Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Not another hissing match thread please


With all that's going on with Badlands / Knoxville / NSL / Etc., and all the money and words being thrown around, is it bringing new racers into competition?  Or, are we just cutting the same pie into more pieces?

I've seen where Badlands has brought a few racers back into the sport that were sitting out, probably due to low funds.

Badlands are getting a lot of their cars from the local teams in the Dakota's. The NSL has pretty much gone non-existent as the drivers running for the NSL points are the exact same as the ones running for Knoxville. Makes me wonder how many cars would be at Knoxville each week if it wasn't for the NSL or vice versa. The days of having guys like Balog, Loyet, Johnson, Forler and Juhl running with the NSL were short lived, although, I think it would be better to run for points for 2 entities rather than 1.

     Bablands is pulling roughly 8-10 cars a week down from North Dakota.  (Time trials suggest that they're not all running 410's).  Are any of them *new* teams to the sport?

I also wonder if ASCS has played into this just a little.   Johnson and Loyet were running Knoxville some, and I guess Forler was running some 410s.   As recently as last year Reutzel had said his future plans would be 410, but not it seems all of those guys have come back to ASCS.   

To my knowledge the guys from ND are running 410's.  Some of them are definitely a bit on the greener side as far as experience goes.  So I think the difference between times in TT is both unfamiliarity with the track and not having a ton of experience. You have to remember the only guy out of the ND bunch to run Husets/Badlands regularly is Dobmeier, beyond that very few of them had even been there before this year.

Big difference between new 410 motors and 5 year old 410s but still all 410s? Seconds from each other, driving helps to your right.

Just stop please....

I think next year will see the largest influx/inflow of drivers to the 410 division that has been seen in a long time.  I think we will see a lot of 360 teams take a hard look at what they spend vs what they get, and buy 410 motors.  I also think guys who are "learning" in the 305 division(Knoxville, not Racesaver_ and finishing last will take a look at buying at 5 year old 410 and consider buying one.  You can learn at the back in a 410 almost cheaper than you can in a 305 because the drivers leading are not as squirelly as the guys in the 410's.  I also think guys will look at $700 start money, or $1100 start money at Badlands, and realize that it makes a lot of sense to consider moving up.

Yeah ASCS deffinately plays a role. Knoxville had several show up a few weeks back when they were rained out. Guys like Wayne that occaisionally make an appearance usually head up here if they are close by.

As a Sioux Falls resident I think the future of racing looks brighter then it did at any time in the last 20 years. Not sure there is a huge amount of new 410 racers coming into the sport now but that will happen in the next year or 2. Cody/Kenny Hansen technically arent "new" but they have come back into racing regularly. ND guys like the Macks, Jack Croaker, Jordan Adams in the past might have raced at Husets once per year, now are pretty regular. Not sure when the last time Matt Wasmund raced at Husets. The 410s have been fine at Badlands , to be totallly honest I am more disappointed with the street stock and 305 car counts there.

The worst president of my lifetime:
Ronald Reagan

On a bullring, I wouldn't think there would be much of a difference at all.

A

Yeah, with the cost of a good 360 close to the cost of a 410 now, the 360 division is the one that doesn't make much economical sense anymore considering the huge difference in purse. Everyone keeps searching for ways to make sprint car racing more affordable and better but most seem to ignore one huge and obvious factor - track size.

A

True the cost of a 360 is close to a 410 but i have heard of guys running a 360 twice as long as 410s before getting them freshened. Not by any means saying this is true for all but that helps offset some of the cost.

We will put 30 nights on our 410 before it gets opened. We don't spin it past 8200 very often . All short track.  

Aye - for the days when a car owner and his driver would buy the parts and build their own motor.

Years ago before crate engines we had a local car owner that actually had a car win the Nationals in the 70s[not with that type engine] that would buy 327 corvette shortblocks right from Chevy dealer and put them in their race cars and if they blew up they would get warranty replacement on at least the first one.The after market everything and need for speed is what made the $50K motors.It wont happen but crate motors are still the cheapest horsepower for dollar spent.The purse increase with NSL and Badlands has helped but most anything you buy costs 10X what it did in the late 60/70s.$3000 to win is not enough to be able to race as it costs $1K just to come.The only thing cheap in racing is a ticket to get in and people complain about that.