What happened at Showtime last nite

[bubba]

I am with ya Phil! Sportsman are fun to watch and "relatively" inexpensive to run compared to the other options. Good fields are a good sign - shouldnt be messing with it.

[JC26]

Sprints
PLM/SLM
OWM
Sportsman
V8 Bomber/Street Stock
Mod mini
Mini stock
Legends
Race cars of Yesterday
Figure 8

Those should be the only classes of racing there are.

If everyone got together, and set uniform rules, you could limit weekly racing down to 5 or 6 classes. I would leave the Sportsman alone because they wouldn't compare to a late model and a street stock wouldnt compare to the Sportsman if you tried to combine even further. One of my only gripes about Yoho has been the fact that he tries to take 4 classes and divide them into 10 a night. The 100 lap OWM race a couple weeks ago didn't end until almost 11, and they still had 3 or 4 classes to run after that. I understand that he tries to give everybody the opportunity to race, but get rid of the kids club, powder puff, senior street stock, enduro and whatever other BS class he's gotten talked into running. Never once have I seen those classes have more than 8 cars. The fans don't want to see it and the drivers damn sure don't want to sit there for 3 hours waiting to race so these guys can have 30 minutes of dead boring racing.

Another thing that should be getting done is to have tracks set up dual alliances. Don't try and get a handful of tracks that are scattered all over the state to try and share the same car count weekly because it just won't happen. Get NSS and Auburndale, Showtime and Citrus, Desoto and CCMS(if they ever open back up) And then a couple times a year put shows together where the east coast and west coast tracks can combine and all tracks prosper as well as the fans get a hell of a show. There's ways around it to make it better for the drivers and the fans, it's just a matter of putting the foot forward. I mean I understand it takes money to run a race track, and some of you guys think the tracks are making it hand over foot at the expense of the racers, however, I don't think that's the case. I think the problem here is lack of communication between owners and the egos get in the way.

[Phil Jacques]

Sprints
PLM/SLM
OWM
Sportsman
V8 Bomber/Street Stock
Mod mini
Mini stock
Legends
Race cars of Yesterday
Figure 8

Those should be the only classes of racing there are.

You forgot Trucks, but I agree 100% This is what I have been saying all along but everyone think's I'm an idiot because I'm "From the Nawth"

[B-dub]

Thank you YOHO!

I for one would like to thank Mr. yoho he pulled us back to his office and we discussed everything before races started... 8 cars had actually showed but some were broke in practice. I felt $500 to win a 20 lap race was good payout for cars that showed to support it and only $100 drop per position. He even tired to get ahold of hoosier to make the 650/450 half price so he could get rid of them. Im sure he could work with the tread width and the shock deal to get cars but i believe the major factor this past weekend was still using the 650-450, which I raced on but they were one race old. I raced the heat race on the R750 tires i tested for hoosier at the end of last year and won heat race as well. those tires have aprox 160 laps on them now and the RR is bald after the heat race.

P.S. Mr. Yoho has done ans AWESOME job on the track surface, the outside groove was better then the bottom groove, he's made it a very racey racetrack.

Aaron Williamson #13 Sportsman
863-860-9962

[xracer54]

Look at the Sportsman rules.....

Look at the Outlaw Sportsman rules from the Northeast, they tryed something new a few years ago, now look at them go. It was outside of the box,but its working

[scottgarrity07]

It's not working that great. NSS is currently getting double the field that the Outlaw Sportsman got last year at Hudson NH (the biggest sh*thole track in New England, (sorry Jeff)). Besides, why would Jim Daley want to put effort into cheating up his fleet again now that they can all pass tech? The Outlaw experiment has been tried in FL and died it's miserable failing death when Big John sold Desoto...

[OldSchool+]

It has been an interesting discussion and some insight as to why there are 22 classes--and two more mentioned just this week.

It is like guvment spending--everyone agrees something has to be done, they just don't want their own barrel o pork messed with.

[Phil Jacques]

Look at the Outlaw Sportsman rules from the Northeast, they tryed something new a few years ago, now look at them go. It was outside of the box,but its working

I wouldn't say it's working... They have had moderate success with the division at best. They killed it off completely in Connecticut. Only 3 tracks that I know of the 20 we have here still run the division. The rest have killed it due to lack of car count.

[openwm53]

Patrick

Bobby, There is no way to get one of our Sportsman cars with a stock camaro front clip down to the weight I have seen suggested, that you had in the rules at CCMP. These are heavier cars with less engine set back, if you merely take the lead off to lighten them up, you lose all your rear weight, and struggle to get 56% left side weight. In my case "fat driver" there is not even a chance to get the car down to the minimum weight you have listed in the affordable late model post. Plus I am sure you would never allow the outlaw style body, which is what's on a growing majority of Sportsman cars. Bobby I will call you later today.

OWM53, as you probably remember the 650/450 tire falls off rapidly, if I had a set of 1 race old 650/450s and I bolted on another set of 650/450s to go qualify, my car would pick up .5-.7 tenths of a second a lap. That is against 1 race old tires. That means to be competitive you have to purchase tires at any of the big races, that require qualifying for your starting position, which is why they only got 5 cars.

Patrick Thomas 25

I was under the impression that the track was allowing the 750's to run as well. But anyway they are still on the slicks in my class and a lot of us hope they stay that way........thanks for the reply.

[scottgarrity07]

I was under the impression that the track was allowing the 750's to run as well. But anyway they are still on the slicks in my class and a lot of us hope they stay that way........thanks for the reply.

Think of it this way. Yoho advertised the event as paying $1000 to win if 14 or more cars showed up. Knowing that 650/450's were allowed you knew that to be competitive you had to have a new set because they are faster than the R750 (way faster if you are timing on stickers). So the prospect of buying new tires that you can't use anywhere else for a race that probably wasn't going to draw enough cars to get the big payout wasn't very popular. Couple that with the exclusive tread width and shock rules and it's an expensive proposition to run Showtime with a Sportsman with no guarantees that you'll get a big enough car count to have a good payday.

[B-dub]

tire

Scott, I actually won the feature passing a guy with 4 sticker 650-450s on the outside on 50 lap old 650-450s, ONLY reason i ran those tires was to get my use out of them, When the next race comes around at showtime i will either rerun those tires again or will be on the R750, I did not see a huge difference there with the amount of grip the track has..

Aaron Williamson #13 Sportsman

[Tim]

I know this is a very novel idea....why don't we just leave the rulebooks alone. The SLM, PLM and sportsman are fine. Quit with the instant gratification rule changing thinking. There are more cars being built in each class. Leave the damn racers and rulebooks alone and give them time to grow. That's what has happened at NSS in the sportman.

[scottgarrity07]

I know this is a very novel idea....why don't we just leave the rulebooks alone. The SLM, PLM and sportsman are fine. Quit with the instant gratification rule changing thinking. There are more cars being built in each class. Leave the damn racers and rulebooks alone and give them time to grow. That's what has happened at NSS in the sportman.

Actually NSS changed their antiquated Sportsman rules to be more in line with the rest of the state for 2015. I think that coupled with the new tire is the reason for the boom in car counts there.

[scottgarrity07]

Scott, I actually won the feature passing a guy with 4 sticker 650-450s on the outside on 50 lap old 650-450s, ONLY reason i ran those tires was to get my use out of them, When the next race comes around at showtime i will either rerun those tires again or will be on the R750, I did not see a huge difference there with the amount of grip the track has..

Aaron Williamson #13 Sportsman

Yeah, but you're hooked up Aaron! Lol! But seriously I didn't feel that much of a grip difference between the old tires and the new at Desoto. There's definitely a difference in left side grip and the R750 doesn't seem to fall off like the old tires on a long run. But this car count thing at Showtime is based more on perception than reality. I think it's awesome that he is using traction treatment in the high groove. I wish the other tracks would do it. But until he gets his rules in line with the other tracks (like his SLM'S and OWM's) he going to be by himself on Sportsman Island. Most importantly, the tires....

[openwm53]

Wait a minute ??

I thought the 750's were better tires ? the better of the two ? more grip ? that's what they been selling ??