I think that there were over 200 cars in one race, the year was 1991 or 1992. I believe the final count was 213? Can anyone verify. All I remember was that I showed up with a fresh / never been on the track, '76 Buick. I went home with a bucket of bolts....lol.
I think that there were over 200 cars in one race, the year was 1991 or 1992. I believe the final count was 213? Can anyone verify. All I remember was that I showed up with a fresh / never been on the track, '76 Buick. I went home with a bucket of bolts....lol.
Are you sure what you took home - were all yours? 😉
All I can say for sure is that the first endurance race was run in 1982. If anyone has any programs from back then it will bear me out. The first race started 83 cars, and included station wagons. A lot of demo derby guys came out of the woodwork for these. After the first one the car counts skyrocketed.
Unfortunately, the reason for the huge counts was because the barrier of entry was so low. Cars easy to find. No one had to blow the dough on proper roll cages. It was cheap fun, and back then guys knew the chances were pretty high that the car wasn't gonna last more than one race.
I don't think there's any going back. I remember seeing one car with a roll cage made of light guage angle iron. Its actually lucky that no one got killed considering the way the races got run.
And legend has it that Tony used to offer 25 or 50 bucks if you rolled your car on the frontstretch...leading guys that were out of contention with something crazy to try.
Back then enduro was a freak show....and admitted it wholeheartedly and with no apology whatsoever. I couldn't pinpoint the exact place that it changed, but I suspect its when "Endurance Race" the event, became Enduro...points division number 5.
Having said that, I think the only way to get these kinds of numbers back is to go with 4-6 bangers only. All the good intentions in the world won't help if guys can't find cars to use. Frankly I'm kind of astounded that it wasn't on the table from the point car counts dropped below 100.....and that's years ago now. Offer 1000 bucks to win, run it on a sunday, go back to if-youre-dead-on-the-speedway-youre-a-pylon, and invite every mini stock driver in a 200 mile radius. And don't gouge them at the back gate.
i like that idea shadow but have you seen what some of the mini stocks have turned into these days i think the fact is cars 1989 and new are juck cars for racing but find anything below already not to far gone to make a good car out of or to nice to cut up
hey 4cy and v6 cars can be fun but it would take alot of planing to get enough of them even to bring the count back up
btw heres my min stock
The first enduro race started 58 cars . I know this cause I started 58th. It was a standing start and the guy in front of me broke his rear u-joint when he went to start and I had to back-up before I could get going. I used a 1968 Pontiac Parrisienne,4-door. No cage just a couple bars welded across the drivers door. I have pictures somewhere John. I will dig them out. We finished 7th that first one. Can't remember how many laps down. Tony Novotny was in it with a torino as well and finished in the top 5 i think. He was #10. After the first one car counts went nuts. It was a blast and I ran in them for about the first 7 years. Even made money 1 year.