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

How is running against Knoxville good for anybody?  Lets split the car count in half so both have less than 20 cars at each show.  

Knoxville going down hill?  I guess they fooled the state of Iowa pretty good to get all that money to add onto the facilities.  

They could cooperate and pay points for Knoxville events, let drivers be eligible for both points funds.  There are a lot of Saturdays before and after knoxville's season.  Be good for both programs.

If there's any chance of Midwest 410 Series taking shape and BGTS is involved, this post makes perfect sense.  He's got the money to fund something like this and connections with additional sponsors to offset his own costs.  I personally don't see car count being a problem as long as they stick to tracks that already have a core base.  360's could fill in the field at some venues too.  I hope it happens.

I would be surprised to see a new 410 series based in the midwest compete against Knoxville.  The Sprint Invaders is an Iowa based 360 series that doesn't compete against Knoxville.  I could see this series doing something similar.

Looks like to me Knoxville had the best show in the country every saturday night with over 30 410s, with 20 some 360s and 20 305s. The track prep all season was great also. Them names in the main event was almost as good as the WoO.

And you don't think those cars would jump at the chance to run for 75k?

I'm not saying this potential new series has to run against K-Ville, just saying they don't have to worry about it if the money is as speculated.

Why do these guys run K-Ville now? Because there isn't anything better going. Change that and see what happenes.

well one would assume they would have to race at knoxville 

How about a speedweek deal with Jackson, Husets, I-80, Eagle and Knoxville.

Fans are created at the weekly tracks not by traveling series. Fans get to know drivers by seeing them every week and talking to them. Then they may drive to see them racing else where with a traveling series. You don't get to know drivers when they come around twice a year. That is why Knoxville having a strong 410 show every week would be important to this new series. And a lot of Knoxville's 410 guys only race once a week. So I would not count on a lot of them running a Friday or Sunday show with this series and running Knoxville on Saturday.

Just hope if this does happen they work with Knoxville and not against them. 

Don't disagree with you about the Knoxville regulars traveling and/or racing more than once per week.  But I don't think this series (if it comes to fruition) will need all of the Knoxville cars to succeed.  I think you only need 10-12 travelers and you book races at tracks with a solid core of 410 or 360 cars in the area.  Some shows will have 30 and others may only draw 20.  For a first year series that would be great.  Here's my wish list of midwest based drivers that would be sweet if they supported a new series in the area:  Brian Brown, Terry McCarl, Craig Dollansky, Danny Lasoski, Justin Henderson, Mark Dobmeier, Bill Balog, Jason Johnson, Sam Hafertepe, Ian Madsen, and whoever drives the BWW car.

And besides Knoxville which tracks in the states mentioned have a solid core of 410 or 360 in the area? Eagle dropped 360s cause they could not draw many. Many ASCS shows in Mo. draw 20 cars. How many will want to race against 410s? Husets gets 10 - 18 cars, but many of those are the Knoxville guys who run more than once a week. Most 410s in the area run Knoxville, IRA or MOWA. Would love it if this series could create more 410 rides in the midwest. If they only get 15 410s and some 360s they may have trouble drawing fans. JMO. 

All we can do is wait and see. If this happens I would love to see it thrive and bring some more 410 cars to the midwest while working with Knoxville. 

Weekly shows at Knoxville this year proved to us that these guys want to come to Knoxville as much as possible through out the year.  

I think that these guys understand that making the top 24-25 at Knoxville pays the same amount as it does to win 1 outlaw race.  % wise, it is more realistic to make the A-Main at the Nationals than it is to win an Outlaw race if you don't run with them all year.  

Half the field was Knoxville Regulars or guys that had come in to test a few times during the season.  Any time the ASCS has rain outs or off weekends those guys were at Knoxville.  Half of the top 10 were Knoxville drivers plus Madsen who used to be and Schatz is from the area as well.

This is what these guys are doing who aren't running with the Outlaws.  They do it in the 360 class to and that race only pays 10 gs to win.

With that being said.  I think it is highly possible you could pull ASCS guys and other 360 drivers to jump up givin them more opportunity to race and make their money back from the cost difference of the wear and tear on engines and tires. I also think that pulling some of the MOWA, IRA and Ohio guys might be possible if it means they can piece an 80-90 race schedule together by 30 races from a series and 20 from knoxville.  Another 15 -25 with River Cities and Husets.  Your at around 75 races without taking into considereation Florida and California trips to start the season and East Coast trips to end it.

Running 4-5 shows at Knoxville and adding to the purse only brings in more drivers to your series and Knoxville and attracts the other non-regular drivers.

Keeping in mind that there are a lot of guys that are only weekend racers and that they have jobs M-F some of these races aren't going to attract much more than Brown, McCarl (if he puts his big game differences aside), Madsen, Jeffrey, Tatnell, Lasoski, Dollansky and the 82 car with whats already in the area. 

Clint Garner will be at very few of these. Mark Dobmeier is a wild card, Justin Henderson will depend on car owners. Running Sunday-Friday in the Midwest isn't easy.  It is why Knoxville works, people have from getting off work on friday till 5 pm on Saturday to get there.  There is a lot of distance to travel.  We don't have 3 tracks within a 2 hr radius here.  

A lot of these guys only run 1 car at Knoxville and don't run anywhere else so they don't lose their Knoxville setups.  

This guys is obviously a savy business man to be where he is today and in a position to even think about doing this. I just don't see how it makes business sense to run a sanctioned event anywhere besides Knoxville on a Saturday in the Midwest. Working together with River Cities, Knoxville and Husets - the three tracks in the area that already have a 410 point standings - is the best approach in my opinion.  Again like the 82 car, it's not my money so all I have is an opinion. 

But as a Sprint Car fan in Des Moines.  I am going to Knoxville on Saturday  

River Cities has 20-30 410's on a regular basis.  I would think 10 of those NOSA guys would travel eastern ND & possibly down to Husets.  I could also possibly see 2-3 UMSS guys move up to 410's on a part time basis if there was a series.  The same with JSTS guys like Prochaska, Lusk, Juhl & co...

MOSS - Midwest Outlaw Sprint Series.  $350,000 point fund; $75k to win, $50k for 2nd.  A-features to pay no less than $3k to win, $500 to start.  MN, IA, ND, SD, IL, NE, KS.  Not to compete with any other series or tracks.  According to information they will only run Fri, Sun and mid-week shows which leaves teams able to run Knoxville on Saturday's.  This is going to be interesting.  That point fund is pretty amazing and will likely attract quite a few midwest hard hitters even though the minimum A-feature purse isn't outstanding.

Pulled this information from IBRACN website.

(Sign of relief) Thank goodness this series wont run against Knoxville. Don't get me wrong I think Knoxville would have still had their drivers and had a good show but me being the greedy selfish person I am I didnt want to split some of the top notch cars between the series. Not quite the 15,000 grand for 10th place but still a very healthy payout. Hopefully this pulls in even more 410s to the area to make Knoxville once again the absolute best weekly sprintcar racing track. I'm spoiled to live so close.

By not running against Knoxville, it works on creating a PA-style system where there are multiple places to run on a weekly basis. This will allow for some guys to try and make enough to do it full time and also hopefully will entice some car owners as well. 

That is how I hoped they would do this. Add good paying races without hurting existing tracks or series. Best to give teams more races than make them choose between 2 shows on the same night.  I can see myself making as many MOSS races as possible and still being at Knoxville every Saturday.

Until I see a schedule and they actually have people running the series (if they are looking for a comp director and 1-2 additional staff, they really don't have anything at this point) this is kinda just conjecture isn't it?

Mid-week shows (outside of a Holiday week) are going to be tough (even the WoO have very few of these and they have a brand name with 30+ years of customers) as are Sunday shows (competing against Huset's for the few cars that run Sunday nights now).

I sincerely hope that this is successful, but if tickets cost more than $15, they will be overpriced compared to what Knoxville offers every week already (and my guess is that tickets will probably be $20 at most venues).

From a full-time group of travelers standpoint?  Not sure I can come up with more than a handful (a lot of the "front runners" in the midwest are "weekend warriors" as they have regular jobs Monday - Friday and race on Saturday and sporadically on a Friday or Sunday.  Car counts will more than likely be 20 or less at most races IMO (again, I hope I'm wrong).

I think there are some good things about this series and some things where they might run into challenges.

The Good:

Point fund is 2nd only to WoO and pays out 60% of the total WoO point with probably 30% of the travel (if that)

Tracks won't have to break bank to pay huge purse, the series seems to hinge on the point fund. This will keep ticket prices in line. ($20 isn't bad to see a major 410 sprint show)

Lots of opportunity in this area to showcase sprint cars, this is a big region they'll be covering.

Potential Challenges:

As has been noted above, outside of Friday and Saturday, tough to make shows successful for promoters. Low overhead w/ the purse may help this, but Sunday shows are not winners as much anymore.

Who will follow? Potentially alot of cars to choose from, but is the idea to co-sanction in areas where there might not be a ton of cars?

How do you do this w/o stepping on other promoter's toes? Great idea not promoting against Knoxville, but there are only so many dates out there, will be hard to work w/ everyone.

I love the idea of this series and think it will be successful. Since they're not running in Missouri (darn the luck) hopefully they will run in eastern Kansas and southern Iowa a few times so I can see a few shows.  Does anyone know for sure if it is Tod Quiring behind this deal?

Ask Frank