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Senior Moment From Russ Dodge:
Mission Impossible
NASCAR - NADCO - TRI-STATE
The
three names listed are that of auto racing organizations. The majority of
viewers of this site recognize NASCAR, less will recognize Tri-State, which
operated in 1971 and the least recognizable would be NADCO from 1955. I've
selected the Wilmington Speedway program from 1955 because the races were
sanctioned by NADCO (National Association of Drivers and Car Owners).
Its Purposes:
Nadco was organized by a group of car owners and drivers who saw and
experienced a lack of good planning, lack of management, distribution of
Prize Money and general all-around abuse of contestants in stock car
racing. Its purposes are to enforce changes that will better racing in all
its phases. Its aim: The purpose of
the Tri-State group is to established rules that can be used for a period of
years without having to build a new car every year and to keep the race cars
competitive to make equal competition for all participants.
Now that the
stage is set, the rest of this Senior Moment is just my opinions and
thoughts, that can be totally wrong. You can redirect my thoughts and I
sincerely hope you do.
NASCAR, the
oldest of the three groups is still around because it is a dictatorship!
That doesn't make them right in what they do,, but it does allow them to
move on as they deem necessary! It's interesting that NADCO's president we
"Mr. Independent, The Old Master" Frankie Schneider. Frankie and his fellow
officers found that you couldn't organizes a group of independent (I didn't
say Bull Headed) people with each having their own solutions to the problems
in racing.
A brief
over-view of Tri-State was it had reached a point where most of the Reading
cars were running 36" engine set-backs, New Jersey, New York and some PA.
tracks were using a 24" engine setbacks. Tobias and a few others brought
the sprint car style design to modified racing Toby used to kid with Al
Tasnady and tell him," I can always tell a Jersey Modified by the "Jersey
Slant" meaning the tire stagger and body angle, with the car setting lower
on the inside. To be competitive at Reading and Flemington for example,
basically two different cars were needed. Yes , later on this wasn't
necessary when the rules opened up in time and were adapted by all the
tracks. Tri-State wanted to keep the cars heavier at 2,800 pounds to
eliminate the cost of needed light weight components. As a side note it is
interesting that speedways selected that weight, which goes back to the
factory weight of a i937 Ford! Leon Manchester headed the Tri - State
movement . Ironically, Frankie Schneider helped spark Leon's drive when he
told Leon, "you'll never organize these guys. I tried and it couldn't be
done". When someone told Manchester he couldn't do something he would work
twice as hard! History repeated itself as Tri-State died the same as NADCO
years before. Many felt that if Tri-State had included drivers and not
restricted membership to car owners, it would have been successful. NADCO
had allowed them and it hadn't helped them.
Regardless of
the fact the Tri-State did not focus on the operation of the speedway as
NADCO had done, promoters feared that any "crack in the dam" would create an
unending list of demands in the future.
I formed the
opinion that if Tri-State had made it, the careers of drivers like Tas and
other older drivers who "drove their cars in the turns" may have added a
little more longevity to their careers. tri-State was aimed at saving the
"stock car" style they were use to.
Was Glenn
Donnelly and DIRT an example of what an earlier club could have been had
they been successful?
I'm not trying
to present a historical perspective of the working of any organization, such
as who did this and why. It's just my mind having a Senior moment when I
opened this darn Wilmington Speedway program.
Thanks for
listening.
Senior Moment by Russ Dodge. |