THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Sep. 17, 2015
Volume IX, Edition CLXV
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Sep. 17, 2015
Volume IX, Edition CLXV
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What to Watch: Thursday
- Today is pull-in day for all three of NASCAR's National Series at Chicagoland Speedway. While inspection will be ongoing, there is no on-track activity scheduled.
Top News
by the Frontstretch Staff
by the Frontstretch Staff
4 Cup Teams Penalized, Lose Chicagoland Practice Time
Wednesday, NASCAR issued yet another suite of penalties stemming from being late to inspection in Richmond. Jeb Burton will have to sit on pit road for the first 30 minutes of practice Friday because his team was late to both pre-qualifying and pre-race inspection in Darlington. Three other teams copped 15-minute penalties. Read more
Christopher Bell Running 4 More Races for Kyle Busch Motorsports
Christopher Bell Running 4 More Races for Kyle Busch Motorsports
Kyle Busch Motorsports announced Wednesday that USAC open-wheel standout Christopher Bell will return to the No. 54 Toyota for four additional races, starting at Las Vegas. Sponsorship will be provided by JBL. Read more
ISC Will Not Take Over Laguna Seca
ISC Will Not Take Over Laguna Seca
The Monterey Herald is reporting International Speedway Corporation (ISC) has decided not to submit a proposal to take over the promotion of California's Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The track is officially part of the Monterey County Parks Department so any deal would have seen the promoter bound to the county's wishes. Read more
Have news for the Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com with a promising lead or tip.
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Today's Featured Commentary~~~~~~~~~~
Potts on the Loss of Moto GP at IMS and Enduros
Potts' Shots
by John Potts
It was announced this week that Moto GP will not be returning to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2016. Their stated reason was "economics."
My first reaction was it's a promotional problem, making the change primarily the sanctioning body's fault. They saw fit to limit media access to their event, deeming it necessary to allow only five representatives of websites. This particular website, and your faithful columnist, was not one of the five. In fact, when I inquired well prior to the event, I was told that the five websites had already been selected.
It was announced this week that Moto GP will not be returning to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2016. Their stated reason was "economics."
My first reaction was it's a promotional problem, making the change primarily the sanctioning body's fault. They saw fit to limit media access to their event, deeming it necessary to allow only five representatives of websites. This particular website, and your faithful columnist, was not one of the five. In fact, when I inquired well prior to the event, I was told that the five websites had already been selected.
"Economics," in my mind, translates to a lack of paying customers. Sorry we weren't able to help.
While reading the original announcement in the newspaper, I noticed that Doug Boles, president of IMS, commented he didn't think they'd be replacing this event with anything else on that date. That set me to thinking, sending my mind back to the 1970s and something that happened while I was a part-time race official and full-time newspaper editor in Scottsburg, Indiana.
I was also sort of an ex-officio member of the county fair board, sitting in on all their meetings and adding my input on promotions. In addition, they counted on me to organize and oversee the annual demolition derby. Before I got there, it seems there was some concern about favoritism in the officiating, etc. I brought in a crew from the old Fairgrounds Motor Speedway to solve this problem and it was a blast. They didn't know the competitors, the competitors didn't know them, and everybody enjoyed themselves.
The demolition derby was held on Wednesday evening during Fair Week; it was annually one of the best-attended events of the fair. You couldn't say the same about Tuesday evening. It was usually a country music show and the crowd was nonexistent. The biggest name brought in was Porter Wagoner and not even Dolly Parton could draw an audience. Porter's comedian, the late String Bean, even put it in his act. When they had a small crowd somewhere, he'd say, "If you think this is bad, you should have been at Scottsburg."
He was right. You could have fired both barrels of a shotgun at the bleachers and never hit a soul.
An inspiration hit me about 1975 and I ran the idea past the fair board after talking to my team. We had a quarter-mile dirt track and the idea was to run a stock car race Tuesday evening using the same cars entered for the demolition derby the following night. It was a double entry fee and you had to enter the stock car event plus start at least one race to be eligible for the next night. If you made any money, you had to be in the demolition derby and place your car in the arena for an elimination heat to collect your winnings from the night before.
The idea turned out to be a winner, almost packing the place. Again, the competitors loved it and we all had a great time. Actually, this idea launched a couple of racing careers, one of whom was Mike Jewell, who became a pretty good dirt track racer and I think is still going.
After a few years of this concept, the idea of enduro events came along, using essentially older cars which evolved into a "bomber" style class. You'd run two hours or so with no caution flags, an event that was also a blast. I think we started more than 50 cars on that quarter-mile a couple of times. I heard about tracks starting more around the country.
We'd run a few of them about the time I attended a Racing Promotion Monthly one-day meeting in Indianapolis, and the enduros came in for a lot of discussion. Bob Daniels, the General Manager of Indianapolis Raceway Park at the time, happened to be there and another inspiration hit me. I asked him how much it would cost to rent the IRP road course.
When he asked why, I said I figured we could start 200 cars or more on that 2.5-mile layout, put some artificial chicanes in the drag strip/back straightaway and have a wild event.
Bob chuckled and turned me down, saying IRP presented "championship" racing events. I replied that this idea would fit; we'd just call it the "World Championship Enduro." He just shook his head and chuckled again. Bob must have liked the way I thought, however, because I had given him a resume at the same event and he hired me a couple of months later as News Director.
Anyway, this experience came flooding back into my alleged brain early this week and I suggested to my former intern from IRP, Doug Boles, that he might want to fill that open date with an enduro.
I didn't go into a lot of detail, but the more I thought about it and discussed it with my son, Matt, who had been helping me at Scottsburg (and even ran one demolition derby down there on his own while he was still in high school) we had some thoughts on it.
We would use the Frank Kimmel Street Stock rules – they worked well at Rockingham and other fast tracks, right? We use the IMS road course, it's almost 2.5 miles, and maybe put some artificial chicanes in the main straight and backstretch. We charge a $500 entry fee and accept maybe 250 entries. Set up the purse to pay the first 25 finishers.
We have local caution flags only, in the corners where the problem is until the wrecks can be hauled off. If there's a really serious situation, such as a complete track blockage, we throw a full-course red. Cars stop wherever they are when the drivers see the red flags. The clock continues to run for 15 minutes and stops only if cleanup takes longer. When we restart, everybody starts from where they are sitting. I can see that Raceceivers (a one-way radio that drivers use in order to get information from race control) would be a must for this thing.
The race would be at least two hours in length, maybe three?
I'm gonna send a copy of this column to Doug just for giggles. I really don't expect to get an answer.
But wouldn't it be fun? How many guys would like to be able to say they drove their street stocker at Indianapolis Motor Speedway?
John Potts is a Senior Writer for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at john.potts@frontstretch.com.
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Editor's Note: The Critic's Annex will return next week.
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"As all those prospectuses note, 'Past performance does not guarantee future results' but JGR seems to be sitting pretty right now. It was somewhat amusing to listen a driver running in the top 3 whining that his car was handling like a 'dump truck.' If nothing else, it was a mighty fast dump truck." - Matt McLaughlin, on the handling characteristics of one of Joe Gibbs Racing's cars during Saturday night's Federated
Frontstretch Line of the Week
"As all those prospectuses note, 'Past performance does not guarantee future results' but JGR seems to be sitting pretty right now. It was somewhat amusing to listen a driver running in the top 3 whining that his car was handling like a 'dump truck.' If nothing else, it was a mighty fast dump truck." - Matt McLaughlin, on the handling characteristics of one of Joe Gibbs Racing's cars during Saturday night's Federated
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TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:
by Aaron Bearden
by Toni Montgomery
by Beth Lunkenheimer
by Greg Davis
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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: Even before the bizarre incident at Darlington that ended his 2001 season, Steve Park was not having the greatest time on track. Chicagoland was no exception. What put Park out of the inaugural Tropicana 400 race just past halfway?
Check back Friday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Wednesday's Answer:
Wednesday's Answer:
Q: The most memorable part of Todd Szegedy's weekend at Chicagoland Speedway in 2004 was his encounter with the giant orange in qualifying. After being allowed to re-qualify, he started 12th in the race. That race ended quite early for him. What happened?
A: By lap 63, Szegedy was already two laps down in 35th. Shortly after a restart, Szegedy was tapped in turn 1, spinning out the No. 7. Szegedy spun and hit the wall on the drivers' side before sliding back down the track in front of traffic. The crash can be seen here. Szegedy was done for the day but he walked away from the crash.
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COMING TOMORROW
In The Frontstretch Newsletter:
We'll recap the XFINITY Series practice sessions from Richmond International Raceway and preview this weekend's race. In addition, we'll also bring you additional news.
On Frontstretch.com:
We'll have a suite of great columns to prep you for this weekend's action.
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Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Got something to say about an article you've seen in the newsletter? It's as easy as replying directly to this message or sending an email to editors@frontstretch.com. We'll take the best comments and publish them here!
©2015 Frontstretch.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Got something to say about an article you've seen in the newsletter? It's as easy as replying directly to this message or sending an email to editors@frontstretch.com. We'll take the best comments and publish them here!
©2015 Frontstretch.com
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