More important than Joe Newbie building a Stocker
 

Friday/Saturday races…
Why is this an issue.
So Joe decides to build a stocker. However he has little to no vacation, and cannot take Friday off to qualify for a race with the car he just built.
So in reality he has no place to race except bracket racing…so why build a stocker?

When Brenda and I started I/NHRA racing we were in this situation. We would get off work at 5pm on Friday and drive all night and arrive at the track between 3 and 6 in the morning. Get set up qualify and the race on Sunday. Only to drive all night to get home between 2 and 6 in the morning…take a shower and go to work.

We made it work…however if it was a Friday/Saturday schedule we never would have even tried.

If we don’t give a new wannabe racer a chance to race he will never begin to build his/her stocker.

The Friday/Saturday schedule does allow people to get home on Sunday🙄. Never mind the fact that 50% of the racers would be on the road by 10AM on Sunday anyway.

Let us not even talk about waiting till noon or later to start Qualifying on Friday.

Flame on!

Re: More important than Joe Newbie building a Stocker
 

Ahh yes, the "good-old-days". Work all day, drive all night, catch a nap on the fender of the trailer between Q runs.

Re: More important than Joe Newbie building a Stocker
 

I'm pretty sure n b will get around to the logistics of trying to race and work full time at the same time.

Re: More important than Joe Newbie building a Stocker
 

So do you guys think Friday qualifying and Sat all rounds till completion should be the norm ?

Re: More important than Joe Newbie building a Stocker
 

What would be the difference of not going to work Friday compared to not going to work Monday.
I am not sure of the solution to this problem. In fact, I dont know if there is a problem. It seems like 75% of the Division 1 cars get to the races by Thursday for a parking spot. Those who can't are there on Friday at least to make the cleanup run.
Some come in Saturday am for Q3, but 4 or 5 at the most. We run first round sat evening, and the race is usually done by 3 on Sunday. Not sure how to compact it in any tighter.

Re: More important than Joe Newbie building a Stocker
 

Probably because 75% of the Division 1 Racers are either self-employed or retired.

Re: More important than Joe Newbie building a Stocker
 

How about the racer that can not make the Friday qualifiers but shows up on Saturday morning for the last qualifying run to find out that they decided for whatever reason to run 1st round late Friday and then can not even get a Grade Point?

Re: More important than Joe Newbie building a Stocker
 

Chances are newbie racer doesn’t work a full time job anyway but if he/she puts down the PlayStation long enough to hold down a real job then they will have to do it exactly how we did it or go bracket racing!

Re: More important than Joe Newbie building a Stocker
 

I agree that the recent trend of "lets try to get the whole race done on Saturday" is very frustrating. If there is known weather coming in on Sunday, then fine, I understand. But this has not been the case at several recent races. And then with oildowns, a wreck or two, the late rounds are often still on Sunday, now with lots of people gone, so the racers cant even enjoy racing/winning in front of many of their friends/fellow racers.



Kp

Re: More important than Joe Newbie building a Stocker
 

This is the way I would like to see the races scheduled.

Test and tune on Thursday if the track wants to make a bit more money
2 rounds of qualifying on Friday
last round of qualifying on Saturday morning.
Run 2-3 rounds of eliminations on saturday. Run to completion if Sunday weather looks bad.
Final 2-3 rounds on sunday morning. The program would be over by about 1 pm and on the road by 3 pm headed home

This would allow some of the racers the opportunity to get in the program if they choose to show up late on Friday of early Saturday morning. Not everyone has enough vacation time to take Thursday and Friday off for all of the divisionals.