Originally Posted by usac14:
Well, if your ***** is that USAC forced out the original pavement cars and put these in their place....then...go read the many posts that explain why they originally went to this car. I'll sum it up for you.
MOST MILE PAVEMENT TRACKS NO LONGER WANTED THE SILVER CROWN CARS!!! I don't know if it was because of the cost to the promoter or they just didn't want them. A good example is look at how hard is was for the PRA to get races at a fraction of the Silver Crown purse. So USAC looked at the options and they decided they needed a car that could race at bigger venues as well as the smaller ones. Wow...something many of you don't understand....Change was needed. Did they handle it right? NO! But at least they made an attempt. Now Ashmore has take over and is gambeling that it will work. I don't know if it will, but I like it's chances better out of USAC's hands. It is going to need the full attention of someone than being another series in an organization.
Just stop blaming the new car for the silver crown problems. THE PAVEMENT SERIES WAS IN TROUBLE FAR BEFORE THEY SWITCHED!!!!!!!!!!! 
Which might all be well and good except for a few things.
First it was sold as an upgrade to existing pavement SC cars. Had to look similar and have some interchangability with the existing cars to keep the cost of the changeover down. And it was going to be built by the top builders in SC. It also was supposed to have the support of both nascar and USAC.
Then the design went to a road racer (Riley). It required total replacement of the cars, no such thing as an upgrade of existing cars. Most if not all traditional SC builders dropped out of the program. The cost of the cars went from a normal $40K to $85K w/o much to show for it except a body that most said was ugly. Now to Riley who sells his tube framed road race cars for $3-5 hundred thousand each, $85K may sound like a bargain. But to the traditional SC owners it sounded like the price of the cars just doubled. Apparently the "support" from nascar and USAC was a cheering section, not subsidies to help the owners with the purchase of the new expensive cars. Nor did their support translate into sponsors or a full schedule of races. nascar has around 80 cars who have sponsors that would consider $85K a petty cash expense, yet they couldn't bring 30-40 of those around. They ran a few (very few) races and then dropped the whole thing like they'd never heard of it before.
Fast forward to 2009. Now, Bruce Ashmore, another road racer has bought the series. He has made few changes. The most noticeble one being a new nose that even though he is a designer, farmed out. The existing SCII cars are legal to race in the series if only they put up another $10K for the new bodies. The cost of the cars, a major obstacle with the previous attempt is still $85K. There still aren't any races scheduled and only 4 exhibitions on tap. According to Ashmore himself the neatest thing about the new cars is that they don't have on board computers. Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think the SC cars ever allowed on board computers.
Personally I don't have a problem with Ashmore's credentials as a car designer, but he didn't design anything on these cars. The credentials he is lacking is in the area of promotion. He doesn't have any. That doesn't mean he cannot be successful at promotion, but it is certainly not a big plus for him. He bought a series that had serious (fatal) flaws, did nothing to correct them and is trying to sell the same basic product. Could he do any worse than nascar and USAC did the first time around? I don't guess that's possible, but I'd feel a lot better about his chances of doing better if he addressed those flaws in a serious manner.
