Here's my idea:

Since the Saturday night Smackdown finale is based on points earned the first two nights, set a demarcation at a certain position in the points after the completion of Friday, and then have two parallel events on Saturday.

For example: At the end of Friday's events, the top, let's say, 24 are locked in to the USAC Smackdown. The preliminaries would be the King of the Hill and two Qualifiying races. All remaining cars are entered in a separate Saturday event that I'll call "The Indiana State Championship". It would be a non-USAC event that paid, maybe $5,000 to win. It would be a standard format event.

It's just an idea that would need some tweaking and massaging, but I think something like that would draw most of the sprint cars in 5-hour radius and some travelers like Dues was talking about.

USAC helped develop and build this event, and you think a way to make it bigger is to exclude them to please people who aren't participating? Just curious have you ever been to this event? And can you guarantee it would even work? Seems if I was a small working class team, I would want USAC involved, if for nothing else the insurance is better.

I never said I would exclude USAC, Brent. Maybe you should reread what I wrote.

Yes, I have been to Smackdown. And every other established major event on USAC's calendar.

No, I can not guarantee it would work; once again, I never alluded to any such thing.

"Working class" teams run without USAC's insurance 99% of their existences.

Thanks for raining on my parade, Brent. A more concructive reply would've been fun, though.

Wasn't trying to rain on your parade. I just don't think you can grow an event, by adding an event where a person could make more than people in the event. Also that is a lot of money to add to what is pretty high purse to pay. Ticket prices are reasonable, a real bargain if you buy in advance. They would have to be increased, which I doubt would be offset by more paying fans.

FYI everyone. I-96 in Michigan ran non wing sprints last night .

6 cars


Maybe BOSSTwin Cities made the right call

When Kokomo ran BOSS at Smackdown, the winner of the BOSS race made more money than people "in the event" (Smackdown itself). So it's already happened before, Brent. It was 2018 and Saturday admission was $35. What is the admission price tonight? $35.

Got anymore bunk reasons why it won't work?

Having just attended the Knoxville Nationals, I get confused when I see statements/questions like this. 101 cars participated at Knoxville over the opening 2 qualifying days. 71 of those cars failed to qualify for the Saturday “A” feature or first 10 spots of the Saturday “B” feature. Now, I know that even the “C” feature Saturday night at Knoxville pays 5th place more than the winner gets for a Saturday night feature win at most tracks in IN. I get that, but there were guys racing at Knoxville that had no prayer of advancing out of the “E” feature, and I have to believe they knew that before they ever unloaded on their first night, yet they were there racing and competing.

We’ve attended the Knoxville Nationals off and on since 1986, which was the 25th anniversary race. It’s had it’s ups and downs, but it has always been The “Nationals” for (initially) sprint cars, and now, winged sprint cars. It attracts participants and spectators from around the world, and it attracts sponsors as well. Most sanctioning bodies and tracks of winged racing (even 360 sanctioning bodies) don’t schedule against it.

If every year, just 5 of those “other seventy cars” would come compete, maybe the Smackdown event would grow to where it attracts bigger crowds and bigger sponsors, which equals bigger purses.

Last nights car count of 46 at Smackdown was very good, and there were racers from PA, NJ, and a few from CA, so the event is growing in stature. Hopefully it continues progress.

Ok for one, there was a significant purse increase this year. There was no increase in prices. 50% higher to win. 50% higher to start. I always buy mine in advance and the price was $85. I assumed you would want the extra race to pay decent through the field, so with $5000 to win you would be looking at a USAC sprint type purse. I would think a it would take a price increase to offset that kind of cost. Of course you could rent a track like say Lawrenceburg, which has more seats, promote this show and see how it goes. I promise I would buy a ticket.