Silver Crown

Silver Crown Cars are somewhat similar to, but are not considered Sprint Cars. The Silver Crown Car was designed originally to run a 100 mile race on a one mile track, however, with fewer and fewer one mile tracks available, they also run them on half mile tracks.

The United States Auto Club, USAC, is one of the major sanctioning bodies racing throughout the United States. Initially, the National Championship for Indianapolis, or Champ Cars, was run on both pavement and dirt tracks with their crown jewel being the Indianapolis 500. As the Champ Cars became more specialized, the dirt tracks/dirt cars were spun off and became known as Silver Crown Cars. Today, USAC is best known as the sanctioning body for the Silver Crown Cars, non-wing Sprint Cars and Midgets although they have also sanctioned several of the lessor known feeder series.

At first glance, the appearance of a Silver Crown Car is somewhat similar to a Sprint Car. However, Silver Crown cars are much larger and carry approximately 75 gallons of fuel, alcohol, versus about 22 gallons for a Sprint Car. They also have a longer wheelbase, approximately 96 inches compared for Sprint. They have the option of an on-board starter (like a car), or a starter that was not attatched to the car, i.e. aircraft style starter that was shoved into the front of the car. Two way radios are allowed in a Silver Crown car (but not Sprint car. Weight minimum of 1475 pounds without the driver, vs 1175 pounds without driver on Sprint Car.

Silver Crown race cars were originally designed to run on dirt tracks, and later re-engineered for the faster asphalt pavement tracks.