Bandit Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 I would be curious to know what everybody thinks about racing at TMS. I was up in the Easy Care Motorsports suite for the races and I was able to hear alot of conversations about the USRA race. I will wait until I see other opinions until I post what I heard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marvinmcgee Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 I personally think it hurts USRA to run at TMS. Cars look slow Only very well financed teams have a chance at winning at TMS. And those teams spend extra money for a motor to run upfront. Most others go just to say they have raced on TMS Cost of running a super late model is out of sight for most budgets This years car counts at all the tracks including TMS should validate my points Expense-Purse = Quit or move to a less expensive class!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arts22 Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 I thought the racing was pretty good, Richardson put on a great show along with the others up front. The only thing that needs to change is the tires. All but one car up front had blistered tires. They are going to put on an awesome show in November, racing on the road course at TMS... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerx Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 From a business/sponsor perspective it adds certainly adds credibility and prestige to the series...it gives access to the DFW market and is one of the top 3-5 tracks of any kind in the country... From a racers perspective, it helps to get a speedway license/experience and industry people notice that race more than others...example, the 51 short track draft mentioned B Bendele specifically winning that race. I was a little surprised at the car count, but I would bet money Terry D can get it filled up with a year to work on it. I can't believe we aren't sending cars home. You would think SLM guys from all over the country would want a chance to drive on that track. I remember hearing Terry D talk a while back about making sure the USRA regulars got spots. Maybe that and a lack of time led him to be too conservative in promoting it to outside drivers and big teams with driver development programs. No Lelani this year; maybe missed a shot to get Erin C in a USRA race. Some of it is leveling the playing field on the cost side, esp for that race in particular, and some of it is promotion. There was more passing on the track in the USRA race than in the Cup race. PS Bandit - congradulations to you and your team on your HMP win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisFrost Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 It probably hurts the credibility of the series unless you had at least 30 cars and 15 or so running very close lap times. Maybe the amount of tape on the grill of each car could be adjusted to get similar lap times during practice. I know you would have to watch for sandbagging. Maybe a post race DQ for exceeding your qualifying time by a certain amount could prevent that. I few well spaced cautions for "debris" might help too The cars do look slow - I think you would need 150-160mph ( the speed of the IROC cars) to not look slow. Thats probably not an option though. I was going to race there this year, but the new body rules prevented that. I found that out too late (my fault) and wasn't prepared to buy a new body. Kris Frost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jont66 Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 Whats wrong with the tires Shane? 60 laps of green flag racing, Cup cars don't do that many at TMS without changing tires. I'm sure the cars up front had agressive shock packages, not to mention some bumping and banging up front. Someone even siped their tires up front and had problems probably because of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 Helps the series. A lot of people get to see the race. Don't forget that the speed channel people were there and a lot of corporate execs were there. Racing in front of them improves the chances of finding big series sponsors. Behind the scenes a lot of important things went on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fullboreracing Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 i know if i had a chance to run at tms and do good it would be great for my future. it show the big money people that you can drive on those type of tracks and get your foot in the door for something bigger like NASCAR or a bigger money series. just my opinion. tim sowell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
44SS Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 Racing in front of the big sponsors and media people, I would think that you would want to show them what your series is about. SLM's are short track cars and put on there best shows on the short tracks, so I think all those people, that everyone wanted to impress, just got the wrong idea about the series. What do the cup guys say about the plate races? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SASPEEDRACER24 Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 I would think it would be a good thing as long as the cars dont get too strung out and them being in groups fighting each other... I think also some of the guys with big budgets are spending their way to the top so there maybe needs to be a way to stop that... I dunno how you would do it but if they can find a way to keep the lap times to within a second from 1st to Last it would be a much better race... I had a good time and I think there were plenty of people in the stands...So Bandit what is your take? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USRA33 Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 helps the series, TMS is practically the only track in TX that people from around the nation know of. The cars should be allowed more speed in my opinion to make the cars even. But, USRA can't keep on making up rules day by day, and expecting everyone to make changes to their cars as soon as they get off the track from practice,(ex. 60-80 degree changes on the spoiler to "supposively" help the speeds, allowing raised rear ends on the cars, grill bracing, etc.) and 5 minutes later wanting the cars to be lined up and ready before qualifying???......the tire situation?.....for speedways, need a better compound tire. American racers have been decent to me in the past, but after this race seeing how many cars had blistered tires, maybe switch to hoosier for the speedways only?? Just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeg Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 Ok Bandit, there have been several responses to your statement. Everyone wants to hear what the discussions were in the suite area. I heard some good comments in the area that I was seated in. A couple of cautions to bring the field together would have been ok. However, it was a much better show that the one that followed. Eleven cars? Not good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhotoSHO Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 It is all good. I know that both of the TMS winners from last year got much more exposure than they would have recieved otherwise winning at any of the other tracks in TX and in the process they were at least noticed by nationally recognized NASCAR teams. Do the better financed racers run well there, but of course, but what racing series on earth does better financing not equate to results? I noticed a few IRL officials in the USRA paddock speaking to at least one of the young guns and last year when ROMCO ran before the IROC race during the cup weekend there were a bunch of the NASCAR people over there. Is it fun to be at the big track, you bet. Does it do the series good, certainly. How could it hurt? Will it make a difference in the championship outcome? Nope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supertx Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 I think this is one of the best things that the series does. I think that you could improve car count and more competition by the teams knowing that they had a race or 2 on the oval every year where people can put the money and the time in a speedway car,who wants to spend the money and effort not have a race.To bad that more fans outside of the south Texas doesn't know about USRA SLMS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USRA33 Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 I agree w/ supertx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UMSCHEIDRaceServices Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 I think it helps the series and it competitors, not sure what marvin was saying by you dont run fast unless you have money. Man my guys work their tails off to prepare for this race we used my NASCAR Elite division engine and put a plate on it. They pulled an all nighter the night before the race to get us there in time for practice on friday afternoon and we qualified 5th was sent to the back for a minor misunderstanding on my teams and USRA's parts and we finshed 3rd at the end oif the day. Wish i had a bogger motor would of made it easier but somethimes you have to just work a lil harder to get the same outcome if you cant afford it. Look at Ralph "WHO" Burris his team is just like mine one car one motor and he only races one race a year you going to tell me he has money??? Money helps but good preperation and hard work will pay off in the end. I think the TMS race is good for OUR series. J.C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SASPEEDRACER24 Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 On the deal about the blistering of the tires... The TMS race is the longest race mileage wise that these guys run... If you think about it they ran 100 miles or 200 Laps around San Antonio Speedway... The best thing to do next time is to have a compition yellow at roughly 30-35 laps maybe have a small bonus for whoever is leading at the time when the comp yellow comes out...Or maybe the possibility of an invert? I dunno... But I know that you cant do too much or else you will spend too much on tires...Would it help to have a 6 tire rule there instead of 4 tires rule? Were the blisters on the tires in the same places on all the cars or was it all around the car... Do you think there is a way to keep the costs down but keep everyone on the same playing field? Just curious... Marc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Definitive Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Why wouldn't you guys want to race where the big boys race? Why wouldn't you guys want to be able to get a speedway license? Why wouldn't you guys want to experience 150mph? Why wouldn't you guys want to race in front of Cup owners/scouts/crewcheifs/sponsors/media reps? Why wouldn't you guys just want to be part of a big event period? I don't race,so I don't understand why you wouldn't want any of those things including a big TMS trophey. I can't imagine how racing there could possibly hurt the USRA image,when it only runs on 2 3/8th mile tracks,1 1/4 mile track, and 1 ½mile track. If the rules prevent runaways,I'm sure more people will enter the races in the future. If it does hurt the image please explain why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 The SLM car count has declined at all shows around here over the last several years. I think in 2000 and 2001, I remember shows at THR that started 32, SAS 34 and HMP 36 cars. Seems a lot of guys have got out of them. They've just gotten awfully expensive to run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedracer Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Turbo-Diesel, it takes a lot more than running a USRA race at TMS to get your speedway license. Not sure what series your talking about though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Definitive Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 I just saw mention of it earlier in the thread. I was just asking questions about what I don't know and honestly would like to know about. There is nothing sarcastic or demeaning written between the lines.I am just curious to understand why the racers might not want to enter that event thats all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
97car Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Try cost,it cost more to get there and get in there,for (correct me if I am wrong on this part) the same purse.I do think paying 400 to start should be a good start for the races at the short tracks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerx Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Turbo-Diesel, it takes a lot more than running a USRA race at TMS to get your speedway license. You are correct... I wrote: "it helps to get a speedway license/experience" It does count towards it...but it's not the only thing...I know from asking NASCAR myself for a license for one of the ROMCO drivers last year for CTS...I recall Evernham PR also said that is one reason why Lelani came last year. I did not go into detail on that statement so that may have not been clear... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Budman mentioned the declining car counts, and he is correct. Just look at the counts at TMS. There are a few factors that affect the count there-- Cars are required to have the ABC body there. Yes, I know, they had a year to get it, but think about this: Last year, there were racers who missed an event(s) because they had no tire money. If they are short $500 to buy tires, imagine them coming up with 2 to 4 thousand for a body. Then the tire money on top of that. There are several guys who ran that race only; now they have to justify the body money for one race. If they have an off-set car, they will be obsolete next year at TMS; it has already been announced perimeter only. I know all about the safety aspect of this decision. How many off-set cars ran up there last weekend? I know one who ran his off-set car against his wishes, but his perimeter car sat because he couldn't justify the body cost for one race. This is a perimeter car with ONE race on it that would have needed a new body for ONE race. In talking to some of the drivers I know, who were not there, the thrill of racing at TMS doesn't outweigh the cost, when you consider the changes necessary for one race. They have more fun going door to door at a smaller track. Now, for all you who think this is all negativity--It is not. A race at TMS is a great idea, IF it promotes the series. I am not so sure the cars are being show-cased properly up there. After all, they have school cars up there faster than 150 MPH. But the short track cars are unsafe faster than that. Just an opinion, but I think that if the ABC rule was changed, you would pick up a couple cars immediately. If the guy can scrape the money to race, but not enough for a body, put 50 pounds on his car and let him run. These are short track cars, not Cup. I applaud the Terrys Barden and Dickerson and what they are trying to do here, but in light of the car counts they will experience this year, I think it is in the best interest of the series to modify the body rule until lesser funded teams can catch up with the body costs. Next thing to think about--With the upcoming race at San Antonio, how will all the modified and truck Hoosier rubber affect the super late models on the American Racer rubber? Everyone of the super drivers I know says it makes them downright scary to drive. This is something to think about for next year when we have more combined events. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerx Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 txtom...what about the motor cost? I think some people are scared off by hearing stories about some people spending $20,000K+ to lease a motor just for the TMS race in the past...is the motor cost an issue...motor cost is always an issue-but is it magnified for this race? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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