USAC not coming back to Darlington


Decision not to return linked to USAC’s decision
to change design of its cars
By Ashley Waddell
staff writer

In March 2007, a large group of drivers tested United States Auto Club’s (USAC) Silver Crown Series cars at Darlington Raceway and then USAC President CEO Rollie Helming said shortly afterward that it was “only natural” to join the Darlington Raceway tradition.
However, that feeling was short-lived.

Under new leadership, USAC decided to change their Silver Crown car prior to the 2008 series by returning to a more traditional short-track style of race car versus the newer model that made its first appearance in 2006.

New USAC President and CEO Kevin Miller said because their traditional Silver Crown cars are built for shorter tracks, they had to cancel their 2008 appearance at Darlington Raceway.

The USAC Series, which features races across the United States but has featured few events in South Carolina, was so pleased with the testing they paired one of their races with the two NASCAR events as part of last year’s Mother’s Day weekend at Darlington.

The 50-lap race took place at Darlington on May 10th and, according to Raceway President Chris Browning, even with scarce promotional time and hardly any budget, they were pleased with the crowd they got for the event.

Browning said he was disappointed when the USAC race was removed from their schedule. He felt they had built up enough momentum from last year’s event to make the 2008 version an unqualified success.

With only six weeks to promote the event, around 7,000 people turned out for the USAC racing show last season. Browning said those numbers were encouraging, but events and decisions within USAC taking place after the fact were beyond their control. “We thought we were going to be right on track, but things happen.”

When USAC decided to return to a more traditional car, it meant that tackling the high speeds and massive track at Darlington would be really unsafe.

USAC President Kevin Miller said publicly that he wanted to express his “deepest appreciation to Darlington Raceway for their commitment to the series”, and he announced plans of returning to the track “Too Tough to Tame” in the future once their newer car undergoes an extensive redesign.

The USAC racing show brought something new to Darlington and as Browning said, they are always looking to explore new and exciting attractions for Darlington Raceway.

However, he noted that not too many things will fill the grandstands like a NASCAR weekend.

“We’re always open to looking at things, but you don’t want to jump on something just for the sake of opening the gates,” said Browning.

He said they are currently looking for ways to utilize their facility and that a lot of their capital project improvements were and are designed with the idea in mind that they can have several different types of events at the raceway other than races.