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

Did anybody else notice in the program the mention that they were considering adding more race days to the program and even more noticeable to me was the mention of looking at new locations for the future?

While I do miss how the event was more laid back, and the pits were more open even just a few years ago and the fun and goofy stuff like the basketball game, and I know they don't have room or time for that now, but I really enjoy this event being in Tulsa, I'd hate to see it move. I think the city and facility location and size are part of the perfect mix that makes this event work so well.

Member of this message board since 1997

Personally I think adding even more days would be bad. After sitting thru all the practice, hot laps and what not I am kinda raced out by the end of the A on Saturday nite. Plus its a two day drive for us and a weeks plus vacation. If a new faciltiy would be better ventilated I might not be too upset. Seemed awful crappy inside at times, more than the last couple years--even if not as bad as 6-8 years back.

I agree, I love it also, and I do think a lot of the best racing is the qualifiers during the week and then the Qualifying night A mains are often better than most of what we see Saturday. I know they have to line up the night somehow, but if there was a way to just go into the "B' mains during week and rework/rename those into what determines the A qualifiers, that would be fine with me. I am torn whether more and more cars has improved the show or not. I like to see midget racing promoted, and with the price of tickets we are paying now, I want to see plenty of cars and racing. And I love the idea of every midget racer being able to come see how they rate, but with so many cars there, things do get watered down, with the high dollar teams usually shining in the end, and the average teams having more and more trouble making it into the upper mains Saturday, that can take away some of the fun and mystique of the bowl at the same time.

Yeah, the 'fun' did start disappearing when the event became 'cool'. Kind of a catch 22. I understand its all about the $$$ though, but if there was a way to keep the 'fun' and party that is the chili bowl, I sure hate to see that go away any more than it already is/has, which I think would be hard to duplicate and recapture if it goes anywhere else.

Did that building in Springfield get built then, or which building is that? I am not familiar with what they have going there. I did talk with them in the Chilibowl office a couple years ago about the Astrodome rumor and at that time they said there was no truth to that and that it was not leaving the Expo Center.

I read in the Tulsa world paper that he has no plans to move it. He said he has had plenty of offers but none of the places have enough room to have the track trade show and pits all under one roof. That's something that another place would half to have. He said he like having it close to home.

Does anybody know the insurance policies they have for drivers,I ask due to the Tim McCreadie situation.I was told by somebody in the team that the track would not even transport him until somebody signed off responsibility for the bills & I would sure hope the track would have insurance to cover at the very minimum a checkout.

There needs to be more order and rule outside of the Expo building. The new addition of the west side parking (that replaced the amusement park) made the whole event a bunch more fan friendly, However their needs to be a designated area for all the competitors transporters, trailers, rv's etc. I would suggest parking all of this equipment on the North side of the building, leaving all of the west side

for the public. It's very fortunate that the Tulsa Police & Fire Departments developed temporary blindness for the week and didn't see the HUNDREDS of cars parked in fire zones, no parking areas and even on sidewalks and newly planted grassy areas. Don't be pissed at them if they start towing them next year, they need the money.

Also, what happened to the shuttle bus service to and from the RV park? One of the attractions to staying in the RV park has been this service, really convenient for the older, handicapped and special needs fans, especially when it's 10 degrees.

Member of this message board since 1997

When was that in the paper? The part of the program that I was referring to was the bottom of page 34 and top of 35, particularly the top paragraph on page 35 where they talk of how many people there are, mention adding days to the program and finish by saying what else they do? "We don't know ..but we're looking at houses"

I read that as advance warning that they are considering moving the event and this was a way to let us know. I don't think they would have had something like that in there otherwise.

I did not notice the problems outside with the parking. I did enjoy the trade show more when there were more vendors and more of them that were racer oriented. I enjoy the fan type ones as well, which there used to also be more of them as well, but for the racers there used to be more good deals to be made on gear and supplies, plus new and different products and vendors to talk to. But I know they are out of space with so many cars, so it's just the economics of the changing event.

It was strange the the pits were closed on Fridays all day if you did not have the pit pass, but they were not on the earlier days. That is part of the appeal, being able to come early in the day and walk the pits, visit with the teams and see the cars before the show. I would like to see that stay open and go back to being open on Friday.

Below is the link to the Tulsa World article today.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/article.aspx?subjectid=203&articleid=20090119_203_B1_TeCiiB588801

It is my understanding that drivers are considered private contractors and would assume that they would be responsible for their own health insurance. Competing in races without personal health insurance makes as much sense as not using a helmet or fire suit. One would expect that a National Champion would protect his own future. Most of us make sacrifices to provide our own insurance and it is difficult to imagine a driver of his stature being so careless. Don't tell me it is too expensive I know better. Hopefully others will learn from his carelessness.

Thanks for that link. Sounds like great news to me. I sure wonder why they would put a comment like that in the program then and raise the issue.

The insurance issue with Tim is interesting to me as well, my experience is the insurance companies all try to push any incidents onto another company when something happens. When I was injured in an event, the track's insurance did not cover it, and I did have medical insurance, but the medical insurance insisted that this had to be claimed under my auto insurance, who of course denied it. So in the end no one would cover any treatment.

I don't know their details but it did sound like the STIDA insurance would have been a great benefit for something like Tim's accident and that everyone involved in racing should check into it, I would not count on your work medical policy to cover you, as I have discovered that some policies now exclude any claim during auto racing where you are paid, IE all local dirt track $50 to start shows are specifically excluded. Check your policies and talk to the agents/companies and protect yourself.

I find all of this insurance conversation rather interesting. My only question to anyone that wants to answer is this. Isn't this what a gentlemen by the name of Doug Wolfgang was trying to point out to the racing world back in the 90's when he got burned so bad? Isn't this the same thing that many racers and racefans belittled Doug about? Wasn't Doug trying to point out that even though the track is supposed to have insurance, most of the time (if not all of the time) the track looks to pass the claim on to anyone but themselves? My biggest gripe the past 10 years that I have been involved with dirt-track racing is the popular pit-pass increase every year due to "insurance rates increasing." Another thing I have found annoying is the fact that for some reason, apparently track insurance seems to cost more when you have a "big paying" event at anytrack, USA. It seems the pit passes are always $10.00 more for a big show than a local show. Now I'm not stupid, and I know it doesn't cost anymore, but it is annoying as hell. I'll also about bet that Emmit and Lanny have some sort of insurance that prevents them from being sued in case of a drivers injury, yet don't have anything that covers the driver or crew-members. It's too bad that this is how it is these days. What can the drivers/crew do about it? That's a tough one. The sad and honest truth is that a majority (not all) of the local racers these days can barely afford to race, let alone pony up a couple hundred more a month for the insurance, when in all reality, a select few end up paying the piper for a very long time once that un-fortunate accident lands in their lap. I don't have the answer to this problem, but what I wanted to point out was that Doug Wolfgang say this coming almost 20 years ago, yet he was insulted by many for the way he approached it. Doug paid the price of excruciating pain and loss of limb while "on the job.", I'm pretty sure most of you would expect to be covered while you were at work!

I guess I am used to an extremely good group then with the IRA that looks out for its drivers & has a good policy for the drivers when the unfortunate happens. I just thought the Chili bowl promoters who converse with the IRA officials who also help run the Chili bowl would look into this type of policy. God knows for what they are charging everybody there they could afford to provide it!

Where can I find the purse breakdown for this event? What did Sammy win for his fifth Golden Driller.

There is no purse posted anywhere I can find on the www.chilibowl.com website

But the flyer posted on the website lists $10K to win....

http://www.chilibowl.com/2009midgetflyer1.pdf

Chuck.....

Adding more days, I'm done. Moving it to Houston, the same.

In my opinion they need to make the Chili Bowl a invite only. Limit the number of car and narrow down the quality of drivers. Make it a 3 day show and get the top level of drivers. I just think there are to many turd cars and drivers that just drag the show out way to long. Just think how awesome this show would be if you only had the best 100 drivers in the country. Series champions, defending Chili Bowl champs, a few Nascar guys and then fill in the field with invites to quality drivers. The way it is now it is harder to keep from getting wrecked by guys that shouldn't be there than it is to pass good drivers. If they made it an invite only 3 day show I think it would quickly become one of the premier races in all of motorsports. Just my two cents.

293 entries x $150 early entry fee=$43,950 + a ton of pit passes.

Hmmmmm... I don't see this becoming an invitational. Remember one of the promoters: Lanny Edwards. The man is a legend... and he would have street stocks, hot stocks, modifieds, etc. at a WoO show if he still had booked them. Paying the purse through the back gate! Economics 101.

Indoor football stadiums are the logical choice for a track... the KC race should show you that. Neat little track... but a little more elbow room on-track would have been nice.

The Lucas Oil Winter Heat Series... midgets at 4-5 football stadiums in Dec/Jan... big pts fund... $4k to win Thursday/Friday night $10k to win Saturday night... hmmmmm....

Bring back the scoreboard that listed drivers and lap times in real time.