i really doubt they want usac or mscs or any other group. i think hammer is wanting to do this himself with the 2 tracks he promotes and maybe add another. friday night at FC. for sure but saturday is open because he can run sunday at lincoln. so what saturday night track would work best? forget spoon. fairbury wont have open wheels after the MARA incident years ago. my guess is Lasalle for a saturday night or run lincoln on saturday and sunday at shepps new track in new berlin or back to danville.

[Sprint63122]

Originally Posted by Kirk Spridgeon If non-Sprintweek USAC sprint car races in the Midwest got great crowds, then I would agree with you. But a USAC race at Jacksonville, or Farmer City, or whatever, does nothing for the USAC brand. A weekend swing at facilities such as Granite City, Pevely, Lake Ozark, Lucas Oil, etc. would be good for the USAC brand. That's the difference... Before USAC adds a bunch more dirt races (and continues to put the strain on their teams to follow the series), they need to strengthen the dates they do have, and continue to pursue making it a true two-surface series, because the pavement has been dwindling....

What brand to they have right now to really promote this sanctioning body is a shade of its former self.The asphalt part of the series is almost to a pathetic level they could only pull 15 or 16 pavement cars to the last race they had and most of the shows for pavement barely had a full field of cars there anyway.They need to take the better part of the series on dirt and push hard to expand that,they used to come to Little Springfield speedway and race there.Here is the simple way to look at it they are based in Indiana and do not have a major paying race in there home state at all that along is just awful and after how many years of sanctioning races are they up to now.

[Kirk Spridgeon]

Originally Posted by Sprint63122 What brand to they have right now to really promote this sanctioning body is a shade of its former self.The asphalt part of the series is almost to a pathetic level they could only pull 15 or 16 pavement cars to the last race they had and most of the shows for pavement barely had a full field of cars there anyway.They need to take the better part of the series on dirt and push hard to expand that,they used to come to Little Springfield speedway and race there.Here is the simple way to look at it they are based in Indiana and do not have a major paying race in there home state at all that along is just awful and after how many years of sanctioning races are they up to now.

Why do they need to expand the dirt? They already have a BUNCH of dirt dates....if you're complaining about them not having high-paying races, why shouldn't they keep the number of dates they have (therefore keeping supply fairly low) and attempt to get the purses of those races raised?

What they have right now is the best racing in the country with the best drivers. It does them no good to sell out and race at every little dirt track in the world for a base purse.

Little Springfield is gone. The racing world has changed. Your ideas are out-dated....simply adding more dates doesn't help a bit - that's what gets us into the problems like Shady Bowl and Liberty!!!

[Sprint63122]

Originally Posted by Kirk Spridgeon Why do they need to expand the dirt? They already have a BUNCH of dirt dates....if you're complaining about them not having high-paying races, why shouldn't they keep the number of dates they have (therefore keeping supply fairly low) and attempt to get the purses of those races raised? What they have right now is the best racing in the country with the best drivers. It does them no good to sell out and race at every little dirt track in the world for a base purse. Little Springfield is gone. The racing world has changed. Your ideas are out-dated....simply adding more dates doesn't help a bit - that's what gets us into the problems like Shady Bowl and Liberty!!!

If they are supposed to be the best series kinda funny if they only have enough sprint dates for about 2/3 of the season looking at a monthly schedule.Kinda like your thoughts about them growing they are not going to get anwhere with what they are doing now.If it was left up to the teams now the end of the season west coast swing would not happen does not make common sense to schedule them and the payout is junk for that swing and if you think them adding osky last year added anything to that event they did not pull any more cars there this event does not need to have there sanction it was going good without out it to start with.So if you take out osky and the west coast swing they are down to about half of season of races now that is not a great sanctioning body at work there.

[Kirk Spridgeon]

How many dates do you expect them to have? There are no other times to schedule races!!

At the end of the day, they still have the three best-paying sprint car shows in the country and they're trying to build the races they do have into more prestigious events. If they can add a few good swings into other areas, the schedule is just about as good as you can get.

Unfortunately for you, a National series does not just race in Illinois and Indiana. Get out and go to some races. A strong National series is better for the regional series, such as MSCS and the ASCS Bandits. If they can all get more money into these events, it's only good for the teams and drivers, which is the point....ideas like this "Illinois Sprint Week" are good for the core of local/regional sprint car racing, but that is not something that USAC should be concerned with.

[Sprint63122]

Originally Posted by Kirk Spridgeon How many dates do you expect them to have? There are no other times to schedule races!! At the end of the day, they still have the three best-paying sprint car shows in the country and they're trying to build the races they do have into more prestigious events. If they can add a few good swings into other areas, the schedule is just about as good as you can get. Unfortunately for you, a National series does not just race in Illinois and Indiana. Get out and go to some races. A strong National series is better for the regional series, such as MSCS and the ASCS Bandits. If they can all get more money into these events, it's only good for the teams and drivers, which is the point....ideas like this "Illinois Sprint Week" are good for the core of local/regional sprint car racing, but that is not something that USAC should be concerned with.

It sounds like they are trying to be one big deal a month then off.I read the other post on here for the beginning of the year for the west coast again in Feb,March has nothing big and April is the same as is May.June they head to the eastern swing and in July is sprint week.August is osky???? and September is four crown and end of october and nov is the west coast again.Looking like one big weekend of some months and then poof.As for the money the winner's money is good then it is nothing to brag about.As for traveling I do what I can with work but have been to many states to support racing.They are on the fence here with wanting to travel like this anyway they have to get a purse like the outlaws do and if they can get people to watch them. I already know they have a thousand times better racing than the outlaws do right now.Waiting to see how the video deal goes they need to push that all that they can the show from manzinita was greatly appreciated to watch for those who can not get there and I should say thanks to the Indianapolis motor speedway who provided the feed for us to watch.

[Kirk Spridgeon]

The gaps in the schedule are because they are trying not to schedule against the other two major USAC series. You know, because everyone and their brother bitched about the conflicts. There are only so many dates, and especially weekends, in a year, so they can only have so many races to suit your taste. It is impossible to race every series every weekend and be successful.

Things are getting better. Seriously.
And hopefully some purses will go up (which is why I included my idea on second dates during Sprintweek) and coverage will increase, which is what they're trying to do. The idea booking a ton of races in the Midwest will do nothing to improve that situation, though.

[Sprint63122]

I guess the question that they really need to be honest about is just how many teams are able to run like this and how many can they draw when they go into different areas to support them.Because the only two markets that I can think of that has non-wing racing is Indiana and perris and manzy.With that type of demographic how will this running all over be supported.The rule of thumb is be strong in your core areas before branching out all over because it takes a lot of money to be on the road these days.

[dirtnonwingfan]

As an Illinois resident, I am interested in an Illinois sprint week. Why don't you two take your USAC argument to another thread, please. I am not trying to suggest that either or both of you don't have valid points, I just hate to keep seeing good threads hijacked by posts which take it in another direction. It seems like that happens too often here. You see a thread and get a few posts down it and it changes totally. Thank you.

Frank Daigh

How's this sound?

Wed. June 10-----Spoonriver
Thurs. June 11----Jacksonville
Friday June 12----Granite City
Sat. June 13----Lincoln
Sun. June 14----Shepp's Track

All Shows paying $2000 to win & a $2500 point fund for the top 5 guys.