Originally Posted by johnnythunderhead:
seems as though usac worked hard (I won't say destroying), ah, ah, let's say decreasing the champ cars from 50-60 plus to 13, and it seems the midgets are next from the looks of it. I gotta admit, i'm not wild about champ cars (its a shame what's happened to them though)/ but I am wild about midgets and I really don't know who to blame in respect to their decline? Yeah, i know, the quality is still there, but in my book, quantity's a big consideration too!
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$40K plus midget engines, turning motors 12-14K, purses that haven't changed since the 80's and 90's, semi trailers, super teams, pavement only cars, super soft tires, titanium, clutches and starters, ect. have all helped run the mom and pop teams out of the sport. I started driving midgets in the 80's and so did a lot of the guys I've worked for and with over the years, so I have a big soft spot for them. I owned my own **** and had an open trailer. We used to have organizations everywhere (Buckeye, MARA, SLMRA, just to name a few) and about 25-30 cars just about everywhere you went. Sure, a lot of them were older, but they weren't obsoleted overnight, like now. There were Cosworths, Sescos, Chevy IIs, VWs, V-6s, Gaertes, Eslingers and god only knows what else. We went from having a lot of cars at TH for the Hut, to having about 36 (IIRC) the last year we ran midgets (with the V-4 boat anchor with clutch and starter). The one constant? IMO, it was 16th and Georgetown pandering to the the big boys to make it more of an "elite" series. They never gave a crap about the little guy and they still don't. There's a lot more behind it than just that, but this is long enough already.