The Demise Of Class Eliminations

[NHRA1926]

The suits are NOT car people, they could be swapped one for one with others in comparable positions for a private equity business and we’d scarcely tell the difference.

And there is your answer to every problem we are discussing on class racer.

[Alan Roehrich]

NHRA wants the time so they can add other things to national events.


The next step is when class is no longer contested anywhere but Indy. Then nowhere at all.

[onefarmer]

I agree with all of you that it is very sad to see class going away at nationals, I will throw out some food for thought. I have seen first hand the spectators at national events walk into our pits as we generally have good pit spots near prostock or promod and we see alot of foot traffic. People will walk right by my stocker to look at the show down car. Unless you look under the hood they are both same inside and out. And the stocker is probably the fastest or one of the fastest stockers at the race but most of them walk right by it to see the showdown car. My personal opinion is there needs to be more heads up in stk and ss to get fans interested in it. As sad as it is to say most fans at national events have no idea or appreciation of what all the stk and ss cars are at the track. Another sad truth of changing with the times. When I have guests at the track who may have never been to a drag race before, they have a hard time wondering why some one wants to bracket race and they seldom understand .90 racing. Im still glad to be able to race a internal combustion engine that is loud.. LOL as those days are getting closer to being numbered

[Greg Gay]

I see a big difference between what the spectators will watch on the track, and what they will check out in the pits. I don’t even know if the NHRA brass are aware of this. Yes, the spectators might not watch much of Stock and S/S on the track, but once they have walked through the Pro pits, these are the cars that they check out. They will walk past a every carbureted dragster and tube frame Sportsman car, but many, many of them will look at, or stop and talk and talk with the owner of, the ‘60’s and ‘70’s Stock and S/S cars, ESPECIALLY the Stock Eliminator cars. Why? Because those are the cars that they can relate to. And the Stockers are more attractive to them because of no wheel tubs. Stock and S/S are a free car show in the pits and many spectators are aware of this. I have spectators come and talk to me about my cars every day of every national event that I attend. NHRA take note: we ADD VALUE to your events.

[Billy Nees]

I haven't run at a Natl. Event in YEARS other than Sports Natl.s but I just don't see it being practical to run Class at Natl.s Events anymore (except Indy). With 50-60 car limits on the field size there just aren't enough competitors to make Class Runoffs interesting for anybody, IMHO.
It just seems to be a better "fit" to have Class at certain Div. Events (example, Baby Gators) where the car counts will be 90-100+.

[James Perrone]

What’s the total shame about the way NHRA treats, stock and superstock
Is that all the classes pro stock too fuel funny car derived from
Stock and Stuper Stock eliminator
If there was no stock there is no NHRA Circus
Like dinosaurs I guess we will be eliminated
Bean counters rules

[JP1738]

As someone who is new to STK class, I'm not terribly broken hearted about not having run-offs as often. The idea is cool given it's doing the absolute most with the absolute least as far as performance parts are concerned. And if you're way down in the alphabet like some of us, it's one of the cheapest ways to do heads-up drag racing in the sport. But I never ran the class when they did run-offs as often as some of you are describing, so to me this just seems like business as usual. Bracket races all year and a run-off every now and then for the people who are really passionate about that kind of thing.

[Bill Ringer]

Originally Posted by Greg Gay

I see a big difference between what the spectators will watch on the track, and what they will check out in the pits. I don’t even know if the NHRA brass are aware of this. Yes, the spectators might not watch much of Stock and S/S on the track, but once they have walked through the Pro pits, these are the cars that they check out. They will walk past a every carbureted dragster and tube frame Sportsman car, but many, many of them will look at, or stop and talk and talk with the owner of, the ‘60’s and ‘70’s Stock and S/S cars, ESPECIALLY the Stock Eliminator cars. Why? Because those are the cars that they can relate to. And the Stockers are more attractive to them because of no wheel tubs. Stock and S/S are a free car show in the pits and many spectators are aware of this. I have spectators come and talk to me about my cars every day of every national event that I attend. NHRA take note: we ADD VALUE to your events.

Yes, that's spot on and there's one more thing in addition. I've seen this myself at Pomona- as the last nitro car of the session completes its run the crowd is getting up to leave the grandstands when Super Stocks fire off with giant wheelstands and then, those spectators are sitting back down to watch. Stock & Superstock are great for getting the nitro crowd to return to their seats and watch a little longer.

[Terry Cain]

Originally Posted by NHRA1926

The suits are NOT car people, they could be swapped one for one with others in comparable positions for a private equity business and we’d scarcely tell the difference.

And there is your answer to every problem we are discussing on class racer.

BINGO, we have a winner.

[Bobby Fazio]

Bring class back to nationals in a format that makes sense. Try to pick 2 nationals in each division. Have Stock class at one and Super Stock class at the other. For example, D1 Maple Grove Nationals set Stock quota at 90 and leave Super Stock at 60ish. For Epping/Virginia, take 90 Super Stockers and 60ish Stockers. Rotate them each year.

Let's say it's "Stock Class" weekend: Thursday Stock will run their 2 Q sessions and then C1 for classes with 3-4 cars, C2 for classes with 5-8 cars, C3 for classes with 9-16 cars.

Friday Stock will run all Class Finals after the other LODRS categories have run E1 and E2. Stock has rest of day off for pics, checks/teardowns etc. Saturday morning Stock first out for E1 (90 cars), other LODRS categories run E3. Then Stock runs E2.

Each LODRS category should be at 8 cars while Stock would be at 23. Mix in Stock E3 Saturday afternoon between pros to get them down to 12 cars. Sunday morning E4 Stock first out, track walk and all that jazz, and now all LODRS have 6-8 cars left and the Sunday show can go on as planned.

If a division does not have 2 nationals then rotate between a divisional and a national, or factor in JEGS or Indy where both classes run, or could also find nationals that somewhat border between 2 divisions. As long as each division gets at least one feasible shot in stock and one in super stock and at least one of those is at a traditional national event.