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

I noticed in reading Robby Wolfgang's press release that he had planned to pull double duty in both 360 and 410 last weekend. I thought a driver was only allowed to run one or the other during a regular weekly program. Did they change the rule? Thanks.

Wing Slider

Short answer, yes.

Long answer, they told the teams at the beginning of hte season, that they would allow them to run 2 classes (410 and 360 or 410 and 305 somewhere in teh middle of the season). You are allowed to run 360 and 305 since the beginning of the season.

Could help or hurt car count IMO.

Some rules make sense and some don't.

This was one rule I actually thought had some merit to it.

The powers that be at Knoxville obviously want the 360 series to be a feeder series to the 410s or for teams with limited finances. It isn't fair for a high-powered regular/semi-regular like Terry McCarl or Danny Lasoski to run in the 360 series on a night they're running their 410 as well. Defeats both purposes the officials set out in the first place. Takes away the regular 360 team's chances in most cases.

Getting an extra $1k or so for a 360 win makes sense to those type racers.

To me this is like the Sammy/Masters situation. Knoxville didn't do anything wrong, the racers didn't do anything illegal by running the extra races... it just isn't in the best interest of the sport and 99% of the participants. Exploitation of the rules/system so to speak.

I see both sides on this. Many of hte 410 regulars run 360 races throughout the season at other tracks (ie: Brian Brown, Don Droud, Jr., Kaley Gharst, Josh Shneiderman).

Since they do run 360's for 1/2 (for some of them much more than 1/2) of their season, I have no issue with it.

Now, what I do have issue with is when someone runs just the 360 Nationals becuase it pays $10,000 to win. They didn't support the 360 races throughout the season (at Knoxville or other tracks) when the pay isn't near as good.

All the drivers listed above have raced in ASCS Regional, Sprint Invaders, or even weekly shows that pay $1000 to win, so I have no issue with them pulling double duty (I don't think you'll find anyone in teh pit area that has a problem with it either).

Knoxville needs more cars...plain and simple.

Knoxville doesn't really need more 360s but they could use more 410s. I doubt there's many current 360 guys who would double up if the rules allowed. If they have access to a competitive 410 car they'd probably already be up there. Having current 410 guys double down doesn't really help.

To increase the 410 car count what Knoxville really needs is another track on another night in the area. It doesn't make a lot of financial sense to put enough money into a program to be competitive there and only run one night a week. The potential return just isn't high enough. If you could also run on Friday night within a couple hours for decent money I think you'd see more cars. Just look at PA. Those guys can run 3-4 nights a week and sleep in their own bed. Consequently there's a good number of competitive cars, many more than what's currently at Knoxville. With Knoxville being the only track for hours and the only 1/2 mile for even futher I just don't think you're going to see a lot of competitive cars. I would expect the number to increase the closer we get to the Nationals but not on a full time basis.

That begs the question, what tracks might be candidates. I'm not sure. Osky would probably be at the top of the list. Moberly Mo maybe. It would need to be a big enough track where you can run the same motor.

Just my thoughts...

So is anyone other than Wolfgang doing double duty in 360's and 410's ?? The reason they waited till after the WOO weekend was so that someone wouldn't/ couldn't win both point championships.

I don't claim to be an expert on this stuff - but to possibly increase car counts what if Knoxville, Huset's and another track or two would start a mini series between them. Each track could have their own point deal and then the series point deal, and make the series point deal pay where it would be worth it to the potential drivers to run it.

I know all the tracks would have to get together on the rules, but something that everyone should be willing to do for the betterment of the sport.

Like I said I'm no expert amd I'm sure someone (with way more knowledge) could pull something like this off.