Just an idea. Don't shoot me Ed

[Bobby Fazio]

I apologize if this was discussed or proposed in the past.

In super stock, what if we could pair up modified and modified stock cars for the first round or first 2 rounds depending on car count and pair up traditional SS or GT cars just to try and increase parity in the later rounds in the category?
If modified and modified stock have an obvious David vs Goliath advantage over SS cars in terms of engineering, aerodynamics, rulebook and tear-downs, could this even up the playing field just a little bit and maybe get some more true class cars to Sunday?

Pros: More parity in later rounds, increased amount of heads up runs in modified classes which crowd always enjoys seeing,

Cons: How ladder(s) would work,

[X-TECH MAN]

LOL....We could always have a top stock, middle stock, and Jr. stock like we had at local tracks back in the 60's. Oh wait......we dont have enough cars racing anymore.

[Chris1529]

How about random first round pairings to get rid of the ladder games?

[Chuck Norton]

Originally Posted by Chris1529

How about random first round pairings to get rid of the ladder games?

Been there, done that. It was the second worst format ever implemented in Stock Eliminator (second to "index dials with no break-out" racing).

In some ways, "random" pairings must have been comical to watch from a bird's-eye view. The over-the-record or lame-*** drivers usually found that any time they left their pit spot for a round of eliminations they would be leading the cherry-pickers all the way to the staging lanes like a pack of neighborhood dogs-in-heat on a summer afternoon. In today's world, the Dan Fletchers, Lang Brothers, and Joe Santangelos (no offense intended, guys) would be keeping an eagle eye on the lame ducks in the field and following them to the staging lanes in a string. In fact, they would probably get together ahead of time and make sure that they divided up the pigeons for a tasty first round snack. When I started racing Stock I thought it was cool that the bad-boys like Val Hedworth, Joe Allread, Bob Lambeck, Willard Wright, and Dave Kempton (further apologies to the living) were so willing to pit close to me and the other rooks. Later on, I realized that every time I started my car, one of them was in my rear view mirror and if I headed to the staging lanes, they surrounded me like wolves circling to pounce on a wounded deer.

In retrospect, it probably wasn't all that bad because it chased the panty-waists and ribbon-clerks out of the sport very quickly. You either improved your combination and skills or got out of Stock altogether.

Many of the practices we have today had their origin in problems that plagued the sport many years ago. I'm still around to tell you that, if you mess with some of those fixes, you may not like some of the outcomes.

c

[buzzinhalfdozen]

Chris, IHRA tried that a bit back in the 90's, it was met with quite a bit of resistance by a certain group of racers. I'm not smart enough to play the ladder game besides I deck my junk to the finish line thought that's what drag racing was all about. Others may disagree. Joe, Chuck, yes saw this played out many times to counter act this the officials would randomly point the cars to different lanes.... this also caused some hissy fits.

[Ed Wright]

I remember all that. We also had some that would not pull into the lanes until they thought everybody else was in, trying to get a bye run.

[Bobby Fazio]

Ok here's a rough draft. Also, remember guys there will be no random pairing and I also believe it will be virtually impossible to play ladder games now because there will be two ladders for first round and then one big ladder for second round to the conclusion. All 3 ladders will be decided by your qualifying passes. The first round ladders will be better known as pairings because they will only be used for first round. They will not continue on because a revised ladder will be constructed for 2nd round on out.

I will use Norwalk as an example. There are 66 cars registered for this race. There are 16 modified/modified stock/mx and there are 50 SS and GT. Although we will all qualify together, the 16 modified cars will be qualifying for a spot on their 16 car sportsman ladder. 1 vs 9, 2 vs 10...8 vs 16. SS/GT will be arranged on another sportsman ladder from 1 to 50 where it would be 1 vs 26, 2 vs 27...25 vs 50.

After first round is completed, a new revised ladder is now constructed by arranging the qualifying times of the 33 cars that advanced to 2nd round. The race continues from there as normal.

[Chris1529]

I was not aware that this has been tried before. I am sure it would meet with much resistance if it were tried now as well and it would probably create as many problems as it would solve.

[Harry 6674]

If it were my call they would be in comp where they belong and leave superstock to real superstockers. I'm sure some will claim lower car counts but I doubt it.

[buzzinhalfdozen]

Bobby, There are a few things in your proposal that bear further examination. First by "traditional" you mean what as I see you've added GT cars to this mix...I've never seen a Cobalt in our shop with a V8 in it or with rear wheel drive so I don't see anything traditional about it. This is just my opinion... they are basically modified cars with flat hoods. I'm sure I'll catch heck for that statement but it is simply my opinion. Over the years I've had a hand full of racers sorta look down their noses at my combo, and that's OK they're entitled to their opinion too it's what I have to race. I've really never had anyone tell me they'd prefer not to run their "traditional" SSer against my MX SSer, though they may have been thinking it no one has ever mentioned it to me. I'm all for changes being made as long as they're made in the interest of good sportsmanship racing, not just for the sake of change. Joe