Re: Fontana divisional rumor
 

Mike,


I am not sure I understand the logic here. You will get the same amount of time runs and the purse will remain the same. Will not running Friday save NHRA a little bit of money? Yes, I'm sure it will. But it will also save a lot of the working class racers money because it is one more day they can stay home and work, and one less night in a hotel.


I personally think that supporting all of these events is important. You not showing up because you do not get to "hang out" at the track for that extra day does nothing to help our sport. I believe the majority appreciates the condensed schedule especially because we end up with the same amount of runs. I also believe we need to get used to it as this is the first of 4 divisionals here in division 7 that will be two day races. Sonoma is also going to a two day schedule with a test n tune on Friday and the Salt Lake Divisional is two, two day divisionals combined.


Thanks,
Justin Lamb

Re: Fontana divisional rumor
 

^^ lol

Re: Fontana divisional rumor
 

Justin
I am not sure you understand.
Some of us blue collar racers do not have a crew to take care of our equipment. It may be a surprise,but some of us build and maintain our own cars. We enjoy working on and testing our stuff. This does nothing for the racers that want to show up on Saturday. They always had that option. Now we are all going to be parking and teching at the same time. Saturday will be the only time hit. What could go wrong there?
Let me be clear.THIS DOES NOTHING TO SAVE THE RACERS MONEY!!!
Since you are our rep maybe we can discuss this while I am not supporting our sport
Would Bowling Green,Joliet,Bristol, or Tulsa work for you? I will be "hanging out" there
in the next month. I can fire up the barbie and we can dine while my crew takes care of my equipment.

Re: Fontana divisional rumor
 

This is a great topic.

Let me shed some light and be transparent on how a divisional works for the host track.

The host track pays NHRA a fee to be able to host a LODRS. If the host track gets over 300 entries then you pay an additional fee per car over 300. The host track pays 100% of the purse along with the normal overhead of their employees, insurance and so on. NHRA supplies them with the Wally's, a handful of employees (tech, starter, scales etc) and the division director to help run the event.

This year I took as the manager at Sonoma I looked at ways of making the drag strip more profitable for all the events hosted. It seemed like a no brainer to me to extend the Saturday evening curfew to 10pm (we can do this twice a year) and give all the LODRS racers three runs on Saturday and make Friday a test n tune to allow for less overhead for us and less time off for the racers. Division 2 has tried this method in the past and this year every division race is a 2 day format in that division. The majority of the D2 racers love the idea and with the three events they had this year all have shown big increases over last year.

I have also worked with companies to give back to the LODRS racers attending the Sonoma event. I have $6,750 worth of cash to give back to each class at our division race ($250 cash for the best losing package 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounds for every class).

For me it's fairly simple. Give the racers the best product possible while also giving our track the best opportunity to be profitable.

Hope to see everyone July 21-22.

-Kyle
510.912.4160

Re: Fontana divisional rumor
 

Mike I'm not sure you get the picture here... you dont sound like much of a blue collar racer you sound more like a retired wealthy man that apparently can afford to travel the united states and go racing whenever he wants and show up on Wednesday tech then have the option of test and tune on Thursday and besides if you need to test your cars why not support your local track on any other off weekend and prepare your car before you get to the race that way you are race ready when you get there , and i believe Mr Justin has a job and works and has 2 young children and maintains 4 race cars i dont recall ever seeing him with a "crew" ..... as a majority of us "blue collar" Working class people that cant afford to take multiple days off to race and test on Thursdays we have to take long nights after work working on our race cars then driving into the night and showing up late in the evening to wake up early in the morning to tech and race ....how do you expect new people to get into stock or any other class if it only caters to the retired people that dont have to clock in and out and work overtime just so they can show up on a Thursday when you can show up on a Friday night and still get the same amount of runs in on Saturday and race on Sunday and besides fontana is still going to have a test session on Friday so if you really need to test your car you can on Friday and be ready for sat

Re: Fontana divisional rumor
 

Let me make this issue crystal clear. These Two day points meets are not about SAVING racers money. That is a friggen laugh. If I can’t afford to take the extra day off work then I don’t need to be racing anyway...I applaud Kyle Seipel for recruiting sponsors for his points race. If he needs to trim the overhead to increase his bottom line then so be it. I believe he has proven himself to be an excellent race promoter.....Yes, all D 2 points races are two days....sorry, I won’t be attending any.... You can schedule two day points racers when you have small fields.... but when Mother Nature intervenes good luck with that.....

Re: Fontana divisional rumor
 

Who ever you are?
You don't know me. You have no idea When and where I race. I don't need to test. I enjoy it. We race both cars at the summit and ADRA races and support multiple combo associations. Having a 3 day race does not require you to attend all 3 days. Some very successful racers show up Sat for one hit and then go racing. That is your OPTION. Going to 2 days takes away my OPTION of showing up early. I have no problem with the track making a profit. If they don't we will not have a place to race. If they are not making a profit then raise the price. Anyone that believes that the $170 that it costs to enter one these races is a significant percentage of the cost to race is either very efficient or delusional. I am going with delusional.
Things go wrong at races, so when you compress the schedule there is no time to recover. Track prep will suffer. Safety will suffer. The fun factor will suffer. If this works then great. D7,Fontana,1 day, I don't think so. I choose to sit this one out.

Re: Fontana divisional rumor
 

LOL.......You go Commiefornia !

Re: Fontana divisional rumor
 

lol

Re: Fontana divisional rumor
 

Comments:

Div 6 has raised entry to $185 so be happy you are only paying $170?

Why are crew passes sometimes more expensive than spectator passes?

I agree with Mike's comments about 2 day races, supposedly we are doing this for fun, if this is a business venture why don't try to squeeze into one day and make it even more cost effective?

Regarding comments that 2 day races should have prorated entry fees, that brings up another question; where does the extra money go to when there are either 5 cars in the quarters of 3 cars in the semis? Why doesn't that get prorated back in?

Jim Caughlin
SS 6019