Support your local Combo/Association races!!

[Mike Carr]

The reason that, more often than not, that the smaller Combo and Association races do not succeed, is that, often there are too many 'Wally Chasers", and not enough drag racers.

People complain, weekly/daily on here, about how they are treated at NHRA and IHRA races. Sitting there for three days, making two runs hours apart (if you get to run at ALL that day) for one race, paying $150-$300+ entry to race, getting parked in the bad sections of the pits, getting shuffled around during the weekend racing schedule, at times being forced to run on sub-standard tracks at odd hours of the weekend, and having all the motel, gas, etc expenses. And for what? Winning a Wally? I have three Wally's. And they take up the same space and collect the same dust as my local bracket racing trophies that I paid $20 to enter and maybe won, at most, $40 prize money.

Yet, when good-deal races come along, races that have a much lower entry fee, pay as well or BETTER than the big races, require 1/2 to 1/4 the time away, less than HALF the expense in towing, gas, motels, etc, the racers are nowhere to be found. Because they are too caught up in Wally-chasing. I guess the chance at winning a trophy at a big race will lead racers to spend absurd amounts of money chasing them.

Next season (2012) will likely be the last season for our local S/SS Association, UNLESS things improve. For years (since 1999), I've beat my head against a wall to provide racers places to race, at my own expense of time and money. One day meets, $100 entry, that can pay $1,000 to win or more with a good car count. Other than the annual Hagerstown November race, we get 12-17 cars per race. Usually pays $600-900 win, and 300-400 r/u. Last year was a perfect example. We had a race on Memorial Day weekend at Quaker City in Ohio. We had about 16 cars there. But about that same number (12-15 or so) local racers opted to travel 250 miles to Maple Grove, spending all the money on fuel, tolls, motel and entry, rather than travel 50 miles for a one day race that would have paid more (23 cars guarantee's $1,000 to win/500 r/u in my races) than what they would have won at the Grove (minus sticker money they might have had coming, IF they got paid it at all) and had probably 1/4 of the total expenses.

Point is, the writing is, and has been, on the wall. NHRA doesn't really want us at the races, and all the things they have changed over the past 10-15 years have shown that. Yet racers STILL flock to these events like they are Woodstock or something. It's time for racers to step up and support their local Association races (S/SS Assn's, the .90 series', and the bigger money races like VanPoppel/Zane, Rob Keister, etc have tried). In the future, they might be all we have left for us. If they are not supported NOW, they will go away. And then you'll be stuck with ONLY getting to run the big xHRA races. And if (when?) the xHRA's decide to do away with S/SS racing, and/or Sportsman racing in general, what are you going to have left? Other than an over-priced local bracket car that doesn't fit anything but Super Pro or Pro.

So what's it going to be, racers? Are you going to step up and support the people/series who support you? Or are you going to continue to lay out $500-1,000 per weekend trying to chase a Wally?