I realize this was several years ago now. Does anyone remember the reasons for the split between S.o.D and Auto Value? I recall hearing something about the cubic inch rule being an issue in the split. But that could be wrong. I thought it was cool that they ran pavement and dirt!

do not know if true but i always heard some wanted dirt only and some wanted pavement only and there were enough of each to do it

I'm not sure on the timeline either, but I know at some point SOD went to 360s while AVSS stayed with the 410s. Now that SOD is a ASCS sanctioned group they are more strict 360 rules. So a top notch AVSS engine is about 860hp and a top notch SOD engine is about 640hp. We've also come into the age where cars don't work so well on both surfaces, and probably a lot of guys couldn't afford 2 cars.

I do agree though, it'd be awesome to have a group that runs the same cars on pavement and dirt and has a combined championship. Realistically doing it, especially in MI is not an easy task though, especially with 2 established groups that have a lot of cars already existing. There's always USAC if you want that type of action, but most racers at our level (without a TSR or KKR ride) aren't going to be able to run an operation that could compete.

It'd be cool to have a mini-series within those two series that would have dirt and pavement racers competing against each other, maybe 6 dirt races and 6 pavement. The problem is that they both have large schedules on their own, so it'd be tough to find the time in the schedules to set it up without conflicts.

I bet TJSlideways would be the guy that reads this board that could answer this one the most accurately.

SOD series used to be a 410 group. they started running pavment and dirt at some point. early 90's onother sprint group started as a 360 ci group(united limited sprints), they had a couple diffent names. anyways, sod started making seperate points for pav and dirt then got rid of dirt totally because the 360 group took alot of there shows. other people tried to keep 410 sprints series going under different names like GLOSS but did not last. John Naida the owner of the name SOD somehow took the name to the 360 group at some point and thats how there is still the SOD name but really its a whole diiferent group( the 360 group). auto value sposored the pavment series so they change the name to AVSS because they no longer had right s to the name and it didnt fit anyways.

Basically, the whole thing got too expensive. The top teams had cars built specific for dirt or pavement. Those that could not afford both, raced one or the other. There was only a handful racing both surfaces, and those with a dirt car on the pavement were left way behind.

The owner of SOD was racing a different series with a 360, so when the folks running SOD decided to retire, he took the series 360 dirt racing. Thus, the AVSS (Now AVBBSS) was born. They tried to keep running both dirt and pavement, but no no avail. Higher car counts, and a smaller purse allowed the 360's to control the dirt.

There was a push in '98 or '99 to try and get a pavment 360 goup going, with rules that required you to run a dirt car. After many discussions, it was decided there was no way you could properly enforce a set of rules only allowing a team to use one car. The USCS tried it down south, and it seemed to work for a couple years, but quickly went wrong with the pavement suffering bad. Very glad it was not tried.

Personally, I think we have a pretty good mix right now. Good car counts, good racing, and some good people in place.

Duane