[Michael Beard]

>> Myron Pyatek congratulation on your R/U, hope you split the pot.

R/U in the Moser shootout was $7,500, as advertised. There was a split, but only shuffling some of the money from the Winner to the semis and quarters.

>> How about a big 440 4 barrel in a 74 Duster in IHRA trim, would make a great car with durability in Brackets.

Cylinder heads aren't very good on a 440, and you're adding a lot of weight to the nose. Nothing wrong with the 360 for durability. I put a bazillion runs on mine every year.

>> I think the only possible way to drag race without sponsorship and come out ahead a bit most race seasons would to bracket race a door car that is fairly cheap to build and maintain.

Two points here: As I opined earlier, do not discount sponsorship, unless it's solely for the sake of mental gymnastics. That's like owning a burger joint but not selling novelty t-shirts because "they're not burgers". Income is income, and marketing is marketing. You don't turn down contingency money, which is also marketing/sponsorship dollars.

Secondly, yes, you absolutely can build and maintain a low-buck bracket car for less, however, you're typically going to run for less money, and have to win more rounds to do it. There's nothing wrong with that in and of itself -- just depends on what your goals are. Been there, done that. Footbrake racing is the cheapest, but there are far fewer big money races available for that type of racing, and while you don't "need" to have a big buck car to compete in Footbrake racing, I can tell you that the quality of cars ($$$) and drivers has skyrocketed in recent years. Big money Box class racing is even crazier, and while you don't have to have two $75,000 dragsters to double-enter, the odds are certainly stacked in their favor. I popped a $3K Top ET race while footbraking at Rockingham this year, but that doesn't mean that I'm realistically going to be competitive on the big stage against the aforementioned purpose-built electronics cars. That being said, there are TONS of opportunities for big buck Box races... so be prepared to shell out some serious money for entry fees (and buybacks) over the course of the season. Again, higher risk, higher reward, with a crazy level of competition. The level of competition in S/SS racing is easier since the majority of the competitors aren't racing 3x a week like a lot of Footbrake and Box guys. Not a dis, just fact. Since moving to NC, I race almost twice as much as I used to (which was already a lot), and I notice a positive difference with the additional seat time. Coupled with the fact that the races require fewer rounds to win, you're looking at an overall return on investment that's much better.

Comparing local brackets to class racing, in my opinion, you can pretty much move the decimal point. Whatever it costs to go racing, multiply it by some factor, but so too with the winnings.