Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Lex Dudas and a couple of us local SS racers have been brainstorming about a 5 race series for Stock and Super Stock legal cars in commemoration of Maple Grove Raceway's 50th Anniversary. Since the local track is where class racing really got started, Lex thought it would only be fitting to do this. Of coarse, this would only be done on the off weekends of the NHRA series and with your support.
The five races could have a $5000.00 points fund hopefully to be paid by mfg companies and the weekly entry fee would determine the payout per race.
If this is something you would be interested in, please give your thoughts and ideas here on classracer.com or e-mail me personally at MartyRinehartJr@yahoo.com and I'll pass it on to Lex Dudas himself. We are also looking for sponsor support from some of the manufacturers.

MartyRinehartJr@yahoo.com

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

So let's get the ball rolling ............I'm in ! ! !

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Marty - Maple Grove is a great track & I think its a fine idea.

Were you thinking of 5 separate one day events? or a few combined (2 day/ 2 race) events?

Also - if some could be timed right before or after the divisional race - it would be a plus - if competitors could leave their trailers.... save some towing time/expense etc.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

We are in with two cars. If this series is a go, I'd plan my racing around this series first! Great track, more racing. All for double race weekends as well.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

The more races, the merrier. The ECSS race during Super Chevy was great. We were treated like kings. I would be on board 100% if these races did not conflict with the East Coast Stock Superstock races.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

How about if one or more of these events had class eliminations, much like they do at the Dutch Classic?

Speaking only for myself, I don't care if a class win is worth any money, a trophy will do. But then again, if one of the five races put a little money up for either class wins or CIC style combo, even better.

Better still: a separate combo CIC for traditional and modern cars.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Great idea. Conflicts are always a concern , so lets try and get schedules out asap.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

As far as the 2 races in one tow, I am all for that myself. In these economic times, we as racers and track operators need to save where we can.

The subject of NHRA and IHRA legal also came up. Lex wants to have the cars at legal weight. This means going over the scales and enforcing weight factors. Of course, will be up to Maple Grove Officials.

The schedule will first have to fit Maple Groves 2012 schedule and then NHRA, IHRA and Dave Ley's ECSSSA Schedule. Lex is not going to try to overlap anyone if possible.

Thank you for the intrest so far. I dont know if this can be posted as a sticky or not. If the administration would do that , would be appreciated

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

It would be great if we could make the "Eastern Swing"

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Would the $5K be put to better use adding $1,000 to the purse of each of the 5 races? You'd be able to guarantee some minimum purse then. Just my opinion, but I personally think that points chases have a limited draw, at least in smaller series. After a race or two, you only have a few people really involved, whereas by putting the money into each race's purse, everyone has a shot at it. Just $.02.

As we're discussing in another thread, any S/SS racing is a good thing. I hope the racers will support the series. Good luck with it!

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

I am seeing too many cars coming to these races as pure stock or IHRA stockers.
I would like to see permanent numbers on cars not shoe polish.
I would like to see some kind of tech not someone just pulling in and saying they are an IHRA
or NHRA car.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Sounds great as long as I dont have to work....................lol

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

I agree with Vic.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

I am glad that our track operators see the need for something like this but I do have 1 concern about this. A 5 race series? By my quick unofficial count from the last weekend of April through October there are 27 weekends. Your average northeast racer attends 6 NHRA divisionals and 2 NHRA national events. Throw in IHRA races that dont conflict with NHRA and just say that is at least 3 more weekends. NHRA has 2 Opens, 1 of which is at Maple Grove. Dave has 5 East Coast Stock/Super Stock races. That is possibly 18 race weekends. Now you add weekends that consist of Mother's Day, which apparently is a no-no, graduations, birthdays, etc. and there really isn't room for 5 races. Plus Maple Grove will be restricted on what dates that they can put these races because of events that they have on their own schedule like Super Chevy, ADRL, etc., etc. In a year where it only seems that it is going to cost more to go racing than it did last year, I don't know that a 5 race series is the answer. I can guarentee that if this does go on as a 5 race series I do not see another one of the "Combo in the Hill's" going on. I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but this might sound great in December but in June or July when you are standing at a gas pump paying for gas to go to a race for the 5th or 6th weekend in a row, you might have a different feeling. I know that a lot of people have put a lot of time and effort into this, and I appreciate that, but I wanted to post my concerns.

Brian Van Poppel

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

I would have to agree with Brian on this. I know I don't have a pony in this fight but, I am a fan of Stk/SS Racing even though I'm a .90 racer. As we have all learn from comments on this form that you can't schedule an event on top of a NHRA event because we all know what the majority of racers will choose. I know currently with just trying to set up the Super Gas & Comp Association Schedules for 2012 has me pulling my hair out. Throw in Dave Ley's East Coast Stock / SS Series which is 5 weekends, the ASRA (Which could draw some cars in from the New England Area) and you are bound to put an event on top of another event and make people choose. Not to forget that you will have racers travel out of division if they are running for points (Norwalk, Columbus, Chicago, Bristol, Bowling Green). I know the ECSSA can't do Super Chevy this year cause New England Divisional is scheduled on the same weekend and Dave will have to be at Epping. Brian, Lee and Myself are going to do everything in our power to present a 2nd Combo in the Hills Event even if it is for less payout....I maybe a Throttle Stop Baby but, I'm a racer at heart and enjoy hanging out with everyone at the track. Just food for thought....here is what the East Coast Schedule looks like for 2012, that's excluding Dave's ECSSA Dates & IHRA Races....

April 20th to 21st – Virginia Divisional (Dinwiddle, Va)
April 27th & 28th - Off Weekend
May 4th to 6th – Southern Nationals (Atlanta, Ga) / Atco National Open
May 12th to 13th – Mothers Day (No Racing)
May 19th to 20th – Norwalk Divisional
May 25th to 27th – Maple Grove Divisional Race (Reading, Pa)
May 31st to June 3rd – SuperNationals (Englishtown, NJ)
June 9th to 10th – .90 Nationals / Possible Combo in the Hills Race??
June 15th to 17th – .Father’s Day / Thunder Nat (Bristol)
June 22nd to 24th – Lebanon Valley Divisional Race / Atlanta D-2 Race
June 28th to July 1st – Route 66 Nat (Chicago, Il)
July 5th to 8th – Summit Nationals (Norwalk, Oh)
July 14th to 15th – Sportsman Spectacular at MIR / Napierville Open
July 21st to 22nd – New England Divisional (Epping, NH) / Super Chevy Show (Reading, Pa)/ Columbus Divisional (Columbus, Oh)
July 28th to 29th – Off Weekend (25K to win bracket race at Atco)
Aug 4th to 5th – Atco Raceway Divisional (Atco, NJ)
Aug 11th to 12th – Off Weekend
Aug 18th to 19th – Cecil County Divisional (Rising Sun, Md)
Aug 25th to 26th – Off Weekend
Aug 29th to Sept 3rd – US Nationals (Indy)
Sept 8th to 9th – Englishtown Raceway Divisional (Englishtown, NJ)
Sept 14th to 16th – O’Reily Nationals (Charlotte, NC)
Sept 22nd to 23rd – Jegs Sportsnationals (Columbus) / Bracket Finals (Delmar, De)
September 27th to 30th –Bristol D-2 Race (Bristol)
Oct 6th to 7th - Uni-Select Nationals (Reading, Pa)
Oct 11th to 14th - Dutch Classic (Reading, Pa)

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Before anyone reads anything into this!
This series is not intended to try to compete with Dave Ley's series. In fact, we want to work with Dave and his crew as we all know, he runs great events. Lex is all for working with Dave and not against him.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

remove

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Marty,
I don't think that anyone thinks that Lex is trying to compete with any other races but in the long run it does compete with everything. Most people nowadays have to tighten up and race less because of the world around us. Because of this people have to pick and choose. Even if in a perfect world you could get all races schedule without conflicting with any other in my calculations, that would be 23 races on 27 weekends. Don't you think that with a schedule such as this all the races are competing?

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

This is a great idea and I compliment Lex and co on considering it.

That being said, everyone's comments have merit, the most being scheduling. having done the ASRA stk/ss schedule myself for a number of years, it is the hardest thing. I suggest that Lex and co look at the schedule and come up with what they can for non conflicting dates and run with it. 5 dates will be tough to find, but your season is a little longer than up in the mass/ny/nh/ct area. Maybe Dave and Lex could run races on the same weekend, one saturday, one sunday.

Michael's comment about points purse I understand, but personnaly i think points brings more cars in than a bigger purse. Some of our best highlights at our ASRA races have been related to points.

Vic, with the expense of racing and the time involved, I don't think you will have a problem with legality issues and street car issues. I only say that because it has not been an issue for us at ASRA. It seems that the racers police themselves pretty well, and that is a good thing.

Hope this happens, any stock/ss race is a good thing

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

How about a one weekend combined ECSSSA/ASRA/50th Maple Grove Stock/SS extravaganza? Everyone earns points for their respective series. Have a race on Saturday and one on Sunday with Wallys and big purses.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Sounds like a Road Trip to me...

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

I think that it would be great to get the ECSSSA and the ASRA together for one weekend. That would be some competition between 2 great organizations.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Dave Casey wrote:

"Vic, with the expense of racing and the time involved, I don't think you will have a problem with legality issues and street car issues. I only say that because it has not been an issue for us at ASRA. It seems that the racers police themselves pretty well, and that is a good thing."

I don't think it is up to us to police the cars. I think the gentlemen running the race need to ensure competitors show proof of a valid competition #, and unless it is their first race, I would like to see some sort of evidence they have raced the car at an NHRA or IHRA race. A weight sticker, decal, stats from Nitro Joe, some evidence that the car has competed at a sanctioned race and been deemed legal to compete. I think that is fair. I know I only race an IHRA crate motor stocker, not a tried and true NHRA car, but in my opinion, you really can't say you race a stock/superstock car if you only race once or twice a year at a non-sanctioned combo. It is simply not fair to the other competitors who put serious time, effort, and money into racing.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Who exactly are all of these hoards of unknown Pure Stockers and "IHRA cars" that are infiltrating combos in the Northeast? :confused:

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

I don't think we have ever had one of those at the ECSS races.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

I'm in agreement with Brian VP. We should get the 2 great organizations together for a race.

ECSSSA vs. ASRA.

The only thing i would suggest: 2 seperate catorgories. Stock vs Stock.
Super Stock vs Super Stock.

I'm sure we can get a good car count in each one.
That would be a "fun" weekend race.

OK Brian, i nominate you to run it.......lol
You & Lee did a Great Job on your Combo in the Hills Race.

Pistol Pete
1374
I/SA

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Chris,

You need to encourage racers to attend, not discourage them. The racers that only run as you say 1 or 2 association racers per year are the backbone of this sport,they are equally as much racers as are those that go to 30 races a year. Both types are living within their means and desires.

As far as your comment on you only being a crate motor racer, I sure doesn't matter to me, it's a stocker and that is great, in all the associations I have heard of, ihra and nhra cars are both welcome.

The racers that only go to some ,none or an occasional nhra/ihra race make up a large part of the field at our ASRA races. We get 60 cars regularly and had one race with over 70 this year and other years. We have heads up races, and I can honestly say that in the many years that I have been involved, never have we had a protest, or complaint about legal issues. I suggest you work toward promoting these type of races and spend less time trying to find things that could go wrong.

Michael and Mike , I am with you on this, it just is not and issue, if it ever is, I know that Dave will deal with it at the ecsss races and so will we up here at the ASRA races.

Running the ecsss vs asra is a topic that comes up regularly, Dave will tell you , the schedule is the biggest issue and it is a big one. We could have one heck of a time doing it, but man ,it just ain't easy. Dave has talked about it with our board members more than once.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

I don't wish to discourage anyone from racing. I know how expensive it is to run a car, and I have to tow at least two hours to get to a track with mine. I want to encourage anyone that has a class car to support all the association races they can, but at the same time, I feel they should attend an NHRA/IHRA race or two if they can as well. If they want to race a class car, or say they race a class car, they need to enter it at a race sanctioned by the organization that they belong to.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Just for example, Joe Heustis runs nothing but local combos. Considering he bought Philbrick's old motor, I have zero concerns about the legality of his combo. He doesn't need to go to a Pro-Am race to earn some kind of legitimacy. If someone has questions about a particular car, deal with them on a case-by-case basis.

$.02,

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Chris, racers may have had to cut back and simply put the total cost of a weekend divisional can wipeout a budget as opposed to running a single day combo race that costs significantly less. Generally speaking both associations know all the class racers in their areas whether they are members or not. This is not the time to take a hard line against participants just because they can't race as much as they used to.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

I wish Marty and the Maple Grove staff the best of luck with getting a race or some races scheduled. It is about 6 hours from me, but I will try to come to at least one if time and money permit. I haven't raced at the Grove since June 2000 at one of their last track run all Ford Weekends. Really like the place.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

I think this is a great idea. I love racing NHRA events but I have to admit I'm getting really tired of them too. Having to take two to three days off work to attend a points meet is getting old. With S/ST, S/G, S/C, Stock, S/S, T/S, T/D, Comp, TAF, TAD, there is just waaaay too many classes. Not to sound selfish but I could care less about some of these classes. And I'm sure they feel the same way.They really need to be separate events such as these. Its nothing personal against anybody, its mainly because it can't all be done in one weekend.

The main reason why I've always supported NHRA is because they were the only show in town that means anything when it comes to heads-up racing and setting records. Well guess what, that is the first thing they take away from us when the schedule is tight. Lately you're lucky if you get 2 runs for a record. And class racing, what a joke. Every time I have entered Top Stock is was cancelled. And how many times has class been cancelled at Nat'l events in the past 5 years. I understand they can't control the weather and blah, blah, blah, but it's simply because there is too many cars.

From an NHRA Stock/Super Stock racers point of view, if they keep cutting back on record runs and heads-up racing, why bother going? I'd rather go to a one day event, or better yet, a two day double race weekend without 10 classes involved to drag it out for four days and put a dial on the window. And don't even get me started on the parking situations, we all know where they park Stock and SS.

I'm in, where do I sign up?

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

I'm there!

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

I'm in for a two day sat/sunday race.......too far and too expensive to truck down just for one day for me....even though I love racing at the Grove.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

I agree - I also think a one weekend scenario would give the whole concept a much better chance of being an overall success......... i.e. a good turn out.

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series

Lex has worked things out with Dave Ley and his group and all SS and Stk racers are invited to a four race series at the Grove for 2012. The series is 4 races in two weekends. May 19- 20 and August 11 – 12. We’ll go to work on a points fund for the deal, hopefully we can raised at least $3,000.

We will use the same points structure we utilize for the Money ET cars.

$1000 win

$400 runner up

$200 semis

$100 ¼ finals



Car and Driver entry $75.00 per day, weekend $140.00

Crew $15.00 per day

Kids under 12 Free



Driver cost to enter the points system: $25.00

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Marty is there a dead line to sign up for the points for this race series , or just show up at tech in the morning with cash ? Do you know what time will the gate close for parking on friday night for both events . Ken

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

You need to sign up for the points system before you race that day. I know that's how Maple Grove works their weekly points program for the Money Trail.
As far as the gates on Friday, I will talk to Lex and let you know.
Thanks for asking

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

I think these races are a great idea. It gives all of us a alternate venu, & I want to thank Dave, Brian, & all the track opperators for keeping stk. & ss racing viable, & affordable. If i can make one, or all of the races, I will be there!!! Thanks, Glen

Re: Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series
 

Since the date is getting near, when can we get in the pits, and can we claim our pit spot for the points race and just leave our rigs there? I know the black top is reserved for the fast cars, so we obviously wouldn't be looking for those spots!