The Demise Of Class Eliminations

[Nick Heath]

Originally Posted by Ron Ortiz

Class at nationals are a joke, how can you have class when the field is getting smaller and smaller quotas.

Absolutely. There are far too many classes for such small fields. It's a significant issue in SS. At a 50-car quota, you get 25 in the "combo" classes. The combo class runoffs are still fun to watch, but not the same experience.

However...
I would bet substantially that NHRA's deceptive quota-setting habits are exactly how NHRA both reached and justified this decision.

Look at the fall Vegas nationals. For years that was a bucket list race for me. There were 100 Stockers and 100 Super Stockers and they ran 3-4 rounds of class eliminations at both!!

Now the quotas will be what, 60 each with no class in either? Maybe because they've dropped the quotas by 10 each year and created the perception that "class racers are losing interest in class eliminations, those races get fewer and fewer cars."
I feel the same thing happened with Brainerd. Years ago it was 80+ with class in both categories. Then it became 75, then 70, then 60. Maple Grove and Gainesville also (e.g., all of the big ticket class eliminations races).

I know the D2 nationals have obscenely low quotas - the Charlotte races are like 50 each right? So if you have a bunch of races with quotas in the 40-50 range with class eliminations, and others at 60-70 without class, guess what you can tell your executive buddies at the country club? "We get more entries and more entry money at the nationals without class eliminations." In the C-suite, nobody cares about why those statistics are true - just what the statistics are.

And #3, let's think about what NHRA sees every time a national event entry window opens. 100 guys rushing for 60 spots regardless of whether there are class eliminations or not. Think from a business perspective (setting aside the shady 501(c)(3) stuff for a moment). Why would a business keep providing a service when the consumer base is demonstrating that they will pay the same for the product without that service?