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IC, you have been to Oswego? I can almost spit across the lake to that burg from here, ( well not quite, but it is but 3 to 4 hours AROUND the lake for me, and yet I haven't made it yet. Seen lots of pics of it, know lots of guys who go, but I see the SuperMod's when they have ran at Mosport's 1/2 mile oval a few years back and they also run at Kawartha Downs, just 40 minutes up the highway from me.....
I'm dating myself bigtime with this, but watched Bentley Warren win the International 500 at Oswego one year......some of the regulars were from Canada --- I remember Norm Mackereth, for one, and were Nolan Swift or Jim Shampine from up your way?
Mackerath I have heard of, don't know Swift or Shampine. I know there are few guys who make the trek to Oswego. The Canadian dates have been hit and miss, mainly miss. They wont run Mosport's oval any more because the straights are too long and the corners are too tight, sort of a bumpy Martinsville layout with more banking. They were running about 140 and hammering the brakes to get in the corner, and it just wasn't a good circuit for em.
I suspect only about 3 or 4 steady runners at Oswego are Canadians. Our short track scene in Ontario is so busy that most guys just end up going to whatever short track is near and running the stock car circuits there. That said, there is a few dirt tracks up here running DIRT mod's and outlaws as well....
Well, as I said, I dated myself! Swift, I'm sure was from Canada. Shampine, driving his well-known "8-ball," I believe was from upstate New York somewhere.
Back in the late '60s and '70s, the big supermod tracks were Oswego; Sandusky, Ohio; and Delaware out near London. Sandusky was a "paper clip", too. Some ran the dirt at Owosso, Mich., where Paige Reynolds from Houston broke the so-called world half-mile record time in a supermod that Sonny Ates set in a sprint car at Dayton. (This is '60s stuff.)
The Michigan contingent included Gordon and Nolan Johncock (the latter of which was killed in a '70s supermod crash) and Johnny Logan.
Too much off topic, but in "modern" times, Davey Hamilton and Paul Durant came out of the west coast supers (after Tom Sneva and Art Pollard did before them) and Joe Gosek came from Oswego to make the Indianapolis 500 field in the '90s.
I've watched a history of Indy500 DVD recently which showed the differences over the years of these cars.
I don't think I'd have the guts to race a brand new one until I saw how it performed for a season while someone else raced it first. It must take alot of faith to jump in one right hot off the assembly line in its first year of racing, I'd think. Guess I'm not so tough after all......because that'd scare the liver out of me.
O'keefe, if you think those cars are scary, you are just normal and well adjusted!!!!
The SuperMods that IC and I are referring to are the last manifestation of the kind of race cars the old roadsters evolved into. Offset monsters with stock blocks on the left side and huge wings. They are one of a kind kind of racers, and in a sense, represent a lost thread of racing.
As much as the modern IRL is a clone of every other open wheeled series now, there is much to be said about having a unique series based on the roots cars of USAC, evolving designs based off the sprint car and then allowing creativity....
It doesn't exist as in current hardware, but that is a minor point. All the cars and replacement parts for late season haven't been built yet either. They are going to know when a oval in in the works long before we do so they will do a good job.Quote:
Originally Posted by tbyars
The CC guy who coordinated the program with Panoz said at the Road America fan forum that the DP01 was absolutely designed with ovals in mind and a oval package "was designed" and would be built if the need arises. I noticed right off the DP01 has all the expensive electronics in the left sidepod, standard oval proceedure since the "comeback" Lola of the late 90s.
One could can a say anything is worthless until tested. They have plenty of oval knowledge with ovals and experience with modern fluid dynamic flow software they can quickly be in the ballpark.
Well, to start with, are there fuel buckeyes on both sides of the car?
spin. the series called for 3 year replacements when they were flush with manufacturer cash, now that cash is gone and they are racing relatively old equipment.Quote:
Originally Posted by indycool
Wow, that's pretty funny. How about "they spent so much trying to make it road course worthy they could have almost bought a new car, and now nobody can afford one"?Quote:
Originally Posted by indycool