The Pace Lap - June 22, 2010 - Car Counts

- In case you haven’t noticed, sprint car counts are down. While the first ASCS-sanctioned Eagle Nationals brought a field chock full of great cars and drivers, the show was bookended by the lowest weekly car counts in 20 years, with only 16 cars making the show last week - numbers along the lines of when the class was reintroduced to Eagle in 1984.

Why?

Obvious: Economy, purses not keeping pace (or even going down), costs going up (or teams aren’t spending wisely), etc. etc, all are to blame in one way or the other. We haven’t seen a recession like this in recent memory and despite government-induced bumps recently - the track back to recovery is showing signs of being a long one. We’re undergoing a fundamental change in lifestyle that will end an economic era in our history and define a new one.

From a recent interview, ASCS Founder Emmett Hahn has indicated that there are no imminent changes to their rules coming; and given car counts in the 20’s-30’s around here, one could argue whether or not they’re necessary. The other side: will a team willingly be a “have not” and try to slug it out with inferior equipment - will the desire to race be enough to overcome the desire to have? It’s one thing to take a 360 to an Outlaw show, its quite another to be a have-not in your own group.

But the facts can’t be denied: weekly count is suffering. Because it’s happening elsewhere doesn’t make it easier to stomach. It again lends credence to my theory that 360 sprint racing will go the way of Super Late Models, unless something drastic is done.

In terms of car count, the gravity has already shifted toward the touring groups, something that was certainly not the case 5-10 years ago.

While I’m not saying 305’s or wingless aren’t the answer, I need more convincing as all I’ve heard are arguments based on opinions; either pining for the past or to lower the bar such that a part-poor pauper turns into one of the princes.

An odd question arising out of this multi-faceted situation is: do we have too much racing around here? During the course of a season, it will be possible to hit 30 races within four hours between Eagle, ASCS, Albion’s loosely organized Holt County Sprints, Knoxville and the NCRA.

I would hope sponsor pressures aren’t exerting the influence to overwork financially dry teams!

In that vein, like the Big 12 (minus two) conference in football, what loyalty is there? It seems that many teams run where either they have a better shot at winning or placing higher in one series, want to try something different, or are just fed up with the status quo. We’re seeing a fracturing of what used to be a very tight group - even during the Eagle/NSCA feud, there was still a recognition that there needed to be a “spiritual” center for the group...a home track - and not just in name.

But the vagabond lifestyle is nothing new in the Nebraska sprint car community. One only needs to look to one of the last periods of economic malaise, the 1970’s, when the prime interest rate (the baseline used for home or credit rates) was at loan-shark levels around 19% (today’s Wall Street Journal prime is 3.25%). Eagle was dark for a period, languishing in stock cars while the facility crumbled. Midwest Speedway was fielding late models and a sprint show was only on occasion.

It took a major shift to resurrect sprint cars, when a few resourceful men birthed the class that became the 360 sprints.

Maybe it’s time for that again. But the question is, will the local show have to die first? Is it like maintaining a forest, where the dead brush is burned away to allow new trees to grow? Or do we just ride this out and hope for the best?

Barring any windfall in the economy, I think we’re going to find out pretty soon.

-Jason