[BJordan]

Seem to me when you do dumb stuff like get in bed with NASCAR with the hybrid cars get in bed with Toyota and ethanol and end up running all the old school guys like Galen Fox out, you got trouble. I say all cars should have a minimum sq. ft of upholstery and a min. number of chrome snaps as well as all radius rods and nerf bars be chromed. Bonus points if your driver doesn't have power steering. I liked it the way it was. I just don't want to lose the miles.

[miledirt]

Question: who is the one or two men out there that generally speaking the Silver Crown owners respect? Who is that could throw a dinner meeting for Silver Crown owners and try to lead to a consensus? Then get Sargent and USAC in a room and say "here is what we want to do to resurrect this series.

The fans are there guys.... I saw tons of twenty somethings in the turn 1 grandstand at DuQuoin the other night. Problem was just that there weren't many cars on the track

[openwheelKT]

[QUOTE=Smeents;350972]

Have any car owners who have cars sitting in their shops that have not been out for at least one year, received any phone calls from the series stating, "we screwed up, how can I fix this for you? What do you need to bring your car back out?"

QUOTE]

That statement right there is what I've wondered about the last 5 years or so. Have former competitors been asked why they don't compete anymore? To me, that's the easiest thing to do to figure out what the issues are. I remember seeing a press release earlier in the year that sort of sounded like some talks occurred, but it hasn't done much it seems.

I used to go to Richmond for the IndyCar/USAC double. The last year before they changed pavement chassis, there were 35-40 cars. The next year there were 10-12 cars. I remember thinking at the time it was really going to hurt...not sure it will ever recover from that. To me, those who don't participate any longer need to be polled for reasons why they don't compete any longer...that gives you a list to work from.

[racephoto1]

There is only one person that I know of who shakes hands before a race, and does it at all of them, Bob Sargeant. There may be others, but he's the one I know. He has sure put a lot of skin in this game, question is how much skin does he have left ?

[sw1911]

As with most problems, you don't start recovery until you hit the bottom and admit there is a problem that must be addressed. I think USAC is still in denial.

[Vukie]

A Silver outing for USAC: Series shows Silver Crown speedway cars

AUTOWEEK Published Date: 10/24/05 : www.autoweek.com

The U.S. Auto Club showed the public its first two new Silver Crown speedway cars at Kansas Speedway, but the 10-lap exhibition left a lot to be desired.

There were only two cars at Kansas, and only two more have been ordered. The series, which averaged 41.6 cars on its five pavement tracks in 2005, is set to start with the controversial new cars Jan. 21-22, 2006, at the Copper World Classic in Phoenix.

There has been considerable opposition to the program backed by former NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr., who wants the Silver Crown division to race on his larger tracks, such as Kansas, Chicagoland and Homestead. Critics argue the cars will be too fast, too dangerous and too expensive, particularly in light of the cars that have been good enough in the past to produce such stars as Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman, all former champions.

“I’m worried because I’ve raced with these people my whole life,” said Bob East, the most successful car builder in USAC’s modern era. “They are stepping over their danger line here.”

USAC president Rollie Helmling, a former car owner who fielded Gordon, said this car should be safer because of the narrower rear tires, crushable side pieces and protection over the front wheels that will keep cars from climbing over one another.

Corner speeds at Kansas reached 140 mph in a recent tire test, and Helmling said the straightaway speed of 188 mph is only 20 mph faster than the existing cars traveled at Gateway International Raceway outside St. Louis.

“But what’s going to happen when guys start racing each other?” East said. USAC made the decision to change the cars based on small crowds, difficulty attracting sponsors and low race purses. If France is right, the larger tracks will be able to afford higher sanctioning fees and expose the drivers on a brighter stage. “For us, it’s the major leagues,” Helmling said.

[Vukie]

Press release from 2005.

Richmond, VA - There has been much speculation about the reasoning behind USAC’s move to the new Silver Crown car that was introduced at the Performance Racing Industry trade show this past winter. Some stories circulating have gone as far as to say this is the beginning of USAC being bought out by or assimilated in to NASCAR.

With Bill France, Jr. in attendance for the big USAC television announcement today, the opportunity was ripe for clearing the air on a few issues. The Vice Chairman of NASCAR and Chairman of International Speedway Corporation spoke frankly with USAC Live on several issues.

France addressed the NASCAR relationship early in the conversation. While he has obvious ties to both companies, his position was that this was very much an ISC initiative.

“This is not so much NASCAR related but ISC,” noted France. “ISC is in the racing business and NASCAR can only provide you with so much product that you can sell tickets for, sponsorships, what have you.”

The prevailing sentiment was that ISC needed more product and they were faced with several options. The most attractive, and probably least time consuming for ISC, looked to be to help develop the current USAC Silver Crown product in to a Series that could perform at more of their venues.

“Do you start something brand new or take something with all the history behind it and try to expand it a little bit? They are running now up to the mile tracks,” commented France. Currently the Silver Crown Series competes at two ISC tracks, Phoenix and Richmond, down from three in previous years when they also ran the now shuttered Nazareth Speedway. He continued, “With the new car and the SAFER walls, we can grow the Silver Crown Series up. It has a great name and we are going to go from there with it.”

The luke warm reception to the new direction of the Silver Crown Series had some people questioning whether or not USAC would go through with implementing the newly designed car in 2006. This idea was roundly shot down.

“We’ve got a commitment to the series and the car. If we have three cars or two cars we are going to run it and grow it. It may be exhibition races, we aren’t going to charge if we have three cars out there.”

When questioned further about the lack of activity from the current crop of Silver Crown owners, France showed concern but remained steadfast in his commitment.

“If there is a slowness with some owners who want to sit and wait to see how it is going to work and that sort of thing, that may be. But we are going to kick this thing off with a big push and we are going to continue to run them. We can afford to do it and we are going to do just that.”

Arguably the most powerful man in American Motorsports, France was quick to remind the level of success that the Grand American Road Racing Series has achieved in relatively short order.

“Anybody that paid attention to our sports cars series knows that we started off with just a few of the cars, the Daytona Prototypes, and now we have grown that to about 25 cars at every race now. It has taken a couple of years but we are prepared to do what we need to do.

From all indications, the new car is going to be part of USAC’s future. Whether or not the pit area resembles the current one in terms of car owners and drivers seems to be the only question at the moment.
Big Frown

[Great Scott]

With sprints and midgets, there are multiple sanctioning bodies that run similar rules. Silver Crown only has one sanctioning body. Maybe its time for another sanctioning body (POWRi?) to come in and try to work with the owners, drivers, promoters, tracks, and fans to put on quality shows that work for everyone. The way things are right now doesn't seem very sustainable. This would all be different if there simply weren't enough cars to fill the field but the fact of the matter is that there are more than enough and it just a shame to waste them all.

[Vukie]

From 2007....
https://www.indianaopenwheel.com/sho...ge=4&styleid=1

[miledirt]

I wonder about Powri as well