Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobby Lundholm
(Post 624055)
We had 69 cars at our Great Lakes Stock Super Stock series this past weekend.
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You had 133 cars at the class nationals at Numidia and 160 at the .90 Nationals & Top Shootout at Maple Grove....just those two events alone almost have more then the sportsman count at Gainesville / Atlanta Sportsman Nationals, I think at cutoff it was Only 33 in Stock & SS, 27 in SC, 28 in SG, 32 in SST, 15 in TS and 21 in TD, yes I know a lot of other events going on, Double in St. Louis and D1 in Maple but, just seems to be some bad scheduling and communication. Both the .90 Race and Class Nationals events were created over a span of 5 to 7 weeks with the focus of the racers in mind. Yes, I know, it may never happen again because this was such an off year but, you treat the racers right and respect, you make that lasting impression and they come back...It's the #1 rule in any customer service job. The interesting thing is in 2021 if Ken & Tim decide to do another, if the counts will be the same saying we go back to "Normal". I hope it gets bigger and the people that missed it this year have it marked on their calendars for 2021....could you imagine what they could do with a years time to get products and promote the events. I'll be honest and I took some heat for it, I didn't think what Tim and Ken did at Numidia could be done, I've been there and done that in 2013 with my own Stock/SS race since Lee & Brian were moving to PS and always got the excuse of "the Hills, The Drive, The DA is 4,000 feet, I don't go fast" but, they knocked it out of the park, actually all of us did....so kudos to them both and the staff they assembled to hand out prizes and cash. I've already been contacted to do another .90 Nationals at Maple Grove for 2021, now it's just waiting to see where all the dates drop which I'm hearing won't be announced till November. So hopefully Ken and Tim are thinking the same for 2021 also.
What will happen with NHRA, who knows, they could go the route of NASCAR and have multiple partners instead of just one. I think NASCAR has Busch, Coke, Geico and Xfinity as their partners. Just whatever happens it will have an impact not only on the National and Divisional level but, weekly programs also "IF" NHRA goes down, we all hope it doesn't but, what concerned me was when he said we're financially stable for 2021, my question is what about 2022 and 2023 when the contract was still active with Coke, what if they don't find a sponsor by then? I've seen that a few people said that it's time for IHRA to make a comeback, I think IHRA is happy just where they are, they tried the 2 races in a weekend, $5,000 to win races and got no support for it, which is a darn right shame, why would you jump back into the shark tank after being bitten already.
Was Happy to see Mike D. and that group have a great turnout and I hear Mike's heading East to come play with the D1 crowd this weekend at Maple Grove. We'll have the cheesesteak and tasty cakes waiting for you pal (If anyone doesn't know Mike and my Dad grew up together in NJ)!