[Warriormotorsports]

After racing the event in Salt Lake this past year and receiving the news about the cancellation of the the of sportsman classes at certain events I chose to write Skooter an email...here is a copy:

"I have to say that I spoke with a few of my fellow competitors that were planning on crossing over to race IHRA at a few selected events, from NHRA were disappointed to learn that Salt Lake lost all of the Sportsman Classes, other than Top Dragster and Sportsman, for their National Event you have scheduled in 2011. I realize that IHRA had low participation at the 2010 event but based on how it was promoted by both RMR and IHRA for those categories, a NHRA Divisional Event in Denver, major local event in Boise and PSCA event in Las Vegas all the same weekend it's no wonder you only had 10-15 cars show up in those classes.

I really think that if you are truly the organization for the sportsman racer you should at least give us one more chance. If you are trying to build up some interest in the west then how can you do that we you don't feature all of the sportsman classesat your showcase National Event? I know that half of the competitors that did attend the event traveled from over 300 miles to race. I think we deserve another chance...if it's the money you're worried about cut the purse in half.

Just my $.02 worth..."

Tom Albritton
SS/DM 7210

Here is his response:

"My .02 went into trying to do a full class race last year....

Bottom line is that we did a race in year 1 with the locals, then put up our $$ in year 2 doing a class event. That move and lack of support cost in the ballpark of $80k and it isn't the purse. No cars means no round money so that wasn't the issue. The issue is the expense of doing it. Staff, insurance, travel, salaries, equipment, etc. vs. doing it with the local cars and only bringing in 4-5 people.

There are only so many date options for us, especially since we basically have to do it back to back with Edmonton to make financial sense out of it. I can't count on people that were planning on coming. I have to budget realistically and can only measure the event based on what actually happened. I also have no interest in burning that money as we have a lot of opportunities but limited resources so the chances we take have to make some kind of sense. The car count would have to improve 200 cars or more to make sense. Knowing Denver had 300 sportsman cars and that was the measuring stick, I just don't see how it can work for us.

We are keeping TS and TD in the mix since those classes had a decent turnout. I also spoke with Ron @ RMR and we agreed that if there was interest in a class, that I would be more than willing to try it again if there were at least 32 racers that would pre-register for it. We would set a deadline on it so that if we didn't reach the number we could let racers know in plenty of time.

I'm all for trying it, but I can't burn a pile of money again and hope we get the support or racers pissed off at NHRA now that they hammered the sportsman racers again. I want to be able to keep doing events at RMR but the ownership of RMR and Feld will pull the plug in a heartbeat if we light a pile of money on fire again.

So if there are serious class racers that want another shot, the registration window will be opening soon.

Skooter"

Let me just say that I don't believe it takes even 1 more staff member to accomodate those additional sportsman classes. When I inquired prior to the '10 event in Salt Lake one of their "selling points" vs. NHRA was no pre-entry into an event...just show up and pay at the gate. So if it isn't about the $money$ then why does he act like it's about the MONEY..

just my additional $.02 worth...