USAC Racing Forum

Has anyone approached USAC with the million dollar question about this. All other youth organizations have a cut off date of age in September instead of a birthdate. I think if the Jr.'s had the same you would see more youths competing on a national level instead of just the local level. The kids that really get hurt are the ones with birthdates between May and August. Their cut off date penalizes them at least one year of competing for a championship in their birthdate year. I know people say move them up at the beginning of the year, but in reality, 99% of them still have no chance and just stop racing because they are discouraged. Look at the Little League World Series, every year there are some kids that are 13 playing in a 11 and 12 year old bracket, but it is because the sport understands that the kids would otherwise loose a year if moved up too early, the same with our sport. I know personally of 5 kids just in our area that didn't race the entire year because of this. We need to look at it real hard. Hopefully someone with higher rank will see this and bring it to the table for all the Jr.'s that this affects.

Thanks,
Mike

I feel the criteria should be more complex and if a driver is ready to be moved up (from a skill level) they should be moved up.  You can have the same effect on new younger members if someone with more experience and skill stays in the rookie class and the rest of the field gets creamed. 

Also -- it may actually hold back some drivers that have skill as they work to avoid those with significantly less skill.

Yes, if I had a driver that I thought was able to run with the older drivers, I would move him or her up. You only get better if your competition is better. I believe with all my heart, if a parent had a child that was so much better than the rest of his or her competition, they would see this and move them up. You accomplish nothing by not running close with the competition. I just hate that there are so many out there that get down because they loose that last chance of running competitive before having to move up.

Thanks,
Mike

I agree there could be some change in this area.  In the North Carolina audio file there was a lot of discussion around the challenges to kids that get in the sport late and have to make that jump to Sr. Honda. 

But look at the flip side of the basing it on "skill level"...how do you clearly define what skill level warrants moving up?  To me that is way too vague.  There would be parents leaving their 9 year olds in the lower division way too long just because they can clean up in it on a weekly basis.  I realize those of us who want to push our kids to get better won't do that, but there will be people that do it.  Then the younger kids will start to get discouraged because they aren't able to win because the 9 year old that shouldn't be there is winning all the time.

There isn't an easy fix to this issue, but it is probably one of the bigger challenges that should be looked at to see if there is a better way to do it.

Yes, I think that if USAC did the cut off around the end of July, it would benefit itself. This would then give the child a chance to move up at the end of the year and at least get some experience and still compete a full schedule that year in Junior. It is a complex situation but one that is important to the Jr.'s. This doesn't need to sit low, but talked about.

Thanks,
Mike

I have thought about this for about 5 years, my sons birthday is aug 11th and we got cut off in his Jr year plus I think its crazy to keep adding weight to the cars so that some kids record in Qma wouldnt get broke (past leadership pulled that on us but it didnt work )Now the cars are heavier and faster! adding weight to cars that are limited for places to bolt it too was not a good idea! Any how I feel that the 120 classes should be 4 division Jr, Sr.Rookie, Lt and Heavy 120 put the weights the same as they were 5 or 6 years ago or at least the same as the 160 classes are, for that matter the new animal classes would work that way to! and if the child is not ready to move up dont move them up!  Just because they win in the rookie races because the car works well is not a good reason, they should show that they can STOP, Pass ,and hold a Fair line! and dont forget that most of the moms and dads are rookies too, heck i still am compaired to alot of others. Also if there are no points in the rookie classes they will move up when they are ready to chase the points, Just some thought !
      Jeff James

i think the rule as it is , is wrong..why in the world would you take a class championship away from a driver because his birthdate is a couple months before the end of the season.... is he going to have any more advantage the last couple months then he did the prior couple months of his birthdate, i don`t think so..anytime a kid can win a big trophy and a be a champion, he should be allowed to do so, it`s a big thing to them... just my two cents...

In an idea situation if you started in a certain class, you would be able to finish the year out in that class. So if your age qualified you first race of the year then you could stay in that class until the year ended. But, from what I understand, if your birthday falls in during the season you are allowed to begin the season in the class you would transfer to. Am I correct on this?

One of the two. Would be the way to go. I don't mind keeping the cutoff at the birthday, so long as the team has the option to run a full season in a single class, whatever class it may be.

That is correct Burns...if your driver has a birthday anytime during the season they can move up and race in the Sr class from the beginning of that season so they can run for a championship.  They can run the whole season in a single class.

See, then I don't really feel so bad about it. I mean, as long as the parent is made aware of the fact they're not going to be eligible all season long and have the option to do something they would be eligible for yearlong then it's fair.

 Here is whats cool with USAC.

Talk about stuff like this at your club.

Have president compile info.

President can then talk to USAC about it.

Easy as that.

You should be given the choice of which class to run.  In my case, my son will turn 9 in Sept, when there are probably 2 races left on the schedule for that points title.  Seeing as he's 7 now and we just moved up to Jr. Honda, there's no way I'm moving him up to Sr. next year.  But it's really unfortuanate knowing you probably have no chance of a title due to the fact that he'll be to "old" to compete in 1 or 2 races.  On the other hand, had he been able to move up right when he was 5, and compete some as a 5 year old, 6, 7 and 8, I can see the attitude of not wanting to run in Jr. classes anymore so move up. 

TQ97, if your son turns 9 with 1 or 2 races left in the season you can usually skip the last one or two weeks and use those as your drops and still compete for the Jr Honda Championship.  We had a kid win the Jr Honda Championship in 2008 doing that very thing.

To expand on what Phil said...you don't even have to go through your club president...if you see James, Kevin or anyone from USAC at an event, you can bring it to them yourself and if it is a valid point they will look into it.  That is pretty cool about USAC.

I will second that. I've emailed James two or three times with questions or concerns and the response was always quick and thorough. If anyone has any questions or issues they're concerned about don't be shy to shoot these guys an email. They'll get back to you pretty quick and always make sure they address the question the best they can and leave you knowing your voice isn't falling on deaf ears.

I did e-mail Kevin with this subject about a month ago but still haven't gotten any response back. There does seem to be a lot of concern here so I do think it should be addressed to the board. This is all about the kids and them feeling they have at least a chance. All of you have brought out some good points and this is what we should use this site for, communication on a positive level. Thanks to all that are replying to this subject.

Mike

It is a really tough subject because no matter what happens somebody loses out.  If you make the date September 1, there is going to be a kid with a birthday of August 30 that is going to lose out...

I would think somewhere in the September area as the cutoff date would be reasonable, but before that I think you start to hurt the younger ones because there is such a difference in attention span and focus between a 7 and 9 year old.

I agree though this is a great topic and exactly what this forum is for. :)

Speaking with the state youth co-ordinator here, he said they use this: Any child turning of the age after June 1st, may move up to the next age group at the start of the season if approved by the board or may choose to stay in it's class for the entire season, but can not move up and later choose to be moved back down. This kind of goes along with the fact neither organization (USAC or QMA) will let a child move up than move back down later in the season. Maybe we can start a debate on this and see where this takes us.

Thanks,
Mike

On thing that could maybe come into play is how long you have been racing too, but then that adds a ton of administrative headache to the process. 

What I am saying is if your kids started racing when he was 8, maybe he could stay in Jr that year he turned 9, but if your kid started racing when he was 5 he couldn't.  Again not a perfect scenario because of the headache of tracking all that, but something like that could address the issue with kids with little experience getting thrown to the wolves in Sr Honda.