Joe and Jill Spiker through J.S. Promotions currently operate Bloomington and Lincoln Park Speedways. My involvement at Bloomington dates back thirty years, but under the Spiker’s watch I have also lent a hand at Lincoln Park and previously Paragon Speedway. Accordingly, it is not unusual for Jill Spiker to check in, but one call offered some stunning news. Getting right to the point she said a backer has approached us to start a wing 410 sprint car series next season. We all know now that the backer was Kevin Newton of Honest Abe Roofing.

The Spiker’s business is racing. That’s what they do. At this point they represent the most stable group committed to weekly racing for open wheel cars. Therefore, if you were in their position would you turn this opportunity down? I don’t think so.

As many know, it was decided to stage an inaugural race for the Maverick Winged Sprint Car Series at Lincoln Park Speedway in October. It was in many ways a risky proposition. Race day was more than just a bit cool, and it is fair to say in normal circumstances the plug would have been pulled first thing in the morning. Still, given the novelty of the situation there was a great deal of hope that the event would attract a respectable number of cars. In what was probably a perfect storm, to everyone’s shock the pits were jammed with forty-nine cars.

By any measure, the race was a success. Were there a few hiccups along the way? Yes. Simply put, no one expected that kind of turnout and the officials played catch-up from that point on. To the credit of the participants the criticisms offered were fair and even-handed. Ayrton Gennetten may have summed up the feeling of many when he said there needs to be series where mid-level teams can compete.

Not surprisingly the announcement of this new series led to several overreactions. It has been interesting to watch all of this unfold. For many people I am associated with the United States Auto Club and have several formal roles with the organization. It is an affiliation of which I am extremely proud. I also prefer traditional sprint car racing. Yet, what I am more than anything is a fan. I love to go with USAC to places like Williams Grove, Port Royal, and Knoxville to get a chance to catch a 410 wing race. I have followed the World of Outlaws and All Stars for decades and in days gone by announced races for both groups. Overall, I like all kinds of racing and I want the sport to be vibrant. I also want local racing to be strong. A recent conversation with Keith Kunz led to a discussion about the silly arguments that spring up about wing vs traditional sprint car racing and frankly almost anything in the short track world. So, when it came to the Maverick series, what I saw was that there was a chance to bring something novel to Indiana fans on a more consistent basis. As a sport we continue to fight an uphill battle for the entertainment dollar of the consuming public. Because of this sometimes you need to mix it up. Sometimes you need to add some variety.

To me this isn’t a zero sum game. If this series runs a dozen dates (the current plan) stretched over four or maybe five tracks where is the threat? In some quarters this has been viewed as a step that will kill traditional sprint cars. These folks are irrationally mad. Then there are those who proclaim with glee that this is an indication that winged racing is going to take over Indiana. These people are irrationally happy. The larger question is why this dialogue even must happen?

A brief history lesson. There was a time when wing racing was far more prevalent in Indiana. When I first went to work at Bloomington Speedway it was a wing track. Traditional sprint cars were reserved for special events. Then a funny thing happened. When you took the wings off car counts went up. Relatively speaking it was more economical for a bread and butter racing operation to field a traditional car. No one could also dispute the power of tradition. There is nothing to suggest that people in Indiana will suddenly turn their back on a wingless sprint car.

Yet, even when Hoosier tracks all went back to traditional sprint cars were there fans of wing racing in Indiana? Of course. After all Steve, Randy, Kelly Kinser, and the late Kevin Huntley were from Bloomington, and Mark Kinser lived just a bit south. Even today many wing teams have shops in the Indianapolis area for many reasons.

One other important aspect of the Maverick series deserves some attention. If you are Joe and Jill Spiker who is your most important partner? It’s USAC. The USAC dates at the tracks they operate are vitally important with Indiana Sprint Week at the top of the list. Therefore, they have made it abundantly clear that when it comes to scheduling, they are going to work around USAC’s presence in Indiana.

The Maverick Wing Sprint Car series is not the World of Outlaws and as a fledgling series it isn’t going to fill the void left by the death of the All Stars. That doesn’t mean it can’t be entertaining and fun. Will it grow? That remains to be seen.