Mid-year horsepower posted @ nhra.com

[Alan Roehrich]

I was referring only to Stock Eliminator in that post. Most of the upper class cars in Stock are rated at 395+, so yes, a 1 pound weight break means 400 pounds or more to move to another class. We're at 425, 435, and 445, depending on the engine that is in the car at the time. We've run at 435 since late 2007 I think, but we have a couple of other piece in the works. So yes, I understand having to move a lot of weight if the weight breaks went to 1 pound (my suggestion was to start at 7 pounds for AA).

There is a Super Stock car in the future, but we're running in Stock only right now, I have not looked that close at Super Stock.

[Mike Carr]

6 pounds SS/AH and SS/A
6.5 pounds SS/B
7 pounds SS/C
7.5 pounds AA/S = SS/D
8 pounds A/S = SS/E
8.5 pounds B/S = SS/F
10 pounds E/S = SS/I, then S/S becomes one pound classes. 11 = SS/J, 12 = SS/K, etc, down to SS/P = 16.

[Mike Carr]

Michael Beard, if you get some time, can you e-mail me, or post the spreadsheet on like Indexes. I think it could present a lot of issues (example, SS/EM 9.95 and SS/B-BA at 9.90), but would like to check it out. Thanks.

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Billy Nees

Thank you! Now how do we get racers to all "agree on anything"! Alan, any racer that knows me has heard this quote,"Racers as a whole are so damned stupid that it's amazing we manage to feed ourselves".
I hope that at some point in time we all wake the hell up!

Billy I agree with that quote of yours. Kevin's favorite movie, Men in Black, has a great line , "Humans are smart, but people are dumb panicky animals".

And no, I don't know how to get even the majority, never mind everyone, to agree on anything that resembles a solution. But I can tell you that it is almost certain that the sanctioning bodies will never do it for us. It will come from the racers, or it will never come at all.

I think the most likely possibility, and even that will not likely come to pass, could begin with some sort of regional class racers' association, holding races like Alex's race from a few years ago, something like Terry was trying to do. A regional group, in a somewhat centrally located region that would allow them to hold races throughout the region, might draw out of the region racers that are close to the outer edges, allowing it to expand.

Example: Say we take the upper part of Division 2, the eastern part of Division 4, and the southern parts of Divisions 1 and 3. Form an association, and put on a series of races, say 2 day races, with a format similar to the SportsNational Open at Bowling Green, where you get one time trial and then you go straight into class, and then run the final eliminations the next day. Maybe have some sort of show Saturday night to help the track keep fans in the stands and make a little more money. Find some guys willing to tech. Hold 5-6 races in a year, say at Bowling Green, Bristol, No Problem, South Georgia or Reynolds, and you pick 2-3 Division 1 and 3 tracks. Then you could draw from the surrounding states.

That's just an idea and an example. You tell me. Maybe some one should ask the guys like Pete and Kyle, or Mike, or the other guys who put on the big bracket races why they don't do the same with say Stock and Super Stock. And maybe see what it would take to change their mind. Of course, Alex has already put on one big race. But no one has done it since.

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Mike Carr

6 pounds SS/AH and SS/A
6.5 pounds SS/B
7 pounds SS/C
7.5 pounds AA/S = SS/D
8 pounds A/S = SS/E
8.5 pounds B/S = SS/F
10 pounds E/S = SS/I, then S/S becomes one pound classes. 11 = SS/J, 12 = SS/K, etc, down to SS/P = 16.

Mike, I am aware of the weight breaks, that's not what I meant. I was saying that I have not studied what one pound breaks would do to Super Stock. That's why I was only posting about Stock. Super Stock is a different animal.

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lee

At the minimum, class wins, #1 qualifying position AND records should receive bonus points.

Top ten qualifying points at LODRS races would stop a lot of qualifying at the bottom games also. I guess I'm too old and dumb to get that one. Sad ain't it?

[Hagen Gary]

Some of you rich people make me laugh sometimes... We bairly have any new blood now. Do you think making it harder to win the Grand Prize of $1000 after spending half that just to go racing that weekend is going to help? Lets worry about whats going to keep this show going and not how to make it like it was yesteryear. Get used to it, Things change. Fast cars are not as impressive to a young person now as they were then. A competition involving old muscle cars vs newer american muscle is interesting to watch, but who are yall kiding? Nobody under 30 can afford this, and they have 45 years of bogus combo's to chose from as compaired to 10 back then. Everybody here knows how much it cost to go fast, and if they do it with something bogus, people talk crap about it to everyone who has an internet conection, so Performance loses it luster. It ain't just the economy, This ship is going down because we fail to attrack new blood. Why would anyone in thier right mind invest all this money? They would rather just throw thier money away in a poker tournament. Same man vs man competition, alot worse odds of winning if your an avg player, but at least your not investing $500 to win $1000 if you beat everyone. All those people who don't think low qualifing bracket cars should be racing in your performance based eliminator should thank them for keeping this ship going, or they would have no NHRA class to race in. Heads up is only 5% of the time, but I would take an extra 5% Guaranteed win upgrade. So go fast if you can afford it.

[Rich Aceves]

Alan,
I see no mention of Div.6 or 7 in your plan, I know you guys don't think much of us but a little consideration even if you don't mean it would be nice!

[Mike Carr]

Alan, I was meaning if one pound classes were in S/S, it would make for a 400-500 pound weight swing (or 800-1000) to switch to two or three classes. If S/S were one pound classes:

SS/A (and SS/AH) = 6.00
SS/B = 7.00
SS/C = 8.00
SS/D = 9.00 and so on

So if a car were to fall into this ''new'', natural SS/C at 8 pounds (something like a 426/425-450 '67 Street Hemi Plymouth), they would have to add/subtract 450 pounds to move to what would be the 'new' SS/B and SS/D classes, or 900 pounds of total adjustable weight, to make all three. That's an awful lot of weight. You would almost have to make a rule that a car can run it's natural class only, in 1 pound classes. So if a 427/425 Camaro has a weight break of, say, 8.53, it could only run the new SS/C(A).

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Rich Aceves

Alan,
I see no mention of Div.6 or 7 in your plan, I know you guys don't think much of us but a little consideration even if you don't mean it would be nice!

Rich, no slight was intended. I picked a region I had some knowledge of as an example, I do not know enough about Division 5, Division 6, and Division 7 to be able to use them as an example.

By all means, take my example and create something for your region with it. I wish you would.

Realize it is hard to get something like that going on a massive scale, such as nationwide. It's nearly impossible to do in a region, to begin with. But it has to start on a regional level first. Your region, my region, anyone's region, so long as it starts.