No, you can't. Please read the rulebook. (and for the record, I said the same thing in the late '90s... "Why don't we just build a Comp-legal chassis and show up to collect our qualifying money?", as they had short fields at the time.) If that's what you want to do, go build a T/S car, a Comp car, or a TA/FC and rake in your hoards of Qualifying money.
TS and TD have been a staple of IHRA for many many years, and have only recently fell prone to short car counts, and they still do fine in many areas. Some of the qualified fields have been really good shows.
Why does SS get paid more than Stock? Why does Comp get paid more than SS or S? Why does T/AD and TA/FC get paid more than Comp, SS and S?
Seriously, this is kind of scraping the barrel on trying to find something to complain about, in my opinion. Then again, if that's the only thing we have to complain about, what's the problem?
Correct. You can call it "semifinals" all you want, but the driver in that situation still only won TWO rounds. 4th round loser with 16 cars would be R/U and get sticker money. What's 4th round loser get you anywhere else on the planet?
I swear, some people will only be happy with $100 entry fees to run for $10,000, get 6 time shots, and have no other classes on the grounds other than Stock and Super Stock.
Kinda tired of the whole "IHRA has low car counts" BS. Well if people would GET OFF THE COUCH and GO to the races (like Hagen has), there would BE big car counts. More cars = more payout and more sponsors. Everybody that keeps complaining about all of NHRA's enhancements are doing nothing but feeding that which they claim to hate. I call BS. I think those people LOVE complaining. Maybe if IHRA made you show up on Wednesday, charged you double, parked you a mile from the staging lanes, charged you for pit vehicles, charged you for trash, charged you for waste oil, mandated mufflers, mandated diapers, started at 7:30am then ran you at 11pm, didn't prep the track, allowed Hemi cars to run heads-up with small blocks, didn't put you on TV, and just generally treated you like crap, people would FLOCK to the gates. GIVE ME A BREAK. So REALLY? You're going to complain about what some OTHER class is getting paid? What on earth does T/S payouts have to do with IHRA's friendliness?