Badger has it right do away with the expensive motors who cares if the cars are a little slower I just want good racing

There are badger motors that cost more than my national motor. It's just all racing is suffering right now. Remember we just had Indiana midget week followed by Illinois midget week a lot of guys aren't following series for points so they don't come when it's 100 degrees or if it's a track they don't like. Also have talked to some esslinger guys that aren't coming because of the new rpm rule. They feel it has hurt them.

Maybe it's time to start worrying more about the back end of the purse and not so much about the top end.

The bmara website Rules and Engine Data pages define all the money that CAN be spent still...

I feel over saturation is a big part of the problem. I am afraid sprints in Indiana are in the same danger if we aren't careful.

There are tracks attracting cars and drivers. One example is the Action Track in PA. They run three classes and usually have over 120 cars every Wednesday night. 30-40 usac str's, usually 50-60 600 nonwing micros and a bunch of slingshots. The STR and slingshots are spec cars and the 600's might as well be.
If I was a promotor I'd be on the phone with Richie Tobias seeing if he was interested in getting your track to run his STR midgets. Besides the large amount of cars the stands are packed every Wednesday.
The 600 micros I believe are the class that is going to get bigger not smaller.
I don't care if you only have a handful of cars racing, I'd support the racing otherwise your racing could look like the crap we have here.

Im with Brent on this one, Over saturation. Consider that most of the teams maybe can get out to 20-25 shows a year, The number of teams half of what it was 15 years ago and now some Saturdays, Five or more tracks fighting for that 80-100 cars, A couple are going to come up short. And fans that are going to start picking and choosing, when and where they go.

I went to a track not local this weekend for 16 cars. Oh locally that wouldn't be too big a deal, But to me, The two hour drive and tank of gas was barely worth the travel and $$ for three races in the only class I knew anyone who ran in. If that was three or four heats, A consi and the main, I wouldn't even mention it. The guy who I chatted with and was telling me Butler Stories all night said, Well, It's clear nobody's going to haul any distance for a thousand to win, two hundred to start. He also said, What happens when this becomes 8-10 cars? I said I seen that before back in the 90s when the indiana tracks were running wings and started having 7-10 car turnouts and they went back Non Wing except for a few specials and counts rebounded big. This track I was at only two or three years ago had a 35 car average. IDK all the reasons, But there are certainly reasons that some are parking, others are putting a wing on.

Midgets take a hit every motor revolution. Staab told me that as soon as you are current and competitive in a midget, Something changes, a lot more $$ has to be spent, IN the 90s it was the Pontiac, The Gearte, 2000's the Esslinger and Fontana. Now, Toytota and SR11

Vs the Sprint while to run up front consistently is going to take a hammer motor. But in many conditions a 1990 technology -12 chevy can run up front with a decent driver and setup. Or at least keep you at the tracks more nights than not.

I think its many things, And simple slight purse increase or anyone one thing isn't going to fix it alone. Quite honestly, I think it comes down to It cost way more bucks to run than ever and a lot less people able or willing to spend the bucks to do it.

Purse's haven't significantly increased vs 20 years ago, In fact some are less up top. Gates haven't significantly increased, Ten dollars in 1990 vs fifteen today?

I even say Over Saturation in number of classes. If your goal was to be a sprint or higher level driver in the 80's You started in quarters or karts, Went to Karts or TQ's then sprints or midgets.

NOW, LETS JUST MAKE A CLASS so racers can race something resembling a sprint car and still afford it. vs the old days, You bought a sprint and ran according to what you could afford and your ability, Building on it every year. If all these classes were development and we got a half dozen a year moving up. There'd be no problem. Right now I see more moving down. The Jury's still out on that. But Im not traveling to see the undercard. I don't know any of them and won't be there enough to get to know who's who and who's hot or not.

Will it survive? Probably. There's been sprints and midgets almost a hundred years, There might be less tracks at some point or alternating weekends between tracks to keep a full field. It might take a revolution on some rules to quit having thousand dollar tire bills a weekend or other things.

]What happened to that Purple boycott? Last weekend the tracks that had the four corner rule had more cars than the ones that didn't??????

IDK all or even most of the answers. I do know other than local I'll be really picky on what to travel for. In midgets its been that way for awhile now as you can't be assured a decent field anywhere other than midget weeks and Chili Bowl. Even Turkey Night has been hit and miss the last decade or so on car counts.

There's lots of changes out there in entertainment and sports. Its really easy these days to buy the 60-90 inch TV, a surround sound and watch the MLB game that only 12k are attending in person today vs ten years ago when that game would have had 25k plus and not deal with the travel. $15 plus parking, High concessions with 7 dollar beers

It's like this in all motorsports, Indycar hasn't fielded a full field other than IMS in years mostly. Nascar cut their limit from 43 to 40 and has only filled that half a dozen times this year. Half the tracks removed a third to half their grandstands. NHRA isn't filling its brackets in all classes every weekend.

But the economy is great, Wages are up, The unemployment rate is only 4.8!!!!!!!!!!! You believe that crap, I'll gladly sell you some premium swampland that I don't own .

See you next weekend, While we still can!

Bob

What night of the week do those guys race on????????

Honest Dad himself

Well not all classes, wing and non wing shows the 1000cc cars are averaging over 30 a night.

Im sorry, I don't get the comparison whatsoever as there is no competiton to it. If four tracks were running them Wed's nights, would the counts in both cars and fans be anywhere near what it is? As it is, Its the only thing going in divisions that are not top tier but fun and affordable to more vs a full up sprint or midget. And both entry level and some stars racing in it because it competes with nothing. Is it a success, Yeah, But it didn't happen overnight. They built it that way and competed with nobody to do it.