Hey, Ok They Fixed Silver Crowns, What's Next ????

[Dick Ralstin]

Well after the roaring success of the Copper World Clasic at PIR I wonder what USAC will do to fix the sprint car division?????

Let's face it there are just to many people still buying tiickets to watch those sprint cars run at places like Eldora and Terre Haute and USAC can't stand having people sitting in the grandstands watching their races.

I thnik they should redesign the sprint cars, which have been redesigned enough already to make them New York City taxis.

I wish USAC'c brainless trust would take time to visit Al Unser's museum in Albuquerque and look at what a Silver Crown Car and a sprinter is supposed to look like. THere was never a more beautiful race car built than that beautiful Johnny Lighting with the BIG #2 on the tail and the yellow lighting painted on the hood.

And that car won every dirt race Al drove, except for two seconds and one third. It won all five dirt races in 1970. That was the year USAC improved things again and took the dirt races off the Champ Car Trail schedule, another "improvement" from the brainless trust.

When will they learn 'IF IT AIN'T BROKE DON'T FIX IT'.

[bikermike]

Give them some time Dick.As for car counts,the first Rolex 24 with the new cars was less than what USAC had at PIR.Now the paddock at Daytona is overflowing with them.
As for the look of them.I will admit the Riley looks like a Zamboni but I think the Stealth is cool looking and the front half of the C&R is decent too.
Its a work in progress,give them some time.

[Indy500fanatic]

Great post Dick!!!!

[Mindervillain]

[ As for the look of them.I will admit the Riley looks like a Zamboni but I think the Stealth is cool looking and the front half of the C&R is decent too.
.[/QUOTE]

All the one's I've seen look about the same - maybe I haven't been paying attention. Can anybody guide me to photos of the Stealth or the C&R?

[Griz]

Give them some time Dick.As for car counts,the first Rolex 24 with the new cars was less than what USAC had at PIR.Now the paddock at Daytona is overflowing with them.

Yes, but Daytona Rolex has the France family pushing it hard. And that makes a huge difference.

[The JP]

Dick,
I pretty much agree with what you say (although IMHO the Dean Van Lines Champ Dirt Car with Jimmy Bryan behind the wheel was the best looking), however USAC could finally see the writing on the wall. They got bubkis from the IRL (well ok they did get a lot of words that meant absolutely zilch) and had to make a decision. I went to the midget/silver crown race at Milwaukee this past summer (you know, the day before the IRL race which included IRL and IPS qualifying) and I could have swung a dead cat and thrown it as far as I could possibly throw it and not disturbed another soul. Granted USAC is still selling a lot of tickets at places like Terre Haute, IRP, Eldora, etc. but USAC has to ask themselves: do we want to remain a primarily regional series with relatively decent gate receipts (and that depends on the track, there couldn't have been more than 1000 people at Milwaukee last year) with no affiliation with a larger organization, and no tv, or do we want to position ourselves by making changes to the cars that will hurt car counts in the short term but will ultimately allow us to affiliate with the juggernaut that is NASCAR (and all their marketing might) and bring in a tv package, thus giving our teams and their sponsors national exposure? USAC had been the ipso facto ladder to NASCAR why not make it official and start making some money out of it? Granted the new cars are butt ugly, and my first love are Champ Cars on dirt (more action in a 10 lap heat race than the entire Formula 1 season) but USAC has to get out of the '50's and into the 21'st century if they are going to survive and, right or wrong, USAC is making this step to try to survive. I think that by affiliating with NASCAR and getting a tv package going (such as it is) this will get the money flowing (in terms of sponsorship and prize money) which will lead more team owners to buy the new cars. We may not see the big car counts as in the past but I think it will eventually become acceptable. To be honest I am excited about them racing these cars at Kentucky and am seriously considering going down just for the Silver Crown race in June.

[sweaty]

I've got it.
Nascar used to have a convertible division, back in the days, that ran seperately from the coupes.
Just turn the SC series in to that sort of racing. I'm sure ISC would love it, the car counts would boom and it would be an even better training series for the Cup.
The cars sure couldn't be any uglier.

[Littleman]

From the JP, above: "I think that by affiliating with NASCAR and getting a tv package going (such as it is) this will get the money flowing (in terms of sponsorship and prize money) which will lead more team owners to buy the new cars. We may not see the big car counts as in the past but I think it will eventually become acceptable."

Well, where was the affiliation with NASCAR at Phoenix? Where are the extra cars, due to the "affiliation" with NASCAR? Has it been confirmed, or can it be confirmed, that there are NASCAR teams that have ordered these things? Where is/was the TV coverage due to the "affiliation" with NASCAR? How many NASCAR events are shown on tape delay, like this one will be?

From what I've been reading, this new class looks like a big flop. Wishing I'm wrong here, of course, but I can just imagine what all the owners of the "obsolete" pavement SC cars are thinking now.
And, anymore info on the new series that will feature the "obsolete" SC cars?

[Dick Ralstin]

Hey JP,

Im my estimation USAC has always been the largest sanctioning body in central Indiana.

[The JP]

Littleman, you bring up some good points which raise some questions for me. Do the Silver Crown teams run a seperate car on dirt and pavement or are they the same chassis with mods for dirt and pavement? If it is the same chassis then it is not obsolete as there are still 5 dirt races on the schedule. If it is different chassis then yes one of them is now obsolete and a team owner has to go to the expense of purchasing a new chassis (maybe the old pavement cars can be converted to dirt, I don't know) and if I was a team owner in that predicament I would be pissed. However it seems to me (and this is the point I was trying to make in my previous post) that USAC was at a crossroads and could go one of two ways. Leave things as they were and continue being pretty much a regional series (and I say that because most of the races are in or around the midwest) on its' way to extinction (or at the very best a niche sport that would soon collapse under the weight of ever increasing costs and little or no increase of sponsor dollars and prize money) or change the cars so that they can run on the speedways and really open the series up to a much larger audience (especially with the help of the NASCAR marketing machine and as a support series to NASCAR races). Look, I am as old school as anyone on these forums, I would love nothing better than for the National Championship to go back to being 12 paved ovals, 4 mile dirt tracks, and 2 road courses. But reality is that Indy car racing turned its' back on USAC and USAC has eventually become the de facto ladder series for NASCAR. So USAC is at least trying something to grow the sport beyond the Indiana dirt tracks. In years past they would have kept their heads buried in the '50's and wouldn't even consider change in any way shape or form. Right or wrong I have to commend them for at least trying something. As far as the car count at Phoenix and tv coverage. You have to start somewhere. I think car counts will increase and as far as the tv package, it seems to me that being delayed on an obscure cable channel is one hell of a lot better than no coverage at all.

[dog-ring]

Just remember that Grand Am started pretty slow and look what has happened to it lately................and it's a Nascar series............
I wouldn't throw it under the bus yet..................

[The JP]

In my estimation USAC has always been the largest sanctioning body in central Indiana.

Dick, I couldn't agree with you more. And I am not saying that what USAC is doing with the Silver Crown is right, I am just saying that I feel like they had to do something, anything or face going down the tubes.

[EdJVuky]

Leave sprinters alone. Change midgets to rear engine with independent suspensions and small wings. That way, there's a weekly short track starter to get to Indy Pro and then Indycars.

[Ringleader]

Leave both of them alone. I thought the road to Indy was go-carts.

[NoviVespa]

Yes, I would like the old look of cars coming back to sprint car racing. But, can a car be designed as safe as the newer cars are that looks like the old car? My vote will always go for the design that is safer, rather than good looks.