NHRA announces electronic credentials for sportsman competitors

[7881 Chris]

I am curious if EVERYONE is now receiving this email from NHRA regarding "Electronic credentials for sportsman competitors" ?????

Last year only one of us was selected receive the an electronic ticket at the Pomona finals. It was a complete nightmare because they only allowed entry threw certain gates because they only have a reader at those gates. You may want to be aware of those gates while trying to re-enter, especially if your walking out on foot. Track security was consistently questioning the white peace of paper with a bar code on it in the staging lanes even while near our car and in our fire suit.

I am hoping this stops the long lines at credentials but we still have to get our restricted area sticker etc. I guess they don't want to print up the pretty tickets with the embossed race car for us sportsman racers.

[BobUnkefer]

Chris,

I too had the "opportunity" to use electronic credentials @ Pomona. The only real problem I had was standing in line @ the credentials trailer for 25 minutes only to find out that I was supposed to go to the BACK of the trailer to another window..... I did notice as I was leaving after getting MY credentials that they had put a sign out in front directing racers that had entered electronicly to the back window, go figure.

I wore my plastic credential holder in plain sight all weekend and never had an issue with security, although I did witness some others being questioned. When I went to the tower to visit the announcing staff there were four staff members at the entrance to the tower, as I tried to get in they weren't real enthused with my (as one of them called it) "weird"credential until the lady on the end spoke up and said she was aware of the new style and it was OK to let me in. 25% awareness to me seems less than acceptable.

If NHRA wants to continue the growth of the program, the only suggestions I would make would be to
(A) make the credentials smaller so that you don't have to use oragami lessons to get it to fit in a standard credential holder, and
(B) educate the staff as to a "different" but also acceptable type of credentials in use. The biggest issue that I saw and /or heard of was security people in the staging lanes that had no clue of the electronic credentials.

My .02

Unk

[Jack Matyas]

Bob-- I saw many of the same things you did -- awareness is everything . Also , when you get this type of credential you don't get a "regular" ticket -- one of the few free items we get to take home for a keepsake from the race .

[Ed Wright]

Look at the money NHRA will save on paper and printing.