The Demise Of Class Eliminations

[jmcarter]

Tim, if Lonnie didn’t have input I’m pretty sure Alan and Joe don’t (imagine Lewis Bloom could vouch for that). Unfortunately the NHRA folks who “get us” are in a distinct minority. The suits are NOT car people, they could be swapped one for one with others in comparable positions for a private equity business and we’d scarcely tell the difference.

[Tim Barrett]

Maybe someone can explain how they did it 25 plus years ago. I remember the Summer Nationals in Englishtown New Jersey approximately 128 Stockers almost that many Super Stock with pits so packed they made sure you were exactly on you pit line. With a 4 day event we had 2 rounds qualifying on Thursday 2 rounds qualifying on Friday and 1st round on Saturday. Not to mention the packed Pro pits with a midway that you could buy anything plus,you could bring a broken part to get fixed or manufacturers could test and diagnose an issue that a racer might have. I don't remember how they did class at that event,but they didn't beg guys to come to the lanes and the Dragracing was just constant cars running down the track.
I think we need to do our part to speed things up especially 1st round to find our opponent and get up to the staging lanes.
Like putting National Records in National Dragster,,someone just decided we don't need it anymore.

[SDT1DYI]

Originally Posted by DG

If we could get one more race like Indy, it should be the spring national event at Las Vegas. Most of us cannot go to Indy with any regularity due to the cost and amount of time away from work. Stock and SS racers on the west half of the United States deserve a Class racing opportunity like Indy. 128 car field with 150 quota, no AHFS and yes tear downs. LVMS has massive pit space and the town obviously has a nationwide appeal. Heck maybe running Class on a four wide track would save time and make it special. Would love to see a Ford, Chevy, Mopar and Pontiac all leaving the line with the wheels in the air running for A/SA class honors.

I could not agree more. There needs to be a Vegas race identical to Indy.

Steve Teeter
Stk /SS B/SA, L/SA 620

[NHRA1926]

The suits are NOT car people, they could be swapped one for one with others in comparable positions for a private equity business and we’d scarcely tell the difference.

And there is your answer to every problem we are discussing on class racer.

[Alan Roehrich]

NHRA wants the time so they can add other things to national events.


The next step is when class is no longer contested anywhere but Indy. Then nowhere at all.

[onefarmer]

I agree with all of you that it is very sad to see class going away at nationals, I will throw out some food for thought. I have seen first hand the spectators at national events walk into our pits as we generally have good pit spots near prostock or promod and we see alot of foot traffic. People will walk right by my stocker to look at the show down car. Unless you look under the hood they are both same inside and out. And the stocker is probably the fastest or one of the fastest stockers at the race but most of them walk right by it to see the showdown car. My personal opinion is there needs to be more heads up in stk and ss to get fans interested in it. As sad as it is to say most fans at national events have no idea or appreciation of what all the stk and ss cars are at the track. Another sad truth of changing with the times. When I have guests at the track who may have never been to a drag race before, they have a hard time wondering why some one wants to bracket race and they seldom understand .90 racing. Im still glad to be able to race a internal combustion engine that is loud.. LOL as those days are getting closer to being numbered

[Greg Gay]

I see a big difference between what the spectators will watch on the track, and what they will check out in the pits. I don’t even know if the NHRA brass are aware of this. Yes, the spectators might not watch much of Stock and S/S on the track, but once they have walked through the Pro pits, these are the cars that they check out. They will walk past a every carbureted dragster and tube frame Sportsman car, but many, many of them will look at, or stop and talk and talk with the owner of, the ‘60’s and ‘70’s Stock and S/S cars, ESPECIALLY the Stock Eliminator cars. Why? Because those are the cars that they can relate to. And the Stockers are more attractive to them because of no wheel tubs. Stock and S/S are a free car show in the pits and many spectators are aware of this. I have spectators come and talk to me about my cars every day of every national event that I attend. NHRA take note: we ADD VALUE to your events.

[Billy Nees]

I haven't run at a Natl. Event in YEARS other than Sports Natl.s but I just don't see it being practical to run Class at Natl.s Events anymore (except Indy). With 50-60 car limits on the field size there just aren't enough competitors to make Class Runoffs interesting for anybody, IMHO.
It just seems to be a better "fit" to have Class at certain Div. Events (example, Baby Gators) where the car counts will be 90-100+.

[James Perrone]

What’s the total shame about the way NHRA treats, stock and superstock
Is that all the classes pro stock too fuel funny car derived from
Stock and Stuper Stock eliminator
If there was no stock there is no NHRA Circus
Like dinosaurs I guess we will be eliminated
Bean counters rules

[JP1738]

As someone who is new to STK class, I'm not terribly broken hearted about not having run-offs as often. The idea is cool given it's doing the absolute most with the absolute least as far as performance parts are concerned. And if you're way down in the alphabet like some of us, it's one of the cheapest ways to do heads-up drag racing in the sport. But I never ran the class when they did run-offs as often as some of you are describing, so to me this just seems like business as usual. Bracket races all year and a run-off every now and then for the people who are really passionate about that kind of thing.