Car count

[jmcarter]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

Atlanta had about 1/2 the usual number of cars. NHRA, and especially Division 2, have done a rotten job of scheduling for a long time. They have the Bowling Green points race, Indy, Atlanta points race, and Charlotte on consecutive weekends. A ton of cars would normally go to at least 3 of the 4 races, if they had just a little down time in there. A lot of people go to Bowling Green, then go straight to Indy, that's twelve days straight if you get to Bowling Green on Thursday evening, go to Indy and stay until Tuesday. If you went to Atlanta on Thursday evening, and stayed until Sunday night, then went to a 4 day race at Charlotte on Wednesday evening, you'd have two days at home between them. That's another week, not counting any travel time, so you'd have near twenty days away, with not much down time at home and work between those two stretches. Even if you work for yourself, it is hard to be away from home and work that much in that period of time. If you work for someone else, it is even harder.

It's not much different than the crappy Division 2 schedule over all. They have a lot of races right together in February and March, in Florida (as if there was only one state in Division 2). Then the three National Events (who's idea was it to have Bristol in June or July, there's not any air there in April or May, never mind June or July). Then a dead space for the rest of the summer, then Atlanta and Charlotte on consecutive weekends in September, followed by Reynolds in October (and they moved it to the middle of October instead of near the end of the month). They're asking people to take a lot of time off in short periods, plus, there's not a single Division race in Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, or South Carolina, the only Division races are in Georgia and Florida.

Not only that, they put Bristol and Norwalk on top of each other, among a lot of other scheduling foolishness. You'd think NHRA never looked at a calender and a road map when they made the schedule, and the Divisions scheduled their races just to piss each other off.

Alan, you've made some very valid points (although I think a lot of folks enjoy Feb/Mar in Florida, provided they have the time of course) but remember the King is dead so we'll see how next year's schedule works out. Definitely need to spread it out a bit more over the southeast and synergize the schedule a whole lot better. Because of the low car counts we did get six qualifying passes and overall the event went very smoothly...D4 director (Craig Hutchinson) filled in and reportedly didn't have to get too involved because the staff had everything pretty much under control. Let's all hope for a good director to be named (anointed?).

[Alan Roehrich]

I agree, the race was fairly well run. One thing I thought was really dumb, and uncalled for, happened during qualifying Saturday morning. Arnold Greene had a small fuel leak, they shut him off in the water and we pushed him back. I'm glad they caught it, don't get me wrong. Bill Grubbs told me where to look, and I had it fixed in about two minutes. There was plenty of time, but they refused to let Arnold make a pass in that session, despite the fact that I fixed the leak. There was really no reason at all not to let Arnold make a pass in that session, he could have fallen in line, it's not like they'd have had to wait on him. In fact, it is not uncommon, even during national events, to have a car fall back in line and make a qualifying shot after making a minor repair like that. Sure, we got 6 shots, but that shot was during some of the better weather conditions we had.

[butch8908]

Originally Posted by W J

Butch, I have heard thru the grapevine that many stock and superstock racers from other divisions were unhappy with unfriendly treatment and lack of courtesy they've recieved from employees at Bruton's track at past Nat. events there.....Maybe that's why many are staying away from Concord? Just my thoughts.....WJ

Thanks for the info. I don't understand why you wouldn't treat all racers the same. You are the one's paying their salary. Maybe someone should remind them of that. (Bruton????? or JR?????)

[butch8908]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

Atlanta had about 1/2 the usual number of cars. NHRA, and especially Division 2, have done a rotten job of scheduling for a long time. They have the Bowling Green points race, Indy, Atlanta points race, and Charlotte on consecutive weekends. A ton of cars would normally go to at least 3 of the 4 races, if they had just a little down time in there. A lot of people go to Bowling Green, then go straight to Indy, that's twelve days straight if you get to Bowling Green on Thursday evening, go to Indy and stay until Tuesday. If you went to Atlanta on Thursday evening, and stayed until Sunday night, then went to a 4 day race at Charlotte on Wednesday evening, you'd have two days at home between them. That's another week, not counting any travel time, so you'd have near twenty days away, with not much down time at home and work between those two stretches. Even if you work for yourself, it is hard to be away from home and work that much in that period of time. If you work for someone else, it is even harder.

It's not much different than the crappy Division 2 schedule over all. They have a lot of races right together in February and March, in Florida (as if there was only one state in Division 2). Then the three National Events (who's idea was it to have Bristol in June or July, there's not any air there in April or May, never mind June or July). Then a dead space for the rest of the summer, then Atlanta and Charlotte on consecutive weekends in September, followed by Reynolds in October (and they moved it to the middle of October instead of near the end of the month). They're asking people to take a lot of time off in short periods, plus, there's not a single Division race in Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, or South Carolina, the only Division races are in Georgia and Florida.

Not only that, they put Bristol and Norwalk on top of each other, among a lot of other scheduling foolishness. You'd think NHRA never looked at a calender and a road map when they made the schedule, and the Divisions scheduled their races just to piss each other off.

It's hard for the fan who likes to watch Sportsman racing to take off consecutive parts of the week, so maybe the new director will listen to you guys and maybe even read this forum for some positive feedback for the next year.