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

I was trying to find out a little more info on the car Swindell drove Saturday night at Moberly. I ran across this from the History Channel website. I find it hard to believe that whoever wrote this, or approved it, for the History Channel didn't do more research. It's so screwed up that it's laughable, but sad at the same time. I wonder if this is the way the non-racing world views sprint car racing.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/outlaw-sammy-swindell-is-born

If you know much about history and watch the history channel you know they get a lot of things wrong. It is a TV channel, not an encyclopedia. It's not the place to go to for the true facts on a lot of things. You can not expect them to be accurate about a nitch sport.

Band of Outlaws??? LoL...Didn't know Sammy, Steve, Doug, and company were musicians too.   Really talented guys I guess...

Actually in spite of the article not being accurate it still has 10x more information than the average person knows about Sprint Car racing.  For most of the masses it's so far off their radar that they don't know it exists.  Most people know that our state fair used to have a race track and some my have noticed the posters on the grandstand and relics in the history center.  Seeing as it no longer takes place they think it's a relic of the past everywhere.  I have tried to coax people to the races over the years and when I mention Cedar Lake Speedway the few that know about it say "that place is still there, we partied there in the 70's a few times".

Sprint Car fans and the entire sport are not mainstream or in the public consciensouness.  I doubt that it ever will be.  Since the advent of the internet a lot of ambitous young people have promoted the hell out of it and outside of bringing in more fans from other forms of motorsports the impact on the public has been minimal.  It is what it is but I'm OK with that or the tickets would be up in the $100 range and price me out if the sport was mainstream.

Stan Meissner

Luna's Ford engine style that won 2 WoO titles and 3 
Kings Royals before a weight rule against the best EVER
in their prime and now DOMINATES super dirt late model
racing is no longer allowed/wanted in a WoO sprint
car.... Was Luna a miracle worker?

The HP wouldn't matter to someone like my wife who is part of those masses that don't care.  Porta Johns, dust, noise and summer heat keep her away.  

Stan Meissner

really, according to Dodge, a bone-stock Dodge Charger has 272HP (most likely what you are referring to) and a bone-stock Challenger has 305HP.  The Viper has 645HP (hardly a grocery getter no matter who you are or how rich you are IMO).

Now, if you spend tons of $$ and go to the most expensive package and all the add-ons, you can get up to 707 HP on both the Charger and Challenger, but it's not a "bone-stock" Mopar by any stretch.

What bone stock Mopar are you referring to?

Bone stock with all factory options

Luna's Ford engine style that won 2 WoO titles and 3 
Kings Royals before a weight rule against the best EVER
in their prime and now DOMINATES super dirt late model
racing is no longer allowed/wanted in a WoO sprint
car.... Was Luna a miracle worker?

The idea that motor size is the reason the masses don't flock to sprint car races reveals how.insulated we really are in our little niche group.  LOL

Stan Meissner

So what?

I've read that same wording in Sprint Car & Midget, NSSN, FlatOut, SpeedSport, and Open Wheel magazines over the years (Band of Outlaws) when referrring to the years leading up to the formation of the World of Outlaws.

But, like anything, most people seem to think Sprint Car Racing began when Ted Johnson formed the World of Outlaws and that simply is not the case....

I'd venture to say that those writers in Open Wheel, Speedsport, NSSN, FlatOut and Sprint Car & Midget know more about the history of our sport than most of us on this message board.

Lol wow..........

Attend one of the large purse 410 events...look around you...compare it to a night that you support the locals at your area track...do you really think those idiots bringing more of their friends is "growing the sport"?

Believe it or not, we buy extra seats as a buffer from these kind of people...

Lincoln 1845 ft/.35 mile T1=118MPH 
Eldora 2287 ft/.43mile T3=135MPH
Port 2716 ft/.51 mile T3=TBD
Grove 2792 ft/.53 mile T3=135MPH
Selinsgrove 2847 ft/.54 mile T1=136MPH
"I didn't move to PA from El Paso in search of better 
weather." Van May

Unfortunately, you are dead on the money. All one has to do is attend a WoO show at Williams Grove and just observe. Maybe the fanbase grows, but the average IQ goes WAY down.

Everytime I see you post to a different thread I think to myself, "Now, how in the Hell can he tie this to his usual pro-Ford, everything sucks today mentality.  There's no way he can do that with this thread, can he?"  But then, there you go, you somehow do it every-friggin-time. 

My eyes, which got a hell of a workout, thank you though.  They haven't rolled that hard in a couple of weeks. So I got that going for me.... which is nice.

drunks may not start off stupid...but they clear that hurdle after a few 30 packs.

Lincoln 1845 ft/.35 mile T1=118MPH 
Eldora 2287 ft/.43mile T3=135MPH
Port 2716 ft/.51 mile T3=TBD
Grove 2792 ft/.53 mile T3=135MPH
Selinsgrove 2847 ft/.54 mile T1=136MPH
"I didn't move to PA from El Paso in search of better 
weather." Van May

The WoO was the new beginning in sprint car racing and took it to a new level. Before the WoO, the best known featured series' were USAC and IMCA. There were of course featured regional groups around the country, too, but they were isolated.  USAC was the "upper crusters" and and devoted to the Indy teams and drivers, lots of chrome and sparkle. IMCA was more the "blue collar" racer and focused on the Fair circuit. USAC began to focus more and more on the pavement tracks and ran less and less dirt. USAC was also very particular as to who they would allow in the series. Opperman, Rager, Bubby Jones and a few others did invade, but USAC played games with the rules and made it tough on them. IMCA began to decline when the local racers and tracks began to run sprint cars instead of the home made modifieds. I remember well when the first sprint car with a tin body showed up to race at the local track against the hom made stuff. It wasn't long before a good number of local racers actually began to run faster than both the USAC and IMCA boys, but really had no way to graduate into those ranks. The Fair circuit dried up for IMCA because the Fairs were now running their own weekly and Fair Special unsanctioned sprint car shows. The history before the WoO is really fascinating and loaded with probably the bravest of the brave in sprint car racing, as well as some of the most talented. It's the history of the past that paved way for the WoO that most people don't understand. Did sprint car racing begin with Ted Johnson?  Of course not. But the fans today that weren't there....and the writers, too, for that matter, can be thankful that Ted came along when he did.

That was my point.  Those that didn't want to conform to USAC or AAA or IMCA were considered a "Band of Outlaws" that chased $$$, not points and they were Outlaws because they weren't part of USAC, AAA or IMCA.

Ted organized them to become the World of Outlaws in the late 1970's, but for someone to say that "Band of Outlaws, they don't have any clue" are actually the ones without a clue.  Those people actually believe that racing didn't exist until the WoO were formed, which is quite simply not true.

Those guys that raced in the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's were MEN.  Their lives were on the line every time they climbed in to drive (for most of those years, seat belts didn't exist, nor roll cages).  Sadly, many of the so-called "fans" of today's racing have no clue about any history farther back than the year 2000.

You're right about all of it. And the term Outlaw was ahead of Ted putting a name and a brand to it, too. There were quite a few drivers scouring the countryside before the WoO came in to existance looking for racing events and a way to make a living driving a sprint car without having to answer to some guy in a "shirt". The sanctioning bodies of old did serve a purpose as did everything else that has brought sprint car racing to where it is today. I actually think it's sad that not more fans really know the history of the sport. And sadder yet, is the fact that even fewer will know in the years to come. They haven't got a clue as to what they are missing. JMO.

Hell, even a younger guy like me knows the origin of the term Outlaws and how it pertains to open wheel racing. All you have to do is fire up the ol' PS2 and put in the World of Outlaws 2002 game and watch the "history" video. Explains it right there.

Well, that, and I enjoy reading.