or series, have nights they have full field and they have nights when they are a bit short.

Spartan is mainly a group of working class guys (like me) and sometimes it’s difficult for guys to get their cars done early in the season. The last time I ran Spartan was two years ago and they had a full field of 18 cars.
Must See does a smart thing and makes their first couple of races high paying races that make it more attractive to have your car ready. And yes, they had twenty some cars for both races.

I fumbled around on the various websites and counted over 60 different cars that ran at least one race last year in one of the five series listed above. This does not count any cars that only ran the Little 500. That may not seem like much per series, but remember, many of these cars ran more than one series. Our car ran three different series last year and over the last two years we have run at least one race in all five series as well as the Little 500.

I could fill this website with my thoughts on the tire deal. And it has been discussed many times on this message board. There have been some truths and some great exaggerations. All three of the winged series state that you must run the same right rear in the feature that you qualified on. And I believe that the last year USAC ran pavement, they said you had to run the same right rear all night. But it was probably too little too late.
I am a big believer in a spec tire rule. I think everyone should run the same right rear. But I think that you should only specify the right rear. We never ran USAC because even though they ran Hoosiers, three of the four corners were different then we were running with HOSS. So in order to run, you had to buy at least three tires. And then you didn’t have any spares.

I think if Must See, HOSS and AVSS would only spec the right rear, they would have a lot more cars cross over.
Believe it or not, as far as just a cost saving measure, Spartan probably has the best tire rule. You have to run a Hoosier 55 on the right rear. This is actually a Silver Crown tire. And it is very hard. And Spartan is very slick and not very abrasive. The first time I ran there, it was 2010. I bought a new 55 when I got there. I ran it the whole night. I started 13th in the feature and ran it up to 4th. I was actually trying to pass for third on the white flag lap and got squirreled up behind a lapped car and ended up 5th. And I was never so bored in a race car in my life! I felt we were going so slow! But after the races, when they let the fans down, I was constantly told what a great race it was.

Fast forward to 2011. I did not make it back to Spartan in 2010. But HOSS had an early season race at Auto City Speedway in Michigan. So I decided to run Spartan the night before as kind of a paid test and tune session. Not wanting to buy a new tire for a test session, I pulled the same 55 right rear I ran the year before off the self and put it on. I started 12th in the feature and was running 9th half way through when I got caught up in an incident not of my making. I went to the tail and made it back to 9th by the checkered. Remember this was a year old used tire!

But the problem with any of the wing series running this tire, it would slow the cars down drastically. I’m guessing probably almost a second. If they were going to a new track, nobody would probably notice because they would still be faster than anything else. But if you take them to a track that they run normally, I think the fans would notice.

All three of the winged series have tracks that they put on a better show then other tracks. But again, any traveling series is going to be that way. Must See puts on an awesome show at Winchester. The speed is fantastic and it’s amazing all the slicing and dicing in the feature. The HOSS show at New Paris is usually a fan favorite. It is an egg shaped, flat quarter mile track. The leaders are in traffic from about lap five on. AVSS always puts a good show on at Toledo. Plus it’s a double header with the Supers.

One other note. I have raced dirt (winged and non winged) and pavement (winged and non winged). I’ve enjoyed it all. And I’ve watched races of all types. I’ve seen good pavement races (winged and non winged) and I’ve seen good dirt races (winged and non winged). And I’ve seen a few stinkers in each type also. I also have seen a few good stock car races.

What I’m getting at is I like all types of racing. And I get frustrated with people that have such a narrow mentality when it comes to racing. Especially people that don’t even go to the races or go to just a couple a year. Some of the best races I’ve seen have been the unexpected ones. I remember racing down at Salem a couple of years ago. Since you pit in the infield there, you are held captive until all the races are over. We were watching the stock cars. I think they were just street stocks or maybe a limited late model. Those guys were dicing back and forth and running like they were running for a million dollars. They didn’t have a lot of cautions and it was fun to watch.

I guess the point I’m trying to make about pavement racing is that there are enough races that we can race as much as we want. There are not many conflicting dates between all the series. And I think any fan that comes to a race will be surprised.

Tom Paterson

Well said Tom. Wished racing had more guys like your team!!

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I don't ever remember seeing a C main at Winchester.

Very well said Tom.

Thanks for the kind words, team.

I must say, though, that I erred when I mentioned Bob Jenkins and Larry Nuber. They were ESPN's SpeedWeek hosts. The Thunder guys were Gary Lee and and the late, great Larry Rice.

Tom Paterson - Always a pleasure to read what you post on all of the racing forums.

They got scared to run em on asphalt cause they're so fast, and a lot of it is they use to just change tires over and make a chassis adjustment.