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

Former Queen Kendra is a good promoter

Pa. needs black clay so we can have racing again

McFadden puts Highlands car in the spotlight

What happened to Lee Jacobs and 8h micheal of the All Stars

Pa. should have waited a week or two to have the All Stars (JUST GETTING HOME AND BACK ON THE ROAD)

GREAT JOB RUSHING Thursday show (JUST IN TIME)

Front Row Challenge and Ports Dream Race may have (JUMPED THE SHARK)

Hodnett probably passed the most cars  (One Slippup can ruin your week)

What happened to the Clown from Nebraska ?

Might be the start of a new list of winners

I don't think enough emphasis can be put on the rushing of the Thursday night show.  If that race isn't in the books, they throw out the new Friday night format and race the last chance qualifier on Saturday afternoon.  Okay fine--that does not change the top 5 starters.  However, now the track isn't being prepped all afternoon--its being raced on until 3 or 4:00.  And, the surface is totally different.  (still probably good, as they are the masters, but different)

Big kudos to Knoxville for being one of the few tracks with the awareness and preparation to pull of a 2 hour show if needed.  Its not the ideal show to watch, (I like the night a little more spread out--transfer cars have more time to prep--drama builds) but when necessary, it is nice to know they have that ability in their back pocket. 

They saved the whole show by rushing Thursday night!

They have been proving there is NO good excuse for a dead slick 4 seconds off a darn near 20 year old lap time track for many years.  Central PA racers and Knoxville's track team would be the perfect mix

Luna's Ford engine style that won 2 WoO titles and 3 
Kings Royals before a weight rule against the best EVER
in their prime and now DOMINATES super dirt late model
racing is no longer allowed/wanted in a WoO sprint
car.... Was Luna a miracle worker?

Who is the clown from Nebraska, im curious?

wednesday and thursday heat races were super hard to pass. without a yellow flag the top qualifiers were screw.  heard talk of dirty air??? is that really true?  heard johnny gibson say he thought fast cars should be in the front of the heats. might make for a better feature will all top cars in feature but the low buck teams wouldn't have less chance of making the big show. 

I think Saturday's A main proved the format is fine. Johnny G just wants the WoO guys to start up front. Do it Gibson's way and watch the entry numbers drop like a lead balloon.  Mad man had no trouble passing in his heat to make the A. 

Agree.  Leave it alone.  The excitement of the entire show is watching guys with great qualifying laps claw their way to the transfer spots in the heats.  Then, if they can't make it, the excitement shifts to watching them claw their way to the front of the B and then once again up the A.  That is the show.  If fast cars got screwed with this format, I'm pretty sure Donny wouldn't have finished 1st or 2nd the last 14 or 15 years!! 

I honestly think the heats got harder once they quit inverting the full field. If you put slower cars on the front row it will help keep the field bunched up the first couple laps. Go back to a full invert and you might be surprised by the result.

With that said, hands down the best nationals I have ever been to! Would have to count them up but I believe this was #18 for me.

My group talked about this.  The intention of getting the slower cars off the front was to reduce wrecks.  While it probably did help that it's also done what you say.  Made it harder to pass.  The front row cars now are fast enough to get gone.  One of the nights I think only 2 of the top 10 qualifiers transfered out of the heats.  

But like always, when all was said and done, there's probably only a couple cars that didn't make the Sat A who most thought would.  That would be Brown and Saldana.  Saldana likely would have if not for his incident with Sweet in the B on Thur.  And Brown just couldn't pass anyone pretty much all week.  The only surprises in the A to me were Jeff Swindell and Kraig who got the cheap provisional.  It turned out to be a pretty darn good race and only Shane's souring motor kept it from being a 3 car battle at the end.  I'd say don't change anything.  

I would not put the top qualifiers in front but I suggest inverting 6 rather than 8.  I think that the invert was 10 until a few years ago, but the cars are so equal now it is tough to get to the front.

I know that some of you are going to jump on me, but I have been going to Knoxville, and we love the place, but up until the B Main Saturday night , most every race looked like a hot lap session. A fast track turns less skillful drivers into supermen and takes the drivers skill out of the equation. Granted the A Main final was terrific, but those who rave about great racing all week saw something different that we did. I listen to radio on headset during races and announcers even made comments about looking like hot laps most of time.

Disappointed until A Main on Saturday!!!

You're not way off base.  The Saturday A saved the day.  It went from a good week to a fantastic week.  That is how much weight the A-main has.  I was not there on Wednesday or Thursday but the racing seemed like an average year for qualifying nights.  (I watched one on pay-per-view and listened to the other on the radio)   Friday night's show was pretty damned good I thought and the World Challenge was the best I can remember--most of those are snoozers.  As far as the E, D and C mains?  The usual.  Snoozers unless you get a car over the fe.........oh wait, never mind.  

It is impossible to have a slug fest every time the cars hit the track.  Only about 2 of every 5 heats is ever good and most of the E, D, and C mains you will ever see are uneventful.  You hope for a good B and PRAY for the A we had!

I agree with you. The cars/ equipment is taking more the driver out of the equation.

Put more importance on the driver by loosening up the cars. Reduce the wings and side boards by 10% and reduce the rear tire width and height bu 10% too. 

Kudo's to Knoxville crew for Thursday nite.

Changing the invert to 6 is going the WRONG way.

Putting faster cars on the front row of the heat will make it even harder for the guy starting 6th to make a move.

They need to go back to inverting 10.     There is a pretty big difference in lap times between the cars that time 31-40 vs the cars that time 41-50.     Having those slow cars on the front row held up the field long enough for the fast guys to make a move in the first couple laps.

It wasn't uncommon to see the guys starting 9th and 10th pass 5 or 6 cars in the first lap before they got strung out.

Johnny Gibson and the WoO want to turn it into another boring WoO show where quick time can win the whole shebang without passing a single car all week long.    Car counts and ticket sales would drop like a rock.

Perhaps you all were watching the leader up front most of the week, but Friday's show was excellent. Not sure how you could beat the drama for the 4th spot with Brown, Logan and Wolfe. Also, perhaps the world challenge bored you if you only watched Kraig Kinser, but the battle behind him was very good. 

And what about the battle for the lead between Stewart and Schatz on Wednesday? Or Brad Sweets charge on Thursday from 21st to about 7th? 

Even the first half of the World Challenge was side by side for the lead with Kinser and Sides going at it if I remember correctly. 

He isn't from Nebraska; he's actually from Pennsylvania I believe.

He goes by "Pork Chop" and he worked the 50th Knoxville Nationals.

http://bobbycoxtheclown.webs.com/

I am lucky enough to work at one of the best tracks 
anywhere.

i listened all four nights on the radio, rented 3 nights of ppv. not once did i here jamie say anything that they were running like hotlaps.

I was going to take a guess that was who he was referring to.  Wow!  What an epic fail that was!  Most of the kids thought it was stupid! 

We had him at Eagle Raceway once, also. ONCE!!!

I am lucky enough to work at one of the best tracks 
anywhere.