Maple Grove 50th Anniversary Stk / SS Series

[vic guilmino]

I am seeing too many cars coming to these races as pure stock or IHRA stockers.
I would like to see permanent numbers on cars not shoe polish.
I would like to see some kind of tech not someone just pulling in and saying they are an IHRA
or NHRA car.

[Bob Bender]

Sounds great as long as I dont have to work....................lol

[Chris1529]

Originally Posted by vic guilmino

I am seeing too many cars coming to these races as pure stock or IHRA stockers.
I would like to see permanent numbers on cars not shoe polish.
I would like to see some kind of tech not someone just pulling in and saying they are an IHRA
or NHRA car.

I agree with Vic.

[Brian VP]

I am glad that our track operators see the need for something like this but I do have 1 concern about this. A 5 race series? By my quick unofficial count from the last weekend of April through October there are 27 weekends. Your average northeast racer attends 6 NHRA divisionals and 2 NHRA national events. Throw in IHRA races that dont conflict with NHRA and just say that is at least 3 more weekends. NHRA has 2 Opens, 1 of which is at Maple Grove. Dave has 5 East Coast Stock/Super Stock races. That is possibly 18 race weekends. Now you add weekends that consist of Mother's Day, which apparently is a no-no, graduations, birthdays, etc. and there really isn't room for 5 races. Plus Maple Grove will be restricted on what dates that they can put these races because of events that they have on their own schedule like Super Chevy, ADRL, etc., etc. In a year where it only seems that it is going to cost more to go racing than it did last year, I don't know that a 5 race series is the answer. I can guarentee that if this does go on as a 5 race series I do not see another one of the "Combo in the Hill's" going on. I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but this might sound great in December but in June or July when you are standing at a gas pump paying for gas to go to a race for the 5th or 6th weekend in a row, you might have a different feeling. I know that a lot of people have put a lot of time and effort into this, and I appreciate that, but I wanted to post my concerns.

Brian Van Poppel

[BKSG1198]

I would have to agree with Brian on this. I know I don't have a pony in this fight but, I am a fan of Stk/SS Racing even though I'm a .90 racer. As we have all learn from comments on this form that you can't schedule an event on top of a NHRA event because we all know what the majority of racers will choose. I know currently with just trying to set up the Super Gas & Comp Association Schedules for 2012 has me pulling my hair out. Throw in Dave Ley's East Coast Stock / SS Series which is 5 weekends, the ASRA (Which could draw some cars in from the New England Area) and you are bound to put an event on top of another event and make people choose. Not to forget that you will have racers travel out of division if they are running for points (Norwalk, Columbus, Chicago, Bristol, Bowling Green). I know the ECSSA can't do Super Chevy this year cause New England Divisional is scheduled on the same weekend and Dave will have to be at Epping. Brian, Lee and Myself are going to do everything in our power to present a 2nd Combo in the Hills Event even if it is for less payout....I maybe a Throttle Stop Baby but, I'm a racer at heart and enjoy hanging out with everyone at the track. Just food for thought....here is what the East Coast Schedule looks like for 2012, that's excluding Dave's ECSSA Dates & IHRA Races....

April 20th to 21st – Virginia Divisional (Dinwiddle, Va)
April 27th & 28th - Off Weekend
May 4th to 6th – Southern Nationals (Atlanta, Ga) / Atco National Open
May 12th to 13th – Mothers Day (No Racing)
May 19th to 20th – Norwalk Divisional
May 25th to 27th – Maple Grove Divisional Race (Reading, Pa)
May 31st to June 3rd – SuperNationals (Englishtown, NJ)
June 9th to 10th – .90 Nationals / Possible Combo in the Hills Race??
June 15th to 17th – .Father’s Day / Thunder Nat (Bristol)
June 22nd to 24th – Lebanon Valley Divisional Race / Atlanta D-2 Race
June 28th to July 1st – Route 66 Nat (Chicago, Il)
July 5th to 8th – Summit Nationals (Norwalk, Oh)
July 14th to 15th – Sportsman Spectacular at MIR / Napierville Open
July 21st to 22nd – New England Divisional (Epping, NH) / Super Chevy Show (Reading, Pa)/ Columbus Divisional (Columbus, Oh)
July 28th to 29th – Off Weekend (25K to win bracket race at Atco)
Aug 4th to 5th – Atco Raceway Divisional (Atco, NJ)
Aug 11th to 12th – Off Weekend
Aug 18th to 19th – Cecil County Divisional (Rising Sun, Md)
Aug 25th to 26th – Off Weekend
Aug 29th to Sept 3rd – US Nationals (Indy)
Sept 8th to 9th – Englishtown Raceway Divisional (Englishtown, NJ)
Sept 14th to 16th – O’Reily Nationals (Charlotte, NC)
Sept 22nd to 23rd – Jegs Sportsnationals (Columbus) / Bracket Finals (Delmar, De)
September 27th to 30th –Bristol D-2 Race (Bristol)
Oct 6th to 7th - Uni-Select Nationals (Reading, Pa)
Oct 11th to 14th - Dutch Classic (Reading, Pa)

[Marty Rinehart Jr]

Before anyone reads anything into this!
This series is not intended to try to compete with Dave Ley's series. In fact, we want to work with Dave and his crew as we all know, he runs great events. Lex is all for working with Dave and not against him.

[Dan Fahey]

remove

[Brian VP]

Originally Posted by Marty Rinehart Jr

Before anyone reads anything into this!
This series is not intended to try to compete with Dave Ley's series. In fact, we want to work with Dave and his crew as we all know, he runs great events. Lex is all for working with Dave and not against him.

Marty,
I don't think that anyone thinks that Lex is trying to compete with any other races but in the long run it does compete with everything. Most people nowadays have to tighten up and race less because of the world around us. Because of this people have to pick and choose. Even if in a perfect world you could get all races schedule without conflicting with any other in my calculations, that would be 23 races on 27 weekends. Don't you think that with a schedule such as this all the races are competing?

[Dave Casey]

This is a great idea and I compliment Lex and co on considering it.

That being said, everyone's comments have merit, the most being scheduling. having done the ASRA stk/ss schedule myself for a number of years, it is the hardest thing. I suggest that Lex and co look at the schedule and come up with what they can for non conflicting dates and run with it. 5 dates will be tough to find, but your season is a little longer than up in the mass/ny/nh/ct area. Maybe Dave and Lex could run races on the same weekend, one saturday, one sunday.

Michael's comment about points purse I understand, but personnaly i think points brings more cars in than a bigger purse. Some of our best highlights at our ASRA races have been related to points.

Vic, with the expense of racing and the time involved, I don't think you will have a problem with legality issues and street car issues. I only say that because it has not been an issue for us at ASRA. It seems that the racers police themselves pretty well, and that is a good thing.

Hope this happens, any stock/ss race is a good thing

[Bob Don]

How about a one weekend combined ECSSSA/ASRA/50th Maple Grove Stock/SS extravaganza? Everyone earns points for their respective series. Have a race on Saturday and one on Sunday with Wallys and big purses.