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

I was at Lincoln speedway last evening are saw a 410 sprint get lapped twice in ten laps, after the shock and disbelief at what i had seen the very next heat race had a 410 get lapped 3 times in ten laps... WOW do these people have any clue. I understand that racing is a very exciting sport to watch but in what world would you jump into a 900HP car that weighs 1,400 pounds if you have never been in anything bigger than a go kart. You are a danger to yourself and to others in this situation.  They have test and tune sessions at a local track every other wednesday so maybe if these people are serious then they should take a year and learn to drive before they kill someone or get killed. no racecar should ever be taken lightly and 410 sprints should be considered monsters.

I Have seen this wayyy too many times, I understand people want to get into the sport and have fun, but get into a 305 or something first, get some seat time and get used to the cars and work your way up to the 410's, some of these guys in the 410's have put their last dime they have to have a great car and motor, they don't need it detroyed due to some idiot that can't run over 3000 rpms, I think its great new people want to get into sprint cars, but if you don't have much experience in bigger cars or cars with some horse power, start in a 305! that's why they have them, a starter class!!

    A prime example I remember well was years ago at Ascot.  A guy with no racing experience and a thick wallet, after watching a couple of the CRA shows, decided he could be a sprint car racer and bought a brand new high dollar car. On his first night out on his second hot lap lost it in turn one, rolled it multiple times and ended up stuck upside down about 8 feet in the fence.  Destroyed car, luckily not injured and a short career over.  At least Dean, Bubby and the rest of the real racers never had to run with the now humbled idiot.

Who was limping around?

Amen!

A

I believe that they were 360's that happened our way when Selinsgrove cancelled... :/

Opinions may vary...

It's not just sprint cars, race cars period are not toys.

With the number of really young children being put in race cars today they are starting to look like toys. A lot of people underestimate the performance levels of race cars today. This is not only a rookie driver error it has also become a parental error as well, and not just in open wheel cars. I don't know how tracks operate out by the original posters location, but there are not any tracks that run practice days on Wednesdays out here. Play dates at the start of the season and track rentals after that. Most of the time a track rental is not cheap, so these guys need to learn somewhere. Of course I completely agree that a 305 should happen long before a 410.

Never hit stationary objects!

Not that that would make things any better as Niki Young has shown that you can be respectable with a 358 motor, but Quackenbush (Awesome name, by the way) had a 410 under the hood and a HUGE hauler. Wasn't there but from what I heard  it sounded like a moving advertisement for Capitol Renegade (??).

 I'm all for higher car counts and am excited when new faces and cars pop up like this, but once you get lapped, pull it in - there is no reason to be getting lapped 2,3 times.

While I agree that starting in 305's is the more logical solution, financially if your goal is 410's at some point, there is a lot of money lost in buying and selling equipment.

Although, at the same track, Scott Fisher has moved from thundercars, to 358's to 410's in maybe a year or so and while he isn't lighting the world on fire, he can get around the track and I believe he finished 12th or so this weekend in the 410. And thundercar champion, Duane Watson has quickly become accustomed to the 358 sprints and I would imagine is thinking about moving up in the near future. And while these cases are more enjoyable for the fans and top-tier drivers, they aren't as enjoyable for the potential 410 drivers checkbooks. 

Not disagreeing with the direction of this thread at all as I completely agree that is unacceptable - just trying to provide a different perspective. 

I said this many times in the past and while I haven't been there in a while, the Thundercars were the single best support group of cars I saw in the country while following the Outlaws around for a decade.  They were great to watch and were a better show than I saw at a bunch of other tracks with the winged boys.....

I was there Saturday and any 358 would have lapped these cars as well. I'm actually pretty sure the legend type cars that were there would have lapped them. I sat there in disbelief as the orange #2 was going as slow as I've ever seen a 410 and then couldn't hold his line.  In 3 & 4 we would push the whole way up the track into traffic every lap.  I understand getting some seat time but when you are going that slow, stick it to the bottom.  Pushing into traffic could have really created a bad situation.  Luckily it looked like the leaders saw what he was doing and anticipated it pretty well.  I will say it was scary how bad that car was.

I wondered why that car came off the track and was shiny clean. We were pitted next to them. I told our guy that sprays our car to see what he was using because his stuff was WAYYY better than ours. LOL Not much room to hide at Lincoln. Glad nobody got tore up.

I may be taking this wrong so correct me if I am. 305 sprint cars are a "GOOD" thing now ??? About all you read on here is how there a waist of a good frame, money and are slow.

They are when your too scared to stand on the throttle in a 410 and can not hold your line, if you have experience in other cars, like latemodels, midgets or likes there of, then chances are if you jumped in a 410 you will not be scared to stand on it and adjust to how the car reacts, if some 16 year old kid that has been racing go karts jumps straight into a 410, hes gonna be nothing but a hazard more times than not, there have been kids make the big jump like that and are fine and can hold their lines and not get lapped in a heat race, but not everyone is like that, those people need to start in a 305's

We had a 305 sprint in the Southeast region this past weekend that got lapped 3 or 4 times in a 20 lap feature.  He might have gotten above 30mph once or twice.  Really put the other racers in dangerous a few times.  The other racers are really gonna have to have a talk with him next race for their own safety.  He's been doing this for two years now, and is actually getting slower.  Really dangerous stuff.

Brandon McLain
United Sprint Car Series Driver
2014 Season
National Rookie of the Year!
National Points - 8th
Southern Points - 3rd
Asphalt Points - 3rd
18 Races, 3 Top 5's, 14 Top 10's

The same people (from the stands and/or anywhere NOT in the seat) are also the 1st to complain when there isn't a full field of cars on the track...at whatever speed they may be running...(I myself can only watch maybe 5-6 cars at once anyway, but seems like people that dealt with dropping counts really have a thing for B-mains)

Jason Dull
815 494 6002
[email protected]
jasondull.com (For all the Racing News)

Is there any kind of driver's test before they let guys on the track? Maybe there should be...

I think a minium speed would fix the problem. A driving test is a nice idea but not really a realistic idea due to time and cost but a minium speed can be followed by transponder and if a car fails to maintain that speed then they should be black flagged by the tower for the safety of themselves and others. No track wants to turn away cars but with the high price of track insurance maybe this idea should be considered

I am also concerned with dropping car counts,with some teams moving up to WoO and instead of staying at 1 track moving around, I get that. While I am all for newcomers and drivers moving up, lets just make sure they are ready. I like the way Fast Freddie is bringing the boys along. Freddie ran a nice race last Saturday, you can see he has talent. Matt Campbell may only be 16 but he can wheel that car. I just think tracks need to identify drivers that dont have seat time, and suggest they do some test and tunes and come back when they can get up to speed. I am just glad no body got hurt or cars damaged.

both of these moving chicanes could not even manage to stya out of the racing line on the exit of turn 4.

it was a nightmare to witness...sponsors take note.

Lincoln 1845 ft/.35 mile T1=118MPH 
Eldora 2287 ft/.43mile T3=135MPH
Port 2716 ft/.51 mile T3=TBD
Grove 2792 ft/.53 mile T3=135MPH
Selinsgrove 2847 ft/.54 mile T1=136MPH
"I didn't move to PA from El Paso in search of better 
weather." Van May