NHRA At It Again

Weather is a big factor in March there. I’m sure that plays a role plus huge travel time and 800 miles - 12-13 hours from here.

Only having one divisional in Ca pretty much sucks!

From NHRA

National event quotas: How and why they're set
One of the many important duties of NHRA’s Racing Administration department is the setting of class quotas at NHRA national events. Deciding on the number of entrants per class and in total takes into account many factors that reflect the current environment of the events, including historical data, the size of facility, television broadcast times, track and local curfews, weather history, the size and number of haulers, and past on-site experience. Despite quotas being set, at many events already this year racing has run well into the evening or NHRA officials were forced to reduce the number of qualifying passes to time constraints.

Below are some examples of the challenges:

Facility size: In many situations we are limited on the amount of entries we can accept due to overall size of the facility. In Gainesville, approximately 20 teams were parked in the spectator lot.

Live TV: With the move to FS1 and 17 live TV shows changes are made to ensure that segments of racing meet time slots set by FOX.

Curfews/weather: Based on a growing population around many of the facilities, curfews have been established, which limits the amount of time that race cars can be run. That challenge is made tougher early and late in the season when cool weather conditions can produce conditions that are not ideal.

Size of haulers: Over the past several years, the size of haulers have grown, which limits the amount of useable space to have additional cars on property.

NHRA strives to deliver the best experience possible to everyone attending a national event, and the ability to do so is challenged when NHRA is forced to park racers in spectator parking, schedules force us to run late into the evening under conditions that are not ideal, which is why the establishment and enforcement of quotas is so important.

[TBear5033]

Below are some examples of the challenges:

Facility size: In many situations we are limited on the amount of entries we can accept due to overall size of the facility. In Gainesville, approximately 20 teams were parked in the spectator lot.

Funny... I've attended the bot the Gator Nationals and Baby Gators in 2020, 2021 and 2022. There has only been 1 time in the 6 races that I saw racers parked in the spectator area - last year at the Gator Nationals. Racers moved out of the traditional pit area to avoid the swamp created by poor drainage after the monsoon rainstorm earlier in the weekend. There was still plenty of room of all racers in the traditional pit area for more rigs even before these racers moved.

Too bad the sale of Atlanta Dragway that was supposed to fund improvements at Gainesville hasn't actually happened to improve the drainage in the back pit area.

I'm not bashing NHRA or their reasons for setting quotes where they do. Several of their arguments are legit and well justified... I just hate it when facts get misconstrued or cherry-picked and end up being leveraged inappropriately.

[Larry Hill]

I don't know about the TV schedule.

Gainesville has space for many racers, if the spaces are sized according to number of cars entered by the team.

Does Gainesville have a curfew?

Does Gainesville have lights?

It can be perceived that this years quota is a little light on the historical data factor.

[BRETV]

Originally Posted by Larry Hill

I don't know about the TV schedule.

Gainesville has space for many racers, if the spaces are sized according to number of cars entered by the team.

Does Gainesville have a curfew?

Does Gainesville have lights?

It can be perceived that this years quota is a little light on the historical data factor.

No curfew and it has lights. We raced at 10PM one night at the Gators years back.





Bret Velde
2003 ??/SA

[Larry Hill]

With it being a Sunday and no Honey Do's left on the list I thought take my shoes of and try to do some math.

I looked at a Gainesville that had Stock, and Super Stock Class eliminations.

At this race TF had 25 entrees, FC had 19, PS had 35, PSB had 29, for a total of 108 Pro entrees. I wonder how many Pro teams we will have this year? I guess I should count the alcohol in with the pros since there rigs are the same size. TAD had 15, TAFC had 14. Add those 29 rigs brings the total of pro size rigs to 137.

Now if we add the 70 SG cars, the 104 SC cars, the 89 SS cars, the 109 Stockers, plus the 137 pro type rigs we get a total of 537.

Stock and SS got three shots at the track and the rest of class eliminations.

This is why I think NHRA was a lite on Race History

[Rory McNeil]

Originally Posted by Larry Hill

With it being a Sunday and no Honey Do's left on the list I thought take my shoes of and try to do some math.

I looked at a Gainesville that had Stock, and Super Stock Class eliminations.

At this race TF had 25 entrees, FC had 19, PS had 35, PSB had 29, for a total of 108 Pro entrees. I wonder how many Pro teams we will have this year? I guess I should count the alcohol in with the pros since there rigs are the same size. TAD had 15, TAFC had 14. Add those 29 rigs brings the total of pro size rigs to 137.

Now if we add the 70 SG cars, the 104 SC cars, the 89 SS cars, the 109 Stockers, plus the 137 pro type rigs we get a total of 537.

Stock and SS got three shots at the track and the rest of class eliminations.

This is why I think NHRA was a lite on Race History

Larry, keep in mind that most of the Nitro "Pro Teams" have multiple tractor trailer rigs for a single 2200 pound race car, not to mention "technology trailers", hospitality centers, and, sponsor display trailers, always parked in prime pit spaces. Years ago, I was at Gainesville, where there was Class Eliminations in both Stock and Super Stock, and both classes had more cars trying to qualify, than the 128 cars fields allowed. AND, there were a lot more Pro categories back then as well.

[James Perrone]

Don’t forget the Manufacturer Midway
Oh wait a minute…it doesn’t exist
Why is that. Where are them sponsored race trailers?
It’s more like a swap meet just shirts a trinkets

And don’t forget. Credit card only at some venders

[jmcarter]

Doesn’t help that so many sportsman racers are pulling in huge stackers with multiple cars, double entering and such. It’s encouraging though that so many are getting their kids/significant others involved and that helps with infusion of new blood. Ton of youngsters doing a great job and for them I’m sure the allure of a National/Wally is very compelling. To essentially turn them away with low quotas does not bode well for growing class racing. The reasons NHRA has given would indicate they have all of these strategic and logistical considerations in play but abruptly bumping up the AZ quota at the last moment would suggest otherwise. They can continue to cater to the Nitro crowd almost exclusively and watch the sport slowly die, lose venues in areas that push EV adoption, or lay out a strategy that truly grows the sport. Otherwise it’s essentially back to bracket racing which is looking more attractive for many. They can start by overhauling the quota system.

[340Cuda]

Originally Posted by BRETV

No curfew and it has lights. We raced at 10PM one night at the Gators years back.
Bret Velde
2003 ??/SA

I think that is exactly what they are trying to avoid.

Said another way, NHRA has told me in the past that the ability to get all the cars down the track is a limiting factor on quotas. The number of classes that allow burnouts past the starting line has exasperated the problem in my opinion.

[jmcarter]

AZ has opened up for GP7, looks like 6’s will probably get a shot. Pomona (quota of 60 as usual) already almost half full in Stock. Gators quota still mystifies, what I really hate about that is it will hurt attendance at the Baby Gators, which features GREAT Class Racing.