Live from Maple Grove - NHRA Auto Plus Nationals

[Tom Goldman]

Jeff's car also could handily win best engineered as well.
The Barracuda is outstanding on all levels .

[AC]

Originally Posted by Tom Goldman

Jeff's car also could handily win best engineered as well.
The Barracuda is outstanding on all levels .

X2

Great job jeff and eric

[Jack Matyas]

Because of NHRA's new schedule change for Sundays' the fans ( and competitors who like myself stuck around to watch the activities Sunday ) got very little to see in terms of Stock and SuperStock .What they did get see Sunday afternoon was 3 (count 'em three) Stockers and 3 SuperStockers - not very much if thats a category you're interested in .

Instead of seeing Stock and S/S run they did get to witness some Maple Grove Pro ET vehicles race to win a golf cart .No kidding ....and here's were it really gets funky - the final consisted of Gary Simpers 64 Comet SW ( who won with his cool almost a Stocker entry ) against -- are you ready ? a snowmobile . Somehow this reporter thinks this didn't seem 'right' . Pro ET during prime time on Sunday .After all this was the NHRA Auto Plus Nationals and we had to go to many Lucas Oil races just so we could enter.
Am I wrong ? I was going to let this go but just can't .

Your thoughts ..............

[442OLDS]

I thought snowmobiles had their own class?

[Bob Don]

Originally Posted by Jack Matyas

Because of NHRA's new schedule change for Sundays' the fans ( and competitors who like myself stuck around to watch the activities Sunday ) got very little to see in terms of Stock and SuperStock .What they did get see Sunday afternoon was 3 (count 'em three) Stockers and 3 SuperStockers - not very much if thats a category you're interested in .

Instead of seeing Stock and S/S run they did get to witness some Maple Grove Pro ET vehicles race to win a golf cart .No kidding ....and here's were it really gets funky - the final consisted of Gary Simpers 64 Comet SW ( who won with his cool almost a Stocker entry ) against -- are you ready ? a snowmobile . Somehow this reporter thinks this didn't seem 'right' . Pro ET during prime time on Sunday .After all this was the NHRA Auto Plus Nationals and we had to go to many Lucas Oil races just so we could enter.
Am I wrong ? I was going to let this go but just can't .

Your thoughts ..............

You are not wrong. At the Summernationals they also ran a local 11.5 index class (or was it 11.9, I don't remember). It is nice to showcase the locals but we jump through hoops just to enter a national event.

[Rich Biebel]

If you listen to the Audiocast during the race as I often do.....

It sounds like a circus sometimes and racing a sled against a car makes it look like a circus...to me anyway....

P.S. Gary Simpers car is very cool and he's a good driver....

Maple Grove has some very good footbrake racers and he is one of them...

[cicero819]

Jack, just when I thought NHRA was working harder at trying to mend the fence or at least are working harder at solving some of their short coming they go and do this crap. Snowmobile belong on the snow at least not on a National event. They would have been much ahead if they would have showcase totally stock showroom vehicle racing each other heads up. This would have made more sense in promoting new car sales to the different manufacturers. Legend cars can't be too far behind. They would have had a better impact with jr dragsters. This is what happens when people start showing up on Wed. and start eliminating on Thursday. Claude Ruel

[Casey Miles]

There are 2 things here, one is the golf cart. How much is it worth? Two is how did these two racers qualify to race for the golf cart? They may have had a series of races to get to that point and it was apart of that series that the final would be held at the National event.
BTW, the value of the golf cart is probably more then what you would win if you win Stock or Super Stock.
I think that it is smart to have this kind of racing inbetween the regular racing. The fans can see that you don't need a big dollar car to win something of value on the local level.

Casey Miles
248H "F" NHRA Stock!

[Jack Matyas]

Originally Posted by Casey Miles

There are 2 things here, one is the golf cart. How much is it worth? Two is how did these two racers qualify to race for the golf cart? They may have had a series of races to get to that point and it was apart of that series that the final would be held at the National event.
BTW, the value of the golf cart is probably more then what you would win if you win Stock or Super Stock.
I think that it is smart to have this kind of racing inbetween the regular racing. The fans can see that you don't need a big dollar car to win something of value on the local level.

Casey Miles
248H "F" NHRA Stock!

Casey - First the golf cart value - I'm not sure but my thoughts are in the $3,000 to $4,000 range .

As for those two racers qualifing - first off it wasn't just two - they started with I believe 16 - and those got to race by picking names out of a hat I'm told .

As for being smart from a marketing point of view - yes, it was a great idea ! But I was looking at it a different way - was it fair ? Did they pay $300 plus dollars to enter ? And I ( as many of you) went to 8 Lucas Oil races to qualify to enter.

[rognelson777]

Originally Posted by Bob Don

You are not wrong. At the Summernationals they also ran a local 11.5 index class (or was it 11.9, I don't remember). It is nice to showcase the locals but we jump through hoops just to enter a national event.

The nationals at englishtown 11.50 race had to qualify and they were the winners of the qualifying series from many different local tracks. Keep in mind that these races were scheduled before NHRA changed the format for national events,

I am also confused, there are always posts on here on how we get more people involved in class racing and nhra gives local racers a way to see what it is like and maybe they decide to race a stocker, super stocker, s/gas s/street and you guys complain about it.

It would have been nice to have another round of lucas oil eliminations on sunday, hopefully that will happen in the future.