Just observing here.....
 

Looking at the not-so-full fields in TF, FC, TAD and TAFC, ya know, if NHRA cuts the Sportsman fields down to about 30 cars, they would have room for Pro Stock Ditch Witch and Top Fuel Vacuum Cleaner!

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Quite possible, watched a little of the Nostalgia Pro Stock and it was underwhelming. Could care less about all the other filler experiments they keep tinkering with. Comp, Super Stock and Stock could do well if they simply promoted it better but face it; most fans don’t understand handicap or throttle stop racing. It’s all about fast and furious and they maximize that by all the sensationalism promoted endlessly. One thing striking about TF, supposedly the “premier” class, is that Torrence can choose to sit out and when some of his associated teams do as well it proves that owners can indeed influence how NHRA fares. Think our quotas will continue to decline and they will indeed try to scare up all matter of novelty stuff. Reminds of a popular bumper sticker “when you elect (or in our case get) clowns you have to expect a circus” (applies to both parties and NHRA).

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I will never forget standing at the head of the staging lanes at the Grove while the 1ST round of Stockers was being paired up and thinking, "this has to be the best car show that anybody could pay to see"!

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Yeah, last year at the World Finals we had seats near the starting line and about two thirds of the stands would empty after the last funny car ran and the Pro Stock cars came out!

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When I started going to watch national events, after I had quit racing several years ago.
I was surprised that the stands empty when the fuel cars are not running.
I learned to stand by the steps to the stands by the starting line, as the fuel cars finished. I could sit anywhere to watch my friend’s Pro Stock car run. Then they emptied further before Sportsman cars ran. Nobody watches us. Only people there are watching friends.

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I noticed this a few years ago in LV, as well.
I can't imagine anyone not wanting to watch all the Pro classes, at least.
A lot of these folks are just casual fans, who come out once a year for the circus and the carnage.
PT Barnum couldn't get these people to watch us. They're not real car people, as we know them.

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Irony is, Pro Stock cars aren't real cars, as we know them.
MJ

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I know, but you don't think they would stay and watch Factory Stock, do you?
There's only a certain amount of time for those folks to get their autographed hero cards, buy their T-shirts, a couple of brewski's , and then stand around for the warm ups, ruin their eardrums, then get high on the nitro ,and then wander around like zombies, getting in the way of real cars. ;-)

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Agreed, they couldn`t care less. Mark, you should see the packed grandstands at the Dover Reunion at Lebanon Valley. What do they come for? The car show in the parking lot? Frantic Ford BB/FC? The Nostalgia? I don't get It....
but its a 3 day event now.

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And most of those "fans" are only here for a little while. (Ala Nascar after the boom!)

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Not to mention all the old footage and pictures (a lot popping up on Facebook Groups) where the stands are PACKED. Oh, the 'Ol Days!

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First rd. of TF, 0,zip, nada side-by-side runs.
First rd. of FC, 0,zip, nada side-by-side runs.
So what was the price of admission today?
I would think that if the spectators could understand what is going on here between these "professionals" then they could surely understand (and enjoy) Handicap Racing by lowly "Sportsmen" Racers and their tight finish-line Racing!

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i am still amazed you guys like to watch bracket racing. sorry no desire to watch dial in racing.

i will go out of my way to watch any heads up racing, factory stock, super stock and stock class heads up racing.
if it is not 1st to the finish line, i have no desire to watch.

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777 the best place to view handicap racing is in your lane. It puts a little different prospective on watching the race. I do love heads up racing.

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Not to argue, but bracket racing is fun to watch at the stripe. Actually I like watching from anywhere but, to each is own.

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We might have been a bigger chunk of the show some 50 years ago but that has passed since long , there are plenty of street cars ava. today that could run in circles around a good A/S(A) so we shouldn't kid ourselves to believe there could be any bigger fuzz about sportsman racing again, of those in the stands probably 90% are crew members already in and the rest of the interest is a couple of hundred wanting it on live stream(free if possible) No ticket sales for them.

My advice is that we should enjoy this while we can!

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A great heads up match up ,for sure.
But is there anyone who didn't know it was over after the first 1.5 seconds?
A big head start handicap race could have gone right down to the wire before you could call the winner.
Just sayin'

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If the N.H.R.A. was smart and I know that comment won't start a debate, they would forget about all the sideshows and allow an unlimited amount of Sportsman entries, count the money and take it to the bank. Oh by the way Stock Eliminator is the greatest car show on the planet.

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I could see this being a lot of fans point of view. I think something has to change. Not sure what and how but there are few in the stands for most sportsmen classes. Super classes, comp, stock, and super stock seem to have the most empty stands. Top Sportsman gets some and Pro Mod gets a lot, factory stock too.

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Probably one of the reasons there is almost no spectators in the stands when sportsman run at nationals is due to the time and day that the bulk of the rounds are run. Stock is out just after sun up and sportsman rounds are done by 10 am the days the pros run. Then the rounds resume after the pros are done for the day maybe even running after dark. One thing that might help with this is to change up the runnning order. Run a pro class then a sportsman class etc. maybe some would sit and watch. If you had some better sportsman announcers that could educate and make it interesting some new sportsman fans might be developed. But the way they are doing it now it won’t happen.

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I don`t really think the lack of spectators in the stands for Stock & S/S is due to those classes being handicapped, (for the most part). Pro Stock is a true "heads up", no breakout, first to the finish line wins class, with incredibly close side by side racing, and still as soon as the first Pro Stockers pull into the water box, the typical "race fans" scurry from the bleachers en masse, as if NHRA was giving away free beer and T shirts in the Pro pits. If they can`t be bothered to watch Pro Stock, I really doubt that they would have any interested in watching "slow", (by comparison) Stock & S/S cars go down the track. Unless of course, the losing cars would crash and burst into flames at the finish line. But of course, that would create scheduling issues with the live TV broadcasting.

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The present announcers are the best, Alan Reinhart, Bob Unkefer, Brian Lohnes, Bruno Massel,(Lewis Bloom( for some reason I like the stats he has plus he sounds good lol), Warren Evans. SCHEDULING IS THE iSSUE. The fans understand the chase in handicap racing they are not dumb. The TV schedule is the main reason schedule is screwed up all the time someone thinks that live racing is the cats meow

I don't like live racing it sucks> I liked the delay then no pressure to have a set schedule for live tv Just my 57 years of racing opinion LOL at me still racing until I forget who I am