Thats when we could race the same car on pavement or dirt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1981 shores car i practice at 161 mph in that car!

I don't wish to vaunt our achievements by any means, but since you asked, allow me to opine.

I would say the answer to your question is $50,000+;our first sprint car race (first race for the team and driver), the Florida 400, finished 3rd. We utilized a borrowed car, engine and fuel rig; a driver in his first race with a pit crew that had never even seen a pit stop before. We had deteermination on our side and a lot of luck. Jack Hewitt spoke about our driver after the race "That kid isn't going to be the next Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart, He's better than they were when they started."
Who am I to question Jack Hewitt?

As far as making money with our race car goes, we have never tried to make money. Our family team likes racing, we view going to the racetrack like going on vacation, we just get to do it 10-15 times a year. Perhaps we are part of the problem with racing not being a money making venture because we don't care about making money at the track.
We just like racing together as a family team. Please stop by our pit sometime and I would be delighted to introduce you to everyone.

I know what im about to put on here will make some people mad but I raced about 6-7 years ago when I was 16-17 years old. It was not a sprint car but we used the same car on dirt we did on pavement. We were very competitve on pavement but we also had to change shocks tires and rear ends(because on dirt we were not allow a quick change and pavement we were). Simple fact is after about 3 pavement races is just made more sense to spend 3k or so for a pavement frame and but another motor than to run the same car and convert back and forth every nite. We raced at salem, and no the cost of our frame and motor was nothing like sprint cars but we wanted to compete not just be in the middle of the back either so therefore we had to change a lot of componets over to run asphalt and we had most of the parts to run the full pavement car so why not just buy one(only cost out pocket for it was frame and motor). I understand the combo, but it will not help in any way to bring pavement racing back because I dirt RR if you so desire can run many full nites of racing on and still be very competitive(i spoke to DC about this one nite at tss and he said hed run one 2-3-or 4 nites and if anyone was gonna burn one up it would be him). As for pavement 2-3-or 4 laps and you need a new tire. The combo car wont help a thing cause they'll all still be runnng dirt.

I don't think that there's much difference in the cost of producing a street tire versus a race tire. But the distribution channels allow a manufacturer to make more money with the volume(#) of tires produced and sold. And street tires "support" race tires by their numbers.

And you can be sure that all of the race tire companies know that racers will pay a lot for tires; the producers build tires that wear out quickly. It's the only way that the tire companies can get any kind of volume, and minimize their losses in the race tire business. Keep this in mind - if Goodyear is the contracted supplier to Ford or GM for the tires on just one pickup truck series(F-150 or Silverado), they'll sell about 8 or 9 million tires to the automaker. Even with a profit of just $1.00 per tire, that's an $8 million profit to the tire corporation.

Hoosier would have to sell a bunch of tires to achieve those profit numbers - or charge as much as they do..........

Innovation in a sprint car? I'm not saying all innovation is bad, but in a series that is hurting for cars, innovation seems like a lofty goal.

---------- Post added at 08:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:29 PM ----------

I noticed in some of DavidM's photos he had some of the Virginia Sprint Series. They were the original series that went with the Racesaver rules. I looked for a website for them but only came up with the general Racesaver website that doesn't speak of VSS specifically or address tires. But they do seem to be a series running pavement sprints regularly.

My answer would be the two tire a night rule I posted about the 1st page of this thread. It is not unsolvable. Yes you can run one right rear a night and make the feature but your going to be hardpressed to win. I have won on just a right rear but the other tires were in very good shape from a previous race. The 2 tire a night rule would bring the Have's and the have not's closer together performance wise.

As far as we are concerned you are what is right with racing, keep doing things just as you are and enjoy every min. with your family.

Jerry Spencer #66

Geoff's right. I strongly feel the two tire rule is the way to go. Yes, I can run the night only buying a right rear, but if you're gonig to compete for the win, you usually end up bolting on more then one. Geoff runs very well on budget much less then most of the front runners. The two tire rule would bring several of the "have not's" back into contention. I didn't read all the details of the rules that MSA uses, but I was told that the LF is not included. In other words, you can put on as many LF's as you want. And just to let all of you know, I buy a new left front at the start of the season and run it all year. Then the year's before tire goes on the trailer for a spare.

Tom Paterson
HOSS Sprint #11

Somewhere between street tires that cost $100 each and last 40K miles and a racing tire that cost $200 and lasts all the way through hot laps is a happy medium that could/would bring up the car counts. I remember the Rockford Rules for late models that required high dollar short track late models to run on DOT G60s. I heard lots of complaints about those rules, but I don't remember anyone sitting at home because of them.

I think from what you guys that are actually running are saying that the two tire rule is at least in the range of what should be looked at.