attention NHRA and IHRA Where have all the class racers gone

[ALMACK]

Originally Posted by chris3racing

Jack, you just hit a button. Very few will take the time to teach a young person about our sport. Some just go try on their own but very few. The future of our sport is passing the history on to the next generations. Open up your shop to younger generations and teach them how to work on engines, set up a car and take it to the track. I enjoy working with my son and grandsons, 13 and 6. I have about 6 young men who come in the shop on week nights, after they get off work, and work on either the race car or on one of the classics. Three have engines on engine stands and are learning to build their own engines. You are correct take young people with you to the track, give them some small part to do at the track. Intoduce them to your old friends at the track

Don't forget to give that young gear head a ride around the pits in a open header class car !
I was interested in race cars before my free ride, but afterwards I was hooked !


This is my first season running in IHRA Stock, but it took me 30 years to get to do it, so cost is a big issue for alot of the younger gearheads.
Plus, for the same cost, alot of the younger guys can run heads up classes in the NMRA and NMCA without fear of going "too fast"...

[THE LEGEND]

Rick,
I agree.
I've got a 24,22,20 year olds that all still live at home.
One can't keep a job.
One leaves for the Army in 3 weeks.
One works 30 hrs a week for minimum wage.
They can't buy gas and Lunch forget about racing.

[X-TECH MAN]

You got it Rick. Bottom line is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and lots of it. Even the well off are feeling the pinch umless they have "STUPID" money to begin with.
Wade I hate to say this but there was no one in the stands watching the .90 cars either back in the day unless it was friends or family. Not trying to be funny but just telling it like it was.
I remember when Allan Johnson was about 4 or 5 years old at the track with his dad Roy with his 2 IHRA S/S cars. Today because of an oil business he is racing Pro Stock or whatever you want to call it today. That takes the "STUPID" kind of money plus major sponsorship.

[FINESPLINE]

Bottom line is stock class racing ceased to be entry level racing a long time ago compounded by the economy in which college graduates cannot make enough money to pay back their college loans or even find a job period . Do you really think class racing is going to draw new members from that. Wake up ! Class racing is surviving on money made a long time ago and it is slowly drying up. It is what it is ---Reality !

[Paul Precht]

Today's stockers and (especially) super stockers are pro classes. With exception of the rare dime rocket as noted there's no way a guy can put together a quality stocker on a young man's salary. A huge percentage of all the competitive stockers in the country have engines built by the same 10 or so engine builders and they are not cheap, in earlier times a good local engine builder could at least have a chance. Stock racers by nature have pushed the envelope that brought it to this point along with the many high dollar race teams. I try not to let it bother me but it can be intimidating to see a stocker show up with a motorhome that is worth more than my 2 race cars, tow rig and house combined. What's a 20 year old kid with a pickup truck and a 78 Camaro bracket car, that want's to race stock, think when he see's today's stocker teams, he's got a better shot at dating a supermodel.

[treessavoy]

Jack, You and Rick are just wrong!

If you were right there would be lots of young people racing in S,SS......and they aren't there.

I teach pool to a lot of the kids around here and after discussions ALL of them could care less about drag racing, most don't know what it is!

All they care about is the newest IPhone, best Xbox game, loudest tin can muffler and the biggest car stereo and is it has more than 4 cylinders they don't understand it.

And yes, I've taken some of them to grudge race night and they spent most of the night playing games on their phones.

Truth is, I'm glad I'll be dead before they end up running the country. Not a single one of them has any ambition to better themselves.

JimR

[Paul Precht]

Originally Posted by treessavoy

Jack, You and Rick are just wrong!

If you were right there would be lots of young people racing in S,SS......and they aren't there.

I teach pool to a lot of the kids around here and after discussions ALL of them could care less about drag racing, most don't know what it is!

All they care about is the newest IPhone, best Xbox game, loudest tin can muffler and the biggest car stereo and is it has more than 4 cylinders they don't understand it.

And yes, I've taken some of them to grudge race night and they spent most of the night playing games on their phones.

Truth is, I'm glad I'll be dead before they end up running the country. Not a single one of them has any ambition to better themselves.

JimR

So very true Jim, this country's future looks pretty grim. Local colleges send their students to my store to do community service and many cant even put a kitchen cabinet on a hand truck and roll it out the door without detailed instructions, build a race car, yeah right. Their lives revolve around their cellphones, nothing is more important to them.

[Nick Heath]

Originally Posted by treessavoy

All they care about is the newest IPhone, best Xbox game, loudest tin can muffler and the biggest car stereo and is it has more than 4 cylinders they don't understand it.

Truth is, I'm glad I'll be dead before they end up running the country. Not a single one of them has any ambition to better themselves.

Originally Posted by Paul Precht

So very true Jim, this country's future looks pretty grim. Local colleges send their students to my store to do community service and many cant even put a kitchen cabinet on a hand truck and roll it out the door without detailed instructions, build a race car, yeah right. Their lives revolve around their cellphones, nothing is more important to them.

Wow. After reading these kind of nonsense generalizations from so called class racers (and it's far from the first time I've read it here), why in the world would a young person ever want to associate with this sport?

That reminds me...I can't help but wonder if the overwhelming NEGATIVITY on these forums and in this sport has something to do with what's keeping out new racers? I read these forums frequently and all I seem to ever read is some complaint about the new cars, or Ford's scam to take over the NHRA, or the bogus 350 truck, or some other bogus hidden combination like the 350 Cadillac, or something to do with LS1's or LT1's and their different hoods and different body styles, or aftermarket cylinder heads or carburetors, or the AFHS, or 1000' racing, or this class combo deal...I've explained class racing and some of these political issues to a very good friend of mine and he laughs at it! Sure there's a valid argument to be made in every one of these debates, but when is enough enough? Whatever happened to working on your car, going racing, running really fast and setting a record, because it was a FUN hobby?

I think there are many other problems with the sport relating to young people. The "we're not a car culture" argument has some merit. In the 60's and 70's there were lots of kids taking their Chevelles and Mustangs and Road Runners to and from school. Today's kids are lucky to get a Toyota Camry. Now which one is more fun to mess around with in the garage? Which one has more aftermarket parts available? Which one is more fun to drive?

But I think the economy and the overall price of class racing is the biggest problem. Let's take a look...how much does an average turnkey LS1/LT1 stocker cost...$30k? What about spare parts? What about a truck and trailer? What about the cost of traveling to and from the track via $4 diesel fuel, especially if you don't live in D-1 or D-3? And then after all of this, you can't forget the entry fees. If you can come up with a way for a young guy to afford all of this, please share, I'm listening!

For the record, no, I don't have a class car. But I'm 22 years old right now... I've been going to the race track with my dad since even before he started racing in 1998. You can do the math. Since then I could probably tell you who had the baddest B/SA in the country at that time, or the fastest C/SA in D-3 or what classes a '62 Plymouth 413 could run in. I would love to get into class racing some day with my own car or my dad's car but after reading some of these posts I probably wouldn't be able to get the car down the track anyway so why bother?

THE ECONOMY!!! Nobody can afford to come racing, because of the high cost to get in, and good jobs are very scarce. The weekly bracket programs are not doing as well either, Im sure if the NHRA was around in the 30's they wouldnt have had good attendance at the races either. We are not that far off. When and If our economy starts coming back, we might see growth again,

[CycloneFE]

Originally Posted by Paul Precht

I try not to let it bother me but it can be intimidating to see a stocker show up with a motorhome that is worth more than my 2 race cars, tow rig and house combined. What's a 20 year old kid with a pickup truck and a 78 Camaro bracket car, that want's to race stock, think when he see's today's stocker teams, he's got a better shot at dating a supermodel.

Paul, I gotta agree, I felt that way in the beginning, but after seeing how long the races go on if you happen to get rain, that motorhome may be a necessity not a luxury.