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

After my personal 50th....For what its worth,

FRC in Osky...Not a bad show, but until someone actually takes the challenge, its just another race. Maybe it doesn't need to pay $10 grand to win from your spot.

USAC in Osky...I dunno who didn't prep the track, but they likely lost me for good. They could've ran that race at noon and had the same track.

Knoxville

Wed....Darn good show

Thur...Not as good, but still decent.

Fri....The new format looked good in theory, but not sure it produced. The RoC draw took waaay too long as many people sitting around me left. One fast guy in front and it was another snoozer. Couldn't figure out why, with as little cushion as there was, they kept sending the trucks out 'till it was gone? The night drug along.

Sat...Still not a fan of the "pit stop" but good racing as a whole...Photogs stacked so high in front of stage, nobody in the stands could see driver intro's..."My guy" didn't win, but thats racin'.

Kudos to....Dobmeier, Heskin and A-Mac on making the big show... Rager Phillips on an outstanding run in the "B", fill'er up next time...Shane Stewart, the WoO regulars are probably GLAD he doesn't run with them full-time...Mother Nature for the best nationals weather in many years.

Dissappointments....Zomer...the lack of much to do during the day...and NO PORK PRODUCERS!! My faveorite place to eat FOREVER!

Darrah, starting to believe the board...Madsen, fast, but, should'a fixed that nose wing.

2-seater rides....The King Foundation is a great cause, drop $5 in the bucket, leave the car home.

Legends...REALLY?

I'm sure I left out some things, but these are what stick with me today. JMO.

All-in-all a good week

www.teamwmotorsports.webs.com

Agree with almost everything you said.

I thought wednesday was fantastic, but i thought even thought thursday was not as good as wednesday, it was still way above average.

Friday's racing i thought was much better than the previous years with the scrambles. didn't bother me with the delay although everyone around me was annoyed. i thought it was a cool idea. maybe didnt have to do that live. couldve done it during the day and announced who gave which driver what spot i guess.

Saturday- pit stop idea doesnt really affect me one way or the other. Racing was great in B and in the A

my driver didnt win either.

Legends? i agree

Darrah--bad

weather--down right awesome

All in all a very good week

Wednesday show was good.

Thursday was a bit of a snoozer until the feature. Everybody was hooked up in the heats so mostly follow the leader racing.

Friday - Way too long to run 5 races.

Saturday - Feature was good. I still don't like the red flag/50 lap combo. Way too long of a night for 5 races.

I'm probably getting old and crotchety but heat races don't seem to be as exciting as I recall from previous years. The heats used to be my favorite part of the Nationals and you really had to wait for the features to get your money's worth this year.

Legend cars - really brings clarity to Big 10's choice for divisional names

Albeit some people drive home after the races but most are camping, What is the big push to get the races done so damn quickly! The Knoxville Nationals is an Event not an Inconvienance. It's the last day, enjoy it, relax, take it all in. Worry about getting stuff done quickly on Monday when you go back to work.

They did mention Phillips had a cracked header, makes sense now, heck'uva run.

www.teamwmotorsports.webs.com

First time in years all 4 nights were GREAT racing

First time in years all 4 Days were GREAT weather

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A healthy diet of dirt in my nachos and beer.

Great weather all week

all the "special" paint jobs were weak , i expected something camo on sammys was not a fan of the flames

nice to see guys like Bud Kaeding, the Edge, and Danny Holtgraver

Dissapointed with "THE EDGE'S performace, then not sticking around for Saturday hell you drove all the way form PA why not stick it out for 1 more night.

vendor row gets less and less each year

Thursday was stacked which i think made the heats harder to pass! Wednesday was awesome

Friday, would of been better had they not put Tim Shaffer on the pole

Fireworks-it know makes since why my ticket cost more each year, i would trade the fireworks in for a flyover on Saturday night if not all nights

i liked the old days when they would push the cars out on the front stretch and introduce the drivers.

missed having the scoreboard on the backstretch

overall it was an awesome week, golfing,slideways,racing, and Dingus

Weather was unbelievable!!!

Racing was good to excellent all week. Agree that track prep for the non-wing show at Osky was pathetic. At least they didn't have the rut in turn 1 that has caught so many drivers in the past few years!

I thought Race of Champions was quite good. Would like it to continue. How about opening it to Champions from Australia/New Zeeland. I know some drivers would like to bring back the scrambles because they paid pretty well and gave them a chance to increase their check.

I'd like to see the finale dropped to 40 laps, no stops. When you can make any changes you want to a car, including tires, it's too much like twin features.

While the crowd does have many of us "old farts", I see lots of younger people there as well. Many in their 20's and 30's. Keep in mind that younger people are the ones most likely to not have the financial ability to travel any distance (especially once they start a family!). Personally, my group of 11 includes three over age of 58, two in early 40's, three in late teens, and three under age of 12.

All in all, another great Nationals experience.

Professionally we had a good Nationals, 360 and 410.

The one thing that really stood out to me was the abundance of 14-18 year olds running rampant until the wee hours in the morning. Does Knoxville not have a curfew for them? I went to my first Nationals in 1984 at age 14 and I assure you my dad did not let me stay out late and drink until 4-5 a.m.

I dunno maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill OR maybe I'm starting to get wise............LOL!!!

Follow me on the social medias! ; twitter - 
larryitis   Facebook - Michael Collins 

I agree with you on backstretch scoreboard. I had a couple of "newbees" to the sport sitting with me and it would have been nice if they could have seen a name with the car. Also, would have been nice to see the times and car count.

As far as the vendor row, this has much less to do with the Nationals and all to do with the economy. People are just not spending money right now. Some vendors i talked to said they were down 50% in sales from last year even. I don't think the slightly down crowd from years past and the lack of vendors is a Nationals trend as much as an economic one. If and when the economy improves the crowd and the vendors and the spending should come back.

And, i thought fireworks were awesome.

just my opinions though.

Sound like a general thumbs up and I agree. Racing was very good. Wednesday was outstanding and Thursday was very good except for maybe the first 2 heats. Friday program was a great idea but they did drag out the revenge draw more than nessesary. Seemed to me it was more the drivers drawing it out than the raceway or Roberts. Great mic work by all. Mike Roberts gives very good and interseting info from the pits. Saturday A-main was very good. Top 5 I've seen in 31 years. Dunkins make this all possible, great job! My only real complaint has nothing to do with the races. Friday is always my wife and my night to stay out late and listen to the band after working our butts off at the track all week. The band on Friday was twice as loud as the cars and was almost painful to stand and watch. A lot of people couldn't take it and moved on including us. I'm not that old really. LOL. 41 and a rock & roller but this country band apparently wanted to show off their speakers. Would have been a great party if they bumped it down some. Great week all in all!

Great weather, GREAT track, great races, LOVED it all ... well except maybe they should have waited one more lap for the smoke to clear from the parade laps' fireworks...

Phil Taylor

home-theater-systems-advice.com

The original poster must have been inside my mind .... excellent summary ...

My additional comments:

Osky has lost something ....winged show was at best.... okay .. .... at the NSCHoF auction Saturday a guy was telling a crowd that USAC must be running the weekly show at Osky too as the Tues. night track was what he had seen most of the Weds. nights this year (in fact one Weds. night the racing didn't start until 10:00 p.m. due to NOT A DROP OF WATER was put on the track until 6:30 p.m. race night.)

Quoting this man: 'The powers to be were warned about the track conditions at Osky weekly by email in mid July and I got a reply back that said.' I don't have anything to do with it.

I was picked up leaving Osky Monday night and I was told I was clocked at 51 mph in a 35.

I and my passenger had nothing alcoholic to drink all night and I told the fine Oskaloosa officer I was doing 31(and I was ... as I expected them to be out in full force)

Such a nice guy ...'knocked it down to 41 in a 35 so I don't get a moving violation on my license' but kiss about 80 more bucks away.

He was alone and and as he was wrapping up fleecing me another car went north past us and he jumped in his car and stopped him ... wonder how he clocked a guy from beside my window???

Weds. thru Sat. wasn't much better if you believe the stories .... $190 ticket for an elderly lady that had to putt...putt..her golf cart SLOWLY down about 50 feet of sidewalk due to a trailer blocking the parking lot driveway north of the Pizza Hut.

But ... as far as Weds. thru Sat. went racing wise .... probably the best 4 COMBINED nights of racing seen in many ..many .....many years .... your top 3 finishers Sat night had an AVERAGE starting position of 16.3 !!!! (boring A feature ...always starting the fast guys up front...)

Shane Stewart was the SHOW ... and had several great supporting 'actors' ... (Heskin, Dobmieier, Shaffer ...and yes even Schatz ....)

Not to stir anyone up ... but Sweet looked like he might be hard to get out of ONE of Kahne's cars in the future ...not necessarily Saldana's ... but the kid looked really good compared too ............................

Chamber of Commerce weather Weds. thru Sat. ...4 night of some of the best sprint car racing you could ask for .. just a great way for Cappy to end his storied career ...

S.H.S.

It's something really small, but I really enjoyed the parade lap...

One thing I missed this year was the Hy-Vee beer garden. Last year I like to stop there and drink a couple beers, get a bite to eat and talked about sprint car racing. Does anyone know why it was not set up this year?

The "building" they used for the beer garden and such doubles as their garden center in the spring and summer. We had two large storms this summer that flattened it both times, even uprooted one of the trees along the sidewalk. I would guess that had something to do with it