The State Of Sportsman Racing - Interesting Read

[Dwight Southerland]

Adriel, I will give you my opinion.

1. Is there really any way to drive the cost of class racing(Stock, Super Stock, Comp) down?
** The increase of technology is the number one reason that building a class car is so expensive. Limiting the use of technology is one way to reduce costs. There are lots of ways to address this.
** Changing attitudes about what defines a race car will help. There are Stock & Super Stock combinations that can be competitive that can be built without having to incorporate $1200 pistons, $800 rods, $4000 transmissions, etc. You might not be a top sixteen qualifier, but you can win if you can drive.
** Reduce divisional races to two days and most national races to three days.

2. Is there a way to make it more accessible locally?
For me, we had once a year Stock/Super Stock combo races at our local tracks(Prescott and Centerville) that always peaked my interest when I was young. The rest was nurtured at NHRA events.
** Promotion and get the too-good-to-race-at-local-races guys to load their car up and show up.

3. How do entry level cost compare to what we had ten years ago?
** Ten years has not changed much. Inflation has taken its toll.
** The FS classes offer some creative combinations for SS that will be less than building traditional cars. Seems everybody wants a fast car (like low 9 sec/high 8 sec) and the traditional SS cars that will do that are horribly expensive to build.
** The class guide is filled with competitive Stock cars that could be built for less than $10-15K, but they will not be 10 sec cars. (Or 11 sec mostly)

4. Will we ever be able to shorten our divisional races into one or two day events to make it easier for people to enter these events?
** When I started racing, all divisional races were Sat-Sun events. It could be done again.

5. When was the last big money class race(Stock, Super Stock, Comp) that we've seen and where are the sponsors to make something like that happen now?
** Class Nationals.

6. I'm assuming if the location was right, you could get lots of Stockers and Super Stockers in the same place for a big money purse like some of these bracket races.
** Not until they really want to race and not be treated like prima donas.

7. What can we as a group(racers, fans, and fut racers) that care about the future of class racing do to make things better?
** Quit the squabbling and realize that somebody needs to do something and be willing to participate.

[Casey Miles]

Let me first say that I enjoy Stock/SS racing but I bracket race far more often. With that said, as far as lowering the expenses in Stock is out of the picture now. There are too many professional engine builders involved, the back yard engine builder is gone mostly. So the money gets spent which helps the economy.
The other part is a CIC race. Why participate if your combo has been factored to the bone while there are combos that are under factored by 20 to 30 HP being conservative.
The other part, there isn't an NHRA track within 300 miles from here. Nice job NHRA on losing all of South Florida tracks other then the one they own!

Casey Miles
248H Stock

[Sam Capizzi Jr]

Here's my 2cents for what it's worth....

It's very hard to justify spending $500-$800 to go to an Ihra/nhra race to win what you can win at a local track running Pro/MoD or even Street.

Also if you wanna go racing cheap build an oddball slow stocker..

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that at 35years old I might be the youngest or close to it to fund my own operation without any help from anyone simply because I love stock racing. I started with a 2K personal loan to buy my car and just put a little money here and there into my car to make it what it is today. No go fast parts. Just junkyard parts and lots of test and tunes.

No young person is going to do that these days.

I can't tell you guys how many times I waited on friday to cash my pay check just to spend it getting my face kicked in at a divisional or national. Try to sell that to someone young and new getting into this sport..

[Albert Lee]

Maybe it doesn't have to be a million dollar race as evidenced by the Midwest Class Racer Stk/SS Combo race in Earlville, Iowa ten days ago. 94 cars!

Here's the formula: Both a Saturday AND a Sunday Race with $100 entry per day AND a FUN Time!

Payout: $2,000/$1,000/$500 etc. INCLUDING 2nd rd loser money of $75.

There are 8 race weekends in the season so there's still time to participate:

Earlville, IA on Sept 3/4
Sioux Falls, SD on Sept 17/18 over $20k total Make A Wish Race
Eau Claire, WI on Sept 24/25
Kearney, NE on Oct 1/2

Support them and it Grows - Stay at home AND....

Al Corda

[Kevin Panzino]

Hey guys, the bashing of our beloved sport is getting old....
And enough with the constant ranting over the payouts.
Sub-Single digit percentages of class racers do this for any hope of payout. Literally only a few individuals.

Yes, we want the wally, yes we want the prestige, yes we want the satisfaction of winning in this class. Your damm right we'd rather race at an NHRA national event then some local bracket race, regardless of the payout.

You can go on and on about the big money bracket races. Fine, go ahead get your generic classless bracket car and run against those boys in the high dollar bracket races. Good luck with that. I'm sure its a great plan to make money for retirement. After all, you mention all the time about the big money bracket race payouts, so go ahead and start earning all that money. Let us all know how well that works out.

A great many of us wouldn't even bother to race if all we could do was bracket race generic cars.

Class racing is an entirely different breed and its never been about the money.

Can the never-been-class racers, class racer wannabees, and ex-racers living in an era long gone, please stop beating down what a lot of us are currently have a great time doing. Your on a public forum making our case look far worse than it is!! YOU DON'T SPEAK FOR ME.

I'm inclined to say, you know what guys, if you aren't currently racing in S/SS in NHRA competition, you don't really get to bash the current state of affairs.
Its not 1969, it wont ever be 1969 again, and you know what, that is fine with a great majority of us.

Now all that being said, I must admit, I tend to agree with statements about the amount of "bling", the folks who don't turn a single wrench on their combo just purchase everything, and the need to take several days vacation to attend a divisional race.

[Alan Roehrich]

Wow, this thread has become exceptionally productive.



Or maybe not.



Not sure what people think they will gain by worrying about the racing operation of other people.



The biggest problem racing faces is racers. Apparently a lot of racers are dead set on being their own worst enemy.

[ALMACK]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

Wow, this thread has become exceptionally productive.



Or maybe not.



Not sure what people think they will gain by worrying about the racing operation of other people.



The biggest problem racing faces is racers. Apparently a lot of racers are dead set on being their own worst enemy.

I suppose I see things different, but I think it's a good sign that some drag racers are willing to spend $ 100K to win $ 1K.

Much better than the alternative of them finding another type of motorsports to participate in...

[Casey Miles]

I think that it is great that some racers can afford spend over a 1/2 million dollars in race cars and rigs. It helps the American economy. I only have a problem that we are paying more money on entry fees and getting less for our money. NHRA is not policing the cars the way that they should, such as HP factoring, as well as tear downs. I pay for membership to NHRA and I loose the right to listen to races, who in NHRA came up with that? It's OK to a point, but entry fees have increased and the payouts are the same as they were in 1969, a joke to what my local track pays $40 entry to win $800. Maybe a 45 car field. So when NHRA collects $170 from 90 + cars and only pays $1000 to $1500 to win, that's almost legal robbery. I know that I don't have to participate so I don't other then National events I can get into.
I enjoy stock, it kills me to see the category be run by cubic dollars. It's no longer what you can achieve with your own knowledge, talents and skills. Buy it, go fast.
At PBIR they have a road race course and the price of road race cars is absurd. They race for trophies, maybe the racers who just want trophies should race there.
BTW, my permanent number is a Bracket Number.

Casey Miles
248H Stock

[Frank Castros]

My point is about the complaining. Class racing is the best, but don't complain about NHRA and it's entry fees and payouts if arrive in a 100k race rig,
My pet peeve is what stock eliminator became even before the FS cars. The camshaft duration rule change has had a monumental impact on cost.

[Mike Pearson]

Originally Posted by Kevin Panzino

Hey guys, the bashing of our beloved sport is getting old....
And enough with the constant ranting over the payouts.
Sub-Single digit percentages of class racers do this for any hope of payout. Literally only a few individuals.

Yes, we want the wally, yes we want the prestige, yes we want the satisfaction of winning in this class. Your damm right we'd rather race at an NHRA national event then some local bracket race, regardless of the payout.

You can go on and on about the big money bracket races. Fine, go ahead get your generic classless bracket car and run against those boys in the high dollar bracket races. Good luck with that. I'm sure its a great plan to make money for retirement. After all, you mention all the time about the big money bracket race payouts, so go ahead and start earning all that money. Let us all know how well that works out.

A great many of us wouldn't even bother to race if all we could do was bracket race generic cars.

Class racing is an entirely different breed and its never been about the money.

Can the never-been-class racers, class racer wannabees, and ex-racers living in an era long gone, please stop beating down what a lot of us are currently have a great time doing. Your on a public forum making our case look far worse than it is!! YOU DON'T SPEAK FOR ME.

I'm inclined to say, you know what guys, if you aren't currently racing in S/SS in NHRA competition, you don't really get to bash the current state of affairs.
Its not 1969, it wont ever be 1969 again, and you know what, that is fine with a great majority of us.

Now all that being said, I must admit, I tend to agree with statements about the amount of "bling", the folks who don't turn a single wrench on their combo just purchase everything, and the need to take several days vacation to attend a divisional race.

I am with Kevin on this one. Well said Kevin. I spend what I am able on my racing. I am just a blue collar working man. I have a 100K big rig. I have a 40 ft trailer. I build my own engines, transmissions rear ends and do my own welding and fabricating. Racing is expensive and the only thing that limits me is how much money I can dedicate to that. I don't count on winnings to finance my racing. Being a working man I can not take days off to go sit at an event to try to get a premium pit space. I go I park and I race. I am one that would probably quit if I had to bracket race. I have always either raced super stock or modified. My car is purpose built for racing super stock and does not make a good bracket car. If I crashed my car or it somehow got destroyed I would probably mover over to Top Sportsman. The sanctioning bodies and the promoters need to do a better job to sell our product to the general public. In my opinion they do little to help themselves and expect the racers to bare the cost of putting on an event. I will keep class racing as long as I am able to.