What's up with the anemic crowd at the Brickyard ?

[churchmouse]

The Ford Dealers 500. I was working the corners or fire and safety for all of those CM. You gotta love IMSA. V6s,V8s, V12s. 1.5 litre twin sequentially turbo-charged toyotas making over 1000bhp. Sigh. Another FINE series destroyed by greed. I still have a piece of Jag carbon fiber from a shunt clean-up

The V-6 in that car Dynoed at 1125 Qualy tune and raced at 950. The car pictured had an early "Active" suspension. It actually adjusted the shocks in flight. It was just to slow due to the poor computers of the time. The car was a GM test bed for the Gen-II/Gen-III systems. It was an amazing time.

I have a pic on my wall from the Glen of this car and the Jag (#44) mixing it up.

 

[Dirtebiker]

The way they choose drivers is also a problem. They have to be skilled drivers but they also HAVE to be "presentable" to the public. in otherwords, nice appearance, well spoken and good behavior. All about the commercial marketability for the sponsors. I do wish they would just bring back stock car racing.

And from a wealthy family!

 

[Bradsknives]

I went yesterday and had a good time.

I bought this Danica die cast car....I didn't realized that they came already crashed.

 

[BugI02]

The V-6 in that car Dynoed at 1125 Qualy tune and raced at 950. The car pictured had an early "Active" suspension. It actually adjusted the shocks in flight. It was just to slow due to the poor computers of the time. The car was a GM test bed for the Gen-II/Gen-III systems. It was an amazing time.

I have a pic on my wall from the Glen of this car and the Jag (#44) mixing it up.

As I recall that cars engine note sounded really SWEET. Did you mention it in the 'Best Sounding Engine' thread? I loved the early Audi quattros in GTO, too.

 

[BugI02]

Used to time a visit to my buddy in Calabasas so we could go to Del Mar. Rumor had it the Toyota was pushing 1300 in qualifying but the motor was a grenade. I always kind of liked porsches but they just weren't EXOTIC enough in this company. Too pedestrian

 

[femurphy77]

Bring back the Trans Am Merkurs and I'm there!

 

[PistolBob]

I dont buy it at all, the stands are empty. I have been there several times for the Brickyard and I have never seen them that empty.

Just curious of others opinions, why is NASCARs ratings and attendance down so much?

In my opinion...NASCAR is the Championship Rasslin of the auto racing world. It's now a popularity contest, many of the races FEEL predetermined before the green flag even drops, pretty boys all running pretty much the same gear. It lacks innovation. It lacks a connection to the audience. There are too many restrictions, and now this whole thing with a flag...it's just running off fans like a fire in a piney woods.

 

[BugI02]

View attachment 40294

 

[Denny347]

Bring back the Trans Am Merkurs and I'm there!

Ohhh, XR4ti....man I LOVED that car.

 

[churchmouse]

As I recall that cars engine note sounded really SWEET. Did you mention it in the 'Best Sounding Engine' thread? I loved the early Audi quattros in GTO, too.

I reflecting that car was one of the 1st to get the V-8 S.B. chevy in response to the ruling body taking away our Turbo size. We ran a huge hair dryer on the V-6 and the Rolex racers lobbied to reduce our snail size by a lot. It put us way down on pony's so Mr. Hendrick had his engine shop whip us up a combo that was naturaly aspirated and made serious ponys. What you heard was the result. Damn, I had all but forgotten how wicked cool that one sounded.
Just a note, what you heard was one of the 1st 427 small block chevy engines to be ran in competition. Legal, Uh.....err......uhm.....well you know. Hey, they took our turbo......

This shot was taken in the Garages at Mid-Ohio. The V-8 was a clean package with Kinsler fuel injection.

The headers blended at the tail making that sweet exhaust note. Thanks for reminding me of that.....

 

[BugI02]

Yeah, I remembered when the audis debuted and ran away from everybody they couldn't add weight to 'em fast enough for some competitors. I first saw them at Miami and they ran the strangest lines because of how they could put down power. I heard Stuckey say later they would ride the brakes and the throttle to keep the turbos on boost. Am I reading correctly that you got to DRIVE that bad boy? In races!

 

[churchmouse]

Yeah, I remembered when the audis debuted and ran away from everybody they couldn't add weight to 'em fast enough for some competitors. I first saw them at Miami and they ran the strangest lines because of how they could put down power. I heard Stuckey say later they would ride the brakes and the throttle to keep the turbos on boost. Am I reading correctly that you got to DRIVE that bad boy? In races!

No, I got to drive it at the Hendricks "Fun" days.
Rick had several teams from show room stock Corvettes. Nascar, IMSA and so on. All the teams would bring a few cars to Charlet (Sp) and all sorts of folks would be invited. Paul Newman was at one of them. He garfed up the side of the Vette pushing it pretty hard. He ran out of talent real fast.
Rick let us (team) drive it with the boost turned down but damn that was so cool.

Were you at Miami......what a course. What a crowd.

 

[churchmouse]

Ohhh, XR4ti....man I LOVED that car.

They were seriously fast on a demanding road course.

 

[BugI02]

No, I got to drive it at the Hendricks "Fun" days.
Rick had several teams from show room stock Corvettes. Nascar, IMSA and so on. All the teams would bring a few cars to Charlet (Sp) and all sorts of folks would be invited. Paul Newman was at one of them. He garfed up the side of the Vette pushing it pretty hard. He ran out of talent real fast.
Rick let us (team) drive it with the boost turned down but damn that was so cool.

Were you at Miami......what a course. What a crowd.

Still the most .....ummm.... bouncy-thing rich environment I'VE been in

 

[femurphy77]

Bring back the Trans Am Merkurs and I'm there!

Ohhh, XR4ti....man I LOVED that car.

They were seriously fast on a demanding road course.

I've always wanted to do a (somewhat) streetable clone of one of those things! Too many ideas and not enough time/money!

 

[edporch]

I went to the inaugural 400 race and again in 2008 and the place was packed both times.

Has NASCAR effectively crapped in their own punch bowl ?

I had outside 1st turn tickets to the Brickyard for the first 16 years.

I've lost interest in NASCAR racing because it's turned into an over regulated joke that's little more than glorified strict spec racing.

Open the rules back up so that teams can innovate again.