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

Possibly, but to get better you run against better competition, right? Use it as a barometer and to improve. 

Been a fan of car for long time.. Do not know tom and fran being from ohio see car run for many years.. Not many old school owners any more

Kemenah had some good years in the car if I remember, right?

I beleive when Chad drove the car it was more his stuff just sponsored by Golden Sessami.

If Carl owned most of the stuff I doubt we will see the car any more this season,I remember when Erdly crashed it took a couple months to return.

Seems like it was decided before this weekend as he had a Tee Shirt sale planned for New York.

I thought the Tea Sponsor was Carl from the #10.

Not sure of what deal Chad had (you may be right) or Erdley. 

98 owned motors, hauler, fuel, etc. mainly. Rest was Carl's and car "lived" out of his shop.

Tea sponsor is definitely Carl's, not 98's, and has been a partner of his for five or so years I believe. 

I believe in this statement 100%. In sprintcar racing especially & more often than not, drivers tend to go through the school of hard knocks in order to get better. A lot of "weekly/local" drivers out there have aspirations of doing this full time and for any of them to take the risk professionally/financially I have to tip my hat to them. I admire people like a Carl Bowser who take the risk that he did and chase a dream. I am sure the results they had were not what he wanted but I surely would never hope for him to lose an opportunity so that someone else could get another one. If anything I hope an additional opportunity comes along for guys like a Brandon Spithaler, or a Cole Duncan, Logan Wagner, Travis Philo, Brandon Wimmer, etc so that they can go out and chase the same dream if they to have aspirations to do so.

Side note, I remember on this board a few years ago someone brought up the fact that at that time Shark Racing was not having too much success on the Outlaw trail. That it would be better for them to go back to PA or run the All Stars. Fast Forward to now and Logan Schuhart has multiple wins now and Jacob Allen is just knocking on the door for his first win that could come any race now it seems. Both even made The Knoxville Nationals A-Main this year. When they first started out full time both struggled just to make the feature. But over time they developed and will continue to develop and it happened through learning from mistakes, and getting beaten night in and night out. 

Danny Holtgraver would be a good fit in the car with it being based out of Western/Central PA. He hasn't ran his own stuff a whole lot and ran fairly well when he ran full time with the Outlaws in the Grove 70 car that Blaney drives now.

I would like to see Holtgraver run more as he definetily has talent ,but it will not be in the 98 he already had a stint with that team.

Not sure be a critic G Tigers Danny never ran full time with the Outlaws he did ron the All Stars full time a couple of years and got several wins.

As much as I would love to see Danny to race more and get another ride, I get the impression he is stepping away from racing full time for a living. I think it was Sprintcar unlimited that did an interview with him at the start of last season and I believe it was mentioned that he was offered a return to the 70 car but turned it down b.c Cody Jacobs would not be his crew chief. 

I miss seeing Danny at the track and was a big fan of his. I felt he was a young up and coming driver especially when he was driving the 45 & 10h. He and his dad were very nice people and hopefully some day we will see him race more

Holtgraver is talented,  but, he also is a equipment killer. The 98 car has been around for years. The driver pool, epically in western pa, is terrible. The matus team being out there with the all stars was painful.  Brandon Spithaler is the guy I would like to see in the seat. He is driver, crew chief and along with his lady friend are getting it done. I'm pretty sure A.J. is still going to school so that limits his options. Few, very few,  western pa guys can roll into  areas outside of western pa and do well.  

AJ is out of school but has a fulltime job.

Western PA is just not as talent rich sprint car wise as say Central PA or OH. Not even close really. And you know what? That's okay. Every area of every state can't be talent rich. There is still good weekly racing at Lernerville in all divisons. 

Alum 427 you hit the nail on the head! Western PA driver pool is limited..Matus team is terrable ,Bowser got embarrassed

out on the tour.. I went to a lot of speedweek shows and he look like he had a 305 under the hood just horrible piece of driving!! Spit hauler is really good driver and hard worker and a lot of all stars respect Bradon.. Cant wait to see bowser do the wing dance aganst 6 cars at tri city!

Terrable?  Doesn't seem to be a typo?

Terrible!!

Equipment Killer????  Wow, I am not sure what you are basing this on.  I have followed Danny since close to the beginning of his career and if anyone was easy on equipment I think it was Danny.  That is my opinion.  If anything, when I watched him race I felt he was being conservative much of the time and could have taken more chances.

As far as the talent pool, there are many young drivers here in Western Pa that just need more time to develop.  The veteran drivers who could wheel a car are just not as plentiful as it once was.  Of course, it has never had the depth of a Central Pa./Ohio/Caifornia/Iowa based teams, but that is because the circuit is not as extensive anymore and the payout is just not there to support powerhouse sprint car teams.  There is also a lack of high dollar owners as well (i.e. Weikert, Hamilton, Trone, Harz, etc.)  We have produced some all-time greats with the likes of Lou Blaney, Brad Doty, Johnny Beaber, Dave Blaney, Dale Blaney, Ed Lynch Jr., Tim Shaffer and that is just getting started  (no offense to drivers not included in this brief list).  Lernerville is my home track for over 40 years and they have always touted about hosting the top 3 classess of cars every Friday night.  It is impossible to pay out high dollars for each division when you have 3 high dollar divisions (Sprints, Late Models, Big Block Modifieds).  Central Pa features sprint cars and possibly one other division and therefore can pay out the bigger purses for the sprint car division.  Let's also consider how long some of the tracks have been around in Central Pa as well.  Lernerville has a rich history, but is still a little behind Williams Grove.

That being said, I'll take Lernerville any day for the way the track is run and what they run.  The Tomson family is doing an excellent job and is certainly continuing the tradition that Don Martin started many years ago!!  I will continue with my yearly trip to Williams Grove for the Outlaw shows and Lernerville on Friday nights and as the Great Pittsburgh Penguins announcers says "I will be smiling like a Butcher's Dog!!!"

Lpjazz... I think DH is exciting to watch, but, I stand by what I said. I've watched him many times get into situations that he never should have gotten himself in. Or, he's got out front and running away and the next thing you see is him doing is losing the tires under him because he can't manage his tires. Remember,  he had a good all star ride. I'd like to see him come back in the family owned car. I think he would do really well. I just don't believe that is a viable option anymore. 

I agree with this for the most part. There are some good youngsters coming up in W.Pa (Sye Lynch, Flick, Bova, Feil to name a couple) that are already making some waves. 

Also as far as payouts let’s hope what Sharon started this year continues and grows, with the 7 3k to win shows. Wouldn’t be surprised if they expand that to almost every week and eliminate the big blocks. As far as lernerville, given the state of the super late model division there I think it’s a real possibility they are dropped, which could free up money to add to their purse. Ultimately id love to see  Lernerville and Sharon work together and create something like Attica and Fremont did with the FAST series. 

I agree with both of yinz   Cody Bova is probably the best young up and comer in Western PA. I like the idea of Sharon and Lville banding together to do a FAST series type thing. Thats a good idea. Too bad Mercer is no more. Western PA is a strong sprint car demographic but it also shares that with big block modifieds and LM so it's a different animal from Central PA or OH. And above is correct in that there really aren't any big dollar owners like in Central PA. 

I do worry a bit about the Tomson family but I think they're getting better at managing a racetrack then when they bought it. It began as a sort of "sure we have the money and it'd be fun to add a race track to our portfolio" deal but they have gotten better. Now if they could just understand how to cultivate the marketing partners aspect...

With only 6-ish weeks left, it looks like a good time to call Dale Blaney. But I wouldn't doubt that Tom and Fran just park it.

Dale’s content driving the local car for jim morris and just running lernerville/sharon the rest of the year from what I’ve heard, possibly even going forward into the future I wouldn’t be surprised if he stays pretty much local unless some big time ride comes along