just curious what everyone's thoughts are about figure 8 racing's future.  i would love to hear everyone's opinions. so don't be afraid to share them.  i get  tired of seeing 80 people read what i say but no one posts back.  so let's not make this one of those topics.

first let's address late model or outlaw figure 8.  with the birth of the iofs there have been some old guys come back to racing these cars.  the wf8t hasn't seen as much sucess.  this year will be a make or break year for the iofs.  the second year of running a full schedule can be rough.  it is how charlie and dave handle those challenges will determine the long range sucess of the series.  wf8t i am not so convinced will do that well.  it has some serious challanges ahead.  first friday night is a rough night for car count anywhere.  when a track insist on running the event on the same time schedule as the saturday event it is even harder.  my advice to the cohen brothers is bump your start back to 8p.m. allowing guys an extra hour to get there, practice, go through tech, and qualify.  the second problem i see with friday an out of towner has to possibly take a vacation day to make it there on time.  vacation days are very valuable in a lot of work places.  third the tire price is better than it has ever been.  but is this a third speedrome spec tire?  if so it means a fourth tire a team has to buy if they are running iofs or anything other than their home series and world championship or commonly known as the three hour.  the other question is how do we get some of theese cars that are out there but hiding back into circulation.  because there has only been a few new cars built in the last couple of years.  how do you attract back some of the drivers who have been missing a while.  turners, willie dobbs, kevin ford, kenny stewart, keith ritchie to name just a few i could think of off the top of my head.

stock figure eight is another question.  anderson does nothing in this area.  hasn't for about 8 years.  but that track is struggling for it's servival with anderson being a dying town so to speak.  jeffersonville has allowed their cars to go to outlaw bodies making it hard for them to race anywhere but jeffersonville.  now they have had good car count all year and do a good job of puting on the show.  speedrome only wants to run two stock eights a year making it hard for the guys to get good at the eight.  those who shine have some late model experience.  definitely need more street stock figure eight everywhere.

roadrunner or thunder car eight is a mess too.  anderson's figure eight class is just this.  but you have a handful of guys who been out there for years who tend to bully anyone new who comes along.  the newbie gives up and leaves.  speedrome's bomber 8 division met it's demise when the track decided to force the speck tire on this class.  car counts fell off and it went away.  very sad.  tire rule almost killed the roadrunners too.  but they showed signs of bouncing back this year.  several times this year cars with appropiate cages were allowed to run with the stocks on the eight.  why not throw in a few roadrunner eight dates on saturday and friday nights to help these guys get more figure 8 experience.

hornet, front wheel drives or what ever you want to call them.  as much as we hate to admit, they are the wave of the future.  theese cars have an endless supply unlike stocks and roadrunner which are getting harder to find cars to build each year.  i am glad to see the hornet eight return to the speedrome.  i am also excited to see some saturdays on the schedule for these cars.  this should help car count.  anderson has done well with their front wheel drive division with good car count.  i am not going to say anymore about that subject.

think outside the box.  that is exactly what several non track based promoters are doing.  we have already talked about the iofs.  but two i want to point out are rouse promotions, headed by jr. rouse, and t.e. promotions.  i don't know much about t.e. other than they are based down south and tend to run down south.  rouse i know well and have ran some of his events this year.  he started out promting demo derbies which he admits he got into by accident.  he also admits he is a racer at heart and loves figure eight racing.  he expanded his horizion into auto cross at first.  this is a cross between old school dirt track racing and moto cross.  each straight a way has a jump.  you must hit each jump for the lap to be scored.  further more you can dump another car to better your position or just because.  in addition to that on october 24 there will be the very first figure 8 race added to the event at franklin in.  i hear some one is promoting a thunder car eight in muncie at the deleware county fair grounds.  i heard it was sometime this month but don't know when or who.  i also hear they are planning two a month of these in 2010. if you know anything about muncie please share it.

as many of us know figure eight racing is at a cross road and it is up to everyone, promoters, drivers, and fans to make it great again.