National event chaos?

[Cotten]

I think some of you may be misunderstanding the "no tech".

As Jody Lang stated earlier in this thread. I also received an email before the fall vegas race and the finals stating that I had the option to participate in a trial program where I was able to go directly to the credential trailer with my tech card.

It further stated that spot checks (I assumed for belt expiration etc) would be conducted during qualifying.

I don't believe the program is meant to eliminate tech but to speed the tech in process up. I assume and hope performance oriented tech will continue, at least at the current level.

I am not happy about the prospect of random pairing however, certainly not the no stacking., as that is a big part of my social life.

[boostedf22c]

Originally Posted by Cotten

I think some of you may be misunderstanding the "no tech".

As Jody Lang stated earlier in this thread. I also received an email before the fall vegas race and the finals stating that I had the option to participate in a trial program where I was able to go directly to the credential trailer with my tech card.

It further stated that spot checks (I assumed for belt expiration etc) would be conducted during qualifying.

I don't believe the program is meant to eliminate tech but to speed the tech in process up. I assume and hope performance oriented tech will continue, at least at the current level.

I am not happy about the prospect of random pairing however, certainly not the no stacking., as that is a big part of my social life.

Thanks for the clarification of the "no tech" term.

[theworm]

so what happens to the e t I system they have now ? its just like not going through tech other than still having to wait in long lines while other cars get teched in. with no stacking do we just drive in and self park?

[Jim Wahl]

Originally Posted by Cotten

I think some of you may be misunderstanding the "no tech".

As Jody Lang stated earlier in this thread. I also received an email before the fall vegas race and the finals stating that I had the option to participate in a trial program where I was able to go directly to the credential trailer with my tech card.

It further stated that spot checks (I assumed for belt expiration etc) would be conducted during qualifying.

I don't believe the program is meant to eliminate tech but to speed the tech in process up. I assume and hope performance oriented tech will continue, at least at the current level.

I am not happy about the prospect of random pairing however, certainly not the no stacking., as that is a big part of my social life.

I thought I read that S/SS were laddered from the first rd as always. The .90 cars are random run. Am I wrong? Jim

.

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Cotten

I think some of you may be misunderstanding the "no tech".

As Jody Lang stated earlier in this thread. I also received an email before the fall vegas race and the finals stating that I had the option to participate in a trial program where I was able to go directly to the credential trailer with my tech card.

It further stated that spot checks (I assumed for belt expiration etc) would be conducted during qualifying.

I don't believe the program is meant to eliminate tech but to speed the tech in process up. I assume and hope performance oriented tech will continue, at least at the current level.

I am not happy about the prospect of random pairing however, certainly not the no stacking., as that is a big part of my social life.

You know, between a couple of days of work, 10 hours of driving, and 3 days at the PRI Show, where I saw a lot of my racing friends, no, not just friends, but my racing family, there's been a lot of time to think about this news, and discuss it with some of the family.

One of the first things that came up is the NHRA officials that take care of us, who are part of our family, too. The people who don't race, but come to the track, and make it possible for us to race, for the love of the sport, and their racing family, because they sure ain't doing it for the money.

So when NHRA starts cutting the budget for tech, and the people who park us, what happens to those NHRA people? Yeah, what about our friends?

And then, as mentioned above, there's the social part of racing, because we sure ain't doing this for the money. Yes, we're doing it to go fast, and to compete. But as a close friend said today, when we're not racing, we're hanging out, cooking together, eating together, working on our cars together, so, yeah, where we park is important. And our NHRA friends know this, the know us, and they do a good job of parking us close to our friends, because it means a lot.

They're going to push all of this on us, and tell us it's no big deal, and we should just take it and go on. But as one guy told me Friday, this is not something to take lightly, and it looks like a bad omen for our sport.

You know, when you think about it, when a car rolls through the gate with a driver and usually at least one other person, that's around $400. So with an 80 car quota, several sportsman classes are bringing in about $32,000 per class. And that's just getting through the gate. Never mind what gets spent inside the gate, or the membership and license fees.

Sportsman drag racing contributes a pretty fair amount to NHRA's bottom line.

And that does not even take into consideration what racers spend on cars, parts, and rigs. And a lot of the companies we buy from contribute a fair amount as well.

And yet, NHRA continues to short sheet sportsman racing and treat the racers like second class citizens.

I think my friend was right, this looks like a really bad omen for our sport.

[fredjohnston]

So you and others were at PRI for several days. Did you or anyone else casually bring these items up at the for discussion with NHRA?

[jmcarter]

Originally Posted by fredjohnston

So you and others were at PRI for several days. Did you or anyone else casually bring these items up at the for discussion with NHRA?

Was under the impression that there was a SRAC meeting at PRI...would expect something semi-official to be forthcoming.

Having so many great conversations with NHRA tech people over the years it's hard to swallow that NHRA is headed this direction. The very NHRA people we regularly interface with represents the 'true' NHRA, not the corporate carpetbaggers who migrate through headquarters with visions of increasing their compensation packages.

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by jmcarter

Was under the impression that there was a SRAC meeting at PRI...would expect something semi-official to be forthcoming.

Having so many great conversations with NHRA tech people over the years it's hard to swallow that NHRA is headed this direction. The very NHRA people we regularly interface with represents the 'true' NHRA, not the corporate carpetbaggers who migrate through headquarters with visions of increasing their compensation packages.

I saw Mike Crutchfield on Friday and Saturday, but he and I were both busy with other people and other deals. We had to leave early on Saturday, so I did not get back by to see him.

Jeff Tueton of course said he could not attend.

So I don't know about any SRAC meeting.

The Division 3 banquet is usually held at some point around the PRI Show, but I saw none of the usual Division 3 people, and I normally see Travis Miller, as well as various track owners and track personnel, but I did not see any of them.


As far as it goes, I am not really surprised to see this. What we have is pretty much management by short term bottom line, as viewed from the position of accountants and marketing people who have no idea about how the business actually works. It's very common these days. Sadly, unless something dramatic happens, I would expect to see a series of mid to upper level management and marketing people wander through, each making short sighted decisions intended to have an effect on the short term bottom line, collecting their "I saved the company $XXX" bonus, a generous severance package, and going their merry way. They neither know nor care about the racers or how NHRA could and should work.

[Bruce Noland]

Kind'a late to this party. It seems like the new nhra plan is to cut expenses. So, some of these rumors may be true. Cut a day out of stacking and that will save money on labor and insurance. Then, if they cut a day from stacking they would have a cluster trying to get all the racers parked and teched in one day. So they skip tech. That saves money as well. I've also heard they are going to use local "hires" for parking in 2017.
nhra did not exhibit at SEMA and had a local crew at PRI which does not look good. But the big guys still enjoy going into the fancy steakhouses and living large when they can. I have been busy with several other projects and haven't had time to keep up with racing but I would add that folks should keep an eye on nhra's tax returns. And look for excessive borrowing against nhra properties. nhra cannot sell these properties outright but they can suck them dry with loans, while living large and paying the big salaries right to the very end. And then leave a gutted organization in the trash heap when they run for the hills. The tracks would then have to be sold to satisfy the huge debts. And nothing guarantees that they will remain as drag strips. Bad Poop coming guys.

[Jim Parsons]

I would suggest with NHRA’s new reduced - tech inspections policy they consider accepting safety belts for the whole calendar year and not just on the given month, like they do with SNELL helmet certification. I.e. if manufactured in June then allow two years + 6 months > December that year. A few times in the past if my belts expired in the middle of season I have forget until receiving a friendly reminded during tech inspection that they are getting close. Would be a little inconvenient in staging lanes during a random tech inspection if found they have expired.
In the now famous words of Hillary “What difference does it make anyway?” a few months in a belts life that is!
Jim Parsons
F/S 5305