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

Am I the only one who thinks the Chili Bowl "flip count" is a lousy promotional idea?

The Chili Bowl is an awesome event, but celebrating damaged equipment and the potential for injury is a dumb idea!

Glorify Kyle's and Sammy's alphabet soup and skip the scary movie antics.

Sincerely,

Not Impressed

yea and no? Sprint racing in years past was advertised from promotors as "the drivers"" were speed demons, daredevils, speed junkies risking thier lives!!" , you may have seen some of the old posters or remakes from vintage years,  the sell to a audiance was the dangers involved, obviouslty leaps and bounds attended to safety has taken place (thank god) the horrific footage ive seen of sprinters before rollbars is nasty, it leaves a lump in a guys throat ya know..   anyhow to race one of these machines competitively a guy has to be wealthy or from a wealthy fund somewhere somehow, the involvement in racing nowadays is much different than it was back in 1961, I didnt grow up then, but was the money in the sport seem purportonal as it is today? i dont recall crews with mules,three motors,seven sets of wheels/tires, ect ect ect ,  it seemed like one driver with one car, pieces fabed from his old shop, if he was lucky he had a trailer, not a towbar, one engine, one car, a heavy car, you couldnt orer pieces from a cataloge,  Im no fan of wrecks either, i know what each piece of that car costs, many of those items are trick pieces that cost good $$ i love the mechanics of sprinters, the products used are impressive  items exotic materials, craftmanship ,crazy finishes, they ALL catch my eye, but to the standard fan the dangers attract peoples attention,  its just marketing . lets face it, sprintcars-midgets have some pretty impressive wrecks,  heavy bulky door cars dont have the "airtime"...   people need action to spark intrest, hopefully some become fans of a close race.  JMO

Flips are a fact of life at the Chili Bowl...

Member of this message board since 1997

This is, has been and probably always will be a touchy subject. For one, the fact is, sprint cars and midgets are obviously dangerous. Unfortunately we have seen the darkest side of our sport far too many times. I witnessed Billy Kimmel lose his life at Williams Grove and it was terrible. I didn't know the man, never met him and really never paid any attention to him because he was just a low buck guy who most nights, got lapped but nonetheless, he was also the type of guy you had to love because he did it for the pure love of the sport. Anyway, the night he got killed is burned into my memory like a scar and its just as vivid to me now as it was when I experienced it. The deafening silence and overall feeling of knowing, but not wanting to admit out of sheer hope for a miracle, that what I just witnessed was the end of a mans life. After that, my outlook on crashes completely changed. I never enjoyed them or hoped for them but now when I see a bad crash where I fear the worst, it takes me right back to that fateful night at The Grove. I understand that when it comes to the new fans, most of them want to see a spectacular flip where the driver walks away almost as if he's a gladiator and wave to the crowd but what the new fan doesn't usually understand, is what really CAN happen when things go wrong. I had a friend who I turned on to the sport who couldn't wait to see his first flip. Honestly, it irritated me but I understood and knew that if he stuck around the sport long enough he'd change his tune and one evening at Port Royal, that very thing happened in the form of a driver hitting the turn 2 wall at full speed due to a stuck throttle. Thankfully the driver although banged up, lived to race another day and my friend now understood exactly why I tried to tell him that crashing isn't in any way glorious. That being said, much of the thrill of the sport is derived from the fact that it is extremely dangerous. I personally hate seeing crashes being promoted and glorified but then again, promoters have to sell the sport by any means necessary and spectacular accidents are a part of it. My only hope is, the new fans eventually understand what us hardcore fans already know and just hope that the lesson comes in the form of a near miss and not a serious or fatal injury and they learn to enjoy the competition itself and not become one if the assholes who cheer when someone that they don't like crashes.

No worse than the Kville show on MAVTV using multiple flips in the promo reel.

if I'm not mistaken, the one they show is the incident that put Shepard out of racing.

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

Take fighting out of hockey and that sport becomes crippled if it doesnt outright die.

Take the wrecks out of auto racing and you have the same situation.

This isnt just an opinion. Its a fact.

Simple solution. . Don't like seeing it, then don't read it. Plain and simple. 

The don't fight in the NHL playoffs or Olympic hockey and the ratings are a lot higher than the NHL regular season.

The vast majority of Olympic Hockey is BORING, some of the worst stickwork in hockey happens, most of it unseen or uncalled.  If it's your country and it's for a medal than one gets emotional which accounts for most of the excitement, having said that the USA vs. Canada deal has become very good these days, especially in the women....

The people that will get fighting out of hockey are the media and the clueless that carry loud voices,  even tho' the players are about 98% in favor of it.  The game is a former shell of what it once was and I have lunch with an ex-NHL player once a week and I echo his thoughts, he like many old timers, myself included don't even watch much anymore.....

Besides Olympic hockey being boring I would say that you sir have an extremely accurate take on the state of hockey at the moment. I must admit that it is extremely refreshing hearing a sensible hockey opinion.  

As for the flip count I could care less to be honest.  It doesn't upset me or intrigue me.

I've watched every episode this season and have never once seen footage of the Shepard crash.

-Austin Rankin

HOCKEY SANS FIGHTING IS WATERED DOWN HOCKEY!

I DON'T LIKE TO SEE WRECKS FOR 2 REASONS. WRECKS COST MONEY AND MAKE ME FEEL SORRY FOR TEAMS. THEY ALSO SLOW DOWN THE ACTION. HAVING SAID THAT MANY TIMES A YELLOW WILL MAKE A RACE MORE COMPETITIVE.

I do not believe the flips on the MAV-TV show include any clips as old as the Shephard crash...  I have watched all of the shows and have them taped and I have never seen it on any of them....

Hockey sucks. Now figure skating that is a different story. Give me a perfectly executed Triple Lutz or a Salchow and I am on the edge of my seat.

This is why I'm surfing Hoseheads while listening to a show on internet radio instead of watching the Wild. 

Stan Meissner

Only if it's women's figure skating and there is a wardrobe malfunction.  LOL

Stan Meissner

Heck Stan, you haven't had anything exciting to cheer about in Minn. since the Dino days, Ciccarelli was magic there for awhile.  I once played in the old St. Paul Civic Center where they had glass instead of boards, talk about weird, it was so silent it was eerie, lol....