Lets talk NHRA Stk/SS with Lonnie Grim - Ideas - Comments

[Andy Friar]

I am a wanna be S/S racer. Nat events are already too expensive for the experience of being a time filler between pros, to me. $440 entry fee for 1 race is silly and a deterrent to a larger portion of the racers or wanna be racers, IMO. The reviews about the CRR and Bo's race last year where glowing and complimentary on here, but from the outside it showed me that a lot of folks don't care about the purse being increased. That thought based on both racers struggling to get car counts. This year CRR struggled ahead of time and almost got cancelled before the weather took it out. (NOT KNOCKING THESE GUYS RACES OR THEIR HARD WORK!!) I currently only bracket race around Michigan and hope to jump to S/S in the next ~2yrs. I fully expect all of my money spent on racing to not come back. I didn't make it out of the 1st round all last year. I don't do it because of the purse size, rather because I love it. I view drag racing as a fun/ $ spent equation. $440 off the top makes it UN-FUN to me. I can bracket race ~2-3 days for that cost. I get that it 'isn't the same' but squeaking out a .010 light and .004 MOV round win IS really fun and the opponent, lack of fans or Pros on the property doesn't matter, to me. Just my unsolicited $.02

[GUMP]

How about preparing the track?

I ran the NMCA race at Rockingham last weekend, no issues. Same car at Charlotte, blow the tires off....

For the money we spend, we should have the best possible racing surface.

[Larry Hill]

I had the same thing happen to me Gump, when I questioned the starting line crew the answer was: "you need to work on your car"

Its NHRA the track should be the show place.

[Ok stocker]

Glad to hear Lonnie is open to ideas.
As far as raising the purse great idea.
Raising entry fees is a bad idea. Think about it like this. Nhra can change the payouts anytime they want to. If you pay 100 more this year and next year they want to lower the payout and pay more in another class. You still pay the 100 more.
Quotas need to go up. How can you attract new customers if they know they probably can’t race at nationals. There is already lots of people who would go to national events that can’t because the quota is too low.

[Larry Hill]

Raise the purse without raising entry fee. With 80 entries and 64 spots, no byes, the extra money for the purse will come from the DNQ’s. Class winners, must run on or below National index. If Class is not contested the fastest car in that class that runs under the index will be the place on the ladder of 64 as the class winner. The rest of cars will be place on ladder based on how far under the index they qualified.
The type of cars in stock will be more varied with everyone looking for “their class. “
The AHFS will work a little better since there will be a need to run the cars harder to qualify for the race. A racer will have to decide if it’s better to not qualify or up the average to above -.850 under.

Shipping weights: “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”

What I believe needs some attention is the is the Hp ratings of the new cars, 2020-up.

[J.R. Haddad]

The idea to eliminate the 170 pound driver weight wouldn't be fair. You have Larry Hill who is a very tall man, and might be a tad over 170. Conversely,
you may have a jockey sized person who may be 120. The driver weight
rule as written is equitable. On increased purses, raise the quotas, the money is sitting there, begging to be taken. On additional fees to raise the
purse, for National events, see above, for points meets, which we all run
more of than national events, an additional 100.00 that is optional, you pay
the extra 100.00, you can win more money, you don't pay, you get the posted payout. Additionally, weigh the extra money a little more towards the semi-finalists and runner-up, with extra money for the winner, just not as weighted to the winner as in the past. They get a little extra contingency.

J.R.

[Jim Kaekel]

Here's a couple from me.
1- The AHFS does not work at all. Put some common sense into it, look at MPH in relation to ET, 1/8 mile ET/MPH, etc.
2- Straighten out some of these grossly under rated cars that play the game. For example, factoring the same engine grossly different whether the it's in a Firebird or Corvette, for example, doesn't make sense. There are other examples as well.
3- Sorry to disagree with a couple of previous posters, but no roller lifters unless it's OEM.
4- If you're going to raise the purse, spread the money out. Don't just pay it to the winner and runner-up.
5- Put the Drag Paks, Cobra Jets and new COPOS into Super Stock where they belong. They've all got mechanical rollers, CNC-ported cylinder heads and 9" Ford rears.
Jim Kaekel, Jr. #3836

[DG]

Originally Posted by Jim Kaekel

5- Put the Drag Paks, Cobra Jets and new COPOS into Super Stock where they belong. They've all got mechanical rollers, CNC-ported cylinder heads and 9" Ford rears.
Jim Kaekel, Jr. #3836

Agree, cars running motors that were not originally available to the general public from the dealer belong in Super Stock. Plus, I think there are legitimate safety concerns of stock racers barely going 100 mph at the finish line getting chased down by 1400 HP factory race cars going 150 mph+. The vast differences in required driver/race car safety devices suggest they should not be on the track at the same time.