Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

This has just been made official from NHRA MEDIA: The remaining sportsman entries (excluding TAD, TAF) will finish at the Gainesville Divisional, October 10th-12th.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

Why can't they finish the Sportsman tomorrow?
Weather looks good for Monday....

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

There is no comment from NHRA officially, my guess would be track conditions.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

Supposedly because they have 2-3 days to get to Dallas, I hear.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

I hope none of those left in were planning on going to Memphis for the IHRA championship race or they will have a tough decision to make...looks like it's the same weekend.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

I thought 4 lanes were to get them out of a jam.

Hammer

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

Thats what I thought. If the nitro cars need the track prepped differently, use two lanes for them and prep the others for pro stock.

With 4 lanes, there is no excuse for any break in the action. Two cars should be running then the other cars should be starting their burnouts in the other lane.

Bring in enough staff to make it happen.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

Atleast they didn't cancel it outright like they did Houston 2013.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

Roughly half the field of sportsman cars left are from outside of division 2, mostly division 1. Now we have to travel to Florida if we want to finish this race? Couldve and shouldve been completed yesterday after the rain stopped!

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

How about finish it at Bristol or somewhere in between so it would split driving distance for all racers left! Drove 7 hours to support NHRA national event and they now tell me to drive 14 more hours for the same race! 42 hours drive time for 1 national event and yes I'm bending over! You guys have great customer retaliations! Time to make some serious changes on my racing schedule, not your fault NHRA just my lack of trust in you thinking I am a member and part of the team. Sorry I forgot to tell you I don't like it up the A**!

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

This made my coke come out of my nose, very funny.....oh I guess not from your perspective.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

Well said mr. Null. Love to watch sportsman race so I can take pictures, after this feassco, think I will start looking at divisionals in div 1 and 3. Lot better car count that "the belago of drag racing brings". They will probably require you to enter the national event in order to finish this one.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

This is exactly why NHRA should of never got rid of late year east coast divisionals. That's why it shouldn't be Valdosta(SGMP) before Gainesville National, it should be the Gainesville divisional. Renolds and SGMP should be at the end of the year, so should VMP divisional, just in case. Remember when Atco use to be after the Dutch!!! NHRA needs to seriously reconsider late season divisionals as a contingency plan for situations like this one and not as a cold or inconvenient situation. With the cost of racing already out of control, why isn't NHRA and even our representatives not making more races logistically feasible for sportsman racers. If the pros don't mind going from NC to Texas to PA and back to Vegas, good for them!

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

They could be like some of the local events and just split the payout, yellow bullet was a 3 day race and they split payout after 1st round rainout Sunday and they still could of run monday which was labor day. Rumor has it racers wanted payout split up.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

How do you split up sticker money?

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

Amd how to you distribute the points?

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

Obviously, its a horrible situation for many, including me. The only lucky ones are those that were planning on attending the Gainesville race. Its 1150+ miles one way for me to get there! Like Herbie said, I paid to attend a national event in Charlotte, NC in September, not a points race in friggin' Gainesville, FL in October!

NHRA is in a tough spot, and there probably isn't an answer that makes everyone happy, but there has to be a better solution than this. I hadn't really considered a thought like Bristol, but that would certainly be a lot closer to a "happy medium" for all. I'd probably be willing to throw 20 hours round trip at it. 40 hours? That's going to take some serious thinking.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

On another note concerning NHRA's dwindling fan base, I talked to a couple guys this morning that attended the race that were told they would receive 50% off next year's race if they attended. They were not very happy as they said they did not get to see 50% of the race. I told them they were lucky to be getting anything.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

Another event at another venue would cost NHRA way too much money, they would nevwe consider this. Afraid it doesn't matter much how it cost the racers.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

overall a bad situation for all involved especially for the racers from the northeast. I am guessing NHRA's thoughts might have been attend the Gainesville completion of the Charlotte race. Run the div 2 points race on that same weeekend and then go to Reynolds the next weekend on the way home for the last div 2 points race so you get 3 races in a 2 weekend time frame. Luckily I am not one involved. Maybe I will see some of you at the Reynolds race. Good luck to all!!

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

That stuff is expensive to waste

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

I'm sure the reason they chose Gainesville is because of several reasons. It's an NHRA owned track, so they don't have to pay someone else for the use of their track, It's having a race run already so the track will have to be prepped for that and not have to prep a track at a different location. I'm sure they want it concluded as soon as possible so people chasing points know where they stand. Yes I know it is almost a month after this race, but I doubt that they put everything together to race somewhere else at the drop of a hat when they already have this race on the schedule. Yes I know it sucks for a lot of racers, but it sure is better than them deciding to finish it in Dallas as well. lol
Chuck

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

Mickey don't be trying to get me in trouble again.......but I was able to recover it.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

Should have prepped the other 2 lanes and run the Sportsman on Monday.
Done

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

They could have run them on Sunday, it didn.t rain that long
Chuck

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

The track was coming up in pieces as big as pizza slices so nope

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

I was refering to if they prepped the other 2 lanes, we could have finished
Chuck

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

once again nope any second toppings are an extra price

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

Had spoken to several pro racers prior to the start of the event and they expressed concern over the codition of the track in those lanes and had wanted to use the other two. Takes a racer to crash his car to see the obvious. Sure wish someone from NHRA would post on here and inform us as to why they made the decisions they did. We stayed to after 6pm and never did anyone announce anything but that they had postponed the race. Now we don't know if the sportsman can run the next day or not. If you think there are upset racers you should go on NHRA facebook page and read what the fans have to say. Over all a bad situation dealt with poorly.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

After reading Tim's post I went over to Facebook and talk about passed off people, makes the gripes over here look like Sunday school.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

May be a great idea, for the Pros! Like most sportsman, I have a job that I must go to to earn a living so I can race! I really don't think much more thought went into this, other than: "this national event is in Division 2, lets finish sportsman at the next Division 2 race." Instead of "lets try to figure out what may be best for those racers left in the event."

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

__________________________________________________ ___

I read that B. Smith WILL honor the fan's ticket purchase price toward any zMax Dragway event in 2015. That seems fair...mother nature , not withstanding.

AND the track will be "fixed"... >
http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-...do-to-fix-this

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

I think Bruton Smith is doing some damage control because they were initially told 50%. One thing he isn't is stupid. I was there in the spring and saw super gas cars getting out of at 1000' so something ain't right, it sure ain't from over use whatever it is.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

NHRA's policy is 50% after one round of Nitro, the track is making it 100% because they are interested in the spectators' good will. Besides, that will spread the impact because they have several events at the Concord complex every year.

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

It dosent make sense why all the way down there ? how about a closer venue like Maple Grove that be my track to make it up at

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

While I don't agree with the location that NHRA has chosen, you have to look at it from a sanctioning body point of view.

1.) Gainesville is an NHRA owned track
2.) Gainesville has the capability of hosting the Top Alcohol Cars if necessary
3.) Z-Max Dragway is considered a Division 2 track

I really feel bad for the sportsman racers that are Division 1 competitors and the IHRA racers planning on going to Memphis. There are no winners in this situation. I agree with some of the post that said they could have chose a more practical track; however, with that comes the cost of preparing a new surface (not to mention if it had any problems) and the cost of running another facility.

The fact is, we cant control mother nature and we don't want to risk our cars going down an unsafe race track. Its like the old saying goes when you lose a close race, "That's just drag racing".

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

I just took a closer look at the numbers. There are a total of 44 left in the field between super gas, super comp, super stock and stock. of those 44, 33 are division 2 racers. So 75% of the remaining field is from division 2. They ae not going to prep a track somewhere else for 44 cars. Several years ago, I went to Virginia to race and it got called, they finished that race in Atco NJ. I wasn't happy about that because living in Florida that is a very long haul. As much as it sucked, I went because one, I had a by in the next round and 2 I could finish that race, race the Atco Divisional and go to Englishtown the next week. These situations aren't fair for anyone, and you will never satisfy every one involved.
Chuck

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

guess my queston how many will show in Gainsville ?

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

Food for thought. In the future NHRA should post rain dates and location so that could be taken into concideration before entering to an event. If you enter you have bought into what could happen in the event of a postponement .

Re: Z-Max Sportsman Racers will finish at Gainesville
 

LOL, now your thinking like a blue collar working man Tim. With the forecast showing rain and the make up rain location being Gainesville we would have pulled out of the race. I thought the worst would be we finish on Monday. Now going to Maple Grove nationals and probably will quit my job so I can go to Florida. Next year I will skip This race and go to the sports nationals. If the car counts get any lower for this event they will loose it. Can't blame it all on NHRA besides the make up location, the track was the real problem at hand.