Mid-year horsepower posted @ nhra.com

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Hagen Gary

Nobody wonders why. Its way to hard to get someone to put up more money than what is offered at a NHRA National. Then you got to get a few good tech people, or have no heads up. Alot of people wont show if there are no heads up. Then its just a another big bracket race. People who want to do that just buy a .90 car and race both big money and NHRA. So once again, To be competative, the cost vs reward for s/ss is way worse than .90 cars. Don't you notice how many SC cars show up vs SS? They can put together a whole racing program for less than We have in our car. Then they don't have to worry about working on thier S!*t or having no shot of winning 5-7% of the time. Cost vs Reward. Seriously do the #s. If everyone can't get together on this point, to hell with trying to get people to agree to Qualifying and Record points, which I agree we should have. Sure would help the AHFS.

If you haven't noticed, there isn't much money available at NHRA races. The purse hasn't gone up in about 15 years ($300 to enter for Stock for a car, driver, 1 crew or family, and $1500 to win?), and the contingency money has dropped 60% to 75% in the last 4 years. There are about 1/3 as many companies paying contingency money as there were in 2006, if there are that many. I'm not talking who is listed in the ND, I'm talking about who is writing good checks and mailing them.

A new or good used dragster to run S/C is about as expensive as a rolling Stock Eliminator car. And all of those 555, 598, 620, and 632 Big Chief headed dry sump big blocks are not free. It ain't as cheap as you think. And S/G ain't no cheaper.


If the racers would show up, instead of whine, you could get several of the companies to put up some money. For the $200-$400 it costs to get in to an NHRA race, with one car, the same entry fee paid to a decent track operator for a 64 car field will generate a pretty decent purse, considering Bowling Green will be hosting a combo and paying $1K to win off of 50 or so cars at $50 to enter.

Now Bowling Green does have help from Comp Cams and TCI, which the racers greatly appreciate, how ever much they are spending. And yeah, they have heads up races in those combo races.

If Comp and TCI will help Bowling Green put on 4-5 combo races that draw maybe 50 cars, I'm sure they, and/or other companies would be willing to at least consider another program, especially if it were bigger, and covered a broader market.

There are companies that run their own contingency programs featuring a lot of the companies that class racers buy parts from, if you had an association with $100 members that paid $25 in dues, you could buy into one of those programs to pay contingencies for 4-5 races.

Example: $200 entry fee x 64 entries is $12,800. Pay to the semis @ $2K to win is $4K, leaving $8800 out of the entry fee for the track. Now, figure that for two classes at 64 cars, running both Stock and Super Stock as separate classes. That's $17,600 for the track for 2 64 car fields after paying the purse, not counting spectators, or concessions.

If the scheduled date of the races was done well, I'd bet 2-3 good tech guys would show up for $100 a day plus expenses. That's about $600 or so a piece, you'd need 2-3.

Those are just ballpark figures, not anything written in stone, take them for what they are worth. But if you're hoping it will get anything but worse until the racers do something about it, you don't have much hope.

[Hagen Gary]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

A new or good used dragster to run S/C is about as expensive as a rolling Stock Eliminator car. And all of those 555, 598, 620, and 632 Big Chief headed dry sump big blocks are not free. It ain't as cheap as you think. And S/G ain't no cheaper.

For a person just getting started in racing a .90 class is alot more appealing. If you want to compare apples to apples, the compare a low qualifing cheap s/ss car vs a good used dragster that might not run big MPH but wont get beat everytime he runs someone in his weight class. At least he has a chance, and he can run big money brackets and local brackets all day long. Now compare a Fast New S/SS vs a New Dragster with one of those huge motors. Still going to spend more on S/SS and wouldn't dare take it to a bracket race. How often do you think those .90 cars pull the motor down vs S/SS? Again, S/SS just isn't worth the money to a new player. .90 cars arnt either, but they have alot better shot of winning some back. If NHRA would at least Double the purse they would need, what? 10 more cars in each catagory. Not to metion the crew tix, and other moneys the track will make off of those extra entries.

[danny waters sr]

You talking heads up? If so that could create a problem running IHRA & NHRA classes. IHRA fuel injected classes should be used instead of NHRA F I cars runnuing reg stock classes. I could see a lot of IHRA cars not going for this reason. You know that the Majority of FI cars are a lot faster than the reg class cars. I know i would not want to run my 283 with a F I car ,be like taking a knife to a gun fight. Just asking how would that be handled ?

[Jack Matyas]

Originally Posted by danny waters sr

You talking heads up? You know that the Majority of FI cars are a lot faster than the reg class cars. I know i would not want to run my 283 with a F I car ,be like taking a knife to a gun fight.

Danny -- I don't agree -- just what classes do you feel the FI cars are stronger ? Our team cars fall into AA , A , B , C , D , E , F , G -- and I can get my butte kicked on any Sunday by a carb car ..............And have already this year several times .

[Alan Roehrich]

Jack, if nothing else, the IHRA rules keep the Cobra Jet and Drag Pack cars separate from the rest, at least to a degree. Of course, I've heard complaints at various combo races about all of the other classes for the IHRA cars. So, it's a double edged sword. No easy choice there, but certainly one that must be made.

[danny waters sr]

My car in IHRA will figure J ,K ,or L. You figure some of the early 90' FI cars Ford & GM. At any rate it would be hard to let you choose the sanction class you would run . Too many senarioes to pick and choose a soft class.My car only a 7 tenths under in IHRA and 4 under in NHRA.

[K Stubbs]

Originally Posted by danny waters sr

My car in IHRA will figure J ,K ,or L. You figure some of the early 90' FI cars Ford & GM. At any rate it would be hard to let you choose the sanction class you would run . Too many senarioes to pick and choose a soft class.My car only a 7 tenths under in IHRA and 4 under in NHRA.

Wade Owens runs a 283 with powerglide in K and L, I dont know of a fuel injected car in the country that can outrun him in his class.