First of all I want to say that I’ve preached gimmick to bring fans for a while. The King of the Wings is just that. A gimmick. I applaud the person that thought it up. Trouble is, I think there will be a lot of people disappointed when their isn’t the 40 cars at this race that they think are coming.
I can go through the list that is posted right now and is getting all of the hype and I can take about 4 cars off right away.
I am also going to say that something was said last night on the PA about an interview an Oswego official gave where he said there were only 85 supermodifieds in the whole country and half of them would be at Oswego for this event.
Interesting. Especially since there were 23 cars at Oswego for the first MSA show and 27 at Waterford for the first ISMA show alone and they were on the same days. So add that up real quick. Because the last time I checked there were still a whole lot cars ready to race that weren’t out and oh let’s not forget about the west coast guys. Somebody better do a little more brushing up on their supermod knowledge before they tried to feed some more BS hype down my throat.
Bitter? Kinda. It seems to me that Oswego is forsaking the important traditions for hype. Last night was a great race. Befitting of the naming of the event as the Jim Shampine Memorial There was a good field of great drivers. But where was the hype? No offense to the Tony White fans, but seriously where was the hype? This was the JIM SHAMPINE MEMORIAL! 58 laps? Is that the best they could do? That had a lot of fans as well as competitors scratching their heads as to the reasons for that. Flying the Shampine flag on the flagpole? Was that they hype? Thank goodness Romey Caruso was allowed to talk about the history of what the Pine did.
Bonuses, rollovers, $10,000 to win. I’ll remind you all that unless you are an MSA franchise car you are only going to get $500 or so to start this race. I’ll also suggest that if this were a truely amazing race, Troy Regier, AJ Russell, Rich Castor and many others would have been invited to race it, it would be a non sanctioned show or an all sanctioned show, and it would pay at least $800 to start.
Sorry folks I’m usually a pretty positive person but ever since this was announced I sat and said something don’t smell right. I said it about the Oswego/MSA Wing ‘Challenge’ and my premonitions are coming true on that and I’m going to go on record here saying this deal ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.
To top it off…someone should of done their research before they named it this. Anyone ever hear of this one race track in central Indiana called Winchester Speedway? Really? You haven’t? Guess they never have up on the hill either because this legendary speed plant has been running a show called “The King of the Wings” for at least 3 years now and probably more like about 5. Amazing isn’t it? And that show puts some of USAC’s best up against the best from AVSS and HOSS as well as local IN sprint car drivers on one of the baddest, fastest joints around. I also keep hearing that this will be the biggest, richest winged supermodified race in history. Interesting, without checking figures, I’m pretty sure Copper World paid pretty good and I damned near positive that Nationals and the Star Classic both paid $10,000 to win one time. Even with a full case of Vaseline, I’m not gonna let someone shove that bs anywhere.
I think the point here is that this is NOT a regular show. This is an MSA sanctioned show and a winged event. It should stand to reason that the car count would be larger or should be. Talk to me when it’s a Regular season 45 lap NON WING Oswego rules event and you have these proposed numbers then I’ll buy into it.
I also am perturbed that there seems to be more focus on this event than the 23rd Annual Mr. Supermodified race. Yes, I refuse to call it Mr. Novelis. Frankly, I think it’s a sell out to call it that and almost as sacrilegious as calling it the “Bud 300 Weekend.” It could just as easily be called Mr. Supermodified presented by Novelis. This race should be second in prestige only to the International Classic 200.
Again, I say there is nothing wrong with hype and gimmicks. But damnit stop trying to dilute the history, the prestige and the product that you have. It can all work together but if you continue to forsake your history and deceive your fans, it will come back to bite you in the long run.
Popularity: 1% [?]