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

Fairly good racing for the lead.

Way to many yellow's again, actually quite pathetic!

I guess typical IRA.

Oh by the way Winters won Dobmeier was second!!!!

90% of IRA race's I attend have multiple caution's.

By multiple I mean 10 or approacing 10 and I am only counting the A.

Mostly because of driver's spinning out, and it is almost the same driver or driver's from race to race.

Don't plan on getting out of a IRA race before midnight, it rarely happen's.

Superior was a treat, but only because rain was moving in.

Maybe IRA should be in rain mode all the time.

Don't blame the IRA for you being at the races til midnight last night. Vintage cars added time, extra pre-race ceremonies took time, and the 360's accounted for FAR more yellows and reds than the IRA portion of the show did. Remember the UMSS heat where only 3 of 8 cars finished? Yes, the cautions came at bad times in the A-main from a fans perspective (right when the leaders were dicing in lapped traffic), but it was not an over abundance of them. All in all, it was a great show and will be an annual trip for us. Congrats to the speedway, Richert family, the IRA, and Knoxville Raceway for putting on a great annual event. I guess you can't make everyone happy though.

As far as not getting out of IRA shows before midnight goes, I was at the last IRA show at Charter and we were out of there at 9:30. Not every show is gonna be a gem, but if it bothers you to be up late on a Saturday night, maybe you need to start watching golf more?

C U @ Plymouth!

"They'll learn." 

No, you won't see me at Plymouth.

Yes I do watch golf more as I don't like to be out past Midnight!!

The whole show in general was way to long period!

This is typical of most show's IRA participates at or in.

Hey this is just my opinion!

Don't blame the IRA, Don't blame the IRA that is what you hear all the time... Every IRA race I have been to this year they have dicked around all night so that you spend over 6 hours at a track.

On another note either leave the lap cars in for the full race (Which is stupid) or take them out for the whole race. Gets pretty annoying watching Sinclair stair at the booth for 10 minutes to figure out what they should do. And on the cautions it is the same guys that don't know how to drive every week!!!

Ahhhhhh! Wilmot, yes have been there once this year and probably the last time ever!

I don't make a lot of IRA races, (I think five this year), but can't say that I have ever felt there were an excessive number of yellows, or that the shows ran especially late. I do agree that it seems the same drivers spin out repetitively, but they were not the only ones. I seem to remember Wolfgang causing one yellow (could be wrong about that, i might be thinking of the 360 7K). Racing was done by about 11:30 even with the preliminary activity, the somewhat excessive number of laps by the vintage cars and the number of spin outs. There were 32 410 cars in the pits along with 29 360's. Can't ask for much more than that in the upper midwest. I thought the battle between Dobmeyer and Winters was very good. They swapped the lead multiple times, in traffic and out. Tatnell made a credible run from the back after blowing a tire in his heat (great job of keeping the car out of the wall and on its wheels). Heskin was looking good until he got collected in one of the spins. Balog wasn't far behind the leaders and maybe with more in traffic racing could have been a factor.

One thing to keep in mind on the lateness of the shows, the IRA does not run the whole night. The track or other supporting classes are responsible for running their portion of the show.

All in all, the Richert classic was one of the best nights of racing I have been at this year. Hopefully it will continue to gain support from the drivers and the fans. I like having two classes of sprint cars with no door bangers, and the crowd seemed to be as good as I remember when they had door bangers as the support class.

Ok Ok!! Yes the Richert classic is one of the top 5 Sprint Car shows in the Midwest, it is a must see if at all possible. In no way do I mean any disrespect to this great family.

I agree racing done at 11:30.

Now, I am going to go throw this out there. Racing should be concluded by 9:30 or 10 at the latest barring rain delay's etc. Not only in Sprint Cars but all forms of motorsports!

Say the program starts at 6 pm, who want's to sit there till 11:30 come on people get real!!

How good of a race is 3 cars running around after the rest have flipped etc?

If racing was concluded at a respectable time don't you think fan's would come to the pit's to purchase t-shirts, chat, make new friends, you never know, but the million dollar sponsor may be one of these fan's.

hoosier1, I think you are exactly correct. Awesome night of racing, but let's try to still be done at a better time, like 10:00 or 10:30.

If you are running two full classes of sprint cars totalling more than 60, you are asking for red flags to happen. Not to mention vintage cars. I think they need to consider starting hot laps at 5:00. Get through hot laps, time trials and pre race activities and start racing by 6:00. I made this same suggestion over on Stan's board and somebody came back and said something to the effect of a "real sprint car fan should be used to red flags" or something like that. Well a real sprint car fan should be entitled to be dissapointed with a late night of racing. Don't get me wrong, I've seen plenty of races go way later too!

I love sprint car racing. I don't mind yellow flags and red flags, it comes along with it. But what I do mind is late nights at the race track; especially if I have my young kids with. I didn't stick around and go to the pits after the races, but it was already 11:30 and they were going to have a free BBQ and post race party. Who wants to do that when it's already that late? I'm sure there were plenty of folks that did (most I assume were kid-less and wanted to keep partying), but it could be even bigger and better if the races could be done earlier. Just my opinion.

All in all, I enjoyed the racing. It usually ends up being my favorite night of the year. Always a great way to cap off the season.

11 to midnight isn't that unusual for a CLS weekly show either although they've been making an effort to get that under control and are doing better from what I hear. We camped out at the track just like we do every year for this race and that works out great. Seeing as I take photos and can't pop open my first cold one until after the IRA finished their Feature I'd have liked to have had my first before midnight but that stuff happens.

Last weekend I went to watch the UMSS at another track that started at 4:30 and consisted of two nights of racing over two hours from home. Both nights were extremely late but that was no fault of the UMSS, they had one caution per night in their Feature so it almost went green to checkered. I figured since it was a 4:30 start time even with six classes of stock cars and modifieds they would be done by 10pm and the drive wouldn't be a problem. 12:50am the first night (and the A Mods were still running their Feature when I left), midnight the second night. That's a looonnnnnnngggggg drive and a lot of time to spend to see 45 minutes of Sprint Car racing but this isn't Knoxville or the Grove up here so we take what we can get. Actually Sprint Car racing is growing and the season went pretty well with several UMSS races going green to checker and only one or two really rough nights all season. I've seen that with every Sprint Car club at one time or other. In a perfect world Sprint Car races would start and end at specific times just like movies that advertise their times on the marquee. Unfortunately there are so many variables with Sprint Car racing, especially at tracks that do not run them on a regular basis. I heard from a reliable source that they'll be looking at ways to speed up the program next year. Cedar Lake has a curfew and they have to pay a fine if they start a race too late and they're aware of the impact late racing has on families. All in all I think things went well and the racing was pretty good.

Stan Meissner

Have some past IRA shows gone later than everyone would like? Sure. Is the IRA to blame for some of that? Sure. Would I like to be home earlier than midnight after a race if at all possible? Of course. The point I will make is that is IS unfair for you to blame the IRA for the late night at Cedar Lake Speedway Saturday night. 1 red flag and 2 cautions are not a "pathetic amount". I'm pretty sure it wasn't a "10 minute" delay getting the cars lined up after the second caution. Its not good to exaggerate the truth when you are debating something that 2000 other people were at besides yourself. Is it possible he was waiting for the scorers to get the line-up correct instead of trying to figure out whether to take the lapped cars out? The fact is that the IRA portion of the program was run pretty efficiently. But still, even though there were 2 other divisions of cars there, extra pre-race ceremonies, fireworks, and a two seat late-model giving ride-alongs, the IRA are the ones getting thrown under the bus. I'm guessing that if the show WAS over by 9:30, nothing positive would have been said about it afterwards by the IRA "Debbie Downers". It was a great show and the positives far outweighed the negatives,IMO.

In no way am I throwing stones at any of the teams or competors from the other divisions. We were glad you were there. As for future Richert Memorials, I hope they don't change anything. ( a 40 lapper would be nice though)

Maybe you guys would be better off going to Plymouth and Oshkosh this weekend. I can guarantee you'll be out by 11pm both nights! They also have mufflers, time limits, and curfews...but hey, you'll be home early!

"They'll learn." 

Like I said, have been writing for a paper that is distributed at CLS since '99 and was one of the track photographers for their weekly shows for a couple of years. It's not unusual to get out of there at 11 or 11:30 for a four class stock car and modified program. Taking that into consideration the fact that a Late Model track ran a Sprint show with 62 cars + Vintage and pushed the curfew didn't surprise me. I'd like to have been done a little earlier too but I'm not going to complain about a late night once in a while.

One year I took my non-race-fan wife to their $50,000 USA Nationals and left her with some friends because I had to take photos. The race didn't get over until 2am and the first words out of her mouth were "don't you EVER ask me to go to another race"!!! She now thinks that race cars (including Sprints) are of no use to anyone with the possible exception of burying them in the ground and planting flowers on them.

Seriously though, we are honored to have this event right in our back yard and we want to see it be a success. I'm saying that both from the standpoint of being a friend of the Richert family and as someone who wants to see Sprint Car racing carve out a bigger niche around the Twin Cities area. I am confident that notes were taken and tweaks will be made to make this a better show every year.

Stan Meissner

Twin-Cities area?

I'm thinking snow plow races would draw the most fans!

TSA...It's not a GROPE...it's a Freedom Pat!

It ain't perfect weather but it ain't the last outpost. A four time World of Outlaws champion came from a place a couple hundred miles north of here.

Stan Meissner