[Mike Carr]

Jim made a good post. Our S/SS Association races are for fun, and, usually, some good money to be won. Some tracks do not have scales, some don't. We don't weight or fuel check any cars, because I don't have the money to pay someone to come do it. So, with no advantage to weight, fuel, etc, we don't have heads-up runs. And that is "OK" with 90% or more of the racers who compete. I polled a few racers last year, and no one had a problem with the way we do things (even those with really fast cars and love the heads-up racing). As long as a car runs the Index, they are OK. And, everyone that has run one of my races has competed at one time or another in NHRA/IHRA racing, so no one is building a bracket car and trying to pass it off as a Class car.

Comparatively speaking, our Tri-State S/SS payouts blow NHRA and IHRA's payouts away. Using posted Divisional payouts for NHRA/IHRA and us, based on a 40 car field in each:

NHRA IHRA Our series
1st round X X X
2nd round X X $50
3rd round 100 80 100
4th round 125 120 200
5th round 150 160 400
Runner-up 500 400 (500S/S) 700
Winner 1,000 1000 (1100S/S) 1,500

NHRA Div'l is $150-$170 entry, depending on what Division you're in. IHRA entry is $135. Ours is $100. For what is usually a one day race (Hagerstown is two days, one is test and tune and a S/SS Gamblers, and the other is the main race). For the time off, entry vs payout, travel, etc, our races are a much better deal.

As far as the friendly part of IHRA, I've never had a bad experience with them (or NHRA, for that matter), from the standpoint of race officials, track officials, etc. All have been friendly and helpful. Better payouts, in each, would go a long way however to being even more friendly.