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

I think Holmes and company got a taste of victory Lane and have some confidence they can get back there regardless of the competition.

I checked Sprint Car Ratings and found this:

http://www.sprintcarratings.com/DriverResults.aspx?DriverID=2167

I think the answer to his recent success is seat time.  74 410 races versus 58 last year.

To be clear, I'm not calling it a "crown jewel", but the hype machine does and I was repeating it. Kinda like how "The Month of Money!" Is overdone.

Every racetrack seems to have a "big" race once a year, hoping it will evolve into a super big event over the years. It reminds me of every small town in my region that has a once a year town party. I had a friend ask me with a straight face if I was going to Boxelder Bug Days.

The big race syndrome goes through all classes now, and the hype and hyperbole are over the top. Imagine your excitement when they announce the annual Outlaw Extreme Hobby Stock Nationals that pays 800 bucks to win!!!!!

As we wallow forward through these "taking it to the next level " days of sprint car racing, more tracks will be trying to get into that elite level of hyped event. For example, Husets Speedway seems to be trying to buy their way in. Perhaps there needs to be something between a regular over-hyped traveling series race with freshly-coined cool name that pays the same as last weekend's race and the "true" crown jewel races. Can we call the bigger, higher purse races with some history to them "Premium Races"?

Agree 100%. I have only missed two National Opens in the last 30 years. This year I attended my 4th Knoxville Nationals and was at Williams Grove last night. Is the Open on par with The Nationals or Kings Royal, no but given the history, the time of year, plus the atmosphere and the packed grandstands, it is a Crown Jewel of sprint car racing. Yes, The Grove could use some facility updates, and the racing is not always great, but if you ever attended a National Open as a fan, you walk away feeling the vibes. I love how people love to bash Williamss Grove, but let's compare for example, the old beat up Williams Grove or say the Diamond of Dirt Tracks, Lucas Oil Speedway. What event had a better experience for the fans, last night with a standing room only crowd, or the recently completed Jesse Hockett-Daniel McMillin Memorial Race with a half empty race track. Just sayin'.

JUst read an article on the history of the Scaget Dirt Cup It listed first winner as 1972. They did however call it a Crown Jewel of sprint car racing. (I was horrified when I read that. It reallly upset me)

the tuscarora 50 is the biggest race in pennsylvania.  i live about a mile from williams grove.  i decided to keep going down williams grove road on friday night instead of turning left on lisburn road just to see what the camping crowd was like.  if i hadn't done that...outside of the noise from the cars...i would have had no idea the "biggest race on the east coast" was going on.  

port royal makes their crown jewel race an event.  it's right in the center of town and during the fair.  the tuscuarora 50 is port royal and vice versa.  ask people around the neighborhoods here and nobody would know anything more than a regular friday night race was going on.  a fair number of people probably don't even know a winged sprint car from a late model.  i would love to see williams grove be more active in the community.

people laughed at me last year when i said we left before heat races.  congrats chase dietz...but outside of that...i didn't miss anything.  

and just to be clear...i think this whole split is unfortunate.  it has watered down sprint car racing and i agree everyone needs to be honest about their motives.  williams grove has taken a bigger hit since each series has chosen a home field in pennsylvania.  woo is lacking the drivers people want to see.  i still think this will come down to whether woo decide to tighten its grip on the true crown jewel races at knoxville and eldora.  that's how irl outlasted cart.  

The King's Royal is not a crown jewel.  It is a goofy one-night show with a big first place.  That does not constitute a crown jewel. 

The Grove hasn't produced very good racing for as long as I can remember.   But hey, at least they didn't leave the cars that unloaded fast out of the feature because of weird mystery inverts.  (Mystery inverts are SO "crown jewel"  I would consider the Grove much more of a Crown Jewel event than the KR even without the 6-figure payday.  

I don't get this WOO fans not liking HL and HL fans not liking the WOO. It sure does piss you of that only two WOO drivers have won the Kings Royal in the last six years doesn't it?  Did you dislike it as much before that? Most everyone agrees that knoxville is the top one. You don't have to keep hating on all the others. Sprint car racing goes from Febuary to Novenber not just late April to the middle of August.

I've thought the King's Royal was a joke since the aggressive inverts stopped working the way they were intended.  If we had 5 or 6 guys showing up 1 or 2 seconds faster than 1/2 the field, their format would still work.  We don't have that. 

Now, "mystery" inverts for a race that pays $200,000?  Give me a break.  Have a 2 or 3 day format with points.  If you want to do inverts in the heats with points involved during prelim nights, FANTASTIC!  If you're gonna have a podium with guys that were 18th-25th fastest in qualifying and the top 3-5 guys in qualifying have to transfer through the B, that's stupid.  It would work fine if it were a KR prelim night (much like the Nats do) but to have it happen on the "main event" night.  Dumb.  Always has been.  Like Sammy landing on the pole in Kevin's 39 car when they were so far off the pace it wasn't funny.  Once again, dumb.  

Williams Grove could do more to promote the event, but the little they do works every time. How many more people could they fit in the track on Saturday night? A few hundred? The place was and is always packed for the Open. And they make a boatload every time the woo is there, so why add a night, or do whatever promotional activities we want them to do so that people from California or Iowa who wouldn't be in attendance anyway can get the "big race feels"?

You truly are an outlaw fan boy, and a pretty ignorant one at that. What makes a race a crown jewel? I would think an event that pays about four or five times a normal payout, and that 60+ teams prepare months in advance for, and fans that plan vacations for these events. 

Quit crying about the KR and inverts, you are a whiney bitch, If the drivers didn't like the inverts they wouldn't show up to race for the big money and the honor of winning a crown jewel.  I really hope High Limit take over the woo just to watch you go into a nose first tail spin. Follow nascar, no inverts there.

And his language was appropiate, unlike some of the others

I hear High Limits Tony and Chase talk all the time of World Of Outlaws but never Johnny and co talk about High Limit.

I can be corrected.

Politics?  Maybe.  High cost of travel: probably.  Cost of diesel fuel is outrageous, the tow vehicles do not get 25 mpg.

Additionally, not everyone holds central PA racing with the same esteem as do the fans of the area.  

I give the HL taking over the WoO, or driving them out of business a 50% chance.  I wouldn't mind one bit as long as there is a national series running.  The thing that would make me laugh is seeing all of you WoO haters lick the HL's butt while they continue to morph into the very series you have despised for years.  It's unfolding before your eyes and you think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.  HL's metamophosis from the series all of you WoO haters despised, to a near replica of the WoO, is almost complete!

I give a crap what the banner on the wall says.  They'll be run the exact same way.  Hope I don't see you supporting them.  

How about teams maybe just wanting a weekend off. In latemodels, teams take off all the time for the World 100 and don't go. As a fan I don't take it out on the teams for not showing up. Long season and time off can be good. As a fan that gets to tavel all over the country and watch races, I consider myself lucky to watch big races and good races all over. I hear the Knoxville Nationals, Kings Royal and National Open are the crown Jewels of sprint car racing. I have been to the Knoxville Nationals and Kings Royal. I have watched the National Open on stream and can tell you I have no desire to go to it. Racing is consistantly bad and boring at the grove. This is just my take, but I am sure I am not the only one that feels this way. I actually went to a different race on Saturday night and only watched the Grove on replay. I didn't miss anything by not watching it.

There were also 6 HL teams there:

Sye Lynch (PA based)

Brent Marks (PA based)

Kasey Jedrzejek with CJB (PA based)

Taneer Holes with Buch (PA based)

Brady Bacon with Vermeer (new shop based in Port Royal-PA based)

Justin peck who was one of ONLY THREE yes ONLY THREE non outlaw or PA based teams there. Timms and Naida other two. I am just going to say it and it may hurt, but it is the truth. OUTSIDE OF CENTRAL PA THE NATIONAL OPEN IS NOT THAT BIG OF A DEAL

ATTN Parnelli1970, beezr2002 and saphead:

I deleted your last reply post, as one of you (unintentionally) crashed the post.

It was weird, as normally a picture that's too big for this old software to handle immediately and it crashes it til the picture gets removed.

But in this case it allowed both Parnelli and beezr to post after the picture that crashed the post which was the one of the triple crown by Saphead.

My suggestion on posting pics here (since I've crashed it probably 100 times by now) is:

Try to keep them less than 1024 pixels in width or height.

I've also found that typically you can't put pics and text on the same post, as that triggers it a lot as well.

Anyway, none of you guys did anything wrong, so if you want to repost your replies feel free to...as after I removed the triple crown pic the error message went away.

Where are all those WoO haters hiding? 99% of the hate that I see here comes from Outlaw fanboys who claim they aren't  fanboys toward HL. How many times are the haters going to repeat "taking the sport to the next level"?  Maybe switch it up next time with "stay off my lawn you darn kids!"

It was reported that Rico was to be in attendance but was under the weather and didn't make the trip.  He has always said he likes coming to PA and his legendary crew chief is from just down the road.  Typically, Brian Brown is always in attendance as well, but this year was an exception.  That doesn't leave many teams left not in attendance (Reutzel, Scelzi and Courtney...and Reutzel loves racing in PA per his comments of the past).  So, maybe it is a bigger deal to drivers than some would like to think.

Interesting as the number of out of state attendees at Williams Grove last weekend and Port Royal's Tuscarora 50 were very noticeable (both events held after Summer vacations and school resuming).  When I'm at Knoxville each year, people always seem to express to me how fortunate we are given how many tracks and races we are priveleged to see each year.  These are people who are extremely nice and also knowledgeable about the sport as well (and its history).  Unfortunately, Williams Grove has not kept up with advancements like Eldora and Knoxville and that certainly does understandably impact perception.  It helps to get state grant money (like Knoxville and Port Royal) or have a very wealthy individual purchase the tract (like Eldora).