Edition 51, January 20th - 2010

Good Job Mid Am & Daytona 2010 Prediction

First of all, I want to expend a few thoughts about the good job Mid American Stock Car Series did this year running their program. We have been a part of this series for over three years, and never tire of the great racing, and the competitive nature of the race participants. Pat and I had the pleasure of attending the annual awards banquet last Saturday, and it always seems like coming home when we are in attendance with this group of folks. Congratulations Doug, Julie and the whole crew who work so hard for so little financial reward. You are keeping the dream alive and we are happy to be a part of it. As I told both Doug and Julie, we came into this as a business relationship and ended up in a friendship

Featured speaker at the banquet was Father Grubba whom I have met twice this past year. As I am one of the senior members of the racing community, I could listen for hours as he talked about the drivers from the sixties and seventies. He knew them all, and for some reason I do not understand he can relate detailed stories about each one. I worked for the same company as Alan Kulwicki, and I shared with Father about our energies spent in keeping Alan focused on design work for our products, when he would rather work on race car suspension or carburetion. Monday mornings the hauler, with Alan sleeping in the cab was not an unusual sight in the employee parking lot after a night at Slinger.

I hope all the drivers in attendance and the promoters alike picked up on the main point of Father’s speech which was not all Nascar fans are race fans. They spend the money and fly to their favorite Nascar track but will not support the local track program 5 miles from their house. These short track venues are the building blocks for the future ASA, ARCA, Camping World, Nationwide, or Sprint competitors. “Be a hero to the fans, and they will continue to follow and support you” Father concluded.

Now onto the Daytona 2010, which I contend, should be very interesting this year. Many new teams, and changes in driver and sponsors. As usual it will be a year that you will need some sort of program or list to know who is who. A few of the race teams will get an automatic berth into the Super Bowl of Racing as they have inherited the points from other teams that have folded. (This is certainly not one of my favorite rules) but I guess it levels the playing field a little, as past year teams in the top 35 get into the race.

And this year a new controversy arose. The NASCAR association and drivers are trying to solve the issue of stopping the big wrecks and injuring drivers and perhaps fans at the big tracks such as Daytona and Talladega. This past November I wrote an article but never published it, on my opinions to keep racing interesting yet safe. Following is an excerpt from that article.

Change the car. Now here you can use as much imagination at your disposal. We know how to sleek the cars up to make them faster, as we have wind tunnels at everyone’s disposal to add speed. So now you just reverse the process and “dirty up the body lines” at the two big tracks. Take off the wings (ugly anyway) and bolt on special big spoilers that drag the speeds down. Or somehow, and I don’t have an engineering degree, just cut the horsepower down with smaller carburetor or some other means, but take off the damn restrictor plates . No one could foresee when these tracks were built, that in this decade small block engines would put out the same horsepower as the big blocks from the 60’s. Added are the sleek body styles, and engineering technologies that counteract most restrictions imposed by the sanctioning body.

Well guess what is being seriously discussed in the few weeks prior to the 2010 Daytona 500? Yup, take off the wing, add the spoiler and open the restrictor plates. We need safe racing with good throttle response for the drivers, and can have exciting racing at 185 versus 195 miles per hour. Let’s see now how this plays out.

And finally, get your secret hidden cash stash out, call you bookie, and put your money down on a Toyota to win the 500. If you think I am going to pick Kyle Busch, you do not know me too well. The car that will be displayed in Daytona USA for calendar 2010 will be the Fed Ex sponsored 11 piloted by Denny Hamlin. I think he is ready and he has teammates that will help him go to the front when he is ready to make his move. Watch for it!

Speaking of watching, come back to this site soon as I will be reporting on my annual trip to the famous Florida beach named Daytona.

RACING TO THE CHECKERS

Jim