Originally Posted by RaceFan511:
POWRi's average midget car count this season is 36.24 cars per race. And that calculation includes the car counts from Tri-City Speedway and St. Francois County Raceway this past weekend. I hardly think it would be accurate to judge the health of a series by the car counts from one weekend alone.
Average car counts is one way to judge the series, and it is a number to look at. However, in order to get a true count you would need to also do the same exercise without all of the co-sanctioned events (USAC, Badger, and POWRI West) and another count without the speed week events. This would give you a true view of the health of the series. The Speed Week counts are definitely spiking the average.
If you do the same calculation leaving out all co-sanctioned and midget week events, POWRi's average car count is 27 cars per race this season. Before this past weekend's unusually low car counts, the average car count was 32.2 cars per race (again, the calculation was done leaving out all co-sanctioned and midget week events).
The interesting part about doing these calculations was seeing how certain events affected POWRi's "base" average car count. The single co-sanctioned race with USAC and the co-sanctioned races with Badger actually brought POWRi's average car count down. The co-sanctioned events with POWRi West and the midget week races brought the average back up.
In my mind, POWRi will be in good shape as long as the average car count gets back up to 30 or above by the time the season is over. But, again, we will have to wait and see how the numbers pan out at the end of October.
Originally Posted by Hkamp1982:
Farmington is not a 1/4 mile track, I grew up going to that track and it's more of a 3/8th mile.
I did as well. Perhaps my measurement is off, but I do know that Tri City advertises as a 3/8 and Farmington because of it's paper clip design has no where the pull on motors that Granite does and that's the point I was trying to make
Originally Posted by opnwhlmnd:
Quinn, Quinn ..... paging Andrew S. Quinn
As POWRi's head cheerleader could you fill us in on the reason for the low car counts this past weekend?
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No idea. I was in Indiana all weekend. But thanks for asking. I'll be at Little Belleville on Sunday night for the Arnie Knepper memorial race. Maybe Haubstadt too. Haven't made my mind up yet.
Probably just an anomaly. Racers do have other things in their lives. Some of the teams are probably getting ready for Belleville. Some guys were racing sprint cars. Powri runs a great program and I'm sure everything will be just fine.
I think the biggest problem POWRi is starting to face is the cost of racing that series. It costs the local father & son team almost if not over $100 to even get into the track anymore. Between your $30 pit pass X 2 and then your fee to pill draw which is either $30 if you are a member (membership is $180 at the beginning of the year) or $50 if your not a member. So your out either $90 or $110 and you havent even hit the racetrack. The paying to pill draw is ridiculous. If you go on POWRi's website they have all kinds of series sponsors on there website yet what do the racers/owners get? POWRi competition is no joke anymore, there is serious contenders. Most of the top 5 anymore are Toyota, Mopar, or Esslinger "sponsored" teams.
You can help but feel bad for the Gundakers what is going through there mind about the Gold Crown now? I'm sure POWRi will have there usual 30-40 cars at Belle Clair but something does need to be done to try and lower the costs of what it takes to race every night. But in the end we all know what were out of pocket every night before we ever leave the garage.
On the other hand though look at what Jackslash Indiana Sprintcar Series is doing. Look at all the incentives there is to race that. Hard charger money, heat race money, free tires, free brake kit, etc... At least you see these sponsors products being giving back to the drivers/owners.
I usually don't get on here and voice an opinion very often most of the time I just read other people's outlooks on the racing scene. But I do think this is something that could possibly help midget racing.