Index Change

[Billy Nees]

Alan, I hate to say it but todays young racers don't want the structure or comitment involved in running Stock or SS. I help out a bunch of kids at the local track and they just don't understand why I waste the time messing with stock stuff when I can buy so much "shiney" stuff and go so much faster. I'm not saying that they WON'T get it eventually but I doubt it.

[Myron Piatek]

Originally Posted by Billy Nees

Alan, I hate to say it but todays young racers don't want the structure or comitment involved in running Stock or SS. I help out a bunch of kids at the local track and they just don't understand why I waste the time messing with stock stuff when I can buy so much "shiney" stuff and go so much faster. I'm not saying that they WON'T get it eventually but I doubt it.

It's todays society and their desire for "instant gratification".

[Chad Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Billy Nees

Alan, I hate to say it but todays young racers don't want the structure or comitment involved in running Stock or SS. I help out a bunch of kids at the local track and they just don't understand why I waste the time messing with stock stuff when I can buy so much "shiney" stuff and go so much faster. I'm not saying that they WON'T get it eventually but I doubt it.

Billy, you are absolutely right. My best friend has an Outlaw Drag Radial mustang. He doesn't have the money to compete nationally but he'd got about 70k tied up in the car. It will run low 8's at well over 160. He doesn't understand class racing, and why we spend so much money to go "so slow" in his eyes. I could dig some 10.5 stuff, but only all motor with a stick shift, then it would be really fun.

[RJ]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

All of that is EXACTLY why Stock has become so prohibitively expensive. So, your solution is to make all of that legal, that way we can move on to something else that we can make legal because NHRA doesn't want to look for it? And that is your plan to "save" Stock? Seriously? You cannot "save" Stock by making Stock into something else.

What's your fix? - all that stuff and more is bogus anyway, I suggested what I did because the only way to stop it, is to let everyone have it.

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by RJ

What's your fix? - all that stuff and more is bogus anyway, I suggested what I did because the only way to stop it, is to let everyone have it.

By that "logic", the only way to stop crimes is to allow everyone to commit them. Hardly a good idea.

NHRA is not going to "fix Stock, nor are they going to "save" Stock. Or Super Stock for that matter. If the classes are to be saved, it will be by the racers. Whether or not they want it bad enough remains to be seen. By what can be read here, the answer to that is "no".

[X-TECH MAN]

Originally Posted by RJ

What's your fix? - all that stuff and more is bogus anyway, I suggested what I did because the only way to stop it, is to let everyone have it.

Most of the fast cars have been doing it for years anyway. Its already there.

[GarysZ24]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

I'm still not seeing this as a way to bring young people to Stock and Super Stock. After a year of the new cars in Stock and Super Stock, how many are being fielded by young people new to the sport? None that I've seen. There are a few driven by the "'kids" of Stock or Super Stock racers, but those "kids" were likely to race in Stock or Super Stock anyway.

Face facts. Stock and Super Stock are not cheap. That is one of the big reasons why we don't have new young people in the classes in large numbers. Young people can't afford it. And just because you bring in "new" cars that are just as expensive as "old" cars does not mean young people will suddenly be able to afford them.

Take stock in reality. We are the bastard step children of NHRA. They don't REALLY want to save our classes. We're a heavy load on their tech department, especially at the track. Face it, we complain a lot (most often, with good reason). When we generate a decent car count, we take up a lot of space and a lot of time.

NHRA keeps us around because we pay entry fees and buy crew passes. They keep us around because we pay membership fees and certification fees. They keep us around because we pay competition license and number fees. They keep us around because they take the lion's share of the contingency money posted for us. They keep us around because they make a killing off of stuff we buy at the track. NHRA doesn't love us, they don't want us, they don't really care about us, and they certainly are not concerned with "saving us".

The "new" cars are here because NHRA can make an extra dollar or two (or more) from them. They're here because NHRA gets paid to have them here. NHRA isn't going to make rules, change rules, and make allowances for anything they aren't getting paid for, or saving money on. NHRA is not the "benevolent" "non profit" governing body it once was, long ago. It is a for profit corporation, and the board is driven by the bottom line and how they can improve it.

I just do not see a bunch of twenty something or thirty something "new" racers showing up in these "new" cars in droves, or in any real numbers, to race Stock and Super Stock.

Your post hit the nail on the head with regards to why in my post #114 I wondered how our sadly departed NHRA founder "Mr. Wally Parks" would feel about this. Corporate greed has settled in, and unless something happens to make me feel otherwise (not likely), the days of our classes are being numbered, and our classes future with young lions such as Stock 608, and Dion, etc., are numbered.

I/we loyal (meager incomed Stock & Super Stock, if not all of us racers), sorely miss you WALLY....

[bsa633]

Originally Posted by RJ

The 2010 indexes are 1/2 second quicker than they were in 1976, squeezing out 5 tenths in last 34 years, about -.015 ET per year (especially with the liberalization of the rules) isn't much.

Actually the 2010 indexes are only around 0.1 faster than they were 17 years ago...thats .005 a year!
Then ofcourse is it too bad that the reason for at last lowering the indexes is to make the new cars shine!