Originally Posted by thepurple73:
i attended the nationals since the mid-1960's and hundreds of knoxville "saturday night" non-wing events. Also many non-wing races at oskaloosa, sedalia, lakeside, lincoln ne, iowa state fair grounds, ascot, manzy and tons of county fair tracks for years. It is a shame todays fans can't experience what it was like in the late 1960's and 1970's non-wing sprints at knoxville. It was utterly amazing and tremendous fun. At that time the arizona barn, and other "barns" at the knoxville fairgrounds served as garages and hangouts for the nationals competitors and fans. Jack miller was the ultimate announcer. I also attended at the same time hundreds of usac races. It was great seeing people like eddie leavitt, ray lee goodwin, jerry blundy, bubby jones, opperman, dick gaines, dean thompson, jimmie boyd and a cast of others battle it out at the nationals back then.
Imo todays usac and california non-wing sprint crowd are very much like the open wheelers of that time. Folks in indiana and california are lucky to have non-wing sprinters so available.
It would be nice to have the indiana/illinois/ohio/pennsylvania/california non-wing drivers and fans all take part in an open wheel nationals on a big half mile like knoxville.
I thought the usac race at oskaloosa the last several years was great and a "must see" race. It had that non-wing national's feel.
I attended the "winged nationals" last year. But to me its just not the same as the old days. Just my personal preference for non-wing sprints.
I would attend a large (huge purse) non-wing national event no matter where it was held, and would pay what ever the promoter wanted for admission. Terre haute, knoxville, osky, perris, sedalia, eldora would work, probably some other tracks also.
I would think some one could make it happen. Maybe it is up to us fans.
Today's non-wing drivers deserve it.
Originally Posted by hoosierdaddy:
I'm not getting into the wing vs. non-wing debate, but I will say that I WOULD NOT spend $5 to watch any race car @ Knoxville. I personally hate the place and have yet to see a good race there. I've unfortunately seen more people killed there than I have good racing, I'll never go back!
If the last time you've visited was 1979, you might want to give the place a 2nd chance. A few things have changed..
Originally Posted by SPRINTCAR:
Who you gonna kill?!!!!!!
---------- Post added at 12:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:35 PM ----------
The owners and driver's are not the ones who should be making the purse. You need butts in the seats. 30 of the best make for a great show.
I'm not saying they should. The point is when you pay a terrific purse, you expect to have the pits full. If you only get 30 cars for a $4,000 to win show and only get 30 cars for a $15,000 to win show, why in the heck would you pay the $15,000 to win?
30 cars might get you a nice crowd but when you know there's going to be twice as many competing for only 24 spots in the feature, you'll have SRO.
Originally Posted by Rex W.:
Fake Sprint cars?? Last i checked those "fake sprint cars" would still bust someones ass. That's damn near the dumbest phucking thing I've seen someone post on here!
Thanks for adding something to the discussion. If you could comprehend my sarcasm you wouldn't have posted the most idiotic quote I've ever seen. Reread it again there and you may understand. Read it twice. I'm too nice of a guy to flat out call anyone dumb on the internet. Have a good time at the races, I'll look you up if I need to be educated. Thanks!
What I left out in my initial quote is this: As for the state of REAL sprint car racing
Originally Posted by hoosierdaddy:
I'm not getting into the wing vs. non-wing debate, but I will say that I WOULD NOT spend $5 to watch any race car @ Knoxville. I personally hate the place and have yet to see a good race there. I've unfortunately seen more people killed there than I have good racing, I'll never go back!
I totally agree...4/10ths and 1/2 mile up tracks SUCK...I have raced for over 30 years and raced where most tracks where 1/2 milers..but my best time I have ever had in ALL of racing is leaving 5 blocks from KOKOMO Speedway in the mid 90's and being a spectator for 2 years there...Indiana has the best dirt racing in the country because of their BULL RING mentality...give me a 1/4 over a 1/2 any day
Originally Posted by HurstBros0:
Lets put it in blue collar " field filler " terms . Would I tow my backhoe 10+(20 round trip) hours to dig in lateral lines for 5000.00 ? That`s a big no . I can tow an hour or two for half that and my pocket is fuller. USAC can`t be fixed until Nascar gets fixed. Why were those pits full of cars 10 years ago? All the aspiring Jeff`s and Tony`s were fast tracking to Nascar. When you can`t give away tickets to one of Nascar`s biggies ,to people from Indiana who will stop and watch two kids race tricycles, then it`s broken. There you go ... I know some long haired professor in an MBA program could ramble for hours in eloquent terms about the economics of racing . Take it from a bald fat guy with a sprint car , if you don`t go out the gate with a 1000.00 , you paid to race that night. It doesn`t take too long paying for the show and there is no show because the dummy paying to play has went broke.
