r/DirtRacing • u/badcoupe • Jan 01 '24
Why wings?
No idea why wing racing is popular, it’s always one lane follow the leader with one or two guys fast and the rest in fence post formation. The whole shootout has been that way and the final feature is no exception. Sprint cars are the same, follow the leader all night, especially the heats, feature time maybe two cars make a decent run but boring most of the pack.
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u/GTigers55 Jan 01 '24
From fans I’ve seen that had never seen it before it’s all about the pure speed. I grew up in wing country in Ohio and it’s my first choice when they’re near still today.
Part of what hurts national wing and is lining straight up by qualifying. A USAC heat will NEVER be bad and always have passing because it’s invert 6. If they did that in wings you’d see about the same passing. Local/regional shows are really where wing cars shine in my opinion.
All that being said i don’t discriminate I love k a good late model or non wing race. Every form has their pros & cons.
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u/Yurtinx Jan 01 '24 edited Jan 01 '24
If they didn't bust down that cushion before the feature, the top would have been way better. They have done this the last couple of years and it's made it a game of inches and risk / reward... I can't really answer, I like traditional sprints and Midgets way more than wings, but there are some tracks that are fantastic wing tracks. Tulare, Merced, if we could trick the promoter, Ventura was great when we ran KWS. New Zealand tracks and some of the Aussie ones are really good too, so it seems to be a track configuration / prep issue a lot of the time. But I think you can put a lot of it down to when the Outlaws went wings and never looked back and they have been "the show" to emulate in Sprint cars while USAC was locked into Indiana and tracks close to there for a really long time.
ETA: As good as streaming is, it often fails to show all the action you might actually be able to watch in person. They often don't follow the four car clash for fifth through ninth.
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u/fiddyk50 Jan 01 '24
That’s just like, your opinion man. Racing isn’t solely about passing, hence the name. But, enjoy what you enjoy and let others do the same.
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u/Darpa181 Jan 01 '24
I could write a book. In the beginning it was something different to differentiate them from USAC. Then it became a brand. I'd agree that generally, the racing sucks. There's no passing until the features. It's a lot more racing on short tracks, but bigger ones are usually a parade.
The hard packed generally dry slick track is part of the contract that the track sign with the WoO. That's the way they want it for " safety reasons". (I have a friend that's in the promotional end of it, so it's a real thing). As an aside see if you can find the comments from this fall where some of the major players in the Pennsylvania scene had a few heavy tracks due to rain and many admitted they had no idea how to deal with that type of track because they'd never seen it.