attention NHRA and IHRA Where have all the class racers gone

[BlueOval Ralph]

A lot of this right on, it's about seat time lets see 10 to 12 hour days for 24 seconds of seat time? What is the cost per second? I know several racers that have left Drag Racing for Sports Car racing just for a lot more seat time. Ask Terry Earwood about the seat time difference.

Originally Posted by Randall Klein

Chew on this:

A wealthy contractor got the bug and bought a new Mustang; its been run a few times and its a dog...1 second off. Its been massaged twice at over $10K, and is at another shop right now. The owner has other issues as well, health, work.....but: I cannot imagine him going to the track at 7 or so, getting the car ready, making two time runs over a 8-10 hour period, leaving the track between, oh say, 5PM and 8PM, and then having a 6AM wake up call the next morning....a man of this stature will want to have some leisurely fun, a nice dinner out at a restuarant, at a normal eating hour and then a few refreshments

The fun meter is pretty low when you spend 10-12 hours for 2 runs, if that, and who of us haven't experienced the excitement of a 10PM time trial with dew on the windows and on the track....someone once said they are trying to put 10lbs of classes in a 5lb sack


Now, you may say, racing ain't for this guy, and your right...the question is where are new racers coming from, the entry level cost (discounting dime rockets), is too high to be competitive for the younger crowd, the older guys with deep pockets may be like the above contractor, not passionate enough to put up with the crap like we do....pit space with shin high grass or dirt about a mile from the action, fees for this and that, uneven tech, bad track prep, unfriendly track personnel, misfactored cars ruining your combo and on and on

Why do it? To paraphrase Robert Duvall in Apocolypse Now: " I love the sound of open headers in the morning "

Drag Racing: a disease for which there is no cure