[Stephen Cording]

At Chicago O'Hare Airport, ISW 2024 thoughts

Another USAC Sprint Week in my history and WOW what a week.

The madness of the opening night at Lincoln Park, Kokomo after a few years of fiddling with the track and dirt it's back to being Kokomo. Lawrenceburg again getting a bad deal from the weather but the new track is providing excellent multi groove racing.
Circle City's track and dirt settling in and fast becoming a not to be missed track.
What can you say about Terre Haute other than what a native Hoosier said to me"Best race and track since 1970!"
The Bloomington rain out, track looking best it's been for years will the rescheduled date be the same?
Haubstad oh my goodness it usually provides the race of the week and even by those standards it was out of this world bad ass. And so back to Bloomington, complete re show and I can only say best Bloomington I've ever seen.

It's been an amazing week hanging with my friends and making new ones.

The saving for 2025 starts now.

Lots of good food, good laughs and out of this world Non-Wing Sprint Car Racing along with an amazing visit to Grant King's Race Shop.

God bless America.

Thank you Race Teams for providing the cars and thank you drivers for providing unbelievable close quarters racing. Nothing comes close to how exciting, frightening and thrilling inverted Non-Wing Sprint Car Racing is.

#No_Invert_No_Interest.

[Jrp4554]

#No_invert_No_interest...... That's awesome. I couldn't agree more. The fact that the fast cars HAVE to pass someone to transfer is so much better. Even in the wing cars, the best shows are the ones with the invert. I can think of one Outlaw regular that is absolutely awful unless he starts upfront. My buddy said it best "Lots of drivers can drive a fast racecar if you put them up front but a racer can start in the back and still win".

[WinglessLovers]

Originally Posted by Stephen Cording At Chicago O'Hare Airport, ISW 2024 thoughts Another USAC Sprint Week in my history and WOW what a week. The madness of the opening night at Lincoln Park, Kokomo after a few years of fiddling with the track and dirt it's back to being Kokomo. Lawrenceburg again getting a bad deal from the weather but the new track is providing excellent multi groove racing. Circle City's track and dirt settling in and fast becoming a not to be missed track. What can you say about Terre Haute other than what a native Hoosier said to me"Best race and track since 1970!" The Bloomington rain out, track looking best it's been for years will the rescheduled date be the same? Haubstad oh my goodness it usually provides the race of the week and even by those standards it was out of this world bad ass. And so back to Bloomington, complete re show and I can only say best Bloomington I've ever seen. It's been an amazing week hanging with my friends and making new ones. The saving for 2025 starts now. Lots of good food, good laughs and out of this world Non-Wing Sprint Car Racing along with an amazing visit to Grant King's Race Shop. God bless America. Thank you Race Teams for providing the cars and thank you drivers for providing unbelievable close quarters racing. Nothing comes close to how exciting, frightening and thrilling inverted Non-Wing Sprint Car Racing is. #No_Invert_No_Interest.

A great summary, Stephen !!! Couldn't agree with you more. We went also to Pennsylvania Sprint Week this year and no comparison. My wife and I looked at each other after the first two nights at LPS and Kokomo and we said that we saw more good, close racing in two nights than we did for the entire PA sprint week!!! And the rest were just as good if not better. Terre Haute and Bloomington were awesome!!

Bruce and Pat Eckel

[Stephen Cording]

Hi Bruce, we also went out East this year following Midget Week. We last went out for the 2012 Eastern Storm.

If you (not saying you as I you Bruce, just you) go expecting Indiana you'll be disappointed. Other than Action Track USA it's a big track week. I do enjoy the big track racing but quite happy to give it another 10+ years until my next tour. Indiana really is where USAC shine best.
I do enjoy Grand View, it's a good big track with great viewing.

It was thrilling to watch qualifying going into turn 3 at Williams Grove and just feel all that racing history.

It was also great to actually see Big Diamond this time, back in 2012 it was just a dust bowl, and very dangerous in my opinion.

Bridgeport was a tad too dusty for my liking but it was a very hot day in New Jersey and heck I was watching racing in New Jersey on a USAC Tour. Still enjoyed my night there.

Port Royal is always a favourite of mine, beautiful track and setting. And this year we were graced with an outstanding Silver Crown Race.

What was really thrilling about that race was before the show I was talking to a couple of very friendly local PA fans that had never seen a crown race live or as they said it's the historic cars.

I gave them a brief run down of how best to watch and enjoy the race. it is NOT a Sprint Car Race, don't watch it as if it it is, it's all about having your car there for the last 10 laps. Have you managed your fuel, managed your tires, correctly have the car set up for a lighter car with hot worn parts on a tack that might be pretty much done, have you managed your engine and not cooked it, managed your brakes? - sorry long winded explanation of race car race management!
And is the driver not exhausted and still mentally in the game?

With that being said, at the end of the race I again saw and spoke to the same two guys. The size of their smiles said it all. And they thanked me you giving them a few words of advice - which was really strange a Brit explaining Silver Crown Racing.

It does surprise me just how many people watch a crown race through sprint car eyes.
I am a huge Crown fan just everything about them, but then as a Brit I'm all into the Historical romance of the USA, the mum & pip diners, rock N roll music, blues music old time country music, cow boys and ranch life living and small town America so it's no wonder Crown racing ticks my box.

Losing Indiana State Fairgrounds to me is more than just losing a race track it's America losing a vital part of Auto Racing History. I scratch my head that there wasn't a historical marker there nor did the Big track in Indiana do more to save it ! Same could be said for Gas City. Gas City / Gasoline Alley bit of a play on words there.

Anyway I digress.

If Port Royal was the cream on top of the cake then Action Track USA was the cherry.

My first visit there and not disappointed, it was great.

Maybe having two shows there, opening night and closing night would tempt me to make another Storm tour.

As Vanilla Ice said "it's not the same, it's a lil bit different, there's go ..... While ours go ... It's not the same"

See you all in Indiana next year money allowing.

[WinglessLovers]

Stephen,

We actually use to live in New Jersey and Pennsylvania until 10 years ago. As we drew closer to retirement we decided to move to Indiana as we so much enjoyed watching the wingless cars rather than the wingers. Don't get me wrong as we enjoyed our time in Central Pennsylvania and saw some good racing at Williams Grove, Port Royal, Lincoln, Grandview and Selinsgrove but once we ventured out to watch wingless racing in trips to Indiana we realized this was the place we wanted to be. The competition is so such closer and yes, the invert is good also, and in our opinion the racing on the shorter ovals is much more intense. We would much rather see racing on a quarter mile oval than a half mile oval for the closeness. Occasionally it is good to see racing on the bigger tracks but not that often!

And we enjoy the dirt miles for the Silver Crown division as the grand old dames are wonderful to watch and as you explained it is a different way to watch them and not a shorter sprint car race. As the miles disappear we have enjoyed the transition to the half miles for this class and Port Royal and Terre Haute have produced some real good Silver Crown races. We have returned back to PA for several Eastern Storm stops and have noted that the racing does not compare to what we witness in Indiana on a weekly basis. One of that is due to the size of the tracks but also some of it is due to the way promoters prepare the tracks for the wingless guys. It is done for their winged cars and not to suit the wingless cars.

If you get back over next year please send a DM to let us know and we can meet at one or more of the tracks to further discuss matters. Glad you enjoyed your visit and do love the "no invert, no interest" mantra. Take care.


Bruce Eckel

[Stephen Cording]

Sure Bruce. I can't believe our paths never crossed in PA or In this year.

Unfortunately our racing travel budget is done for this year. So it'll be 2025 starting with the Chili Bowl.