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

I was kind of surprised Selinsgrove only drew 17 410's last night for a $10,000 to win race, especially because there were no other races held in Central Pa over the weekend with Williams Grove losing both races due to weather. Billy Dietrich was the only Pa driver to tow to Weedsport for the Outlaw race. Selinsgrove is still one of my favorite tracks. For some reason the track gets a bad rap. In my opinion, it is not much faster than Port Royal. Hopefully the new promtional team can pump some life into the old gal.

Yeah, and to think once upon a time Lincoln, Port, and Selinsgrove all ran the same night successfully.

I think something happened last year and pissed a lot of teams off. I think the fasted i ever saw a sprint car run was Hodnett up there back in the day

there may be a couple that will hold the idiocy of the previous two years against the current promotional team......but your second part takes me to what i believe IMHO is the real reason.

Sitting in turn one on Sunday night after they watered the track after time trials - the place was once again as Fred Rahmer once said "Scary Fast".   We were commenting in turn one they never even for a milisecond burped the throttle entering one - it was flat to the mat.

I believe it is a combination of some guys just not wanting to go that fast through the turns and also a financial decision as the stress on a motor of never even burping the pedal is just unbelieveable.

I love port and have had reserved seats for the last 4 years but the real speed palace is selinsgrove.  Bob Weikert once said, it is "The Knoxville of the East."

it was fun watching drivers flat to the mat while finding moisture.....the 23 found the moisture a lane below the fence and didn't have to do a wicked slide job to pass for the win......

You can argue all day over which track is a little bit faster. I had a hall of fame driver tell me only difference between the three of them is track conditions on any given night. No one who runs Williams Grove or Port Royal dosen't not run Selinsgrove because of the speed. Full time Lincoln only guys might not because they don't have strong enough motor. Sunday night and not being able to shake the problems with past promoters seem to me to be the problem. Also there is so much racing anymore that getting crews to give up any more time for extra races is hard. Yea I know Friday and Saturday were rained out but plans for family time were made before that was known. Crews don't owe us or tracks their whole life.

the driver i helped for many years and won quite a few at selinsgrove - well his thoughst of selinsgrove changed as he aged and sponsorship money started to becomne more scarce - never lift speed and motor price became an issue.....gearing everything as many will tell you it is momentum track.

My opinion only is that what separates the best from the rest is two parts but one concept.....who can drive it in the deepest with car control.

this is where the speed of selinsgrove meets the eye test the deepest entry....

Williamsgrove it is a very pronounced difference in entry speed one the naked eye can see and because of the long back stretch is more pronounced when entering the turn as they have to lift.it is the paper clip.

Port is just a little bit of a variance as the p[lace is wicked fast too....and heaven forbid i type this - as i don't want someone tagging onto this when the place has moisture and they are flying at warp speed most in the pits are hoping it slicks of a bit and when it slicks off the tighter turns require more variance as result on handling and set up.

Selinsgrove because of the long sweeping turns much like Knoxville doesn't require near the variance regarding entry and this past Sunday was a prime example...there was no to the naked eye noticeable difference in entry speed between the 67, 23, 48 & 19 they were flat to the mat....whether slick or heavy entry speeds at selinsgrove don't vary as much and that is what sometimes leads to what can be viewed as a boring race.

Port and Selinsgrove are close but the corner speed at selinsgrove is insane and makes middle off  critical in setup in order to keep the momentum.  At port you will see especially up off of 2 see who has the torque up off more so than selinsgrove and thats what makes that track so much fun.

not sure i'm doing a good job of trying to explain this....

Times in time trials Sunday were mostly 17's and a few low 18's. As I said no one who runs Williams Grove or Port Royal stayed away because of the speed. It does no good to keep blaming speed when it is obvious the problem lies elsewhere. I hope the track survives but you have look for the problem and not just think, well it is the speed and we can't do aything about it. 

speed and reducing the size of selinsgrove has been discussed and continues to be discussed port is just under a half mile williamsgrove if i recall .518 selinsgrove .536. Bridgeport use to be the biggest at just over .556 or so.

not trying to be a pain why do you presume they are not coming?  it is a fact cars weren't coming forCharlie Paige, Heffner promotional team, the Stutts promotional team and now the Current promotional team.....it circles back to a common denominator - speed and wear on a motor or not having the motor capable of competing has most certainly been a detterent.

I have been going to Selinsgrove since - well over 50 years....from 2009-2022 many nights in the pits on a team and i can tell you for a fact that driver still racing today and has been at port does not stay away for any other reason than speed impact on motors.

It's mainly the Sunday dates that keeps cars and teams away.

Although BAPs numbers have improved on Sunday night - i can tell you this former crew member  hated racing on Sunday nights.  Especially if we had already raced on Friday & Saturday to race yet again on a Sunday for a lack of a better term SUCKED!  got nothing else done on weekend....and simply burnout.

But the real crap part was the lateness of a Sunday with the upcoming work week.  Till you get it loaded up and then unloaded at a car wash and loading it back up monday work day rolled around quickly and it was greuling.

it is why im shocked that BAPS is having regular success on a lot of Sunday nights......from longtimefan's perspective what is BAPS doing to be growing?  i do believe there are other underlying issues for Selinsgrove and sometime size and speed become the easy excuse....and often used excuse none the less.

Ok, if you say so. I do hope some promoter looks elsewhere for the problem if the track is going to exist.

Definitely a big factor, especially when you consider location. It's over an hour north of Williamsgrove and 2 hours from Lincoln. That's where most 410 teams are located. That's a long haul on a sunday night. Baps does much better on Sunday nights because it's right in the heart of posse country and of course a little smaller, which is easier on motors. There's not many local 410 teams in the Selinsgrove area anymore. When you consider the insane and ever increasing number of 410 shows we have now in central PA and the cost of putting 1 of these beasts on the track, I'm sure it's not easy for most teams to add another race to their schedule. Having said that, 17 cars is still a disappointment for a race paying 10G to win/$600 to start. Not surprising though.   

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I'm editing to say this is an observation really that i can as a former crew member from the "north" can identify with....Sunday nights would have been a lot easier if i didn't have the 1 plus hour back north after the car wash!

the only point i will "dispute" is BAPs is not a little smaller it is a whole lot smaller.  having pushed a sprint car to the starting grid  at many tracks it is really noticeable how much smaller BAPs is than Selinsgrove.

The location of BAPS helps greatly with car counts and fan attendance.