Forum: Northern California Sprint Car (go)
Moderators: StuDeedooo

23 Cars signed in tonight.

Qialifying order:

00 Jason Statler, 83v Kyle Larson, 19 Bud Kaeiding,32 Jason Newton, 17 Justin Sanders, 22 Keith Day, 2sb Sean Becker, 21 Tommy Tarlton, 20 Ronnie Day, 69 Brent Kaeidng, 35 Ricky Wright, 33e Evan Suggs, 72w Kurt Nelson, 2 Brad Furr,

33 Aron Sirles,7b Brent Bjork, 7 Nick Ringo Jr., 58 Jerry Bonnema, 00x Cory Eliason,

16x Andy Gregg, 9j Steve Osborne, 28 Billy Chester, 99 Wayne Katen.

Wow...only 23 cars?  Hasn't Ocean been averaging something like 26 cars for a regular show?  What happened last night, was there a competing 360 show somewhere else?

Well Ocean normally runs Friday nights. Also there were competing point shows in Marysville and Placerville for 360's.

You also had the Antioch Idiot book a 360 wing show right over the top of this race.

wow only 23 cars and i think only 10 finished....pretty sad for what used to be a big race..hope it gets turned around in the future..

Perhaps next year they should run the Key on a Friday night. Maybe schedule it after the last Chico points race (even though Chico is 410's) to avoid any conflicts. Does this seem like a reasonable idea?

My opinion about the Key. There was a large crowd. I don't know if a Friday night Key would draw that large of a crowd because it's a work day for both fans and participants.. However Ocean seems to draw quite well for there local shows on Fridays also. A larger purse for the Key i'm sure would help draw a few more teams, maybe they could raise more purse money by selling laps to sponsors (fans, buinesses) for the main, heats, fast times slowest time, best chargers, best looking car etc.etc: You can't complain about the Antioch date being on the same date because they have to do there own thing. Don't forget the main purpose though at the present time rightfully so is to reward those who support this series through out the season at Ocean, wasn't that always the way it was in past years for all the Key races was that you had to pre qualify by attending a certain amount of races even when they were held at San Jose in years past? The racing Saturday was pretty darn good and would have been better had not a destruction derby taken place, it was unusual and rare to have that many yellows, we all know the racing starts when the leaders get into lapped traffic, because of all the yellows not much of that happened and Tarlton had pretty much of a clear track in front of him most of the time although he did receive a lot of pressure from Larson and Bud.. There was not just racing up front Becker and Gregg both came from far back in the field and were up into the top 5 at one point before they had car problems.. Everyone complains about only 24 cars being there, so what, more cars do not always make the racing better.. Four previous GSC champions, a USAC champ, correct me if i'm wrong but wasn't there also a previous Civil War Champ there and Andy Gregg wasn't he a track Champ at one time somewhere also? Sounds like a pretty darn good stout field to me.. In my opinion the Ocean 360 series and the Key race has as good a field or better than most LOCAL 360 series in the state.

You only have 23 cars due to the format. If you make it an open show, you would have nearly 40 cars. I think they should reconsider changing to a normal race format vs. "X" amount of cars locked in the race (from previous qualifer races). Then you may draw JA, T-Tub the other big names.

I'm not sure as to how the format should be changed but the present traditional deal, that dates back to when there were many more available cars in the region, is not working anymore. In other words, if Ocean regularly had 40+ cars a big percentage of those not locked-in would show up. Then there would be a meaningful B, some real drama and no need for outside cars. With this format and the paltry payout you can not count on "outsiders" (Civil War) to make the effort and fill the field.

It was nice to have Andy and the Shark but that was an aberration

why don't we change the gold cup format and the trophy cup format and the k-ville nats format as well and still call them the same race? this WAS an open race this year. there was no rule that you had to make a certain amount of appearances to participate. walker, tk, allard and steve freakin kinser could have come and ran. if you want to have a stand alone race, go ahead, but don't have the disrespect to call it the johnny key classic. if you want more cars then you have to find a way to entice more cars to run the weekly races. at this time car counts are down at some tracks, but ocean has kept it's car counts. if it was possible to pay a substancial purse, with a good amount of starting money, it could provide the boost to draw more cars. i feel a driver should have to have run a weekly race at least once during the year to be able to participate in the key race. if you make the race worth something money wise, and put on an event instead of just a race for the fans, i think it could help. i think you have to create something that makes teams WANT to come race at your track at some point in the year just so they CAN be a part of the big race. even the local weekly racers are not garunteed to be in the race. it was nice to see andy greg come and run. it was nice to have larson and becker. we have a civil war race coming up the week of the gold cup that you have to pre-qualify for. you have to be in a certain points position to be eligible. you certainly have to run more than one civil war race in the year to qualify for that. so why don't we change that as well? the key race was up against other races. there was the weekly placerville show, i believe there was marysville as well. most of those cars were racing for points at their home track so you can see why they raced where they did. there was a spec sprint point race at petaluma that some drivers who would have ran winged 360's chose to go to because it was a points race. by having the key race on a saturday i think it did give more fans the chance to come. the key race has always been a local race. still it has always been open to anyone who wanted to run it. just not to those who wanted to come run only it. i think that is the way it needs to stay. why should teams that have supported the track during the season be put in a situation of being shut out of the biggest race of the year at their home track by teams that have not made an effort to support the track?

to indy and beyond!!

Something like 12 or14 cars were locked into the Key main. If JA and T-Tub wanted to come i'm sure they would not have had a problem getting 2 of the other 10 or so open spots.. They also could have come to ONE of the Friday qualifying races and tried to lock in. They choose not to come for whatever reason, so be it. If not for the tight points race in GSC this year both probably would not have not returned to CA after Kville anyway and mostly likely would have followed the WoO tour through all the western swing until Gold Cup.. Everyone complains about only 24 cars, i have seen less than that at GSC races, way less than that at local 360 shows at Petaluma and Antioch at times.