From a race car designer’s viewpoint, here is a perspective on the Gold Crown Championship car process.

In the past, (the current Die Hard race fan still remembers the process), the racing series or organization issued a rule book and competitors built or bought a car to compete. Each team then developed that car over the following years, often constructing a brand new car design each year. We didn’t know it at the time, but the rules were very open and the racing cars of today were developed from these open rules. As the years progressed the costs escalated. So the sanctioning bodies created less open rules in an attempt to control costs and level competition so that the sport of driving, rather than who had the largest check book, would shine through. The logical progression of this process is that eventually all the racing cars around the world will be specified by the various sanctioning bodies and all the cars within each series will look pretty much all the same. Evan Formula One is an excellent example of this. All the cars are made by different manufacturers costing millions $ and every one of them looks very similar.

The current owners of the new Gold Crown Championship cars are attempting to involve race fans in a new process; a process that to my knowledge hasn’t been tried before. Instead of dictating to you, the race fan, what you should be watching, the Gold Crown Auto Racing group and the OEG is asking you what you think the Destination series of USAC should look like. The great thing about the platform we have to start with is that it is sound and stable it just needs a new look. This is where you come in. This not USAC asking, it is the owners of the cars.

There is room for a series to be the pinnacle of USAC racing. It can be a sound Destination series for Drivers, Team Owners and Sponsors to aspire to, and without moving away from USAC. This series will not only give our veterans an opportunity to earn a living racing, it will give our drivers the qualifications to be more prepared when attempting to enter IndyCar and NASCAR. A bit like going to college before you start work. The OEG wants to strengthen USAC and strengthen Silver Crown, Sprint Car and Midget racing, not only to survive but to grow in the coming years. Wouldn’t it be great to see more American drivers at the top of American Motorsport. We think so.

Bruce Ashmore

[Ovalmeister]

Originally Posted by mac miller Well, Let me help you out here, David, You could begin by listing a couple of essential things that these little kids can learn, skidding around on giant rubber ball tires, on quarter mile dirt tracks, that will be of any use when they get to the nascar superspeedways.............................

Yeah, I see your point, you're probably right. We should just close down every dirt track in America. What the hell good are they anyway, just dusty old rat traps. I'm sure Foyt, Rutherford, the Unsers', Bettenhausens', Stewart, etc., didn't learn a single thing about car control, tire management, fuel burnoff, chassis setup, etc., by sliding around on dirt for 30 years. They never really had much success on pavement anyway I guess. I'd love to hear Stewart and AJ's opinion of that. Why don't you ask them and get back to us?

Thanks in advance....
David.

ps....We should take an IOW poll:
Do you think dirt track racing is a waste of time?
Yes or no?

In the end, all of this discussion is pointless if a promoter cannot sell enough tickets to pay the bills and make a little money.
Jim Morrison

[RacinFool]

Originally Posted by mac miller Well, Let me help you out here, David, You could begin by listing a couple of essential things that these little kids can learn, skidding around on giant rubber ball tires, on quarter mile dirt tracks, that will be of any use when they get to the nascar superspeedways............................. As of today, Sept 25 2008, usac has no pro level series, so these kiddies have no where to go but the paved superspeedways of nascar. If usac ever does create a top level pro series, it will be on paved superspeedways. At this time these rich mommies and daddies are squandering their time and money on extra dirt cars, dirt tires, dirt driving techniques and dirt car setups that are of no use to the goal of getting their driverchild into a pro level series. Another thing usac should do, to help these kids, is to mandate radial tires in all pavement classes including their brand new quater midget kiddie cars. Anyone who has ambition to move up is wasting their time learning to drive on the current Hoosier bias plies. No pro level series in the world is using bias ply tires. Of course, If your dream is to be a lifer quarter mile dirt track driver, then disregard everything I've said. There are plenty of local saturday night quarter mile dirt tracks where you can live your dreams.

Ok, But the answer is not a spec class that involves Thunder roadsters as you posted in another thread. Seems like a select few who sell these cookie cutters are the only one who benefit$.

[sc96]

Dave,You use way to much commonsense.Owners ask for some input from fans and get slamed for it.I guess some will never learn.