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

Appears to me like California has the bragging rights for producing sprint car drivers. I believe I counted seven Californians starting the Knoxville Nationals A Main. Aside from Tim Kaeding at around 37 years old, and Rico, young at 26 or 27, the other five are just youngsters. Granted, Larson is just a part timer, but the parts he fills are pretty intense. And it isn't just California........there is a hell of a lot of youth from around the country right now with a lot of talent. Hard telling how many more there are that aren't getting the chance to showcase what they can do. I sense this to be a time where the changing of the guard so to speak is arriving. If only now, something could be done to lower costs, sprint car numbers might just soar again and reach the numbers of the 70's-80's and early 90's.

Anyway, Congratulations to that bunch from California. The sprint car world has taken note I'm sure!

Just this week there was a post informing Pa. fans that the likes of Schchart, Allen, Zearfoss, Marks and maybe a couple others are not Pa. Drivers they Outlaws and Allstars and such so under that criteria how many of those guys really are California drivers.

Pa. guys just aren't posse anymore. Cali boys will always be Cali boys, no matter where they go, says this Cali boy stuck in Va. It's was 8 by the way. Kaeding, Sclezi x 2, Macedo, Abreu, Larson, McMahon and some chump named Sweet. 

This is why we need that pipeline to Nascar to completely close. It's down to a small trickle now, but we need to turn the spicket off all the way and keep this young talent. There's no reason WoO couldn't be a destination series. Nascar has strip-mined sprint car racing long enough and that nonsense needs to stop. Let's see who really wants to be here. 

And another thing, some compare the population of Pa. to midwestern states Which uses Philly and Pitts burg to inflate our population. At this rate California should need 14 or 15 to keep pace with Pa. Actually with half the starting field from two states and some from Austrialia it doesn't say much for the rest of the country.

Actually there were 8 from Calif in the A Sweet, Larson,,.Macedo ,Geo, Dominic,,McMahan, T K,,,Rico

McMahan is listed as being from Nashville  Tennesee on the Kville result page. Just saying. I dont know what the facts are.

Even though I may not know you, I 
care what most of you think!

Quite certain all seven are native to California.

Were there not   8  Blazer00 ?

He grew up in Oroville California, outside Chico. Raced locally for yrs. Moved to Tennessee about 15-20 yrs ago when he hit the road and raced nationally. He's still a Cali boy. Unlike posse fans, Cali fans don't renounce it's locals when they hit the road. 

Posse fans don't renounce their drivers when the hit the road either, it is the rest of the country that thinks we shouldn't count their wins on the road as Pa. wins. As for the start of this you do know good natured banter when you see it don't you?

I would love to see Kyle Larson as a full time sprint car driver, but you're not seeing the big picture here.   The top three cars in the Nationals were all owned by NASCAR drivers.   Would those teams exist without the money that came from NASCAR?   In Larson's case he also owns Shane Stewart's car.   Would Larson have the resources to have started a WoO team if he wasn't involved in NASCAR?    What about the All Star Circuit of Champions?    Would it even exist today without Smoke's involvement?   Again, NASCAR money involved here.     

In the case of the Scelzi brothers, Schucart, etc., the pipeline to NASCAR might be closed.    There's already plenty of young guns there and not many available seats to fill.     

Seeing Bobby McMahan at the Nationals started me thinking, remembering, and wondering. I seem to remember Paul having a racing brother. Is Bobby Paul’s brother, nephew, or no relation? 

Older brother I think

I do not care if Nascar drivers own race teams or not. It's just an arms race to see who can spend the most money anyway & a personal dork measuring contest. 

The first post had the answer for keeping sprint car numbers what they are and actually increasing them.  Costs.  Tires and Engines so say the editor of Sprint Car and Midget magazine and Brady Bacon in his one-page editorial 2 or 3 months ago in same magazine.  Brady says in USAC you can win races with $15 to $20,000 engines.  Said it happens all the time, 5, 6 year old engines winning races, or 725 HP engines built by local small engine shops selling for $20,000.  And they don't need to be freshened every 6 or 8 races, rather every 12 to 15 races he says.  An engine built for $20,000 that has say 650 or make it 750 HP, and people wouldn't know the difference between 12 cars with $50,000  950 HP and $20,000 750 HP engines.  Of course Brady did mention the fact that USAC and other non-wing series without the wings, saves a lot of damage to the engine, not having to push that big wing thru the air.  But to increase car owners and drivers, and not to continue this downward slide in car counts across the country due to costs, the costs absolutely have to be reduced.  Or have everyone run the same $20,000 700HP engine, a sealed spec engine that has lower max RPMs to reduce wear on the engines.  Then we'd see more owners in 410 racing and with identical engines, making it all in the hands of all drivers, not just NASCAR owner's drivers.  And a tire that can last 2 nights can be built, they did it in late model racing.  

Lawlessness + liberalism = HELL -  NYC, Detroit, Chicago, 
Seattle, LA  Who the H runs those cities. 

Counting McMahan, yes, but my post was directed more at the current crop of youngsters and the surge of fresh California drivers making a name for themselves, even though I did throw Kaeding in to the mix also. McMahan hs been away from CA for quite some time.

Who were the other half of the field that are from PA?

He said half the field was from two states. 8 from Calif and 5 from Pa = 13. That’s > than half the field.

Okay, but I count three from Pennsylvania. Who am I missing?