USAC Sanctioning--

[AB195]

USAC Body will be in Ocala Feb. 16th.

Going back quite some time, 1976-77-78 at a local mid-west Fort Wayne Raceway, Baer Field, USAC Sprints and Midgets were on the Cards for a few races, promoted by Rocky Fisher.

Good shows, they were, I caught a couple of them. They were never brought in again from that point.

And from the Raceway PR director, Jim Amstuts at the time, he told me that USAC would never again race, on a Raceway that didn't have a complete wall/guardrail all the around the raceway surface.

USAC had thus made the rules, of a full surface wall rule, before they could be hired to run a Raceway. No more cornfields, or opened Raceway turns.

A wall all the way around was rquired, for USAC to run anymore.

That was the end of some USAC racing at some local Raceways at that time.

[Winger]

FYI, USAC is now sanctioning the wingless sprint series in Florida. They had their first sanctioned race at Citrus last November. I can't wait to see the 410's on the dirt.
What was the rationale for the "walls all around" policy? Personally, I think tracks with a large run off area in the turns are safer than the walls.

[AB195]

I don't know, really, about the actual rules, about the USAC Santioning Body not wanting to visit a local Raceway.
I was merely stating what I was told, as to why USAC would not visit any local Raceway, why they hammered down on the actual Raceway Surface, and why they made the rules somewhat tighter, as to where they were gonna' race. That's all.

Did you hear of this rule at all? I didn't. Did you?

But, in -1976-77-78-----------they stopped coming to to the local Raceways. That is what I had heard........I don't think it's that far off the mark.

[Winger]

No, I guess I misunderstood your post about it being a rule or policy.
At one time USAC was a major sanctioning body, possibly larger than Nascar. (Not a fact, just my observation.) But they almost died out. Probably the Indy car split had something to do with it. They seem to be making a resurgence now.

[AB195]

It's all good, Winger.
A bit of history here, is when Triple AAA called it quits, and USAC picked up on that, an began sanctioning races.

tooo late for that, and tooooo tired.
history lesson tomorrow, gotta sleep. late

[oldyeller]

It was a huge blow to USAC when the IRL took timing and scoring away from them in 1997, after they botched the Indy 500, then the Texas race (where AJ and Arie briefly "shared" victory lane). It took a long time for the racing community to take them seriously after that. Then just as they finally built up some credibility, along came that doomed new "silver crown" car... all that said, the USAC shows I've been to in the last 10 years or so, including the last one East Bay, were run pretty well. With dozens of new sanctioning bodies having come and gone these last 20 years, USAC's staying power is working for them.

[egspeedway]

Don't know about Ft. Wayne but Rocky Fiher was known to be a one time promoter, often not accepted again for subsequent promotions. He tried a couple of pre sppedweeks races in Lake City in the early 70s.