OSW Well this speaks volumes.

[MJM10]

Here's a novel idea to ignore. Bring in the Southern Mod Tour on the first Sat nite of the World Series. All the NE cars that come for the WS can run too. Bill it as North vs South. The Southern Mod guys will have to come if they're running for points. That should ensure a full field. Make it an Open Wheeled Madness night and have a 50 for OWM and the Winged Sprints too. No way it's not a full house. The by-product of this would be that maybe some of the Southern Mod teams would stick around for a few of the week's Tour Type events.

Nah, makes too much sense...

Better yet Scott, start racing them at NSS a few times a year, get the KOMA tour there, then a Southern mod tour race or two. Obviously they put on a great show at NSS, maybe a few guys around would buy them (a few people already have them including myself), then maybe eventually can be a regular class. Start it off running them with 604's to keep the cost down, then switch out the motor when the tour races come to town. The regular mods suck anyways, 5-8 cars and the same two guys always win? No wonder there is no crowd. I know nobody wants another class, but hey it could take off…I'm just dreaming.

[Phil Jacques]

Better yet Scott, start racing them at NSS a few times a year, get the KOMA tour there, then a Southern mod tour race or two. Obviously they put on a great show at NSS, maybe a few guys around would buy them (a few people already have them including myself), then maybe eventually can be a regular class. Start it off running them with 604's to keep the cost down, then switch out the motor when the tour races come to town. The regular mods suck anyways, 5-8 cars and the same two guys always win? No wonder there is no crowd. I know nobody wants another class, but hey it could take off…I'm just dreaming.

I was on the phone with Scott last night and I mentioned something to him...

This will probably get me some flac but, these OWM's you guys run are getting out dated really fast right now. At this point, from all I have been able to find out from a couple people I know with OWM's, the SK type modified up here is actually much cheaper to own and operate. Something that a couple tracks up this way that have run a similar car to you guys have done, is started to integrate the Troyer, Spafco, CD and other chassis in with the cars like yours. Start em on smaller tires like you run and just progress from there. It worked well at the couple smaller tracks they have done it on. It wasn't an immediate transition, it took 5-6 years at one track to make the total change, but in the end the affordability was considerably better and helped car counts. I don't know if that's the right thing for FL for many reasons, but it's definitely some food for thought. Those cars don't have to run the big meaty 15" tires like they do here in the northeast. Wall runs a 10" tire as does Bowman Gray and up in Washington State and Southwestern Canada, they run them on an 8" slick. I think integrating those types of chassis with the OWM could help in the long run with the health of the OWM division. I just don't think anyone will ever agree to it.

[Phil Jacques]

1st you would have to fix the turn 2 light bulb,,,should be no problem being that costs are nearly doubled up north compared to down here,and should even out in the end

Oh you mean the light pole that rotted out and the top fell completely off due to woodpeckers? lol

Look... Like I told Scott last night, unfortunately someone outside of the whole Ozzy/Donnie deal kind of has his finger on the pulse of OSW oval racing. It will be a few more years before things are able to change and that finger is lifted. I can't really get into specifics, but it is what it is. Donnie enjoys oval racing, but Ozzy aside, still has his hands tied a bit. Will we ever see steady oval racing at OSW? Probably not... But I do think a program like Thompson does here, with 5-10 special events per season, could work really well there.

OSW for years has been in the middle of nowhere, but now, they are expanding 50 to 8 lanes and building up a lot around there. It won't be long before that track is really in a good location. Hopefully the future still holds some possibilities. We will have to wait and see.

[Phil Jacques]

Well you know what they say. You get what you pay for!

Oh crap. Mid week show. No one will be there!

No one at all...

[Weftracing96]

Nice crowd at the Big T.

[Phil Jacques]

Nice crowd at the Big T.

Would have rather gotten the shot from the back straight as I had planned to... Motor stuck a valve going out for the 2nd round of practice and we had to call it a night. Sucks... We were 3rd fastest in first round of practice but still extremely loose all the way through the corner. I had just tightened it up a bit. We were trying a whole new rear suspension package that really seemed to work well.

[OldSchool+]

>Phil, congrats on the handling, sorry about the motor. It is never an "easy" fix, but I hope it is easy relatively speaking.

>RE:OSW. Yoho brought a track back from the government, if only temporarily. Someone with a similar mindset and wallet could do that for OSW.

>>RE: Bithlo growth. Double edged sword as the property value of the track goes up, making a sale to walmart more attractive.

[OldSchool+]

Say, during speedweeks, how do you think the SK modifieds would stack up in a heads up race against the fastest of the "Florida" mods, with similar tires?

[Phil Jacques]

>Phil, congrats on the handling, sorry about the motor. It is never an "easy" fix, but I hope it is easy relatively speaking.

>RE:OSW. Yoho brought a track back from the government, if only temporarily. Someone with a similar mindset and wallet could do that for OSW.

>>RE: Bithlo growth. Double edged sword as the property value of the track goes up, making a sale to walmart more attractive.

As I have learned over the past year, it goes WAY deeper than that for OSW sadly...

[Phil Jacques]

>Phil, congrats on the handling, sorry about the motor. It is never an "easy" fix, but I hope it is easy relatively speaking.

>RE:OSW. Yoho brought a track back from the government, if only temporarily. Someone with a similar mindset and wallet could do that for OSW.

>>RE: Bithlo growth. Double edged sword as the property value of the track goes up, making a sale to walmart more attractive.

Shit happens... Move on, and fix it for the next race. luckily it didn't happen on track. As of now, we just need to replace 1 piston, clean up the head and replace some valvetrain parts. Didn't hurt anything else from the looks of it.

[Weftracing96]

I remember you guys. Sean had a ton of talent. Whatever happened to him? Last I recall he was driving for Andy Santerre and then he vanished. It's a shame what happened to the Busch North Series. I loved the mix of the salty old veterans, home track moonlighters and young guns. Speaking of salty old veterans didn't Barney McRae drive for you guys initially? All of the old teams are gone except for the occasional start by Eddie MacDonald. I have friends on the Ted Marsh team who are back running. But even they had left for years when they forayed into road racing. Now the whole deal is essentially a Cup development deal for kids who have 3/4 of a million dollars a year to try and advance their careers. It's a good place to weed out talent but I pine for the good 'ol Busch North days. I guess I'm gettin' old...

We sent him to go drive with Santerre bc we knew that he had more talent than we had equipment. It was best for Sean. Based on the continued success he had with Santerre, Kevin Harvick put him in the Nationwide car at Dover and it all went bad. Sean was running the Busch North race too and hopping into a car at Dover and doing double duty, as well as having to go back and forth between bias play and radial tires was a lot to ask. Sean wrecked in qualifying and then pancaked the wall in the backup car in the first 10 laps of the race. He ran some stuff after that including ARCA and he ran top 5 and maybe won one, but I really think that Dover weekend killed his career. It's sad bc after working with Sean, his talent and demeanor, I believe he was every bit as good as Logano and a very special talent. He even won a Whelan Mod Tour pole at Thompson before he hopped into a Busch North car. In a weird story, he wrecked so hard in a late model in the Busch North season opener at Lee Speedway one year, that my ex-wife who is a nurse had to tend to him. Had no idea who he was at the time.

[MJM10]

Say, during speedweeks, how do you think the SK modifieds would stack up in a heads up race against the fastest of the "Florida" mods, with similar tires?

I'll be the guinea pig...let me put a 604 in my tour mod and go out there with the big motor FL mods, I'll start on 10" Late Model tires then go up in size if I'm too slow or down if I'm too fast. What do you say Kim?

That's the one thing I don't like about the SK's is the built motors costs about $18K, you can find 604's all day for $5k. I talked to some people up here and they said that there are a few guys running 604's in the SK division at Stafford now and they are competitive, Phil maybe you can offer some insight on this? I would prefer the crate motor in the class to keep the cost low, then you leave your tour motor in the shop for the 2 tour races that come to town and speedweeks.

Creating tour type mods (even with a smaller motor) could revitalize the tour mod division at speedweeks, and maybe even more. Get rid of the pro late models and have your two head divisions be Super Late Models and Tour Type Modifieds with crate motors, and have each run once or twice a month. Actually LFR chassis is now making it so their front end parts are all interchangeable between their super Chassis and their Modified chassis, so some of the big teams could run both classes and save some money.

[Phil Jacques]

I'll be the guinea pig...let me put a 604 in my tour mod and go out there with the big motor FL mods, I'll start on 10" Late Model tires then go up in size if I'm too slow or down if I'm too fast. What do you say Kim?

That's the one thing I don't like about the SK's is the built motors costs about $18K, you can find 604's all day for $5k. I talked to some people up here and they said that there are a few guys running 604's in the SK division at Stafford now and they are competitive, Phil maybe you can offer some insight on this? I would prefer the crate motor in the class to keep the cost low, then you leave your tour motor in the shop for the 2 tour races that come to town and speedweeks.

Creating tour type mods (even with a smaller motor) could revitalize the tour mod division at speedweeks, and maybe even more. Get rid of the pro late models and have your two head divisions be Super Late Models and Tour Type Modifieds with crate motors, and have each run once or twice a month. Actually LFR chassis is now making it so their front end parts are all interchangeable between their super Chassis and their Modified chassis, so some of the big teams could run both classes and save some money.

There are no 604s in SK's anywhere up here that I know of. It's not even an option for an engine. They have an open motor rules package, and a spec engine rules package. The Spec actually costs about 13k as I have been told, and the built engines are creeping north of 20k. Some guys on smaller tracks like Waterford still run open motors, but at places like Thompson and Stafford, the Spec is king because it makes about 20 more hp. I do think a 604 cam change engine could be a cool option depending on how it would effect the rest of the engines. The Spec's generally make 465-475hp. Built around 440-450. I think some slight alterations to the Spec or Built rules we have here could allow a cam change 604 to run competitively. It could be interesting.

[scottgarrity07]

The only way they will allow the 604 crate up nawth is if an approved engine builder does the cam and oil pan swap and charges you $10k for the $5k motor (like the $6k you pay them for the $3k SK Light 602). This way he can afford to pay the Arutes the extortion money required to be "approved"...

[kendo]

Nice crowd at the Big T.

NSS didn't even get a crowd close to that last speedweeks,,,,but than again,it was cold