[sg1838]

IMHO, people run NHRA races for one of 4 reasons (or a combination thereof):

1. Money - They have the sponsors, and as such if you win a National event you're going to have one of the biggest paydays possible in sportsman drag racing.

2. Prestige - This includes owning a Wally. As NHRA is the biggest and the oldest, they get the best press coverage, and their trophy has more prestige than others.

3. It's convenient - Depending upon where you live it may offer you the best opportunity to race at some big events, or at the most events. If you live in Lake Havasu City, you have 5 national events within a 90 minute drive, and no other real options.

4. Your friends are there - Sportsman drag racing is a social event. Very few of us are touring professional sportsman racers, and if we're doing this for fun, it's more fun to be at the races that our friends are at.

None of these things are bound to happen IMMEDIATELY. Numbers 3 and 4 have the best chance of happening quickly, but number 1 will take time and a lot of hard work (sponsors have to believe that there will be some return on their investment via the media) and is even related to number 2. Number 2 alone will take a LOT of time develop. Mainstream media is not going to cover these events from the get-go, and unless you have the money like NHRA to publish your own paper to hundreds of thousands of people, it's going to take a while to develop this.

What it all gets down to is that in order for a new sanctioning body to work, it will take somebody who can dedicate ALL of their professional time to develop it, it WILL take MULTIPLE YEARS for something like this to come together where it is anywhere near the magnitude of NHRA or IHRA, and it will take somebody who WILL NOT GIVE UP. An undertaking like this is bound to have it's problems, but the person that does it will need to see past that and carry on (obviously, a thick skin is a must).

Oh, and a deep pocketbook probably wouldn't hurt either, though I'm not sure this is required (well, I guess it would be required because anybody that had a full-time job would most certainly need to quit it to make this become a reality, so you better have a deep pocketbook to at least keep food on the table for a year or two).

I personally don't remember the details behind Alex's endeavor, but honestly I think all us sportsman racers want is to be treated fairly and with dignity. I really believe that if to start this new organization had the exact same rulebook as NHRA, but cared more about it's racers, returned more of the entry money to the racers, and didn't try to gouge it's racers every chance it had that it would be successful.

Some of us would complain no matter what, but my guess is that 90% of our complaints could be addressed in a half dozen issues:

1. Better payout - Simply return more money to the racers rather than pocketing it to turn huge profit. That said, I don't think any of us is against a sanctioning body turning a profit, but again, don't gouge us.

2. Don't nickel and dime us to death - This includes everything from the insurance surcharge, to the oil down fine, to the seatbelt rule (I'm sure I could come up with more, but we'll leave it at that for now).

3. Respect us as working individuals, and make a sportsman racer friendly schedule. Not only should the schedule be made so that people can take less time off of work, but don't make us run at 8 o'clock in the morning and 9 at night every single event. Once in a while is fine to overcome an unforeseen weather issue, but it doesn't have to be every event. Also, don't schedule races over umpteen days, and take advantage of holidays where possible. Why aren't there national events on Memorial Day and July 4th weekends? Because the Pros want to spend that time at home with their families since they're on the road so much, and the NHRA probably needs to give it's employees those holidays off (the employee issue is something that would need to be addressed regardless, but every local track I know has major races on those 2 weekends). And why are the Open and LODRS events at Maple Grove scheduled for Wednesday through Sunday rather than Thursday through Monday so that us working stiffs have to take one less day off of work?

4. Give us better racing facilities - This doesn't mean upgrades to the tracks themselves as much as it means better pits and not having to run when dew is accumulating on the track. Simply eliminating the Pros from the schedule fixes this as we'd gain about 4,000 pit spots on the pavement without them there (plus with less cars there'd be more time to get the race in during daylight hours).

There's probably one or two other things the majority of the people would like to see improved, but if you fixed those 4 items above, I think 90% of the people would be happy (and you can't please 100% of the people 100% of the time).

In closing, I know this CAN be done. It's just a matter of finding the right person to do it. And I know it WILL happen eventually...I just don't know if it will be in my lifetime or not (think about it, it's a GREAT opportunity for somebody who has the dream and desire to make it happen).

That's my $0.03 (it was definitely more than $0.02)...

Jason Oldfield
S/G & S/ST 1838