Re: Support your local Combo/Association races!!
 

A lot of times scheduling is a problem because of so many races.

Re: Support your local Combo/Association races!!
 

Mike,

I have sort of sat back and just watched what was posted here before I posted. maybe I shouldn't even offer a reply as I am too personally involved in the S/SS Association thing. If I had the magic answer for the car count problem we would have 100 cars at our events instead of 30 - 45. I get all the same reasons for not attending that I'm sure you do. We have posted our rules online and follow them. We have no heads up runs, this allows everyone who wants to run class to have an equal chance. We get everyone from World Champions and National Record Holders to "Joe Beginner" race with us. We random weigh at our races. It keeps honest racers honest. Number one qualifier means nothing, no first round bye, no cash reward, nothing. We allow all NHRA, IHRA, NMCA, and NSSA cars to race with us. We use IHRA indexes and classes where applicable for the same reason as stated for heads up runs. It has taken 4 years to refine our rules and as in the major associations we are constantly evolving.
I don't know how you do this all by yourself! Props to you! We have a board and there is no way one guy could do it all and remain sane! Jim

Re: Support your local Combo/Association races!!
 

bowling green runs nhra combo, no ihra... and with a qualifying ladder and pairings, scale all heads up... i go there whenever i can they had 48 i think 3rd weeekned october...

other than the lack of tech it is perfect... but tech would be great, with protests.

jack

mike you might wanna tighten up your rules ?

Re: Support your local Combo/Association races!!
 

-Rob/Joe, I ask for input just to see if the racers feel something could be better, or if I personally am doing something wrong to keep racers away.

-Jim, my mom was a big help this year at the track, to me, it's not all 100% me only. Especially at Hagerstown, we both worked our asses off with so many cars (73). Dad didn't take off work this past year for the races, and I can't blame him for not wanting to miss a day's work for 15 cars.

-Jack, the tracks do not have qualified tech people, or as qualified, as Bowling Green, Ohio Valley, some of the other tracks etc. If you (or anyone) would like to send me money so I can hire someone (are there any good NHRA/IHRA tech people in eastern OH/western PA?), I am all for it.

Re: Support your local Combo/Association races!!
 

Mike,

I understand the whole asking for input from the racers to make the series stronger and find out what you are doing wrong....even if your doing nothing at all. The only problem that comes from this is no matter what you do or try people will find something to complain about. Rather it be something like you lined me up in the wrong lane during 1st round to the bulb was burnt out on the left side scoreboard. It is a "Thankless" Job!

I know each year once the National & Divisional Schedules are announced I put together a word file for myself and Lucky to find out what opening weekends we have to put races at. This year we are getting together with Dave Ley to put together SG,SC & STk/SS races all at one weekend. I found out first hand that no matter what you schedule people will go to NHRA Races over yours. I scheduled the .90 Event on an open weekend in 2010 except for the Bowling Green D-3 event, later on in the season they announced Charlotte was getting a divisional. To me I thought that was no biggy as both of these tracks are over 600 miles away for most D-1 racers, then came the phone calls and e-mails telling me they are going to drive 800 miles to Ky or 600 miles to NC over 100 miles to Numidia. Luckily enough a Hurricane came up the coast and we had to postpone it till this year. I would look into maybe into doing 3 to 4 double weekends at one or two tracks on non-nhra race weekends...

I took a look over the 2011 schedule that you had and even though people live in Ohio, Ky or Western Pa they will drive to a D-1 or D-3 Race Rather then come to yours, trust me it's nothing you are doing wrong at all cause you pour your heart in soul into the series and post on all the sites about the series but, people look at the schedule in the beginning of the year and go "can't make that race, it's on top of this, can't make that, it's on top of that" then all of a sudden they go I guess I'm not going to run Mike's Series this year. We learned our lesson a few years ago with MASGA cause we put a race on top of Mother's Day and had a horrible turn-out and we still get some flack from people if we put one on top of Norwalk or Columbus but, sometimes you have to look at it and bite the bullet....

April 2nd -3rd - Too Early, People are not ready for the season yet. Heck I know a lot of people who aren't even ready for Maple Grove at the end of May
May 29th - On top of the MG Divisional
June 4th - E-Town National Event
Sept 10th - E-Town / Tri-State Divisonals
Sept 17th - Charlotte National Event

Re: Support your local Combo/Association races!!
 

I'm pretty sure the car count at the last Bowling Green race was 66 cars.

Bowling Green has a good program for several reasons.

The track supports it, the payout is good, the entry fee is fair, and there is a points program.

Other businesses support it. NitroPlate, TCI/Comp Cams, Quick Fuel, and a few others support the Bowling Green races.

The location is good, there are a lot of really good racers with really good cars close by, or at least within reasonable driving distance.

We have heads up races, a regular ladder, and NHRA classes, and we have that because that is what the racers want. I honestly think that if we did away with the ladder and heads up runs, we'd lose maybe 30% of the car count.

No, we do not have "tech inspection". We have the "honor system". Everyone who races at the Bowling Green combo races knows everyone else there. I don't think it would work out well for anyone to try to get over on the group that races at Bowling Green. There are enough people at Bowling Green who know enough about Stock and Super Stock to know real quick if there is anything going on. The group takes it seriously, it's a matter of pride and reputation. These people love to race, if anyone tried to pull something, they'd be caught, and I doubt they'd come back.

As one guy who races the Bowling Green series has said, "if you got caught cheating here, and you would if you did it, I think the "blanket party" held in your honor would make it unlikely you'd ever do it again".

Yes, we'd like to have tech inspection. I'd bet Travis would do it for us, and at a fair price. But asking one man to tech 60 cars is asking a lot, of him and the schedule. We'd like to have fuel check as well. Again, time and man power is a problem.


Honestly, heads up races are not common, we have a pretty good split between Stock and Super Stock, there are rarely more than 3 cars out of a 60+ car field in the same class. We're usually part of the three car groups, in SS/EA it's Ryan Haag, Rusty Perkins, and us, in AA/SA, it's the Knight brothers, Thomas Arnett, and us, depending on which car we bring, this year it has been the SS/EA car. I think in the last 2-3 years, we've had maybe 2 or 3 heads up races.

Re: Support your local Combo/Association races!!
 

not sure whether y'all are lucky or lazy, lol. Last race down here is the combo is this weekend and the first divisional is the 2nd week of february. Y'all have it easy

Re: Support your local Combo/Association races!!
 

Mike, I support the combo races in Bowling Green and go to Ohio Valley when I can. The BG deal is the best because it's run just like a points race, with a ladder, heads up runs and scales that work. Plus the track is almost always really good. That being said we rarely have any one race with us that travels more than 200 miles. I feel that is probably about as far as you can draw for a $1000 to win combo race. Maybe you don't have enough cars in your area to support them or maybe something else is keeping them away.

Re: Support your local Combo/Association races!!
 

We try to support our local association as much as we can, we've raced Div. Nats. and these combos. Last year was a wash for us as I hurt both my engines, however I still want to support the local deal. For me the Nats. are just too much money and days off work, if I didn't live a stones throw from Norwalk I'd skip it, we argue each year wether to go or not I hate to miss 2 days work when the race is 15 miles away. Even the Div. stuff requires I take Fri. off. I've not made concrete plans for next year but plan on keeping it as local as possible. If I can win the arguement with Jacque I wont go to any Nats this year... the cost is just too HIGH. I've had some guys tell me they won't run the combos cause they don't want to run Stockers in their S/S car, me I don't care it's still racing. Heck I sometimes go to the local track and run No-box I built my junk to race not be a conversation piece. Granted there are many with much nicer and higher dollar cars than mine that may just think anything but a NHRA race is just beneath them, thats fine with me but I want to RACE, that's why I built this stuff. Joe

Re: Support your local Combo/Association races!!
 

That is so true !
Doesn't matter how well a race is planned or executed, there will be at least one driver that will complain, and it usually is something petty.