chaos cars

[jworacing]

I think we all need to get together for a bg old fashioned group hug , KAOS cars are what they are nothing more and nothing less. I don't think you will see a duoble feature night of these guys anytime soon but what the hell give them a break. If you don't like them the track has set it up so you can go home at any point they are on. I applaud these guys for the work and effort they put into thier gig. They will realise the work that is involved is very demanding and to "move-up" would take even more dedication. I think they deserve our support just like any other division does, and I know I would do anything I could for any division that needed something including KAOS cars. So you guys keep it 

Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.msg71220#msg71220

[FromTheStands]

Entry of the car name, filling out registration
Purchasing a vehicle
Interpet the rules, apply these to the your car
Fabricate, prepare the car.
Associate with a list of suppliers for items  and equipment needed.
Attempt the sponsorship deal.
Organize and haul car to track
Show up on practice days with pit equipment and crew organized.
Take vehicle through tech.
Attend drivers meeting, Q and A
Learn line up and scoring.
Learn the use of flags and race day procedures
Among all other divisions and their schedules and procedures for the day.
A series of on track experiences (starter, anouncers, flags, fans,boos and cheers)
The thrill of a win, the agony of defeat.
Knowing the amount of work needed to do it all over next week.
The wind down and bench racing.

Entry level with something to learn - yes
Driving school for a SS, Truck, Mod or LateModel   no

She is what she is and at least a great way to learn the experience of the pits at Delaware.


Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.msg71221#msg71221

[jmaudsley]

I'll chime in on the chaos cars... and while I'm at it, talk a little bit about KOH, which I think is very closely linked.

Maybe as a journalist, I'm a bit spoiled because I am at Delaware for almost every event for the year, as well as getting the opportunity to travel to a large number of other tracks during the year.

To be honest, I haven't watched a KOH in a few years, as I'm usually doing interviews that I need for stories so I can get out of there as soon as the KOH is over.  I get to see so much professional and semi-professional motorsports during the year, that a guy taking a hot lap in the family mini-van doesn't really turn my crankshaft.

That being said, I have a 7-year old son who goes to the races with me pretty much every Friday.  Last Friday night, all he could talk about was the Chaos Cars.  If that is the target audience of the speedway, then they hit it on the head!

After the races, continuing with that same 7-year old, he had to tag along with me to see Jamie Cox's OWM, and both of Steven Richmond's rides, but his mind was one track.  He just wanted a good look at the 'Snotrod'!

When it comes to KOH, again, while I don't 'get it', I do notice that on KOH nights the top of the hill is PACKED, and it's not just a coincidence why those extra people show up.  I tend to refer to that as the 'bloodthirsty savage factor', as many are there for one reason, and that is the hope of seeing a Mustang or some other quick import in a waded mess against the concrete wall.

Delaware did a survey years ago (while Tony Novotny was still the promotor), and they found that their 'average' fan goes to the track about three times a year, and on any given night those 'average' fan numbers far exceed the 'diehards'.  While I can appreciate that many that are on this board are like myself who go every week, those 'average' fans make up a tremendous bulk of the crowd, and that's a fact.  Delaware Speedway, or any racetrack for that matter have to cater more to the fans that come out three or four times a year, trying to get them to come out more then they do catering to the folks that are there every week, as the fans that are there weekly are coming almost regardless of what goes on.

Hence the 'freak show' factor of the Chaos Cars, or the KOH, which are run at the end of the night.  Delaware has done this in an attempt to 'please' the real race fans.  If you don't want to watch, and think they are a waste of time, then you are free to leave after the final 'real' feature of the evening.  Even when they cater to the 'freak show' crowd, they still keep the meat and potatoes of those regular fans in mind.

The biggest problem with Stock Car Racing over the past several years (NASCAR included) is that they have stopped marketing directly to the future generation of fans.  With all the 'Fast and Furious' movies and cars that have hit the stage over the past several years, that genre and the import cars have started to steal a tremendous amount of the younger demographics away from Stock Car Racing, because of the way they have marketed those types of cars / shows (not to mention Drifting, Time Attack, etc.),

The Chaos Cars are for the kids first, and as an added entertainment value for everyone after that (even giving me a few occassional giggles along the way -what can I say, my son has got me watching them now) .  That has to be the logic behind them, especially due to the fact that they have names rather than numbers on them, giving them all a little personality.  Even the frontstretch entrance with theme music is a selling point of the division, as the track keeps trying to grow them on the spectators.  Are we going to see the pilot of the 'Bush Bomb' in a Late Model anytime soon?  Probably not, but at the same time, never say never.  

That being said, the driver that debuted 'Born Again' last weekend was looking for tips and some assistance online on this forum last week before he hit the track, and quite frankly, though he may never be part of the 'regular' Friday night divisions, he's already taken the appropriate steps to get involved and hit the track.  Maybe he will gain the knowledge and experience during a Chaos Car and someday be driving a Truck / Enduro / Super Stock at some point down the road, but from a budget perspective, a Chaos Car is a very low cost way to get into the sport and go racing on Friday nights.  Is it 'real' racing - no!  Is it still racing... well, if you have to get there first to be the winner, than that's a race, no matter how you slice it.

Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.msg71226#msg71226

[crewchief47]

+1 Mr. Maudsley

Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.msg71229#msg71229

[FromTheStands]

Entry of the car name, filling out registration
Purchasing a vehicle
Interpet the rules, apply these to the your car
Fabricate, prepare the car.

All that applies to horse racing if you replace car with horse. Or dogs or the ironman triathalon for that matter.

Doesn't make it racing for the oval track unless you think that maybe they should run horses too. Then I can't help you any.

Want to tour the pits and see what a race team does, go visit one and hang out with them. Want to race a car at the track bring a race car not Mr.Bean or Pee Wee Herman's car.

I guess I need to spell it out. My post refered to all the entry level experience one gets from the chaos division. I pointed out that it does not prepare you to drive a circle track car! It's also not a comment on the type of racing so please don't read that into it.
Again, she is what she is.

Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.msg71232#msg71232

[TheVoice]

Call the Chaos Cars a circus act, a gong show, an entry level division, pure entertainment, or whatever you want.  I've got no problem with the division/concept as a whole and I hope the division grows and prospers into a fan attraction similar to what the King of the Hill is now.

But I do have a problem with some of the individual behaviour of some Chaos drivers, especially in the last event.  I personally witnessed quite a few displays of blatant disregard for other competitors in the division, the speedway, and the fan experience.

- I got to watch a wounded SnotRod limp off the track into the pits on turn 3-4, looking like his night was over, only to have him wait for the right time to explode out onto the track and deliberately T-bone the unsuspecting red Sunfire.  That was a pretty disgusting display from a driver that I thought from reading these boards was a leader or ambassador of the division.  Ignore everything else, but what if SnotRod kills the kid pulling a stunt like that?  This isn't Days of Thunder.  Save the Cole Trickle stunts for PlayStation.

- I got to watch the RedBaron (another regular like SnotRod) spin into the new concrete pit wall all by himself.  OK, it happens.  But to follow that up by deliberately slamming into the wall two more times (once forward and once in reverse) was terrible.  Nice message your sending.  "Thanks for the new pit wall Arlen, here's how much I appreciate your investment!"  You don't see LM drivers pulling stunts like that.  Sure they cost more, so that would be exceedingly stupid.  But it's about respect.  I put what the RedBaron did right alongside keying someone's car.  It's gutless.  There have been some comments in this tread about people not respecting the Chaos Car division.  Well, stuff like this makes it easy to see why.

- I also got to watch Wednesday deliberately taking out obstacles.  Perhaps the driver thought it was amusing, but I bet the safety crew members who were run ragged resetting the obstacles over and over were not amused. 

Those three displays stick out to me.  Three individual acts that turned me off the division completely.  This is a new division clearly met with mixed reviews.  Opinions of the division should not be based on a few selfish acts, but alas, such is life.  One bad apple can indeed spoil the whole bunch.

My suggestion for the division as a whole is to decrease the track size even further for Chaos Car events.  Keep the speeds down and the cars closer together.  The change to hundreds of bumps and bangs at low speed from a couple large wrecks at speeds exceeding the safety engineered into the vehicles will result in a better show and increased car count.

Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.msg71233#msg71233

[FromTheStands]

My suggestion for the division as a whole is to decrease the track size even further for Chaos Car events.  Keep the speeds down and the cars closer together.  The change to 300 bumps and bangs at low speed from a couple large wrecks at speeds exceeding the safety engineered into the vehicles will result in a better show and increased car count.

++

Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.msg71234#msg71234

[crazylady]

I agree with Jamie on the Chaos cars.  However, what I think needs to happen is to have these run at 7 pm when the drivers meeting is on and race preparations are underway.  This might encourage more families to come earlier to the track and get everyone revved up for the racing program that lies ahead.  At the end of the night, a lot of kids are just too tired to enjoy this.  Many people want to go down to the pits after the race but either leave because they don't want to watch Chaos cars or stay because they have no choice if they want to go down to the pits.   By the Chaos cars run earlier in the program, you may see more people go and visit the drivers in the pits after the races and it might also allow for the racing teams and their families to get out of the track a little earlier.  This may cause some logistic issue, but I don't believe that these would be insurmountable.

IMO, I think it is decent entertainment (with a reasonable car count) but it is just slotted in at the wrong time in the program.  

As for KOH, the crowds are never larger than on KOH night - so it's hard to argue with that one.  I think there needs to be a limit on the number of cars allowed to participate in order for it to not get boring though.







Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.msg71235#msg71235

[Turn1]

- I got to watch the RedBaron (another regular like SnotRod) spin into the new concrete pit wall all by himself.  OK, it happens.  But to follow that up by deliberately slamming into the wall two more times (once forward and once in reverse) was terrible.  Nice message your sending.  "Thanks for the new pit wall Arlen, here's how much I appreciate your investment!"  You don't see LM drivers pulling stunts like that.  Sure they cost more, so that would be exceedingly stupid.  But it's about respect.  I put what the RedBaron did right alongside keying someone's car.  It's gutless.  There have been some comments in this tread about people not respecting the Chaos Car division.  Well, stuff like this makes it easy to see why.

... ummm, do you think you're giving the driver that was doing the barrel turns twice a bit too much credit lol.  Usually people don't hit walls "deliberately" lol.  What's everyone think of that one?

Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.msg71238#msg71238

[TheVoice]

... ummm, do you think you're giving the driver that was doing the barrel turns twice a bit too much credit lol.  Usually people don't hit walls "deliberately" lol.  What's everyone think of that one?

You're right, hitting walls deliberately isn't normal.  Nor is it smart.  I didn't make any such accusation.  Just calling it like I saw it, and I had a pretty good vantage point.  Judging by the reaction of those around me, I'm not alone in my view.

As for doing double 360s around the barrel, I just assumed he was trying to be funny/entertaining since he was already long out of the "race".

Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.msg71240#msg71240

[TheVoice]

Investing the effort into a real car and taking part in the sport in a real way would give someone the respect for the track and sport they should have. Sportsmanship comes as taking part in a SPORT, and wouldn't apply to some bastardized poor excuse for a sport like bloody knuckles or in this case Chaos cars.

I don't think a significant financial investment is a necessary precursor to showing respect to others around you, in any situation.

Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.msg71241#msg71241

[snotrod2]

ryan.day.......who crapped in your cereal dude?  you have to be THE most bitter person i have heard in a long time.  do you race at all or are you a spectator?

Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.msg71247#msg71247

[Shadowracer]

Its a jack$ss concept to start with wouldn't you expect the particpants to fit the part? You reap what you sow.

Why don't you just quit beating around the bush and tell us how you really feel?

 

Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.msg71250#msg71250

[Snotrod]

ryan.day.......who crapped in your cereal dude?  you have to be THE most bitter person i have heard in a long time.  do you race at all or are you a spectator?

He secretly wants to race in the chaos cars, but acts all tough and bashes them.   

Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.msg71253#msg71253

[crazylady]

This thread is turning nasty......

Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.msg71257#msg71257