Hey there - I've been a huge racing fan most of my life but dirt racing only really came to me a few years ago. I love what you're attempting to do here and in some ways it sorta works well with my intentions of blasting the internet full of old racing mags from the wayback as I acquire them. I'm not the best historian either on this but I've definitely learned a good amount over time and I think I can provide some context here for not just the Kinsers, but "dirt racing" as a whole.
A few helpful things I've picked up over time:
*Series titles more often than not didn't matter (the Outlaws are a great example), but more importantly, many series titles that did matter may no longer exist. For example, the California Roadster Association (CRA) ran sprint car racing in Southern California and the Western World was a race they sanctioned for decades. It would wind up being effectively considered a "major" at the same level as the modern Knoxville Nationals or Kings Royal in it's hey-day, but those days came and went.
*Speaking of WoO, WoO until the early/mid 80s (don't know specifically when) was just a list of every sprint car race in the US that paid $2,000 to win or more. Literally, that's all it was. Thus there could be two WoO races on opposite coasts or the same coast simultaneously and often were. This also meant that races for both wing and non-wing cars were included on the schedule. Just further confusion.
*I think this is an important distinction to make about "grassroots professional motorsports" in the US that is not true of literally anywhere else I am aware of: as important as it is usually perceived that series are, track championships can and often did matter more. I'm sure you ran into this with Dick Trickle, but given the barnstorming nature of short track racing, economics play a role here. For example: the track championship at Knoxville is easily the most prestigious in all of sprint car racing. Each race there pays at least $5K to win, making it as lucrative to race Knoxville and not travel as it would be to follow the Interstate Racing Association or All Star Circuit of Champions (v3 or v4, whatever, idk), and that's before special shows with touring series. Central PA is particularly noteworthy for the "posse" (local racers who are super competitive with touring series) because they have an economy of scale thanks to high value tracks like Williams Grove and Port Royal.
So yes, I'm probably making life harder on you by suggesting that things like track titles have to be in consideration when running this analysis and in turn, needing to do things like "get records for who was winning at Ascot in the 70s" but alas that is the nature of American racing. Also kinda why I love it so much. It seems so simple at a surface level but maaaaaaan is it deep and you can get lost in it forever.
Oh and sorry to double post, but do you have any results for Australian Sprint Car racing as part of this? I reminded myself just now that the Kinsers were touring there as far back as '79.
Hey there - I've been a huge racing fan most of my life but dirt racing only really came to me a few years ago. I love what you're attempting to do here and in some ways it sorta works well with my intentions of blasting the internet full of old racing mags from the wayback as I acquire them. I'm not the best historian either on this but I've definitely learned a good amount over time and I think I can provide some context here for not just the Kinsers, but "dirt racing" as a whole.
A few helpful things I've picked up over time:
*Series titles more often than not didn't matter (the Outlaws are a great example), but more importantly, many series titles that did matter may no longer exist. For example, the California Roadster Association (CRA) ran sprint car racing in Southern California and the Western World was a race they sanctioned for decades. It would wind up being effectively considered a "major" at the same level as the modern Knoxville Nationals or Kings Royal in it's hey-day, but those days came and went.
*Speaking of WoO, WoO until the early/mid 80s (don't know specifically when) was just a list of every sprint car race in the US that paid $2,000 to win or more. Literally, that's all it was. Thus there could be two WoO races on opposite coasts or the same coast simultaneously and often were. This also meant that races for both wing and non-wing cars were included on the schedule. Just further confusion.
*I think this is an important distinction to make about "grassroots professional motorsports" in the US that is not true of literally anywhere else I am aware of: as important as it is usually perceived that series are, track championships can and often did matter more. I'm sure you ran into this with Dick Trickle, but given the barnstorming nature of short track racing, economics play a role here. For example: the track championship at Knoxville is easily the most prestigious in all of sprint car racing. Each race there pays at least $5K to win, making it as lucrative to race Knoxville and not travel as it would be to follow the Interstate Racing Association or All Star Circuit of Champions (v3 or v4, whatever, idk), and that's before special shows with touring series. Central PA is particularly noteworthy for the "posse" (local racers who are super competitive with touring series) because they have an economy of scale thanks to high value tracks like Williams Grove and Port Royal.
So yes, I'm probably making life harder on you by suggesting that things like track titles have to be in consideration when running this analysis and in turn, needing to do things like "get records for who was winning at Ascot in the 70s" but alas that is the nature of American racing. Also kinda why I love it so much. It seems so simple at a surface level but maaaaaaan is it deep and you can get lost in it forever.
Oh and sorry to double post, but do you have any results for Australian Sprint Car racing as part of this? I reminded myself just now that the Kinsers were touring there as far back as '79.