[Brolzy]

USAC on a road course? Roger Ward would be happy. As a road racing fan, i'd be okay with it, but I understand why some people would not like that, though.

[Sprint63122]

I will just comment that I am glad they are calling it the gold crown division and will now leave the old siver crown cars along now.Has for a road course testing do not go there not needed at all just do ovals leave that type of racing out of usac.Has for the car designs they still need some work they are trying to make them to fancy and the one with the wing on the tail tank *** was they thinking there.

I have a problem.

If the "Gold Crown" series is going to run a car with side pods, why don't they use the same cars that run Indy ("IRL")... Didn't there used to be such a thing as the "Gold Crown"? (aka, the cars that ran Indy)? :confused:

The New Gen cars didn't work well as the new Silver Crown, so why would it work as a separate division? They had a hard enough time getting cars together to run a full field, which I'm sure they rarely, if ever, had... :action-smiley-049:

Wish I could have been around for the good ol' days...

[cecil98]

New design, still a "tank", will still be running in front of a couple hundred diehard fans in a 120,000 seat arena with less than 20 cars. Way to go USAC. JUST DROP THIS STUPID IDEA!!!!!!

[cecil98]

Originally Posted by Midget82 I have a problem. If the "Gold Crown" series is going to run a car with side pods, why don't they use the same cars that run Indy ("IRL")... Didn't there used to be such a thing as the "Gold Crown"? (aka, the cars that ran Indy)? :confused: Wish I could have been around for the good ol' days...

Yeah, when they separated the dirt cars from the Indy car points championship (huge mistake!!!) in the early 70's (71?) they named the dirt series Silver Crown and the pavement (Indy Car series) Gold Crown. Gold Crown, as a series, was short lived. Gold Crown is a name associated with failure. Why would USAC want to resurrect that era when it was such a dark period in their history? I remember the Poncono race where they didn't have a full field so they filled it with dirt cars (1981). That was about the end of USAC's affiliation with the Indy Cars other than the 500.

[cmakin]

Originally Posted by cecil98 Yeah, when they separated the dirt cars from the Indy car points championship (huge mistake!!!) in the early 70's (71?) they named the dirt series Silver Crown and the pavement (Indy Car series) Gold Crown. Gold Crown was short lived. Gold Crown is a name associated with failure. Why would USAC want to ressurect that era when it was such a dark period in their history? I remember the Poncono race where they didn't have a full field so they filled it with dirt cars. That was about the end of USAC's affiliation with the Indy Cars.

I thought that the Gold Crown division and USAC's affiliation with Indy Cars ran right up through and past the inception of the IRL. I have been wrong in the past, though.

That said, I think that by mandating one certain design over another is just going to turn the whole deal into an open wheel NASCAR, but without the fans and the drivers. By making the cars all look alike, other than the paint, well, it certainly causes me to loose interest. Much the same as having the cars that run the series chosen on the basis of looks. The rules should be open enough to allow different interpretations by the car builders. The look should be driven by the rules, not the other way around. Sigh.

[mac miller]

I worked with Randy Wittine many years ago at the Greenwood shop in Mich. He is one of the top stylist in the business and one of the few guys that actually knows what something is suppose to look like. He has come up with some interesting nose and cowl shapes. Unfortunately, it looks like Randy is still strapped with the silly sissy boxes on the sides of the car so there is not much, even, he can do to improve the situation.

This car was a very bad interpretation of a good idea. The basis for this horrible design was that nascar wanted open wheel cars without open wheels. This car is a direct relative of nascar's equally hideous looking grand am sports cars and the "brick of tomorrow" cup cars. These cars could star in a horror film about what happens when safety paranoids take over the engineering department.

At this point, so much money has been wasted, so many car owners have been burned, so many former fans have been insulted and so much bad blood has been created, that it would be foolish for the cars owners to throw more good money down this toilet. The best option would be to kill this car, once and for all, as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, for some reason usac just can not admit that they made a very expensive mistake.

Of course, the overwhelming problem is that nascar HQ pulled the exorbitant purse money and their track managers refused to pick it up.

[cecil98]

I thought that the Gold Crown division and USAC's affiliation with Indy Cars ran right up through and past the inception of the IRL. I have been wrong in the past, though....cmakin

cmakin, I'm don't remember the exact date or if, USAC abandoned the Gold Crown term with regards to Indy cars, but, sometime in the very early 80's their only affiliation with the Indy cars was their sanction of the 500 (that Pocono race "may" have been their last other than Indy in 1981). I believe USAC continued their affiliation into the IRL, I don't remember if it was timing and scoring only, or if Tony actually had them as the sanctioning body of the IRL but, after a snafu in the 500 and the scoring debacle at the Texas race (Foyt roughing up Arie in victory lane), USAC was tossed out of the IRL deal.

[E.P.]

Cheese and rice people!

4 years ago all of you were pizzin and drizzlin (to steal a line from D.O.) how ugly the new generation SILVER CROWN car was.

And now 4 years removed I would bet to a miniscule degree acting on lessons
learned from the past USAC gives all of you couch potato design enigineers, aero engineers and artists an oportunity to be heard and what do you do with your opportunity? :crying::shout which is your right in a free country I suppose.

For what it is worth, take a moment to be thankful you were afforded the opportuntiy to be heard.

And before all of you brain surgeons start in on a response to me, read between the lines and notice/see/grasp/understand/acknowledge/observe/detect/discern/become aware of the fact that this is the rendering of the Gold Crown Car not the Silver Crown Car.

Back to the action.........................

[cecil98]

Here is something I found on the old USAC Gold Crown series:

In 1979 there were two national championships run each by USAC and CART. The Indianapolis 500 remained under USAC sanction. The top teams allied to CART, and the CART championship became the de facto national championship. USAC ran a "rump" 1979 season, with few cars and fewer name drivers—the only exception being A.J. Foyt.
In 1979, USAC denied several of the upstart CART series entries' to the 1979 Indianapolis 500. The ongoing controversy saw a court injunction during the month, and the day before the race, a special auxiliary time trials session was held, to allow those denied a chance to qualify for the field. Two cars were added to the back of the pack, bringing the total number of starters to 35 (up from the traditional 33).
In early 1980 USAC and CART jointly formed the Championship Racing League (CRL) to run the national championship, but IMS management disliked the idea. The CRL was abandoned before any races were run. USAC remained as sanctioning body for the Indianapolis 500 itself, but the field was composed of CART-based teams. CART exclusively sanctioned the remainder of the season, and the national championship.[1]
In 1981–1982, the Indianapolis 500 remained an independent race sanctioned by USAC and composed CART teams. Other independent "one-off" teams entered at Indianapolis as well. Indianapolis was not included as a points-paying round of the CART national championship. In addition, by that time USAC had designated Indianapolis an "invitational" race, offering entries only to invited teams. That moved to prevent the uproar over denied entries which occurred in 1979.
One further race in 1981 was run by USAC at Pocono. This race was not supported by many CART teams, and featured a mixed field filled out by converted dirt track cars. USAC ultimately withdrew from sanctioning championship races outside of the Indianapolis 500. USAC ceremoniously created the Gold Crown Championship, an essentially meaningless title as the season consisted of only one paved championship-level round (the Indy 500) after 1981. The situation was such that the season ended with the Indianapolis 500, thus it spread over two calendar years.
CART & USAC (1982–1995): Stability returned and the national championship was run by CART. The Indianapolis 500 was sanctioned by USAC, but points were paid towards the CART championship. USAC's Gold Crown Championship continued, settling into an unusual June through May schedule calendar (spreading across two calendar years), which provided that the Indianapolis 500 would be the final race of the respective season. However, during that period, the schedule was never comprised of more than one race (i.e., Indianapolis).