Tweet
I hope enough of the people who look down their collective noses at the drivers that make their living on the short, dirt and pavement tracks of this country took time to watch the Chili Bowl last night.
This should serve as a wakeup call to the elitist snobs who post here that think Midget drivers couldn't run an IRL car. I will point out why. First, they have the car control, that is what is attractive to the NASCAR owners, and why so many of them have turned their back on the IRL and headed south The power to weight ratio of the IRL vs the Midget probably favors the Midgets, or is very close to being the same. Couple that with a short wheelbase, no downforce and a track surface that changes with every lap, and it takes a real driver to get the job done. Now lets look at an IRL car. Almost the same power, longer wheelbase, plenty of downforce, enough that the car could run upside down across a flat surface at 200 mph if you could get it there. I'll tell you another thing, I've never driven an IRL car, but I have hot lapped a Midget once, on pavement I'll bet you would get more of a sensation of speed in a Midget at Phoenix, with a top speed of better then 120, then you would in an IRL car at 175. At IRP there is little difference in lap times between a Midget, a Sprinter or a Silver Bullet car.
If you aren't impressed with the confines at Tulsa, let me tell you about a place called 16th St. Speedway in Indy, the most recent one, now closed. It was an old baseball park, and they fitted a race track in there without making many changes, all they did was bring in some clay, and spread it out. Let me take you on a lap there in a Midget. First there was a turn at home plate, a hard left. Then you go down the first base line and towards the foul pole in the right field corner, where you would back off and brake for another hard left. Once through that turn, you stuck your foot in it and followed the contour of the outfield wall and continued around without lifting, until you had to slow down for the home plate turn. Mind you, if you got off the gas you were run over or passed. I don't know how fast they were going by the time they reached "home plate," but it was a bunch. I do know that all four wheels were seldom on the ground at one time. Tony Stewart, Donnie Beechler and Jason Leffler, among others, were awesome there. It is too bad the place never caught on with the locals, for weekly races. Special events did well there until they tried to stage a multiple day event, for big bucks, at a time when there were too many races going on at other tracks in the area. Artistically, it was great, but it lost money. The next year the track didn't open, what a shame.
The point I am trying to make is that if I driver could master that place, he should be able to race anywhere, in anything. I don't give a poop what end of the car the engine is in, it just doesn't matter. In 1996, John Menard almost had to be forced by Tony George to give Tony Stewart a test at WDW Speedway, Tony immediately blew off teammates Scott Brayton and Eddie Cheever. Tony earned a "reluctant" ride from Menard in the first IRL race ever, and "checked out" until mechanical problems ended his day. I was there, and I was stunned at how he dominated the race, so was everyone that was there. So why aren't more of these drivers racing in CART and the IRL? It is because they are never given a chance.
A while back, because of the number of road, street, parking lot and parade ground races on the schedule, some owners felt it would be better to look elsewhere for drivers with that kind of experience. They felt that it would be easier to teach a road racer to run ovals then teach an oval tracker to turn left and right. Recently, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon proved the fallacy of that kind of thinking. The elitist owners ignored that fact that the biggest stars of their series were homegrown talent, whose roots were firmly planted in the dirt tracks of America. Foyt, Andretti, Jones, Rutherford, two Unser's and more gave the imported drivers more then they could handle, wherever they raced. Yet the kids who followed in there footsteps were ignored.
It won't be long now before we come full circle, and the drivers of America will get their chance again, and the respect they deserve. When that happens, the IRL will begin to get the kind of driver name recognition and following that NASCAR thrives on. We have a start now, with Hornish, Fisher, Ray, Sharp, Boat, Beechler, McGehee, Dismore and others. Some of those we saw at Tulsa should be along later.
This should serve as a wakeup call to the elitist snobs who post here that think Midget drivers couldn't run an IRL car. I will point out why. First, they have the car control, that is what is attractive to the NASCAR owners, and why so many of them have turned their back on the IRL and headed south The power to weight ratio of the IRL vs the Midget probably favors the Midgets, or is very close to being the same. Couple that with a short wheelbase, no downforce and a track surface that changes with every lap, and it takes a real driver to get the job done. Now lets look at an IRL car. Almost the same power, longer wheelbase, plenty of downforce, enough that the car could run upside down across a flat surface at 200 mph if you could get it there. I'll tell you another thing, I've never driven an IRL car, but I have hot lapped a Midget once, on pavement I'll bet you would get more of a sensation of speed in a Midget at Phoenix, with a top speed of better then 120, then you would in an IRL car at 175. At IRP there is little difference in lap times between a Midget, a Sprinter or a Silver Bullet car.
If you aren't impressed with the confines at Tulsa, let me tell you about a place called 16th St. Speedway in Indy, the most recent one, now closed. It was an old baseball park, and they fitted a race track in there without making many changes, all they did was bring in some clay, and spread it out. Let me take you on a lap there in a Midget. First there was a turn at home plate, a hard left. Then you go down the first base line and towards the foul pole in the right field corner, where you would back off and brake for another hard left. Once through that turn, you stuck your foot in it and followed the contour of the outfield wall and continued around without lifting, until you had to slow down for the home plate turn. Mind you, if you got off the gas you were run over or passed. I don't know how fast they were going by the time they reached "home plate," but it was a bunch. I do know that all four wheels were seldom on the ground at one time. Tony Stewart, Donnie Beechler and Jason Leffler, among others, were awesome there. It is too bad the place never caught on with the locals, for weekly races. Special events did well there until they tried to stage a multiple day event, for big bucks, at a time when there were too many races going on at other tracks in the area. Artistically, it was great, but it lost money. The next year the track didn't open, what a shame.
The point I am trying to make is that if I driver could master that place, he should be able to race anywhere, in anything. I don't give a poop what end of the car the engine is in, it just doesn't matter. In 1996, John Menard almost had to be forced by Tony George to give Tony Stewart a test at WDW Speedway, Tony immediately blew off teammates Scott Brayton and Eddie Cheever. Tony earned a "reluctant" ride from Menard in the first IRL race ever, and "checked out" until mechanical problems ended his day. I was there, and I was stunned at how he dominated the race, so was everyone that was there. So why aren't more of these drivers racing in CART and the IRL? It is because they are never given a chance.
A while back, because of the number of road, street, parking lot and parade ground races on the schedule, some owners felt it would be better to look elsewhere for drivers with that kind of experience. They felt that it would be easier to teach a road racer to run ovals then teach an oval tracker to turn left and right. Recently, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon proved the fallacy of that kind of thinking. The elitist owners ignored that fact that the biggest stars of their series were homegrown talent, whose roots were firmly planted in the dirt tracks of America. Foyt, Andretti, Jones, Rutherford, two Unser's and more gave the imported drivers more then they could handle, wherever they raced. Yet the kids who followed in there footsteps were ignored.
It won't be long now before we come full circle, and the drivers of America will get their chance again, and the respect they deserve. When that happens, the IRL will begin to get the kind of driver name recognition and following that NASCAR thrives on. We have a start now, with Hornish, Fisher, Ray, Sharp, Boat, Beechler, McGehee, Dismore and others. Some of those we saw at Tulsa should be along later.
Comment