Have you ever sat next to those fans that just want to whine and complain about everything that goes on, to the point where you just look at them and say “Shut up!”?

I love my dad, but man I got tired of listening to him whine, moan, groan, and all out complain about the track conditions this past Saturday, August 16th at Riverside International Speedway. The All-Star Circuit of Champions and the Midwest All-Stars were in town, and everyone had high hopes of watching these lightning fast 410 winged sprint cars race on a tacky, hooked up fast racetrack. It was anything but that. For the first time this year Clayton and his track prep crew headed by Bill Whitten prepared the track dry slick. Not in true Riverside tradition. I had hopes the track would keep the moisture, but after the first set of stock car hot laps I decided otherwise. I grew up at Memphis Motorsports Park, where the track was always dry slick. I love to watch a race on the dry slick, and I love racing on it. While nobody knew the reasoning behind the track prep, I would have to say it was a Guy Webb call as he rented the track for the night from owner Clayton Allen.

While most would say the racing was horrible, I still enjoyed it. If you got off the bottom, you were going backwards. The sprint car feature would prove to be the best race of the night, as Brian Ellenberger and Randy “The Hurricane” Hannagan would pace the field for the first 27 laps. Hannagan pulled a move on the 20E machine of Ellenberger coming off turn 2 that got the crowds attention, only to be denied by a caution as the new leader Hannagan exited turn 4. The caution would be for the third place running Tim Shaffer would tried a move from 3rd to 1st in turns 3 and 4 on the outside, only to sit parked facing the wrong direction. Ellenberger went on too win, Lance Dewease passed Hannagan as he tried and outside move on Ellenberger on the restart going into turn 1, only to fall to third. Tim Crawley was the highest finishing 360 in the Mike Ward owned #88, and last years preliminary night winner Chad Blonde rounded out the top 5. Other notables are Tim Shaffer would win the first dash, Ryan Bunton would win the second dash. Sammy Swindell would win the B-Main ahead of points leader Dale Blaney, and Swindell went on too finish 8th in the A-Main. This marked his first time back home at West Memphis, Ark. In over 15 years. He was driving the Randy Dukes owned 1995 Builtwiser, which a motor that old too match. 16 year old female driver, Miranda Throckmorton made her first appearance at the track nationally known as “The Ditch” and came home with a heat win and 13th place finish in the A-Main. All-Star Circuit of Champions points leader Dale Blaney would find himself 11th after the final checkered flew, with the Midwest All-Stars points leader Jerrod Hull would wind up 7th.

As I sat in the grandstands I wondered why these guys would spend tons of money on an engine that’s limited too 410 cubic inches, only too race on the dry slick tracks, and not be able to use all of that horsepower. I jumped on the internet Sunday afternoon, and while reading on another message board, I found this very topic being discussed, but it was affiliated with non-wing 410 racing. The proposed idea was to allow any engine displacement or configuration, any fuel including nitro methane and/or nitrous oxide, and any aspiration. While this seems like a costly rule, you could do two things. One, for non-wing cars, run the hardest Hoosier sprint car tires you can find across the rear. Two, for the winged cars your run the same hard tires across the rear, with an IMCA Spec wing rule. Everyone knows that the cheapest form of horsepower is cubic inches. So that’s free horsepower if you utilize a big block. Instead of spending tons of money on engines, with harder tires, and a smaller wing you’d be using a very small engine to get the cars to hook up. You would find many people using the same engine I’ve got in my modified, which is a 307 block bored 4 inches, with stock crank, stock rods, forged pistons, off the shelf Comp Cam and lifters, mildly worked heads, with a Wilson Carburetor running on alcohol. I’m lucky to find 400 hp out of this thing. A such engine/tire/wing rule package as this would benefit several ways, it would put the creative teams back into contention on a weekly basis. It would also reduce costs of engines at least 50%, and open the sponsorship market up to SEMA companies that sell many different performance parts that’s not currently allowed in dirt track racing.

I would like to know what your opinion is on this subject, the cost of racing is getting out of hand, and someone needs too step up and take charge of this before we price ourselves right out of the sport. Send a comment or an email to me at theatokaoutlaw90@yahoo.com I would love to hear your thoughts on this.