Send Letters to NHRA

[SS Engine Guy]

Drag racing pays my bills. In 2008 83% of my business was drag racing. I have various hobbies, none of which include cars. When price hikes/economy cause my customers not to spend dollars with me then it is seen in my books. I'm still waiting for my stimulus as I'm the LAST one that gets paid at my shop. As of lately I am not being paid as well as in the past.

A car # costs nothing to produce and very little to keep track of.
example: I keep bob weights and various clearances, differences, special specs on all work done in my shop. I never thought about it but I guess you can say that the cost of the administration of this is included with the price of the work.

A chassis inspection takes about 30 mins.or less on S/SS cars. 150 bucks an hour at the old rate.....300 per hour at the new rate. And other than the presence of the sticker means absolutely nothing.
example: During the winter I helped knock the side bars,kickers and rear braces out of a mild steel current chassis inspected car with an 8 lb. sledge hammer because the welds were so bad yet it passed and ran over 150 mph.

Competition lisence has cost associated with it and I have no idea of the amount due to reviewing medical conditions, etc. I bear the brunt of the cost however, as I have to pay my Dr. for an appointment/ specific exam. Had to go to an opthamologist this time since my Dr. quit using eye charts. I don't really mind the Dr's. visit since it has found problems in some friends that they didn't know existed.

I have several "memberships" that I pay on a regular basis. However, I have never been told that I couldn't come to a board meeting to state my feelings/disagreements on how the organization is being run. Any time a decision concerning membership was to be voted on I was notified by mail of when and where this would take place. Two of these are NFP organizations. Guess I don't really have a problem with membership fees increasing but I do know that 2 organizations that I belong to have lowered membership during this less than stellar economy that has been brought on us.

I have a REAL problem with raising entry fees when payouts are rediculous compared to the expence involved. That, however, is OUR own fault for not doing something about this a long time ago. Contingency is stressed during a bad economy. Have they had any effort made to keep them from dropping out?
example: Lowering the cost of being a contingency sponsor?

In closing, I have neither lowered or raised my prices. I feel that I owe that to my long time customers and new prospective customers. I have purchased over 50K of equipment that I felt I needed in order to give my customers the best service available. Ouch.........but I don't do cheap work and I don't produce junk. That is the way a business is run..........well, honestly that is the way a business is supposed to be run but I'm sure some would argue about that. I am able to update and put money into my business in a bad market because I have managed my resources to the best of my ability in the past. Most racers I know are pretty good at managing their operations also. If a business is in financial trouble even in a bad economy I think it can be traced to poor management, poor personel, a lack of respect for its customer base and a total neglect of its product as has been shown with some really big corporations lately.

By the way..............fuel prices are the biggest scam going these days and mainly to blame for a downturn in the over-all economy. Just my opinion.

[Average Joe]

NHRA only cares about making money with maintaining the status quo. Take the Pro Mod class for example. That is the most exciting class to watch right now in my opinion, has more personality with all of the different body styles and vintages, but they haven't done a single thing to make a full time National Event class. ADRL is successful and at the heart of their show is Pro Mod. Get rid of pro stock or update the rules, I am tired of seeing 09 GXP's racing against each other. It needs some variety with EFI or turbos, or lose the giant hood scoops.

[Chad Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Average Joe

NHRA only cares about making money with maintaining the status quo. Take the Pro Mod class for example. That is the most exciting class to watch right now in my opinion, has more personality with all of the different body styles and vintages, but they haven't done a single thing to make a full time National Event class. ADRL is successful and at the heart of their show is Pro Mod. Get rid of pro stock or update the rules, I am tired of seeing 09 GXP's racing against each other. It needs some variety with EFI or turbos, or lose the giant hood scoops.

you were making so much sense........then you had to go bash on pro stock. while EFI might be cool, leave the turbos in Comp.

[treessavoy]

Originally Posted by Ken Miele

JDG71, Wow, you sure told me, no come back for that one.

Dan, I wish you luck with you effort.

Being a rich a$$hole I find myself counting all my money these days and don't have time for the good fight.

Ken,

I heard that you are so fantastically rich that you often have your car flown to the track to race and have the requisite tall beautiful blondes as your pit crew. I just wanted to talk to you about some swamp....er... land I have for sale down here in FL. LOL!

What a collection of idiots, having money doesn't make a difference it's how bad do you want to race...if you don't like what the NHRA has done, go race with the IHRA, if you don't like them the bracket race and make more money than if you won an NHRA race, or nostalgia race and have fun...the object is to race and I don't believe any of you have a contract with the NHRA that doesn't allow you to race elsewhere .

[Ken Miele]

treessavoy,

Send me some info, always looking for a good deal...... All kidding aside.

This forum mirrors what many think in this country. Class warfare is constantly being waged. If you do well, you will be judge harshly even without knowing the facts. Some of the posts I have read are beyond belief. Making fun of the way people look, the nastiness to people that are successful. I feel sad that America has become a country of such hate for people that do well.

The mentality that you are owed something, give me a break, you are owed nothing in this life, people get screwed all the time. learn from it, and do something about it.

Everyone that is bitching about the price increases, have you never been screwed before? what did you do about it then?. I can not say this enough, if you pay for a service and the service is not what you expected, why would continually use that service. There are many places to race. If you dislike NHRA's treatment, do not support them.

I understand why people are upset at the price increase, but instead of calling them names and constantly whining about its not right. Do something about it, don't sit on your *** and just complain. Write letters, organize, do something, not just ride this popular I hate the way NHRA treats me. Like treessavoy said, there are other places to race, practice what you preach.

treessavoy, its nice to see there are a few members that have similar views. I wish the members would remember will all have a right to our opinion, even if we do not agree. We do not have to resort to name calling and disrespect each other. NHRA monitors this site, I think if we were more civil to each other and NHRA, we may have a better chance of them listening to us. Acting like a mob does us no good.

There are some really great remarks and opinions here and some that defend and sound like they are on the NHRA payroll. Seems Sportsman ranks always get the shaft. What gets my attention is when guys like Pat and Dan post their thoughts and facts. I agree with them and others and will support them 100%.

What I would like to see is a reply from NHRA on how they arrived upon their decision to ding the Sportsman. They could have asked the Pro show to pay the current rate increase that they so easily passed on to the Sportsman but we know that's not going to happen any time soon. Did NHRA cut out raises from the top and take any cuts?

Can they have a Pro Show without the Sportsman racers? I don't think so. If they could it would have already happened. The only rollback I have heard is the oil down money and kids under twelve but as it appears they still got their money back. Are their more? I will mail and Email my questions to NHRA.



Barry

[rayfin]

I quit racing because of the cost. Ya, boo hoo for me. NHRA doesn't care about anything but the top 4 pro classes.
Without the racers there is no race. They don't care, they are in it for the money. It's just like religion and the government. Control and money.
Sad...

[Lou SG2340]

Originally Posted by trmnatr

NHRA doesnt care about you guys, the sportsman racer.

Simply put the sportsman racers are there for time to go by. You are just a number and thats it. Why should Pro Stock, Pro Stock Bike, Top Fuel and Funny Car be on TV BUT not the sportsman racers ? We work hard to acheive what we do at every race

For Example, Want proof ? Read below,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

What can NHRA do about the Economy? Well, many people go to NHRA events but don't buy nothing,, Now if NHRA was smart enough to lower the cost for an affordable ticket they would be much better because then fans would buy stuff,, Sometimes its better to give a little and recieve than to just take the money like they are,, at what NHRA is getting for a ticket its over double the cost of an IHRA ticket. Until NHRA tickets are affordable NHRA is doomed for ever

Now, what about in 2001 when the fans loved Pro Stock Truck ? Why did NHRA take them away? Because the fans liked Pro Stock Truck and they were taking sponsorship dollars from the pro levels is the real reason, Who in the pro levels did fight for an entry level pro class called Pro Stock Truck? The answer is none because the pro classes got more sponsorship with them gone, sounds kind of like modified in 1981, huh? They all were quiet because they knew if NHRA eliminated Pro Stock Truck the sponsorship dollars would go up for the other Pro Teams ,,,,, Like a good friend of mine said,, be carefull what you ask for, you just may get it !!!!!

What about 1981 when NHRA did away with modified eliminator, who stood up for the modified racer ?? No pro racer did, none.

If they really want to minimize costs in this economy they need to look at what IHRA is doing for divisional racers,, I wouldn't race NHRA if they let me race for free as its crazy, want proof ?

Scott got killed in a Funny Car crash last year, very sad times in Funny Car the past few years with Scott, Eric, that young man in Top Alcohol Funny Car and John Force being hurt in a crash. Their family is always in my prayers,,,,

There are only THREE options to make them safer,
1) Make the tracks longer in the shut down and cut the bull crap of staying with a track because you have been with them for years,, move on to a safer track that's newer and updated to handle the top end speeds

2) Make the cars slower, Although NHRA can't seem to figure out how to do this,, well I can tell you my friend it is easier to slow them down then make them faster,, We all know that AND if you slow them down you will kill three birds with one stone
- slower times = safer car
- slower times = less maintance on cars = cheaper in this fallen economy
- less fuel used = less money spent on fuel = cheaper fuel costs over all

3) Save money by putting a throttle stop on fuel cars

Until NHRA steps up to the plate and takes action we are all doomed as it will impact the sportsman racer which is us

Question for NHRA, Why do you think Pinks All Out is as popular if not more popular than NHRA ?

QUOTE FROM A FRIEND
The P.R.O. and drag racing magazines have had years to investigate and report on the dictators in Glendora. They sat on their rears and did nothing because it didn't impact them.

Now that the pro ranks are being impacted by the NHRA, it's a big deal??? Not for me, they got want they wanted. Multi-million, multi-car race teams that dominate the sport and prevent the growth of the smaller, independent teams. That's very near-sighted as the sport will die when the John Forces, Schumacher's retire.

The final straw for me was when they abolished the Pro-Stock trucks which were picking up a big fan base. I suspect the pros, especially in Pro Stock, did not want the trucks as they were starting to cut into their sponsor base.

The alcohol racer who died last year at the Atlanta Div race was Bobby Martindale from Chester Va. A Alcohol Funny Car driver for 20 plus years. His car was named MadDash in honer of his daughter who was killed by a drunk driver. He is missed

[trmnatr]

Originally Posted by Lou SG2340

The alcohol racer who died last year at the Atlanta Div race was Bobby Martindale from Chester Va. A Alcohol Funny Car driver for 20 plus years. His car was named MadDash in honer of his daughter who was killed by a drunk driver. He is missed

Thats a nice thing to do, i didnt know him but anyone to leave here is missed

[Larry Hill]

Ken, I never knew you were "RICH"