tonyp

I know many on this board are primarily dirt fans but I wanted to mention that the local racing community lost another great person today. Scott Baker from Barberton Ohio passed away today after a year long battle with cancer. Scott raced primarily at asphalt tracks in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania since the early 80s. He was a former Iceman Series champion and won multiple Main Event Outlaw Late Model Series races. He raced with some local legends like Gary Balough, Tim Ice, Glenn Gault and others. Scott was a racers racer and did a lot to help other drivers and promote local racing. He will be missed.

That's a blanket statement about Crates Yes crates or crates no .. that's not accurate
 Crates have been an option at tracks and have proven to be equalized in certain conditions with weight ... So when a sanctioning body says " Buy ours or don't come here "  .. That's bullshit ! Its an obvious forced secondary market by the people who make all the money selling Monopoly motors to the upper divisions for the sake of making the money and providing their buyer with a place to sell their used stuff and make a buck freshening them up ( MONPOLY MOTOR) .. not cheaper racing for all .. and so it will not slip by on a racing forum ..
your right .. some people flat out wont buy one and will walk away with a bad taste ..
Latemodel motors are way over most people head and the " Crate" latemodel makes sense  .. but not in stock cars that guys use parts from every other division to go race !
Tech is the equalizer in every track / sanctioning body rules ! If you have Tech .. then Every track and series is fair and balanced
 People believe those bolts take the place of tech .. and so to them its true .. But a scale is just as effective ! The protest rule is the same with fancy wire seal bolts or a guys word that he has a 350 and not a 427!
as stated above
true" Cost containment" stringent technical rules surrounded by stringent tech
 You can apply that anywhere to any rules package and have the desired " cost containment"  results

You're exactly right, those bolts don't take the place of a good tech inspector and if tracks had enforced rules that were in place years ago crates wouldn't have taken hold like they did. In general I don't really like crates, that's not to say I haven't seen good crate races because I have but in my opinion, a well defined and ENFORCED set of rules keeps costs manageable and produces better racing than mandating that everyone have the same motor in the interest of fairness.

I'd have to bring a bag of dust to truly feel I was at a race track!
PMS is not closing anytime soon, contrary to the erroneous press by the Post Gazette.
 
 
 
http://www.midvalespeedway.com/

While I agree there is NOTHING better than a good sprint car or super late race on dirt it was nice to leave my safety glasses in the car for the evening!