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

While I was sitting here at the campsite I was thinking, why do the majority of dirt track races (sprints, late models, etc) use 24 as the standard number of A-Main entrants?

I did a bit of looking on the internet and found that Indy starts 33 cars because during the initial years they thought it was safer to have a bit of gap between the cars and arrived at the magical number of 33. 

So is it something like that? Shorter dirt tracks equating to a number like 24? Or am I totally overlooking something? 

It has just been that number since Jesus was born!

With the cost of a competitive team in certain areas hard to get more than 20.Even  the Knoxville weekly show struggles at certain times of the year and relies on some travelers to fill field. Boone Nationals for IMCA mods starts them 3 wide and more cars.Once in a while with provisionals WOO starts 26 . It seems like WOO late models have a several more cars to work with.

Way back in the day 2 gear heads were servicing a Studebaker and they decided to host a race with a couple dozen cars.

Dont late models often start 30?

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

I am old enough to remember when AAA only started 16 in the sprint features at Williams Grove, Reading, and Allentown.  They also ran a "stock block" feature at the end of the program as almost always the feature cars were all Offy's.  I also remember going to a "junker stock" program at the old Lancaster Speedway when one of dad's customers raced a car, and leaving during the 1st heat race because of all of the wrecks.  From that day on, he said if it had a roof and/or fenders, it was not a race car.  I must say he did enjoy the "bugs" at the central PA tracks in the 60's that morphed into sprint cars.  He did eventually come to like the old mods of Reading Fairgrounds, but hated the modern DIRT mod, "too much tin hanging on the car."  I think the 24 car feature was the result of the mods that always started a lot of cars to create action (wheel banging and bumping and wrecking) to keep the fans into the events.  As the cars morphed into "bugs" and supers, the tracks keep the 24 as the number.  Enjoy the races, even if they start 22 or 24 or more cars.

Look up video of Langhorn in about 1950.  They stated about 90 cars on the 1 mile track.  Alot of wrecks.  Nascar has changed over years to about 50 cars to 43 then to 40.  Most sprint cars are 24 but 1 track starts 22  (small track).  We ran a sprintcar race years ago with 30 cars for 30 laps on a 1/2 mile track.

USAC starts 22 for sprints & midgets, not sure about Silver Crown