And the new normal begins
 

My second national event of the year and first round is on Thursday once again. Class last week at the points meet and 1st round on Thursday at the national. Let that soak in...

Re: And the new normal begins
 

you would think we would at least get 3 tts

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The days of 3 TT at the non Indy races are a thing of the past. NHRA doesn't really want us at these races anymore. At least if you loose early you can be home sooner and not have it drug out.

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Just saw that myself - all I can say is that's sad.

Re: And the new normal begins
 

[QUOTE=Dan Fletcher;584530]My second national event of the year and first round is on Thursday once again. Class last week at the points meet and 1st round on Thursday at the national. Let that soak in

If it wasn't for Wally Parks there might be no drag racing sport as we know it today,no hot rod hobby,and no industry serving it.He knew who made up the sport of drag racing.His vision included sportsman the same sportsman that have the first round on Thursday and class at the points meets along with the quota reduced at the national events.The word was that before Wally Parks passed he stated that the sportsman were to be included in NHRA events.I do not think he wanted what we are faced with today.

Re: And the new normal begins
 

By no means am i sticking up for nhra but a few factors to take into consideration:
1. Their are 17 categories they have to run.
2. It’s the 50th Anniversary of the Gators
3. They have the “side show” going on with some of the Pro’s to race Toyota’s.
4. You never know with the weather down here.
5. On a good note: It looks like they’ll run 3 Rds. of Sportsman Eliminations on Sunday.

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What the hec is next !W Parks is not resting in peace.

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The stated reason from NHRA for running Round 1 at Pomona was due to pending weather conditions. The stated reason from NHRA for running Round 1 at the Gatornationals is that it is the 50th running of the event and there are numerous "special" activities included in the schedule.


What will be the stated reason at the next 4-day national event...

Re: And the new normal begins
 

On a side note:
Indy is the only other race that comes close to the Gatornationals as far as
how many categories they will run, which is 16.
4 remaining races have 14 categories and the remaining 16 races only
average out to 11.4 categories.
Just an observation.

Re: And the new normal begins
 

I stated the same thing about Pomona, first round on Thursday? What a bang for your buck.

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Maybe at some point the racers will stick together and have a say in how things are run. Did I really say that. LOL Was just joking they know we are not smart enough to figure out without all the racers there would be no nationals. It's a shame we have the power just not smart enough to use it. How many are old enough and I do forget what race it was where the funny cars stayed out at the gate to force NHRA to negotiate with them. BP

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It was worse when the omitted one of the sportsman classes at each national event. Was it not? Im not saying it’s great now though.

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Pistol Pete brought up the point that they have 17 categories at Gators. But it's not the number of categories,it's the car count.Gators only have 380 quota cars and no class. and 567 total cars including pros.That is not a high car count for a four day event.

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This is not a good thing. They keep pushing the sportsmen racers, the backbone, further down the ladder. They have time for match races, grudge races, dog & pony show etc and make the real racers run on Thursday; not right! Someone pays $300 for an entry and half of them are out the very first day.

Dan would they listen to you, as a seasoned veteran and our most winning racer, if you passed along the displeasure or negative feelings?

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Also at the Gators they have the majority of the sportsman racers pitted at the road course. They need to get those rigs out of that area so they can park spectators there once the pro show starts. You do not want to be parked back there once they open that up for spectator parking.

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I concur with this assessment. Maybe some of the issue is related to the parking. But that just further shows that NHRA, supposedly a "501c non-profit", only gives a damn about the money.

Have you seen the new photographer rules? Rebilas posted them, now all photogs have to kneel in the first 100 feet. Apparently they were blocking the spectator view, and it applies for sportsman and pro. Which leads to my next point...

NHRA only cares about what the fans see because they pay money to come in. They don't care about sponsors - just look at what the midway vendor fee is, and the cost of a wall sign. While kneeling photogs can't hurt, I don't see it noticably changing anything in terms of sponsor viewership. For today's cost of racing, I am amazed that any companies get ROI from sponsorship at the sportsman level much less the pro level. I'd LOVE to see some real data on that.

Realistically, many of the older fans want to see the cars that they grew up with. Hence, why Stock, SS, and S/St are still somewhat popular walking around. But this newer crowd has such a short attention span that unless they see something they like, they are bored. And honestly, I bet less than 25% of them give a damn about the heritage race in Toyotas (lol). Maybe if they had Hellcats or F/SA F/SShowdown cars it would be a little more reasonable.

Who this hurts the most is in fact the sportsman sponsors. They are spending money to be on the side of your car. Now granted only the Emmons are...on the Emmons level. But most of us sportsman are fighting tooth and nail to get any funding we can. To run first round on Thursday with no fans present is just NHRA saying "Have a finger" to the grassroots of the sports. Not only because it becomes a one day show and nobody knows you were there, but because it's virtually a rip-off to the sponsor that may have taken days to negotiate a deal with. Especially if it's a one-off sponsor for this specific event.

I thought the Pro-Stock deal was laughable. A class that struggles for sponsorship, take them off the pro show and stick them on late at night several days later during the week where nobody will see them. How's a sponsor supposed to pick up on that deal?

Well, now Sportsman are just getting shafted the same way. Except we already were getting it before, but now they've thrown the lube in the trash and moved us all up a day...

They could break Sportsman out to the weekend before the national. Do away with Quotas and just let everybody enter. Get each class down to 16 the Sat/Sun before. Then run those 16 of each class on Saturday and Sunday of pro weekend. But the counter to that is who would stay, plus staffing. Not very economical on the financial side. There has to be a middle ground.

Of course, NHRA will say "We need filler for between pro sessions on Friday"... Hmm, seems to me that what Shannon Morgan started has worked. Run a small tire/big tire 'outlaw-style' 1/8 mile race for filler.

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You must remember NHRA is in the entertainment business not racing business that changed years ago when Wally Parks died and the real NHRA died with him.We are there to pay the insurance bill and other costs.I raced at my last national event at Charlotte last fall,and it was the worst run event i've seen in over 50 nationals over the years.either as a crew or driver.I'm just going to enjoy racing at the local CCRA races.

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Racers and car guys are too dumb to run anything as large and complex as NHRA. They had to hire "experts" and "professionals" to take care of the important stuff - TV and the "casual" fan. Anyone who missed the interview with G. Light in PRI magazine a few months ago should go back and read it.

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NHRA ran this schedule at Maple Grove a few years back.. I was surprised that NHRA folks were't hanging from the trees.. BUT, here they are doing it again.. attempting to use the weather situation in Pomona is only an excuse to get Sportsmen guys out of their faces.. OR, they wouldn't be pulling the same nonsense again..

This will happen at EVERY National Event, and the only thing we can do about it, is NOT go.. NOT pay the entries.. and only pay the necessary licensing fees to be able to compete at local tracks..

They don't want Sportsmen racers on the property to interfere with their Pro show and side circus.. SOOOOOOOOO, except for a credit they owe me, I'll stay home.. but of course, there will be someone to jump right into my pit space, cause we're stupid that way... SAD!!

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They last time I ran the Keystones, half of the pit area abutting the farm was cordoned off for VIP parking. Looking at NHRA's website, VIP parking was $25 per day. You can fit 4 cars in an average pit space, times 3 days, equals $300 for the weekend. Plus the VIPs buy concessions and souvenirs; they don't have to be teched, weighed, or fuel checked. Sad reality is your pit space is worth more to NHRA as parking. (I was in the last spot along the chain link fence next to the VIP area. The VIPs kept trying to park in my pit spot. My wife had to shoo them away when I was making a run).

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Bob,they did the same thing at New England dragways national.they ran out of vip spots so they send them into our area to park were ever they wanted.they made a lot of racers mad.But that doesn't matter.

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If the 200 cars at the points race had gone to a planned S/SS gamblers race at Orlando they could have put that 300.00 entry fee into a kitty and cut up a $ 60,000 pot . Got it done in one or two days and not be treated like fill in second class citizens .

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Hey guys if you happen to be out early Mike Beard has a big money bracket race at VMP this weekend with great weather expected it will help break up your trip back north!

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Son John has headed to Mike's VMP race ---- It's like 230.00 for three days 5,000 5,000 10,000 ------------------ We need S/SS gamblers races -- It's time we race for big money before we're all 80.

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Do we need that or organized Class races? I just got beat in the Class finals at the Baby Gators last week. I still had fun and that trophy had VALUE that a purse can never give. The performance element of what we do is the only reason I show up.

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Like we didn’t see this coming 10-15 years ago? Last national I raced was 2010 swore to never attend another unless it’s indy. I posted on here quite some time ago that all of us as a community should put forth an organization to preserve stock and super stock , with the swipe of a pen Nhra could render everything everyone of is own useless!!!!! It only take one top brass decision make to get rid of us and it all goes away. To be honest I’m really sick of the “Nhra thing” it has lost its luster all around , right from the pros to super street , manufacturers midway and tv show. I have more fun on a Sunday stock super stock race (and first round is not Thursday).
Think I’m going to bolt the mufflers back on the stocker and build a turbo radial tire car.

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This is why I go!

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James----I'm 74, When I started racing in 1961 there were no qualified fields. You had to win your class to race in the eliminator. In the mid 60's at Capital raceway It was nothing unusual to have 30-40 cars in your class at every race. I raced for a year and a half before I won my first heads up round. So I understand completely the exhilaration from looking over in the other lane and see your opponent is heads up. I live for that , I was fortunate enough to race in a time when the car in the other lane was Bobby Warren Charlie Taylor Bud Rowe George Duff the list goes on . ------ I don't have all the answers but I think we need organized class races with all the rules we race under in place. Heads up runs , scales etc. with gamblers race option. Everything is the same as any points race we go to but racers put money in a kitty. There were 200 S/SS cars at Gainsville Points race, if every car opted for the gambler option at say 200.00 that would be a side purse of $40,000 to split up any way you want...You're already there so what's another 200 especially if you're one of the 100 sent away. Barry Parker is working on something along these lines for the New England Class Racers Assn. the week before the Div 1 race at LVR in June ---- This will probably be the most money we've ever raced for with all rules in effect. The toughest will be there with I'm sure plenty of heads up races . They consistently get over 100 Stockers and over 100 S/Stockers.-------I'm not the enemy ... NHRA knows the age of class racers and are preparing , most didn't get their AARP card yesterday. It's only a matter of time before they can't do it anymore and start selling off their cars. TO WHO ?? Younger racers that can afford it aren't going to buy John Armstrong's SS/AA for 100,000 plus and run our CCRA race for $1000-$2000 ----- Time to look for more options .

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Tommy --- Nothing better !!--- but nothing wrong with getting paid either.

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OK, James is not my name. But, let me offer this up... What if 8 racers showed up at " Grudge Night", put money in the pot and raced "Top/JR Stock" and had a cool trophy/plaque at stakes?

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AMEN TO THAT!!! I am glad to see that there are still racers out there who understand the value of performance. Many will never understand why we treasure those Class Winner Wally's. It does break my heart to see events going the direction like what is happening this week. The positive side of this is that similar complaints were voiced 20 years ago and Class racing has survived (of course it would be better if it could grow more rather than just surviving.) As long as there are still those like us who's passion is with the performance aspects this type of racing will continue. The new COPO's, Cobra Jets and Drag Packs would not exist if this type of racing was truly dying.

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I know where ill be next year, instead of the gators

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Sorry for getting your name wrong I meant no offense. Eight racers at grudge night can call it what ever they like . 200 Class racers getting paid for their efforts and 100 getting sent home is something different entirely .

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Son John is there with a $2,200 shop sweepins ex IHRA Stocker. Forty minutes from the house $140 Sat / $10,000 ---- $140 Sun / $10,000 ------ We race $150,000 Hemi's for what ?

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Next thing you know they will start Sportsman 1st round on Wed and done by Sat and give pros all day Sunday !