They dumped the "New" Crown Cars.

About 25 Grand if they had open Fuel-Engine rules.

Point taken.
I also feel that a 410 limit and the continuous development of it is a huge reason the cost continue to rise drastically.

Gawd...you people make me want to puke and laugh at the same time. :respect:

If only Lauren could see to it to chime in and make sense of all of this.

Lauren makes way too much sense to have any effect on where this thread has descended to.

Great job of answering the questions asked and great pr for USAC and their drivers!

It's amazing that everybody is bashing about everything THEY can't call Kevin Miller and ask themselves! He has been on RaceFanRadio shows many times. He was on the USAC show and nobody called!!! He spent an hour and nobody called!

Car #10 why don't you start a post about how to control midget racing? Lots of jabs but show us fans some facts! Racing ain't cheap anywhere. Show us the money!

Miller isn't afraid to take the questions, he admitted the New Gen cars are work in progress. USAC brought up their new website for Knoxville. Isn't perfect but one hell of a start. 7 months on the job and I think he has done alot. Dumping Greg wasn't to my liking but he has a reason.

Everybody in the Mid-west likes to dump USAC but outside of that USAC complaints aren't known by most of the fans. They still think USAC is a great series. That doesn't count on the west coast, they hate themselves, maybe that's why it's gone from CRA to SCRA to CRA/USAC to Faas next year?

USAC is changing and in time the races will become events. Nobody gets fired up about going to a USAC race at the Burg ! But everybody is fired up for Indiana SprintWeek coming to the Burg. Why? because sprintweek is an event.

Midget racing has a problem with the cost of engines, that's not just a USAC problem that's everywhere. But look at the different manufactures involved.

USAC was started Jan 1st 1956, back when the INDY 500 was a part of USAC. Things have changed since then. In another 10 years this will all be just another change within USAC. Did Duane Carter, Charlie Brockman, Dick King and John Capels change things that people didn't like?

Stay at your favorite local track, they never have any problems with the track or car counts, enjoy the support series that help your promoter break even on a possible rainy night.

USAC is still the Major League of Open Wheel Racing, like it or not.

John Laux
Las Nutz, Tx.

Mizzmeatboy, this is car #10. I've posted what you are asking several times on here. I'm tired of getting hit by the tomatoes. Check the midget car counts around the country. They aren't getting any better. I'm parking my midgets as of today. Don't look for them to be out of the barn any time soon.

Don Moore

Interesting thought but uninformed. The original CRA folded because it was no longer the club it used to be. And I make the point to mention club here because the president at the time made autocratic choices with no input from the club membership. He thought he was doing the right thing for the club but in actuality he was killing it. You see, we have the crazy notion that a club means that members actually have the right to vote on who leads the club, rules and other irrational ideas like that. At the end, only two tracks would allow CRA to run with them. Then like now, many people blamed the economy for the low car counts. Guess what? SCRA was formed and the club immediately started running at like 7 different tracks with 2x the car count. After 10 years of that the tracks that made up 75% of the races didn't like dealing with the SCRA president so they met with the former USAC president and a deal was cut to switch the sanctioning allegiance to USAC. The rest of the tracks quickly followed (or were bullied into following). During this period USAC did make a number of what ultimately turned into empty promises which is one of the root causes of the current unrest. Plus, stiffing a popular champion doesn't help either. If USAC hadn't had sold the Koolaid they were selling to the racers, the fight to keep SCRA probably would have lastest longer.

So if 100% of the tracks where the national series ran at locked out USAC in favor of ASCS and the racers continued racing at the same tracks, I guess you could apply some extended logic to say that the teams willingly made the switch from USAC to ASCS.

I will probably get bashed for this but here goes:

Many of the posts on here have made valid points. The problems facing USAC today are not new and have developed and or worsened over a few decades.

Previous administrations held the belief that USAC was the premier sprint car sanctioning body in the country and therefore all the other sanctions should follow USAC’s lead. This was in an era of declining car counts, declining TV coverage and stagnant purses. There was also a philosophy that USAC was a sanctioning body only and therefore should not have to market or promote the series, the sport, the drivers or the races. In recent years there was a push to book as many races as possible, usually with additional travel involved, for the standard purse despite the increased costs to travel. The thought behind this was to broaden the fan base and collect sanction fees but at the expense of the teams running for the championship.

I would like to point out that in speaking with Kevin Miller and his lieutenants I have noticed a fundamental change in the philosophy under which USAC operates.

They are actively soliciting the participant’s opinions on how to bring uniformity to the rules among the various sanctioning bodies so that the pool of cars available to compete can be shared and the local competitors can run the same car without modifications under multiple sanctions.

They sincerely want to put a quality product on the track at each event so that all the fans (new and old) can leave knowing they got their money’s worth.

They want to create excitement and buzz surrounding USAC events to pack the stands so that everybody (promoter, USAC, drivers and owners) can share in the increased revenue generated by a larger attendance.

They have a desire to simplify the administrative side so that USAC teams no longer have to stand in line to sign in at each event.

They want to foster a fan friendly atmosphere at the track through driver introductions, getting the fans to the pits to meet and greet the drivers and crew, having the races end at a reasonable hour and having “events” where fans are entertained.

Kevin has set goals and embarked on a path to achieve them. A journey of a 1000 miles begins with one step. Kevin and crew have taken many steps along this path. There will undoubtedly be missteps, stumbles and about faces along the way but if they can execute on their plans, USAC and sprint car racing in general will emerge healthier and perhaps once again lay claim to being the premier sprint car organization.

I would not look for any one earth shattering change that will turn this sport around but more like hundreds of little changes that may or may not be noticable but will have a profound effect over the long run.

I am sure that I will not personally agree with all the initiatives Kevin undertakes as President of USAC but I am more than willing to see where his ideas take this sport since he is approaching it as a business and he has a true love of the sport.

Rob Hoffman

:respect: Rob Hoffman :applaud: