New Era. We are wanting change

6130 · 08-07-2021, 07:47 PM

Racing Dust Busters sounds almost as exciting as not doing it.

Drag racing is not the only motorsports discipline that my wife and I are interested in- when we were on the Isle Of Man for the TT races, the electric motorcycles were by far the least exciting class.

Jim Caughlin · 08-09-2021, 02:20 PM

If you want further insight into where sportsman racer rate with NHRA, read the article in the most recent Natl Dragster, it was captioned 70 reasons why drag racing is great. Not one of those reasons apparently have anything to do with sportsman racing. Maybe we were number 71 and didn't quite make the cut? Oh wait, they did mention junior dragsters, my bad. You may remember this is the publication that recently said they were going to put more emphasis on the sportsman classes.

Jim Caughlin · 08-09-2021, 02:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 6130

Racing Dust Busters sounds almost as exciting as not doing it.

Drag racing is not the only motorsports discipline that my wife and I are interested in- when we were on the Isle Of Man for the TT races, the electric motorcycles were by far the least exciting class.

You need to read the article on the Ford site that Tony Stewart wrote about racing the CJ electric car. According to him (an expert on drag racing), the only difference that he noticed was that the electric version did not torque over during acceleration. Considering that the electric motor was attached to a conventional automatic transmission with a driveshaft and rearend, I'm pretty sure the reminder of the chassis was not aware of where the power came from. To make matters worse, no one at Ford was technically aware of the way that the car was constructed to catch the error in his comments and let the press release go out as is. Also, to avoid embarasement, they didn't report the ET's. Not to say it isn't fast but maybe they should put Jeff Lane who knows how to drive it in the car for the exhibition runs.

ausby · 08-10-2021, 10:59 AM

i like it when people with 250 to 500k racing operations complain about entry fees and payouts. I've seen some of yall's motorhomes lol.

Terry Drinkwater · 08-10-2021, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ausby

i like it when people with 250 to 500k racing operations complain about entry fees and payouts. I've seen some of yall's motorhomes lol.

Hey! First World problems are real too!

jmcarter · 08-10-2021, 11:32 AM

Use to be a Tony Stewart fan; now not so much. Leah, Erica and several others have taken on the Pro s..t show mentality that separates them from their sportsman roots. They've gone to the dark side.

People can moan and groan all they want but nobody within the NHRA upper echelon is even remotely interested. Their focus is to continue the emphasis on PRO's since those are the only classes that will be left standing eventually. The RPM act and all the other incremental lifelines for the traditional sportsman racers will one day be exhausted. IMHO our only avenue for change is via the existing SRAC and small improvements may come about but the California centric NHRA has bought into their state's model for the future.

Fireofficer74 · 08-10-2021, 01:32 PM

Drag racing and possibly all auto racing is on a downward spiral.

When your sanctioning body closes a drag strip and sells the property to developers, that is not a good sign.

Time to convert those stockers back to street machines.

Remember who were the fans in the stands back in the 60's and 70's, it was all the old men here.

Dan Bennett · 08-11-2021, 04:53 PM

This has been an interesting thread with both sides making good points. But in my opinion, nothing I've seen will help the problem. That's because imo what has caused the decline has nothing to do with drag racing, or even cars for that matter.

I spent many hours in the towers from the late 80s through the turn of the century. I had a lot of conversations and listened to a lot more. Back then, a very strong majority of the people with NHRA running the race and the sport were serious car people and most had been racers themselves. They knew, they understood, and their eyes would light up just like the rest of us.

But during that time, the country was changing rapidly from the previous "make a good profit, keep things moving forward" to "yearly or quarterly results are everything". I don't want to argue economics or politics, that's just something that was very apparent to me.

So since it was "good business", the car guys begain getting replaced by MBAs and marketing majors. They knew little or nothing about the sport but had degrees that taught them how to maximize profits. Actually getting out and talking to your customers, from their studies, was nowhere near as important as buying reports from marketing companies and watching what other successful ( = quickly increasing the bottom line) businesses were doing. Yes, I heard many of them (fairly often) talk about sportsman racing being mostly filler for the pros.

At this point, other than the Dragster staff which is sadly just a ghost of what it once was, there's only a handful of true car people left. I would be highly surprised if anyone in Glendora could even explain the difference between SS and Stock other than "well, one gets to do more stuff and is faster" Other than Tech and DDs, it isn't part of the current job description.

They have no idea of how or why all of us fell in love with the sport in the first place. I doubt they ever will. So the decisions they make don't include much thought about what is good or bad for the racers they control. They aren't evil people out to get us. They simply have no idea why we do what we do and why we feel so strongly about how it is done.

When we are all talking about somebody making a moonshot run or building a really creative car, something like that never enters their conversation. But quite a few of them would know that one of the fuel drivers doubled their tshirt sales during the event.

Sorry for the length, but I just wanted to unload some thoughts after being partially on the inside and mostly on the outside watching the sport over the years.

And we have little power since the proxy vote that gave the board the sole power to do whatever they wanted. That's a lot more than I want to get into here other than stating that I did not support that move. Sadly, I think most members of the time were thinking "Wally always looks after us, if the NHRA wants it I'll go along".

Carguy49 · 08-10-2021, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Caughlin

You need to read the article on the Ford site that Tony Stewart wrote about racing the CJ electric car. According to him (an expert on drag racing), the only difference that he noticed was that the electric version did not torque over during acceleration. Considering that the electric motor was attached to a conventional automatic transmission with a driveshaft and rearend, I'm pretty sure the reminder of the chassis was not aware of where the power came from. To make matters worse, no one at Ford was technically aware of the way that the car was constructed to catch the error in his comments and let the press release go out as is. Also, to avoid embarasement, they didn't report the ET's. Not to say it isn't fast but maybe they should put Jeff Lane who knows how to drive it in the car for the exhibition runs.

Could someone link the Ford article, I seem to not be able to find it, might be a good read.

Jeff Lane or Pat McCue would be good choices to drive the car, with all the development time they have with the car. Don't forget all the time with the eCOPO, also. Pat has tremendous knowledge in electric cars. They could just put Bob Tasca III back in the car. He ran 8.12, I believe. With time car should be able to run in the 7's.

08-07-2021, 07:47 PM	#1
6130 Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Texas Posts: 409 Likes: 295 Liked 117 Times in 50 Posts	Re: New Era. We are wanting change Racing Dust Busters sounds almost as exciting as not doing it. Drag racing is not the only motorsports discipline that my wife and I are interested in- when we were on the Isle Of Man for the TT races, the electric motorcycles were by far the least exciting class.

08-09-2021, 02:20 PM	#2
Jim Caughlin Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Woodburn, Or Posts: 685 Likes: 82 Liked 805 Times in 245 Posts	Re: New Era. We are wanting change If you want further insight into where sportsman racer rate with NHRA, read the article in the most recent Natl Dragster, it was captioned 70 reasons why drag racing is great. Not one of those reasons apparently have anything to do with sportsman racing. Maybe we were number 71 and didn't quite make the cut? Oh wait, they did mention junior dragsters, my bad. You may remember this is the publication that recently said they were going to put more emphasis on the sportsman classes.

08-10-2021, 10:59 AM	#4
ausby Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2019 Location: springfield tn Posts: 49 Likes: 4 Liked 34 Times in 18 Posts	Re: New Era. We are wanting change i like it when people with 250 to 500k racing operations complain about entry fees and payouts. I've seen some of yall's motorhomes lol. __________________ Ausby Brewington A231 S/G

08-10-2021, 11:32 AM	#6
jmcarter VIP Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Richmond Hill GA (and Port Ludlow WA) Posts: 4,295 Likes: 2,382 Liked 3,174 Times in 971 Posts	Re: New Era. We are wanting change Use to be a Tony Stewart fan; now not so much. Leah, Erica and several others have taken on the Pro s..t show mentality that separates them from their sportsman roots. They've gone to the dark side. People can moan and groan all they want but nobody within the NHRA upper echelon is even remotely interested. Their focus is to continue the emphasis on PRO's since those are the only classes that will be left standing eventually. The RPM act and all the other incremental lifelines for the traditional sportsman racers will one day be exhausted. IMHO our only avenue for change is via the existing SRAC and small improvements may come about but the California centric NHRA has bought into their state's model for the future. __________________ Jim Carter 2340 Super Stock 2340 SST/2340 Stock Set another place at the table

08-10-2021, 01:32 PM	#7
Fireofficer74 Member Join Date: Mar 2021 Location: Davie, Florida Posts: 158 Likes: 79 Liked 47 Times in 36 Posts	Re: New Era. We are wanting change Drag racing and possibly all auto racing is on a downward spiral. When your sanctioning body closes a drag strip and sells the property to developers, that is not a good sign. Time to convert those stockers back to street machines. Remember who were the fans in the stands back in the 60's and 70's, it was all the old men here. Last edited by Fireofficer74; 08-10-2021 at 01:36 PM.

08-11-2021, 04:53 PM	#8
Dan Bennett Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 438 Likes: 848 Liked 592 Times in 135 Posts	Re: New Era. We are wanting change This has been an interesting thread with both sides making good points. But in my opinion, nothing I've seen will help the problem. That's because imo what has caused the decline has nothing to do with drag racing, or even cars for that matter. I spent many hours in the towers from the late 80s through the turn of the century. I had a lot of conversations and listened to a lot more. Back then, a very strong majority of the people with NHRA running the race and the sport were serious car people and most had been racers themselves. They knew, they understood, and their eyes would light up just like the rest of us. But during that time, the country was changing rapidly from the previous "make a good profit, keep things moving forward" to "yearly or quarterly results are everything". I don't want to argue economics or politics, that's just something that was very apparent to me. So since it was "good business", the car guys begain getting replaced by MBAs and marketing majors. They knew little or nothing about the sport but had degrees that taught them how to maximize profits. Actually getting out and talking to your customers, from their studies, was nowhere near as important as buying reports from marketing companies and watching what other successful ( = quickly increasing the bottom line) businesses were doing. Yes, I heard many of them (fairly often) talk about sportsman racing being mostly filler for the pros. At this point, other than the Dragster staff which is sadly just a ghost of what it once was, there's only a handful of true car people left. I would be highly surprised if anyone in Glendora could even explain the difference between SS and Stock other than "well, one gets to do more stuff and is faster" Other than Tech and DDs, it isn't part of the current job description. They have no idea of how or why all of us fell in love with the sport in the first place. I doubt they ever will. So the decisions they make don't include much thought about what is good or bad for the racers they control. They aren't evil people out to get us. They simply have no idea why we do what we do and why we feel so strongly about how it is done. When we are all talking about somebody making a moonshot run or building a really creative car, something like that never enters their conversation. But quite a few of them would know that one of the fuel drivers doubled their tshirt sales during the event. Sorry for the length, but I just wanted to unload some thoughts after being partially on the inside and mostly on the outside watching the sport over the years. And we have little power since the proxy vote that gave the board the sole power to do whatever they wanted. That's a lot more than I want to get into here other than stating that I did not support that move. Sadly, I think most members of the time were thinking "Wally always looks after us, if the NHRA wants it I'll go along". Last edited by Dan Bennett; 08-11-2021 at 04:57 PM.