Don, I like you thoughts and all but have you made that phone call yet? What can it hurt, maybe you can tell us how it went.

Phones connections run both ways. All my vital information and contact info is public record and has been supplied to the United States Auto Club repeatedly with their fee registration materials.

I've read all the USAC press releases, read the PRI Mag article from September 2008, watched and heard Mr. Miller on 2 Wind Tunnel shows, read Spridge's comments from his advice and consultation sessions with Miller and, as late as last night, read his response on this thread. Out of all of this, I have not heard one thing that is new. Maybe you can call him and let us all know what the latest buzz is.

I said this in a previous string. Limit the motors to 11.999999 to 1 compression ratio. It lets the motors last a lot longer and current owners would only need a set of piston of which they replace during maintenence any ways.

Excuse me? Reject sanctioning? This is a case of mis-information.

Did I meet with USAC about putting on dirt races in Northern California to try and build a following, yes I did. But given the workload of Tommy Hunt it was obvious that it was not going to happen so we went to work. Yes, we did something, we went to work trying to build a class that is needed in this area. Hell I joined USAC (yep spent over $500) and never raced one USAC show, because there weren't any in our area.

Then I learned that most of the area dirt track promoters did not want anything to do with USAC (why is for them to answer) so instead of quitting, we kept plugging and worked to build something. In fact the only reason there is a Capital City Midgets is due to USAC not being successful at penetrating the Northern California dirt market. Had they done so, we would be racing with them today, instead we took a different route to meet our objective. Just so you and I are clear, I have not begged for anything in my life (except a cookie or two when I was a child).

As for my post to Mr. Miller, it was not meant to be accusatory, it was meant to be factual and helpful. I could not tell what mis-truth he dispelled with his post. Also, as a person who runs a major business, I felt that it was needed to state that without a plan he is going to take this type of heat.

It is CEO 101 that within 18 months of taking a new position you need to state your plan, be it 3 year, 5 year etc. That has not occurred (fact). In my opinion that is part of the reason that these threads occur, people are looking for leadership, Mr. Miller is in the perfect position to be that leader and if he does not step up and do so somebody else will. If my post was a bit to direct, no apologies it was meant to be on point. If you would have read the entire post you would have seen that I wished him luck as the expectation by the racing community is huge and given the state it will not be an easy job, that was all sincere.

As for the misspelling of Mr. Spridgeon's last name, I do apologize for that, no disrespect was intended it was late, I could not sleep and felt a bit ill when I was sitting at the computer. But that is still no excuse, I do apologize as I said earlier I do admire his conviction and loyalty (the world needs more loyal people).


Best wishes,
Rick

---------- Post added at 07:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:59 AM ----------

Fixed and apologies again to him, no disrespect intended.

I for one would love to have this quote clarified...

"The competition base for USAC has more than doubled in the past 12 months, up 115%"

What is this based from? What numbers can back this up? Is this inflammatory, no. It is simply a question I would like to have answered with the facts backed up with something that can be looked at to verify the numbers. I hope this is not including the quarter midgets....

The statement said "competition base" which would have to include the .25 midgets. When were the off road trucks added? Regardless, this can no way reflect the historic divisions.

Don, I am just a fan, not a car owner. You calling him would make more sense than me doing so.

In the interest of being fair and ensuring that all the facts are presented accurately I spent a little time today looking at the "results" for the USAC races. I did not do this to point fingers, but to post the statistic that I think most of us think matters the most, the results speak for themselves.

At this point there have been 20 USAC National Races, 13 on dirt, 7 on pavement.

Using the results page on USAC's site, they have averaged 28.75 cars per event (not that bad).

Dirt races have averaged 31.15 cars with a low of 20 and a high of 41. Strangely enough the best car counts were for the races out west to start the season which averaged 39 cars (that is great by any standards).

Interestingly the races that have had the lowest turnout have been joint races with SMRS and PowerI (Knoxville and Belleville) which saw counts of 22,20,22,31 well below the dirt average for the other races. Maybe you can say it was that the races are in 1/2 miles tracks, but the 4 races out west earlier that saw an average of 39 cars were all on 1/2 mile tracks.

Pavement races have averaged 24.3 cars with a high of 38 and a low of 10 (most recent race). The only races where you have seen more than 30 cars were both at ORP. The rest have been in the 20's (or below in 1 case); 22, 29, 20,20,10.

So what does this mean, really nothing. I would be curious what the benchmark is for car count at a USAC National Event? The World Of Outlaws (from results on their website) have averaged 35 cars per event with a high of 54 (Chico) to a low of 18 (New York).

With that being the case, averaging 31 on dirt is really not too bad. One thing that these statistics would support are more races out west. In almost every case the races out west for both organizations had car counts well above the average. Who would have thought that would be the case.

I realize I am making the arguement for Mr. Miller, but with these statistics (ones that are actually tangible) one could argue that the "status quo" is ok and with exception of an abnormal event (Salem) their series is either meeting or exceeding expectations.

Another thing these statistic infer is that in the midwest the larger tracks have not done as well, thus to increase car counts (on average) they might want to limit the number of times they go to the big tracks and focus on some of the smaller venues. But they very well might be an excellent business reason whey they are happy to keep the "satus quo", it would be interesting to know the position. But in all cases the races on 1/4 mile dirt tracks pulled greater than average car counts (36,38,33), that does say something. With exception to the races out west the races on 3/8 and larger dirt tracks have not fared as well (22,20,28,20,22,31).

I really do hope this helps shed some light on the actual numbers that are showing up at the track. One thing I will point out is that the USAC stats were based on the number of cars that qualified, the WoO based on the number of cars that started a main event (as their site did not show qualifing).

Obviously I need to get back to real work.

Rick

ryoung99

Great post. Those numbers are interesting.

Shocking......Hard to believe but the world isn't collapsing.

I blow Rick alot of **** but that was a great post and from a person who is trying to go in a different direction and didn't have to do that. Pretty classy really. It shows that car counts aren't where they need to be but aren't completely as dire as it would seem. There is much room for improvement.

Ya know......the last time I saw a group of people get so fed up that they wanted to blow everything up and go in a complete new direction; the country got cash for clunkers and an attempt at forced health care reform.