Hi everyone
I just got back from the american sprint car tour meeting this afternoon,and I am very excited about all that is going to happen.
2010 is going to be a wonderful year for sprint car owners and drivers in this new series.
John Gurly and JT Stapp are doing a great job of getting lots of race tracks and unbelieveable payouts for their members.
I know that this will become a premier series in very short order.
Affordable engines,good drivers,and one of the best purse structures I have seen anywhere,ASCT is the real deal....if you have been on the fence with wait and see, it is time to go racing, my friends.
If you are interested,please check our their webpage,www.americansprintcartour.com, or you can click on their link from our page,www.cae-engines.com
Good luck to all, and God Bless
Curt

Sprints at Shadyhill????

That should be interesting. Good luck in fender land.

Provisionals???????????????

I wish you all nothing but the best..I mean that sincerely.

BUT.....I've only seen one or two sprint cars with iron blocks in the last 5 years. I have 2 cars sitting in the garage right now. I'd love to race with you guys. I have aluminum blocks. They'll sit, probably, for another year.

Too bad you did not make any allowance for alum blocks. When alum motors were first out, you had to carry (2) 50 lb weights. Why didn't you do something like this?

Anybody that would want to race with you, to get the experience, will have to buy an iron block motor. Then, if they want to go race anywhere else, and be competitive, they'll have to buy another motor. I don't see any economy in that.

Seems like you're closing off your field to a significant majority of the existing sprint cars already out there.

Iron blocks only seems like a niche market inside of an already small niche market.

They raced sprints at Shadyill Speedway back in 1990 and it went pretty well I remember.

We looked very seriously into promoting a race there. The promoter (who's name escapes me at the moment), was more than willing to work with us, and a nice guy. There was BIG problem though. The light poles are on the outside of the track, and I don't mean way outside, I mean a mere 3ft (and less on some) off the top of the wall! The poles are located entering turn 1, turn 2, all the way down the back stretch (3 poles if I remember, maybe 2??), entering turn 3, and turn 4.
The promoter had indicated that the promoter before him, had installed them there, a few years before he took possession of the track.
This guy was even willing to possibly help with building some catch fence before the lights, but they are sooo close to the track, that that wouldn't work either. Then add the fact that it is a looong and steep way down, if you go over the wall (no catch fence) in turn 1! We truly just felt that it would not be to safe of an enviroment for Sprint Cars.

I want to reiterate that the promoter is great guy, the track in itself is just fine, but it is my opinion that it is not a safe place to run open wheel cars. I also want to say that I am all for the steel block series, and wish I could help support it with a car , but that's just not in the cards for us at the moment. If whoever is running the series has not visited the racetrack, you should. Unless something has changed in the last 2 years, the chances of a car meeting one of these poles, or landing in a creek that is a long way down over turn 1, are very real.
Thanks for reading

---------- Post added at 05:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:29 PM ----------

Take a look here:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...03895&t=h&z=18

You can see the pole locations from the shadows. You can't really tell how big the drop off (turn 1) is by the pic, but I promise you that it is significant.

Have you actually been to the track? Shadyhill is my home track and it's not like that anymore. They've run sprints there in the past and I've never heard of anyone hitting a light pole. If you work with the Guy who runs the track (by the way his name is John Schmitter) I'm sure he would be willing to put up some kind of large fencing. Come on i've seen tracks that are a lot worse.

Here is a small portion of the tracks that we are close to signing or talking to.
Indiana tracks-Montpelier, Shady Hill, Chandler, Paragon, Gas City, Terre Haute, Putnamville,
Illinois tracks- Spoon River, Charleston, Jacksonville, Farmer City, Lincoln, Granit City, Flora, Macon, Fairbury, Freeport, Highland, Kankakee, Lasalle, Danville.
Kentucky-Windyhollow, Soggybottoms, Bardstown, Ponderosa, Western Ky, Ky Lake, Paducah, Richmond, Florence,
Wisconsin tracks-Wilmont.
Michigan tracks- Butler, Hartford, ThunderBird,
Ohio tracks- Moler, Skyline, K.C, Portsmouth, Peebles, Lima, Millstream, Midway,
TN tracks- Clarksville.
Please forgive my spelling I did this in a hurry.
JOHN GURLEY
GURLEY MOTORSPORTS INC.
AMERICAN SPRINT CAR TOUR INC.

Awsome. Hope to see a great schedule when it's all set.

Let me make it clearer then. YES I have been to the track! Not sure what your deal is, as you have 8 posts, ALL TODAY??? I also clearly mentioned that "unless something as changed in the last 2 years..."!
The last time they ran Sprint Cars there, the lights were inside the track. Got that info from the guy who won the race, Ray Kenens, and the promoter.

John, as also mentioned, was willing to "help" by putting up SOME catch fencing, but he certainly wasn't going to do the whole track... AS WOULD BE NEEDED!.. Way too costly Either way, AS ALSO MENTIONED, the fence would not be effective for stopping a car from getting into a pole, as the poles are too close to the racing surface! It MIGHT deflect a car going down the backstrech, but it certainly would not do anything at the entrance to either turns 1 or 3.

Here are a couple videos from this year I found on you tube. Looking at the video I seen some issues that could be addressed but I'm sure it could be made safe. One of my biggest concerns is the catch fence on the front stretch and the poles along that same area. A race car in the stand in my opinion is as bad or worse than on hitting a pole. Sprint cars can take some nasty high flips and the last thing we need to do is hurt the fans that are there. Watch the videos and make your own decision.
This is just my personal opinion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1YW1axGorU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H4fBIpe0Zk