Forum: SCRAFAN.COM Forum (go)
Moderators: ljennings

Heard that Jack Jory is dealing with some health issues and will probably not run his cars this coming year.  Hope this is just a rumor and the cars are were they should be, at the track.  The Williams clan may be chasing rides this next season and that is also a shame.  All of them were becoming more competitive as the season progressed.  If this is the case, hope they can get into a good car and do well.  Lots of cars are on very limited budgets and the costs to run a sprint care are out of sight.   Car  count should be an issue, as it has been for a long time.  Hope that if the rumor about Jack is true, that he gets better and enjoys the things he wants to do.  Jack and Sharon Jory have been outstanding members of the CRA for many years and have supported the racers and organization as long as I can remember

Jack Jory is an institution, I don't know him at all but respect the heck out of him.  He could do anything he wants with his money but he wanted to race sprint cars so he did, thoughts and prayers to the Jory family if is is not feeling well.  

I always smile when I see a post discussing car counts...  people base decisions on what races to attend or not, people seem to feel like there is some kind of minimum number of cars required for an event to be considered a good one; and especially the last 10yrs people seem to feel like car counts are declining at some kind of alarming rate.  People there are more spint cars and sprint car races now than there has ever been.  By a wide margin.  Yes I remember the 70's and early 80's too, yes we were blessed with great drivers during that time that were truly heros for all of us, but that great competition was because there were not 30-40 series of sprint car associations to run with.  Out west is was CRA/ARA and open comp races, that's it.  So you had all the people dumb enough to want to go sprint car racing (of which i am one) all running together at most events and even then there was not always enough cars to require a semi.  But we did not look at it by "car counts" did we?  We saw Bubby Jones and Dean Thompson and Ron Shuman and Leland Mcspadden batteling it out at Ascot and Manzanita.  At the mid winter fair in El Centro, at Soutbay Speedway 117 in Chula Vista.  It was great but was it a bad show if there were less than 20 cars?  Hell no it wasn't, so why is it a "car count" issue now when we have 15-18 cars?  look if the reasoning is value for the dollar ok, I get it.  3 heats and a main is not as much racing to watch as 4 heats, a semi, and a main, but is it really that big of a deal if the races you do see are exciting?  

There are a ton of sprint cars around these days.  Just in AZ you have the wing guys runing ASCS rules, thats about 15 cars.  you have the San Tan Ford series that was the Napa series (restricted 360's) and that class is growing and doing very well it seems with about 20 cars.  Then you have USAC Southwest, the club is down in car attendance but not because there arn't enough cars, it's because people that have them are pissed off at the way the races are conducted, but with part time teams like me we should be averaging 17-20 cars as well.  That's a lot of local sprint cars folks, and I was not counting the New Mexico crowd.  They got a strong club over there as well.  So with all the choices of where and what to race, the talent is just diluted.  it's not a car count problem, its a dilution problem and it's going to be that way.  Just the way it is.  A guy can spend as much or as little as he wants to go racing, the rules and series don't matter one bit.  It's all the same unless you are truly chasing a championship which only about 5 people are actually doing.  

Car counts will alwasy be a topic and I am not offering an opion about those who reference it, I mean no disrespect at all.  But next time you allow car counts to factor in to a decision to go or not go to the track remember it only really takes 2 or 3 cars grinding it out, hanging it all out, and throwing caution to the wind to make a fantastic show.