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

Refresh my memory and likely many more, who can summarize the USAC Silver Crown debacle of modifying the cars for paved mile tracks, with all the aero packages, testing etc.

If memory serves me right (its always the second thing to go, cant' recall the 1st); this was circa 2007 & 08, when they ran Richmond, Darlington, Chicago, Homestead, NH Speedway, etc.

How many seasons did it last( 2?) and what triggered its derth?

I have no idea but I remember when they were experimenting with the body work.  My only pavement open wheel race for many decades was a USAC Midget race at LaCrosse, Wisconsin, in 2007.  That wasn't a bad race but didn't create any kind of overwhelming desire to watch more pavement racing.  I was writing and taking photos so I did it for a change of pace and to get a look at the track I had heard a lot about.

Stan Meissner

Everyone squawked and it never took a foot hold. They all kept saying that's what the Oswego cars are for.

I watched the USAC Gold Crown cars (all 8 of them) at Chicagoland Speedway on a NASCAR weekend. The race was run following all of the stock car activity on the Saturday prior to the Cup race on Sunday. At that time the stock cars were still drawing a decent crowd but 90% of them left before the Gold Crown cars took the green.

I never knew many of the details about this debacle but it seems USAC crawled into bed with NASCAR and NASCAR left then high & dry on this little adventure. NASCAR seemed to convince USAC that the Gold Crown division would serve as a viable support class for NASCAR on it's cookie cutter 1 1/2 mile tracks. Gold Crown never gained any traction and died an embarrassing death. IIRC several prominent Silver Crown owners plunged money into cars to support this stupidity and got stuck with racecars, to this day, but no tracks or division to race. I believe the Gold Crown BS was part of what brought the USAC Silver Crown division to it's knees on the brink of extinction. Thanks in no small part to Andy Hillenburg, Spridge and Levi Jones the Silver Crown is doing well today, thank God!! It was touch and go for several years.

Kevin Miller is a big part of the fact that USAC went down this path and the fact that he not only survived it but is still at the helm of that organization disgusts me.

Wow those things never get any easier to look at. It's like one of those elephant man exhibits, you know when they pull back the sheet and everyone gasps. 

As an aside, the rebound this series has made in recent years is remarkable.  Returned to their roots & put on a great product on the dirt miles.  Around the same time as the pavement car experiment, they went to ethanol (I think) & that virtually killed the car counts at the dirt events.  Springfield got as low as 18 or so for a couple years.  Recent years have seen 30 plus cars at Springfield, DuQuoin & Indy and some great racing.  

They drew 38 or 39 Silver Crown cars at Springfield in 2018 and about that many at Indy the two years prior to announcing they were going to do away with the Indy Mile in regards to auto racing. It truly was a miraculous turn around for the division. The racing at both Springfield & Du Quoin has been nothing short of amazing in recent years.

I remember one year at Du Quoin around the time that they made the switch to ethanol they had only 14 cars start the Horn Memorial and if I remember correctly ony 6 or 7 were running at the checkered flag.

Wasn't it Jason McCord who gave the dirt champ cars a series to race in? What the heck was that called and what years did it run?

I think it was McCord and Hillenburg who saved the series. I think it was only a 2 year deadl? I think the series name was three letters maybe starting with a P ?

I sure am happy that the series didn't die and is doing ok now.

Performance Racing Series. Couldn't find a lot of info but it ran in 2006 and 2007. 

Thanks for the research! This is a fun thread for me about racing history. Long live the Champ Cars.

Seems a lot of info from this era has been scrubbedand its not that long ago.
I wonder where these cars are now hanging from the rafters?

Might make a nice street legal car, momma's grocery getter...

Even the website I found has beens scrubbed: 

http://www.goldcrownchampionship.com/gcc.html

Gold Crown Championship Race Car Series

The Gold Crown Championship Race Car Series On the Pathway to Indycar & Nascar The Gold Crown Car is Tube-Frame, Front-Engined, Open-Wheeled Race Car

http://www.goldcrownchampionship.com/goldcrownbackground.html

Gold Crown Championship Race Car Series

www.goldcrownchampionship.com/goldcrownbackground.html

In 2008 when USAC announced it was no longer using the New Generation Silver Crown Car, those 17 owners were left with millions of dollars invested in new, well designed cars and no where to race them. The Gold Crown Championship was born. The Gold Crown Exploratory Group organized a very successful test on a road course during 2008.

So, while USAC was wondering off into its 'venture' with Nascar, Jason MCCord & Andy Hillenburg (IN) resurected the dirt portion of the Silver Crown for 2006 & 2007?

Before the ugly pavement big track cars came along - the old dirt cars were running at a large paved track (sorry - don't remember which one) and one of the drivers said that when he was hot lapping he thought that his clutch was slipping.   He looked down and said the rear wheels were not on the track.  They did not have any aerodynamics to run these tracks at those speeds.  They cancelled the race.  All of the guys still wanted to qualify just to find out how fast they were going but the powers-that-be cancelled qualifying as well.   They were rather relieved to not try to race with so little control over the cars.   That's just a story as I remember it.

Thats the story I heard also, I think the driver may have been Tracy Hines. Kind of wierd to think about, like hydroplaning on air, maybe its called aeroplaning.

The USAC President at the time the new generation car was developed was Rollie Hemming. The PRA was started by Jason Smith (who has been back at USAC for years now) and his then brother in law former racer Jason McCord. Andy was brought in after this era was over. 

The test mentioned above was at Nashville Super Speedway drivers testing were Jerry Coons Jr and Brad Noffsinger. Jerry didn't think his wheels came off the ground but Brad did. Either way Jerry said it was a no go. For the record the cars were ugly. Not enough of them. Yet for that short period of time with NASCAR support they raced for a lot of money.

Thanks for presenting proper information, I didn't know they were racing for more money during that period and I wasn't sure which driver was having issues. It sure was an ugly time for the champ cars that is for sure.

When I saw the opening of your reply I thought you were going to bring up the time they ran the dirt cars with the rear engine cars at Poccono.

1981 Van Scoy Diamnond Mines 500