Here’s a little background for those wanting to use the same silver crown car for dirt and pavement. Chuck Buckman and I ran a car for Johnny Parsons in 1989. We had one car for all the races and were pretty competitive. JP finished second as driver and the car finished third in USAC points. These are the parts we used to switch our one frame over from dirt to pavement. Wider front axle with LF/RF brakes and pavement spindles/hubs. Right side steering gear. Motor plate for lowering engine and moving forward abut one inch. Longer driveshaft and torque tube. 6 piston rear caliper with steel vented rotor. Master cylinder to match brakes. If we could have afforded it we would have had a pavement tail tank which mounts lower. Add to this at least 8 pavement shocks and 10 dedicated pavement wheels. If you didn’t do most of these changes you wouldn’t make 10 laps at ORP or Gateway before getting in the fence. Using the same car would be insane.
So yes we used the same car but the frame and engine were about the only thing common between dirt and pavement.
Somebody mentioned tire costs. In 1989 we got all our Goodyear tires for free and all our fuel was free from the Speedway. Those days are gone forever. Even Indycar and NASCAR pay for their tires today.
Silver Crown cars are still the neatest cars to watch on the track but we need to quit pining for the good old days and get behind what’s going on today.
There are probably 40 pavement Silver Crown cars sitting out there not being used. I can’t see how changing the rules to obsolete them would increase participation at pavement races. JMO
Brian Gerster
Originally Posted by david mitchell:
Hubie,I don't think the loads and physics are different from 1993. Speedway Illustrated August 2016. Interview with Mike Bliss.
Are you serious? Have you taken a hard look at a sprint car from 1993 and a sprint car from 2016? Have you looked at the lap times from 1993 to 2016? The cars are not the same. Technology has changed racing forever. The same thing applies to silver crown cars. As other posters have stated, there are substantial technology differences from going dirt to pavement.
Do you know why people started building pavement only race cars? Because they could tune the car to make it much faster than a converted dirt car. Do you know why people stopped converting dirt cars to pavement cars? Because they could not compete with the pavement only cars.
I think we should give the last word on this subject to Brian. As they say he has been there ,done that, and got the t-shirt. He knows more about the business than any of us.If you were given the job of rebuilding the pavement portion of Silver Crown racing what would your plan be.Again , I applaud USAC for rebuilding the dirt side, but for pavement what do we do.
Originally Posted by bgerster:
There are probably 40 pavement Silver Crown cars sitting out there not being used. I can’t see how changing the rules to obsolete them would increase participation at pavement races. JMO
Brian Gerster
Someone on here said Friday night they were hoping you were going to find a ride for that night.
I think everyone on here wants to find a solution to get the car count up.
Could you please give your opinion on how it might be able to be accomplished?
Originally Posted by LEADERS EDGE:
I have seen just as many great pavement races as I have dirt races. I have also seen just as many bad pavement races as I have seen bad dirt races. I think if you go to any race with a bias of it's better than this or not as good as that...then it will most likely turn out that way.
For years.... One of the absolute best training grounds for racing was the Speedrome. Night after night some of the hardest racing you've ever seen. Taught drivers to race close and patience. Nobody went to watch for whatever reason and now the only time you can see open wheel cars there is when the Kenyon Series runs there. I'm sure they still put on great races whenever they are there.
Get tire costs under control and you will see more pavement racing. As much as a supporter of the sport Hoosier is.... I have to believe a restricted tire pavement series does not benefit their bottom line and as a company it would be hard for them to put money toward that effort.
I couldn't agree with you more!
Kevin Miller has sat on his butt and not done a thing to try to help protect the investment of the owners by making an effort to keep the pavement side going. If that means going to Hoosier and bargaining a different deal, a different tire, whatever!
How about going to American Racer and seeing how they could help to keep the pavement side of SC (not stock car) going.
I'm afraid we've seen our last pavement race USAC is going to sanction for a very long time. And as far as I'm concerned, that is shame on you Kevin Miller! You should lose your job!
Going to Salem, Winchester, and Gateway isn't going to increase the car counts on pavement. Guys don't wanna run these places. And tracks that have drawn a decent car count in recent years couldn't draw a crowd. I'm not even sure if the product is appealing enough to fans anymore for promotors to take a chance and book a pavement Silver Crown show. Salem is just the the most recent example. USAC has had to lease tracks just to keep the series going the last several years. It's kinda like the SCCA where the track gets leased and all the members show up to race in front of no fans.
The 13 cars at Salem represents the largest owner/car count at any USAC race. There are 8 or 9 sprint owners and 4-5 midget owners that have attended all the races thus far this year.
I am in a minority, I much prefer pavement racing.... until tire costs can be made affordable trying to build a series is going to be hard. Don't put all the blame on Hoosier if they could build a tire that was cost effective and made good business sence they would.
