The Future Of Stock

[Evan Smith]

To Bob and the others,

There's more to life than racing an NHRA national event. Yes, the quota stink, I hate the fact that there are so few S/SS cars left by Saturday afternoon.

Still, simply complaining doesn't do any good. News flash: You can race your Stocker or Super Stocker at NHRA Opens, Divisionals, with the new NMCA Stock/SS class, and the multitude of regional sanctions. So, just because a limited number of racers can race a national doesn't mean the sport is dead.

My story was meant to shed light on the class and to perhaps look at ways to grow participation affordably by considering rule changes to better fit the times.

Evan

[Paradigm Shift]

The opening line from Mr. Mulry sums it up completely.

I firmly believe Stock and Super Stock are much more than minor inconveniences to those at the NHRA.

Pragmatically, Stock is burdensome. The price of dealing with the burden may very soon become more than NHRA is willing to pay, regardless of the revenue generated from Stock racers.

The denial is palpable. It has to be realized that no one wants to watch class racing, whether on TV, the Internet or at the track. That is, no one other than the current club members and even then probably a rather small percentage would view special programming or features.

This is merely a very expensive albeit enjoyable, self-serving endeavor with very little promotional opportunity.

[Ed Carpenter]

I'm all for.combining sticks and autos but no weight breaks for autos. Same weight for both. Auto are equally fast and in some cases faster.

[Jeff Teuton]

FS classes stick and auto are already combined, seems to work ok.

[James Perrone]

You want more participation GET OFF INTERWEB..
Same people crying about same things Most of you have quit already
Yet still so bitter about grade points.If it was easy EVERYONE WOULD BE DOING IT
Please Ken can we get a PURE STOCK section just for Dan his opinion is self serving

[Coleydog]

First off, it is just pro ET, like one said 68 spots 67 different cars (class)
You want new people, get rid of heads up, no more $40,000 396-375 engines, unless you want one, but now you have to actually race. I've talked to quite a few racers and that's the biggest road block to getting into class racing, the money outlay (for average guy not daddy WarBucks wanting to buy a race) I know this is blasphemy to most but things evolve. In the 50s-60s racing revolved around our cars, not now, it's plain to see NHRA doesn't want us around at national events and if you didn't provide the gate fees now we would be history. Wish and hope it'll be like the old days but not in this day and time. I vision myself as just making a few divisional races at best and do not want the hassles of a National event. Maybe I do need my head examined for getting into this. All my opinion

[fredjohnston]

Combining automatic and manual classes will end up costing racers more money and in turn participation will suffer.

Let's look at A, B, G, and H for example, the most popular stock eliminator classes. Stick racers today rarely have heads up runs. If the stick cars are now mixed in with the autos the probability of a heads up race, per race goes up exponentially. Hypothetically speaking where you were once the 2nd or 3rd fastest or even the fastest in your class in your division when the classes are separated, you could now be 5th or worse when its combined. For these stick racers it sounds like you need to either spend more, work more or walk away.

On the flip side, some of the stick HP ratings vs automatic HP ratings on the same car are laughable. Look at the LS1 stick cars for example (Firebird, Camaro and Corvette). Look at the Shelby Mustang stick HP. For the auto racers to keep up they will either need to spend more, work more or walk away.

Leave this one alone.

What does it solve anyway? Less class contingency payout which is peanuts anyway? Less class trophies? Less administrative work for NHRA or Nitro Joe to keep track of? Give me a break.

What does it create? A few more heads up runs per race. Big deal.

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by fredjohnston

Combining automatic and manual classes will end up costing racers more money and in turn participation will suffer.

Let's look at A, B, G, and H for example, the most popular stock eliminator classes. Stick racers today rarely have heads up runs. If the stick cars are now mixed in with the autos the probability of a heads up race, per race goes up exponentially. Hypothetically speaking where you were once the 2nd or 3rd fastest or even the fastest in your class in your division when the classes are separated, you could now be 5th or worse when its combined. For these stick racers it sounds like you need to either spend more, work more or walk away.

On the flip side, some of the stick HP ratings vs automatic HP ratings on the same car are laughable. Look at the LS1 stick cars for example (Firebird, Camaro and Corvette). Look at the Shelby Mustang stick HP. For the auto racers to keep up they will either need to spend more, work more or walk away.

Leave this one alone.

What does it solve anyway? Less class contingency payout which is peanuts anyway? Less class trophies? Less administrative work for NHRA or Nitro Joe to keep track of? Give me a break.

What does it create? A few more heads up runs per race. Big deal.

Good post, "fred"

[Mike Pearson]

My opinion is NHRA wants the new blood factory stockers to be the future of the class. Maybe a 64 car field with an exorbitant entry fee and race for peanuts. There are plenty of stock and super stock cars still racing. The problem is the short quota and the low pay out. How many want to invest 100k to run for a $1200 purse. Raise the quota and purse and then there will be enough cars paying the entry for NHRA to afford tech people again. I am a working man and can only go to so many races each year so I run the divisional and nationals that are close to my division. That's the way it should be. The local division racers should have first chance at a national event in their division. I would not be in favor of adding any new classes to stock or SS. They asked if we wanted to combine stick and auto this year in SS. They didn't even consider they the HP and indexes are not the same for both. So what do you do with that. That was one of the things the SRAC was discussing and it was postponed for more info.
The problem with the new factory stockers is once the factory stops producing the cars and parts that will end those classes. The economy is improving now but how long will it last. Some bean counter will step in and ask what are we getting for our investment. I don't think the factory race cars are a sustainable future for the class. Very expensive.

[ALMACK]

Originally Posted by James Perrone

You want more participation GET OFF INTERWEB..
Same people crying about same things Most of you have quit already
Yet still so bitter about grade points.If it was easy EVERYONE WOULD BE DOING IT
Please Ken can we get a PURE STOCK section just for Dan his opinion is self serving

There already is one