attention NHRA and IHRA Where have all the class racers gone

[rognelson777]

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

this is part of the problem. The other part is, and I know this will get me in trouble, is stock and super stock is bracket racing. Some of the racers on here should go to cecil county street car races or The showdown at etown. It is heads up racing, limited by tire size, weight or power adder. 1st to the finish line wins. Cecil just had the yellow bullet street car race and I bet there were more fans there than all of the divison 1 lodrs races put together, even maple grove and epping races that were promoted. The other important thing that is happening is most of the racers there bring 4 and 5 people to the races with them, and you can show up and race on sunday if you want too. Test and tune friday, qualifying saturday and sunday and eliminations Sunday at 3pm.

Most classes are heads up, 1st to the finish wins. Now NHRA tried this many years ago in stock and super stock, and did not work because most money wins. Tracks had no racers and bracket racing began.

You want people involved, make 20 stcock classes, adjust the weight to equalize when 1 package starts to dominate and make it heads up racing.

Look up these special import events or street car shot outs at your local track and go watch what the young guys and girls are racing.

oh and yes their forums are always complaining about weight breaks, but so what as long as racers are showing up

[Michael Kilduff]

Originally Posted by rognelson777

this is part of the problem. The other part is, and I know this will get me in trouble, is stock and super stock is bracket racing. Some of the racers on here should go to cecil county street car races or The showdown at etown. It is heads up racing, limited by tire size, weight or power adder. 1st to the finish line wins. Cecil just had the yellow bullet street car race and I bet there were more fans there than all of the divison 1 lodrs races put together, even maple grove and epping races that were promoted. The other important thing that is happening is most of the racers there bring 4 and 5 people to the races with them, and you can show up and race on sunday if you want too. Test and tune friday, qualifying saturday and sunday and eliminations Sunday at 3pm.

Most classes are heads up, 1st to the finish wins. Now NHRA tried this many years ago in stock and super stock, and did not work because most money wins. Tracks had no racers and bracket racing began.

You want people involved, make 20 stcock classes, adjust the weight to equalize when 1 package starts to dominate and make it heads up racing.

Look up these special import events or street car shot outs at your local track and go watch what the young guys and girls are racing.

oh and yes their forums are always complaining about weight breaks, but so what as long as racers are showing up

I saw some video clips from the Yellowbullet race recently, looked like there were a lot of crashes. Some were really bad.

I don't doubt some of the fans there went to see some friends run their cars, but it's important to realize that small tire heads up racing has a 'Roman Coliseum' aspect to it similar to ADRL and Nitro cars. And NASCAR too-some people like to watch stuff blow up, crash, and catch on fire. Death defying feats and white knuckle driving has a certain appeal to lots of folks.

Fortunately that rarely happens in Stock and Super Stock racing.