car count at i.h.r.a. opener

[Jason Oldfield]

Originally Posted by Pat Joffrion

But the idea to save racers tow money seemed to make good sense, and I have submitted my thoughts to NHRA to try and get their pro series to "connect the dots" by scheduling their events starting at Pomona, then Phoenix, Houston, Gainsville, Atlanta, Memphis, Topeka, etc... That would allow the professional (and touring sportsmen) an opportunity to save thousands in fuel costs.

Pat, Pat, Pat....this is ANOTHER idea that would just make TOO MUCH SENSE! I've thought this for YEARS. It would even make sense from a weather standpoint. But, why have the racers criss-cross the country twice, when you can have them do it at least 7 times?!?!?

As for the car count in San Antonio, I would never expect that either track operator would have wanted this scheduling conflict. But, from NHRA's and IHRA's standpoint, remember that the majority of their revenue comes from the paying SPECTATOR gate. If the stands are full, and there is only 1 car there, NHRA and IHRA would be happy.

Don't believe me? Look at the IHRA race in Edmonton. You want record low car counts, there it is, and it's been that way from day one. Yet IHRA continues to praise Edmonton, and re-upped their contract with them. So, they're obviously not all that concerned about the fact that there was only 150 cars there TOTAL ACROSS 10 CLASSES LAST YEAR (it doesn't appear that they raced T/S or T/D there). The single largest class was Pro Modified with 21 cars, and I'm sure the reason why the pros pulled as many cars as the sportsman classes was because the pros were basically paid tow money. Across those same 10 classes, there was 211 cars in San Antonio (i.e. 33% more cars).

From a racers standpoint, its a shame that both races were scheduled for the same weekend as I'm sure there were plenty that would have gone to both had they been able to. IMHO, IHRA screwed up BIG TIME by scheduling the race the same weekend as the NASCAR race and the Final Four. Maybe the stands were packed on Saturday, but I can't help but imagine that if those other HUGE events weren't going on at the same time that they could have possibly had even more spectators, not to mention more cars (though, maybe their thinking was that they'd try to lure people down to the track on Friday and Saturday that were in town for those big events...I don't know...)