Discuss: It's Time For 360's in St. Louis

gofastturnleft5 said:
I-55 was a sprint car track before a late model track so let's not jump the gun and say it is late model country. I would much rather see sprints at I-55 than late models.:cool:
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For someone to deny that late models rule in this area is absolutely rediculous. If Sprints were so big here, I-55 would have kept them. Anytime there is any sort of special late model show around here, the grandstands fill almost to capacity. If Sprints could do that consistantly here, you'd see them a lot more. These promotors are business people. They'll sell whatever sells. Sprint cars might be an interesting novelty, but late models put butts on the bleachers. That's just the fact of the matter.

I'll reiterate, either Highland or I-55 will pick up crates before one of our four local tracks picks up sprints.
 
I understand that some people really like sprints. I don't really care for them myself. I'll drive, if work schedules permit it, the 150 or so miles to I-55 or Tri-City for a big Late Model show but not for the WoO or any other sprints. It's a personal choice and we just don't like the sprints much. I don't blame sprint fans for wanting them to be around STL all the time but I don't see it happening.
 
Winged Sprints are not that exciting at Pevely. The only reason they sell there is because of the speed. I have never been impressed with the racing though. I'll say it again, if they would lose the wing they would be more enjoyable to watch race. That is why Midgets are so exciting at Belleville.
 
I think it would be nice if one of the St. Louis tracks started running sprint cars (either with the wing or without) on some type of regular basis (even if it was monthly). I agree that 360s are in general more prevelant than 410s (although I went to the ASCS Sooner Region show at Springfield (MO) Raceway last month and they only had 12 cars and last night at XX Speedway (California, MO) there were only 12 360s).

In the past 14 months I've been to Lake Ozark Speedway 8 times, Montgomery County Speedway (last year before everything happened at Shepp's Speedway), St. Francois County 4 times, all 3 nights of the Midget Nationals at Tri-City, the non-wing show at Tri-City, I-30 Speedway (Little Rock, AR), Malden Speedway, LA Raceway (La Monte, MO), Belleville for a POWRi show, 24 Raceway (Moberly, MO), and the previously mentioned Springfield Raceway (twice) and XX Speedway. I'm also going to Knoxville, IA this weekend.

During the same period I've gone to a few weekly shows at local tracks (and a couple specials like Belleville's Summer Nationals race last year and KLMS in March). Personally I'm just more of a Sprint Car fan.

Unfortunately, I have no solutions as far as the headline/support class argument goes. I understand the ramifications of having too many classes that require a relative high payout. There is also no argument from me regarding St. Louis being 'Late Model & Modified Country'. I also understand that most tracks in the area already run four (or more) classes on a weekly basis (and it does not make sense to drop a street stock/factory stock class). I do know that when I go to tracks that run Sprint Cars on a regular basis (SFCR, LOS they always seem to have a pretty decent crowd). I also thought that Tri-City Speedway had a good crowd on the night they ran non-wing Sprints and POWRi Midgets (and that was $15 to get in).

All I can do is say that if a track in the area decided to run Sprint Cars on a semi-regular basis I would do my best to support them. I realize that the economy is tough but personally I am willing to pay a few extra dollars to see Sprint Cars; it would end up saving me gas money in the long run ;) . As always, just my opinion.

Dan Nelson
 
Fredericktown runs the 305 sprints every Friday night, Now if they would just throw those wings away.:eek::):cool::D

Most 410 shows have 360 running with em, Kory Weyant was the 2008 Morgan County (Jacksonville) champ running a 360 against the 410's and last fall @ Morgan counties Sprint invader (winged) show we saw a 305 sprinter run a very respectable 5th in the feature. Can't quite figure out why the 305 cars don't catch on,they are relatively cheap and make plenty of power,not enough to justify the wing but they run good. heck USAC ran 302's ?? in their sprinters for years and produced plenty of legendary races and racers.
Throw the wings away and run 305's and you'd have one heck of a show and plenty of cars.....You listening Fredericktown ???????:D:cool::)

410 cu.in.,Wings, and midwest dryslick tracks make for boring races.....
 
bloard said:
It's just a matter of time. Sprint invaders pay $1,200 to win and always bring at least 20-25 cars in Iowa/Mo/Northern Illinois. There were tons of 360's in Lake of the Ozarks last week (bigger purse though).

Last week Jacksonville paid around $3k to win and drew about 20 410's. Farmington was around $2,500 and drew less than 20 I think. Shepps drew about 13 on Sunday paying $2,500 while the Sunday 360 show in East Moline drew 22 or so.

If there was a weekly 360 show that paid $1500 to $2000 to win anywhere from Springfield, IL south, my bet is that it would draw 25 cars or more per week. If it was from Springfield north, I bet it would draw 30 on a weekly basis. After a few months and guys got tired of their 410's sitting in the shop, I'd guess you would see about 30 in the St. Louis area also.

There are more and more 410 guys that have a 360 sitting around. On the other hand, there are fewer and fewer 360 guys that are also maintaining a 410.

Imagine if there were a couple of 360 tracks in the area with weekly shows. I think those numbers would go up even more. Heck, at some of the smaller tracks that MESS runs, a guy could do okay running his 360 against the 410's

As for tech, use ASCS specs more or less. No place else has a problem with tech.
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That's what I'm thinking... Farmington needs to go to 360's
 
If the 360 guys can ran just as fast if not faster than the 410's on a track the size of Farmington, then why don't they run there anyway? Farmington is an open class right, only a tire & weight rule?
 
i have raced everything under the sun,and anyone that knows me knows i aint bs'ing one bit.They call sprint cars ''kings of dirt'' for a reason.they are much more enjoyable to watch then the door slammers.We now have 2 new 360 sprint cars in our stables.We have been racing them weekly for 6 weeks now and guess what.we spend half what we did on our modifieds and have loaded the car up every week with not so much as a dent on it,kinda nice to just wash it and go through the car for the week and go racing the next week.not the case in the modified or late model when we raced them.we would have to spend atleast $200 in parts a week,plus spens all week banging on sheet metal and straitning tubes that were bent or replacing bumpers,ect.We have ran 4 nights on my brothers car and the right rear is just starting to show wear,granted this will change when we go to some more abrasive tracks,but you get the point..I myself only have $3500 more in my sprint car then my modified race ready and i beleive that is just because of the injection and the magneto,and dry sump setup we use on the sprints..2 weeks ago they had 55 sprint cars at lake ozarks speedway(360's),and on a good night double x speedway in california will have 20-25,on a slow night 10-15...

The reason stl area tracks dont have them is they dont wanna pay the purse that the sprint car guys race for,and they dont want their locals complaining about the sprints being there and digging holes from the big horsepower ground pounders!!
 
jimmymac said:
If the 360 guys can ran just as fast if not faster than the 410's on a track the size of Farmington, then why don't they run there anyway? Farmington is an open class right, only a tire & weight rule?
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Good question: but why do Sprint Invader shows for $1200 draw more cars than $2500 to win for 410 shows?

the 360 class at Lake of the Ozarks is drawing a bigger car count now than Farmington and they've only been running sprint cars over there for a few years now
 
I went to the Memphis show. Yes they had more cars and it was a good show. I also paid twice as much to see it. I got to see twice as many cars but I did not see twice the quallity of show. Less not get hung up on car count. It is easy to confuse quantity with quality. We hit Farmington most every weekend and we attend several tracks every year on off nights and Fridays. Farmington puts on as good if not better of a show then any track week in week out including many of the special shows we see at other tracks. Moving to 360s is not going to put high numbers of cars in the pits. Memphis does not draw large numbers weekly. Neither does Lake Ozark or any of the other weekly 360 tracks. Wouldn't adding another 360 track to the mix just further dilute the 360 cars? Farmington currently puts on a quality show, gets you home at a reasonable hour for a fair price. I don't see a class change is needed.
 
Some of you need to do your homework and ask Ray why Pevely doesn't run Sprints, you might be surprised at the answer.;) There's always been what some would call a "gentlemans agreement" between Pevely and Farmington about who runs what.

Farmington ran Lates for years and never could get the car count it needed to stay afloat. The last year that they ran late models they were averaging around 10-15 cars a week. But again there's where that "agreement" comes in at..Farmington wasn't UMP, it ran their late models and modifieds on IMCA specs.

Those of you that keep saying St. Louis is Late model country aparently wasn't around a couple decades ago.
 
St. Louis used to be a big sprint car town. St. Louis also used to have an NBA Basketball team, 2 MLB baseball teams, and a different NFL Franchise than it currently has. This city used to be home to over 1 million people. My point is, times have changed. I don't care what was going on a few decades ago, Late Models rule the STL in the here and now.
 
bigrightrear said:
Some of you need to do your homework and ask Ray why Pevely doesn't run Sprints, you might be surprised at the answer.;) There's always been what some would call a "gentlemans agreement" between Pevely and Farmington about who runs what.

Farmington ran Lates for years and never could get the car count it needed to stay afloat. The last year that they ran late models they were averaging around 10-15 cars a week. But again there's where that "agreement" comes in at..Farmington wasn't UMP, it ran their late models and modifieds on IMCA specs.

Those of you that keep saying St. Louis is Late model country aparently wasn't around a couple decades ago.
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need proof couple of decades ago theywere running either super mods or coupes late models weren't around yet the point is tracks around st louis are doing pretty good for the most part WHY CHANGE
 
When I-55 ran sprints weekly, it was Friday night track and they worked together with Farmington, then "Empire Speedway" on their shows.

I personally would love to see the sprints go to 360's and lose the wings around here. Don't let the above name fool ya, that was before I really got hooked on the nonwing stuff. But I don't see the wings going anywhere for safety and insurance reasons. And I've heard rumors for several years about Farmington going to 360's but it hasn't happened and I'm not sure I see it happening because of the guys that do have 410's.
 
I understand the need to give people a place to get their racing fix on a budget, but Tri-City is more suited for roaring methanol-powered injected V-8 sprints than droning 4 cylinder Factory Stocks. We're lucky to have so many good tracks within an hour's drive of the area. Yes late models and modifieds are the most popular classes and put on good shows every week. Would it be so bad if the Gundakers brought sprint cars in every week in addition to the stock cars? I think there's enough room for all the fans here.

Part of the reason the sprint cars have faded is because the casual fans think the World Of Outlaws is the beginning and end of the sprint world. Given the chance to see them run each week with some local talent, I think the interest would grow. The classic (non-wing) cars have been very enjoyable to watch at Tri-City.

Variety is the spice of life!
 
Me and alot others quit making the 2 1/2 hour trip to farmington for 410 special races a few years ago due to car counts at their shows.Got tired of hearing all the buildup for a special 410 show get there and be disappointed.
 
jimmymac said:
Where is the closest track in Illinois that runs a weekly Sprint show?
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I could be wrong, but to the best of my knowledge there is not a weekly Sprint show in Illinois. Morgan County runs several Sprint shows during the year, but it appears that they are not always the same cars (Sprint Invaders, 410 Winged, Non-Wing). I haven't made it there yet, but it is definitely on the list of tracks to visit.

In my earlier post (yesterday) I should have also added that while LOS had 53 cars a couple weeks ago and Riverside had roughly that amount last week those were for ASCS National Tour shows. I think those pay at least $5K to win (although preliminary nights may pay less, just like the first two nights of the big Midget show at Tri-City; I'm just using that as an example). I think it would be unrealistic to expect more than 20-25 360s on a weekly basis--especially if a track was just starting to run them. On the other hand I would be pleasantly surprised if more showed up.

Dan Nelson
 
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