CLASS RACER FORUM - Beard Wins

PBIR: Top of the line dragstrip. Kinda like a smaller version of US131 (Martin, MI). Wide, smooth, nice concrete guardwall, sandtrap with double-layer catch net. Very tight rollout for a Compulink.

To be honest, things were running pretty fast and I was concentrating on what I was doing so much (rare, I know...) that I never made it over on the left side of the track where the road course is. S/SS, TD, TS and the Pros/exhibition stuff were all pitted on the right side. The only thing that we all thought was wacky was the track required us to *push* the cars on and off the scales, something that the tech guys didn't like either, but with the number of cars we had, it wasn't that big of a deal. Now, if we had twice as many cars, you might start running into pit space issues, and the scales would get backed up, but really it's not any worse than having to use the front & back portable scales that we have to use at some Pro-Am tracks.

For the Sportsman racer, it was a breeze. We got tons of hits at the track, the traction was perfect all weekend, and we made a run every 1-2 hrs. Bing, bang, boom, yer done. Much easier to keep in a rhythm, and changing weather becomes less of an issue than running a race over 3-4 days. Again, being so focused, I couldn't tell you if there was 1 or 10,000 spectators in the stands while we were running, but I saw some final round pics, and it looked like the stands were about half full in the afternoon, so that's cool. The only downside is that while waiting to do winner's circle pics, a couple spectators came up and asked what the numbers on the window was. "Oh, that's a dial-in, here's how it works, blahblahblah..." Then they ask, "So when are you racing?" Umm... yeah. We're done already. Here's the trophy. The spectators *are* interested in our cars, even if they come primarily for the nitro. But, still had lots of people checking out the car in the lanes and taking pics.

My wife and I were discussing the whole deal last night, and we've come to the conclusion that the show portion is quite alright. Is it a traditional IHRA National Event? Absolutely not... but nor are they trying to be that. Right now, the market is crowded with NHRA, ADRL, Super Chevy, etc., etc... us hardcore fans probably aren't going to be as into it, BUT those fans are still be serviced by those other aforementioned series... and who knows? Some hardcore fans may still enjoy a shorter program with an affordable ticket price. The *on-track* downtime between Sportsman racing and the show may feel odd at first, but it seems like they are consciously using that time for a closer interaction with the fans. They really did do a lot of neat things for the fans, like having fans sign Bobby Lagana's dragster, having all the nitro cars do their warmup at the same time, etc. What's more, even Norwalk used to have trouble selling Sunday eliminations day tickets. Now, every day is a packed house. SRO crowds are going to help bring sponsors, just as it did for ADRL.

I didn't hang around and watch the show, as I was staying with friends and wanted to take them out for dinner, but I'll probably stay for the Rockingham show and take it all in. I think the traditionally strong car counts at Rockingham will be the real test of how smoothly the program runs, but really, unless you have uncontrollable weather and oildowns, I think it should work just fine.

Short version:
Sportsman - thumbs up. Dedicated sportsman show is a fun quick pace, and Polburn said that all Sportsman finals are slated for TV coverage on SPEED Channel, which should be very workable since there's less "Pro" stuff to cover.
Show - I still have yet to see it in person, but I'd give it a thumbs up for servicing a totally different market of consumers. I think I get it now: No, it's not NHRA's little brother anymore, and that's exactly the point.

I have a more open mind about the concept now, and I think it will be interesting to watch unfold.