Re: Class Nationals event planning
 

"Thank you all for the support and spirited discussion"

Kinda like herding cats isn't it?

Re: Class Nationals event planning
 

Thanks for the "update" on US-41 guys... I knew it had a National Event once or twice
before...so it had the ammenities...and being a little more west...it was more central.

That's ALL I knew.....

Haven't heard a comment on returning to Byron...good or bad....

Mike...before you put the stamp on Ohio...why not consider Earlville? Think you heard
those "kudos" about the place...

How about a mileage assessment on that location? Want to see some of those
western boys!

Got to run to work...who knows...maybe fuel costs will come down in the next year or so!

Re: Class Nationals event planning
 

With the tentative date on the same weekend as Atlanta's customary National event weekend I guess D2 racers will have an easier choice although Atlanta has never been my favorite track. Price of diesel vs. dropping gas prices stinks and fuel costs to race is a definite factor.

Re: Class Nationals event planning
 

If the NHRA schedule is the same in 2014 as it is in 2013, then it would be on top of the Atlanta national event, in which case I expect the FL, GA, AL, SC racers would go to Atlanta. Again, it is impossible to make an event that is perfect for everyone. Even the US Class Nationals had an NHRA National Event on top of it.

Bristol is one of the top facilities in the country, and as such, has a commiserate rental fee, which makes it a non-starter. It would require a much higher entry fee and/or lower payout, which would in turn yield a lower car count, plus it is geographically in competition with a possible Atlanta event, which Columbus is not.


The changes that the facility has made and having raced on it several times myself has given me that confidence. I believe they'll have two more solid NHRA events in the coming year that will establish that 'new Columbus'.

That's a "push" vs "pull" mentality. Rather, you put the warm milk out there -- if the interest is there and you've done your job properly, you have success. If the interest is not there, we'd all find something else to do on that weekend, like we've done every year since the US Class Nationals. My goal is not to be a race promoter for a living. I got into race promotion when an extremely popular, long-running annual event was deleted from the schedule. Racers wanted it back, and no one else would do it, so Anthony Walton and I partnered up to bring it back. The following year, the same thing happened with another popular event, so we picked that one up. We now have 3 big money bracket race weekends on the schedule for 2013. Adding a class nationals event in 2014 would bring the total to 4, and that's *plenty*. Having done three major events now, I'm fully aware of just how much time, effort, and money goes into these things behind the scenes. Even after working numerous Bracket Finals events for IHRA over the years, in any number of positions, I discovered that it falls under "You think you know, but you have no idea." The reward comes at the end of the weekend when your customers leave with a smile on their face and a "Thanks, we had a great time." You deserve to have that experience.

I've definitely heard good things, no doubt. For an inaugural event, in addition to staffing logistics, I'm looking at being able to draw heavily from Div. 1 and Div. 3, while being within fair reach of Div. 5. Quite simply, that's where the bulk of the cars lie. Starting out in Div. 5 would likely gain far fewer cars from the west than the event would stand to lose from Div. 1. If the first attempt doesn't live, there won't be another one. Remember too that unless you get 128+ car fields in both Stock and SS, the event is unlikely to stand on its own. There is an existing base of No-Box cars that are asking for the return of a $5K event in this area, and that's what's going to make it possible to have the event. At this point, I have no working knowledge of possible "support classes" that we can successfully run in conjuction with S/SS in Iowa. You need something strong enough to pay a large portion of the track rental, but not something that's going to overburden track time for the S/SS customers. If we exceed expectations in 2014, then you may have something to work with in the future. I will try to get to Earlville myself in the coming year and check it out. But again, unless the track rental quote gets adjusted out of the realm of feasability, that is where I would like to start.

Many promoters probably wouldn't get into this kind of detail and discussion, but something that was instilled in me by Bill Bader is that as a promoter, I will always give you not only "what" a decision is, but most importantly "why" it was made.

I made my first trip to Atlanta last year, and I liked the place, quite a lot, actually. I believe that they recently put Jim Mcelvey in charge there: he's a racer and a good guy. I may hit the double-header there this year. When I was looking at scheduling, I saw this, but after researching their attendance, I don't see a conflict. The attendance was low in both classes (38 Stock, 33 Super Stock), and only a handful were northern teams. Both Atlanta and Columbus are NHRA-owned facilities, so if there is an issue, we will figure that out very soon. The NTR staff is already checking into it.

Re: Class Nationals event planning
 

I think it's great that Mike's doing this and applaud him for his effort. Obviously, it will be impossible to keep everyone happy, particularly about the location of the track. I give thumbs up and will spread the word.

Re: Class Nationals event planning
 

Nothing personal the guy is just a JERK on the phone and in person no matter how nice we tried to talk to him

Re: Class Nationals event planning
 

Columbus will work fine for me.
I'm putting this event on my planner.

Thanks for all your hard work Michael on organizing this event.

Re: Class Nationals event planning
 

Very Cool!!!! We will be there with bells on. I scheduled a UMTR race there back in '08 and Jim Layton & crew at NTR are top notch. You add Redman and possibly Travis and you can't go wrong. Will there be a problem double entering the same car? One entry in Stock and one entry in the no box race but using the same car?

Re: Class Nationals event planning
 

Michael, just my .02 as a D2 racer. I would skip the Atlanta national to run your race, if it were in Bowling Green. But Columbus is just too far for most of us in the south.

Re: Class Nationals event planning
 

Understood, and realistically, since both Columbus and Atlanta are NHRA owned facilities, we don't want a conflict -- something that would be more of a decision for southern racers if we were at BG.

Nitro Joe is officially in. Travis will not be available, but I will study additional Tech options. I know Don at the track is all in -- he was working Tech at the two Columbus events and later doing pairings in the lanes. Mike Carr has offered to help in any capacity.

Yes, S/SS cars would be permitted to run No-Box as well with the same car. FYI, No-Box would most likely be run 1/8th mile. That's what that crowd likes, and S/SS cars would not get 1000' & 1/4 data to apply to their own class, so there wouldn't be a major advantage over guys that were just running S/SS. Or if you think it would be a major fairness issue, we could allow people to run No-Box just on Saturday, since that's just Qualifying and Class for S/SS. Your thoughts? I'm ok with allowing S/SS cars to run No-Box both days if everyone else is. Rules are basically the same as SS. Transbrake/2step and air/elect shifters ok. Will call Footbrake and Transbrake cars to the lanes separate.

Because No-Box will go more rounds, I think we can do a Sunday time trial for S/SS, which would allow people to get a clean 'bracket mode' hit in case they were on kill for Class.