Forum: Minnesota Dirt Track Racing Forum (go)
Moderators: StanM

How many car owners and fans would like to see non-wing sprint car racing close to the Twin Cities? Their are people out there that would like to put on some sprint car shows, but we need to get the price of the competition down so the low buck racer can compete against the higher dollar car owners. I believe that non wing sprint cars could be the anwser because you can take the little under horse powered cars and run with the big dogs. Only sensible answers please, I don't need any smart ass's or there might not be any sprint car race around here at all. If you want to e-mail me direct, [email protected] I will not tell you work I am up too right now, but I just want suggestions.

Chuck Priefer

As a fan I would love it.

As a car owner I'm not sure.

As the father of a driver I'm more than a little nervous.

I someone does it I WILL be there.

If I can afford to get our car back together we would try it.

If I can't I would be there to help.

Chuck,

All cars around here are low buck racers.

Leave the wing on and race.

Sign us up!!!!!! Keep em on the shorter tracks for now. Kopella would be a perfect track to try em out at...

How many guys from around this area have non-wing experience??? I can think of

Parsons,

Rager,

Brett Geldner,

Tommy Kamrath,

Nelson

Peters

???????

Brian

Take a drive down to the SW corner of the state and cross into IA a few miles and check out how they do it. http://www.heartlandracingassociation.com/

Not trying to be antagonizing or befoul of mean sentiment.

This new project contain lessons learned from the demise of the MSS?

What lessons do I need to learn from the demise of the MSS?

maybe that it didnt work is what he means??

Lets let him answer for himself

That was an entirely different situation in 360 racing than we have now. At that time Wissota was still sanctioning 360 racing. Most of the tracks up here were Wissota at that time and there would have been a conflict of interest for member tracks to book open shows for a class that was Wissota sanctioned.

Since that time Wissota dropped the Sprints and the ASCS has stepped in to fill the void. If you look at the ASCS Northern Plains schedule the only races (off the top of my head without looking it up) in this area are a couple at North Central. There have been open shows at Kopellah, Cedar Lake and Owatonna during the past few seasons and they have done alright. Granted they're not the Knoxville Nationals, you're going to see probably 20 or so cars and not 150, but I think Kopellah for example drew some of their biggest crowds.

I have gone to most of those open shows, saw some good racing and had a good time. Works for me!

Stan Meissner

The only thing learned from the demise of the MSS is that WISSOTA will run against you to keep something they didn't really want anyway.

I think non wing is a great idea. I would try to put something together and call Rager out of retirement again.

Stan - Chuck said the bad Butt word! I guess that is not as bad as "Jack-son".

Chuck - your funny. No smart butt remarks or no sprint races for you!

As for non-wing thing. Good luck This area is far from non-wing country. Maybe Cedar lake can establish some interest stemming from there new indoor facility and expand it from there. Maybe an established promoter with deep pockets could make something work but you better be prepared for a long run.

I think we should focus on the here and now. Support what we have for sprints whole hearted

and maybe we can build from something already established.

But look at what it costs to run the ASCS type cars. I'm not saying non-wing is the answer, it's just something different and it would be cheaper and easier for a guy that doesn't have deep pocket get into sprint car racing. I don't agree with what goes on at Arlington, running for 300.00 to win. Nothing against those guys if there happy running for peanuts. If you look at the direction sprint car racing is going in this area, it doesn't look good. Cedar Lake is only having about 4 sprint car shows this year, 2 IRA dates, 1 WoO date and maybe a 360 open show for the Bill Anderson Memorial. Otherwise the only sprint car racing around here will be when the IRA come around (Menomine, Rice Lake, Arlington, or get in your car a start traveling aleast 200 miles to go find some. I only wanted ideas, I like both winged and non-winged racing. I'm glad to see this board is still somewhat alive anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As far a building from what we have, we don't have anything, it has been going down hill for over 10 yrs now and this year it don't look good for the guy that has an ASCS type car. Bottom line is, we don't have anything good here in Minn/Wisc anymore, haven't in a long time.

I will probably get ripped in here, but what the heck.

Speak for yourself about nothing good here in MN. With a few more new local Sprint Car Teams this season, we are nearing 30 teams in our Two Sprint Car Divisions within about 30-40 miles of Jackson.

We currently have WAY MORE local Sprint Car teams than Jackson has ever had in its history. And building teams and a fan base as we go.

Per mapquest it is only 180 miles from Minneapolis to Jackson.

But your right Chuck, there are not a lot of tracks running sprints around the Cities.

The thing I don't like about the non-wing cars is they are pretty dangerous. Rob Caho got his bell rung at my place and that was a scary deal. I don't know if he ever raced sprints again. One of our 305 drivers was doing non-wing at Rock Rapids and got hurt and ended his racing career. I think it is cool to see, but at my joint it is a scarry deal. I do have the Heartland Non-wing Sprints booked agian for this years Nationals.

I think the IMCA sprint guys put on a good show when we had them at last years Nationals. If you don't have time to drive all the way to Jackson or Knoxville, give them a shot and go to Arlington.

I don't think that anyone is going to RIP you Jon,,, I think that it absolutely fantastic that Jackson is FINALLY starting to make a turn for the better with the sprints,, back to it's history and roots... I personally think that the 317 deal is one of the best things to come along in a long time.... But I do believe that there is some room up here for some non-wing shows... and that it does provide a better equaliser between bigger and lower budget teams,,, Now don't get me wrong,,, I know racing is and never had been a poor man's sport,, but I for one would love to see "DRIVERS" on a short track like Kopella, Kasson or even Cedar Lake run without wings and take "some" of the equipment discrepancies out of the equation,,, I do agree with you Jon that we do need to keep the non-wing cars off of the big half miles like your joint and Owatonna,,,, for now..

One of the things that I think that Chuck is trying to address is that there are quite a few cars in the metro and Southeastern Minnesota area and we simply have no place to race without pulling 300 plus miles round trip,,, and with $3.00 a gallon gas and rigs that get 7 miles to the gallon,, it's pretty easy to do that math...

I was like Chuck also, and wasn't't real interested in what Arlington and their guys are trying to do,,,, that is until last year when we had them over for a couple of races with the Jackpot Series in Owatonna,, but after actually finding out the payoff,,, and what the rules are,,, I'm impressed,,, I'd have loved to had a bunch more of their races again,,, It's both promoter financially friendly,,, competitive,, and SOMEWHAT economical for the racers to run,,,,,,

I also think that the time is right,, especially since Wissota is not going to be threatening drivers if they run a MSS show,, for a new "local" series to take foot around here...

Brian

Jon your deal is the only real deal right now as far as weekly shows. But with money being so tight and gas prices up some much, it's really hard to drive that 360 mile round trip for alot of people. And you are right about non-wing cars at Jackson, they are just too fast and dangerous for a track bigger then a half mile. You need to keep the wings on down there. You'll be seeing more of me this year so tell the Sumner racing groug to make sure they have those sandwiches ready!!!!!!!!!! Jon, do you think I could get tow money too come down there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope we don't get in trouble with Stan for using the work Jackson in this post. I f we do, I'll just blame it on you. LOL

So if Arlington paid more money more cars would run. OK if 10 teams save a 100 miles on their tow thats a 1000 mi saved, at 5mpg thats 200gal of gas at $3 or $600. If teams threw their savings into the pot with the 300 to win wouldnt that make it 900 to win. Arlington is logically the best place to redevelop the strong sprint base we used to have. Everyone has run there sometime or another and as any track has its good and bad. A WEEKLY RUN SPRINT SHOW AT THE SAME TRACK IS WHAT WE NEED. NEW TEAMS NEED LESS VARIABLES TO GET UP TO SPEED BEFORE TOURING How many years straight have they had sprints without fear of not running the next year. Havent they always paid their racers what they advertised they would. I'm not a weekly supporter of Arlington and havent been down there in some time, but will tell any sprint fan to go check it out. Non wing racing isn't the best answer in my eyes. The 360 shows I went to the last couple years most of the costs incurred were from crashing and banging needlessly in my eyes. How risky will a guy drive for a low purse? Maybe if you went wingless and 317 you develop more options to attract existing teams and wouldnt be too exp to get started. Arlington also needs to step up and advertise more in the TC area for the sprint fans that may not be aware of what they have to offer, Just my 2 cents worth

Last I heard Arlington's purse was based on car count as I remember ( I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong) at over 20 or 25 cars it was $1000.00 to win.

But you still have that pesky little claim on your motor.

I think its a heads only claim for $800, and yeah any claim is pesky and typically used for the wrong reasons. Good to hear purse has increased. I do really need to practice what I preach and head out there this year. Havent been there in about 10 yrs. What impresses me as a FAN is close and even clean racing.Watch an IRA show, any heat race could be the best race you'll see for the year. They are used to racing against the same guys and realize that a good show for the fans is most important. They race on their terms (Weekends) and turn down requests for more shows to keep it that way. Arlington already has infrastucture in place, track, sanctioning, mini tours, multiple nights to race at different tracks, national season end event etc. And hey the claim only affects 20% of the field anyways. Chuck is right in that something needs to be done to turn things around, but wingless just doesnt appeal to me, once a year just to mix things up would be cool but I cant get my arms around the idea it would save money. If something new got off the ground and not at Arlington my vote would be for Koppelah, if they can get more grip out of the track somehow. But regardless my concerns at the past 360 shows we participated at has been poor continuity of the shows, no visible saftey response planning, and lack of a long term development plan, Good luck Chuck and keep swinging the bat, but the longer things continue like this the more likely we wont produce another Dollansky or Jerry Reichert or Shatz or whoever Ive missed. They'll be sitting in a late model or something still dreamimg about being in a Sprint Car now thats a shame I dont care who you are

Guess I'm up to 4 cents invested now

It's a new year Chuck so people can post good things about Jackson. I'm not so sure about ass though. I think that one could be used in reference to me preceded by the words fat, dumb or stupid.

Seriously I am open to any ideas you guys can come up with to add more Sprint Car races close to the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin. For me Cedar Lake and Kopellah work great for Sprint races, they're only about 30 miles from here. I'll be there for any races they have around here and if I can get the Friday afternoon of the Jackson Nationals off I'll go to that one again. Like Brian said, those 305s were pretty good and they had a nice field in all three classes (305's, IMCA & 360's) that night.

Stan Meissner