National Event Quotas

[Bobby Fazio]

I was wondering how they come up with the quotas for each class. It looks like the Keystone Nationals all sportsman categories are locked in at 65 entries. Stock will fill by tonight still on Grade 5. I think they should be basing the quotas of national events held at D1 tracks (Epping, Etown, Maple Grove) on LODRS participation in each category from the previous year.

In 2016, each LODRS D1 event average car count:

Stock - 94
Super Street - 49
Super Comp - 67
Super Stock - 68
Super Gas - 50
Comp - 19
T/D - 29
T/S - 31

Keystone Nationals has a 260 car quota in Stock, Super Stock, Super Comp, and Super Gas and there will be no Super Street, Top Dragster, or Top Sportsman this year. Going off the numbers above and keeping a quota of 260 - Stock should have a quota of 88, Super Comp 62, Super Stock 63, Super Gas 47.

[Andys dad]

Regional quotas would make to much sense.

Look at the entry counts in Seattle.

Ron

[Mike Pearson]

What I have been told is the quotas are based off of the prior years entry numbers that attended. The quotas have been getting smaller each year due to this system. If you have a 65 car quota and it fills at 5 grade points when the event gets close there is always a percentage of cars that will drop out due to any number of reasons. Maybe a health or family issue or the car broke at a previous race and cant be repaired in time. Maybe a job related conflict. If no one fills the spots at the last minute then it appears that the class did not meet the quota and the next year they will reduce the quota to match the previous year. The quotas seem to be stabilizing at around 65 cars per sportsman class at most of the events. some are less. If you are near one of the big event areas that have a large amount of cars then you need a minimum of 5 grade points to even think about a national event. with NHRA bringing in the 10.5 cars and bracket cars at some nationals this will continue to get worse. Sometime in Stock they will raise the quota if the Factory Stock class is being contested to make sure they have enough of those cars for the show But the usually only open the additional spots to the FS cars.

[James Perrone]

Warned you guys last year.60- 65 car count was coming.
Believe it or not WE ARE Not The SHOW that fans come to see
So that's Nhra formula. Get er done and not deal with us It's easier on them
Less race car less work. But I will still go

[Steve Polhill]

Hell Last year the US nationals Comp quota was 30 cars even though 50+ enter. A few well placed phone calls got that changed but honestly who ever is thinking up the quotas might want to do a little more research. My guess is they are more worried about getting Force and Schumacher's 30 trailers in the pro Pits. If they have to cut the sportsman cars so be it.

[Bob Don]

They take a good chunk out of the pits at Maple Grove for "VIP parking". It can get hairy when you are trying to get to staging with your race car and have to contend with cars going in and out of VIP parking. Very 'enhancing'.

[farmco r/sa]

Originally Posted by Steve Polhill

Hell Last year the US nationals Comp quota was 30 cars even though 50+ enter. A few well placed phone calls got that changed but honestly who ever is thinking up the quotas might want to do a little more research. My guess is they are more worried about getting Force and Schumacher's 30 trailers in the pro Pits. If they have to cut the sportsman cars so be it.

X2... Agreed.

[Bobby Fazio]

That may have been a maple grove decision due to the now reduced car counts he saw an opportunity to make some money.

[Bryan Worner]

Maple Grove has plenty of pit space available to accept a higher quota. This event always draws a full field of stock and SS cars, unless a bunch bail because of the weather. There is no reason the Stock and SS quotas can't be raised to accept at least 10 more entries per category. I've been there when you've had over 80-90 cars in both category, before quotas. Stock usually pulls over 100 at the LODRS.

[Bobby Fazio]

With such low quotas, is there any reason for nationals events to start on Thursdays anymore? Can't Friday-Sunday suffice for all events aside from Indy? 2 Qualifying sessions and Class on Friday for everyone before and maybe, if necessary, between the pro Q sessions Friday evening. 3 rounds of eliminations on Saturday. 4 rounds on Sunday meaning every category will be at 16 cars. Once you get past the first two rounds, all the sportsman categories fly anyway. Obviously planning along with the forecast. We finished the entire 2016 Gatornationals starting with Stock E1 on Sunday morning and we were done by 6pm. Less money NHRA has to pay employees and track prep for Thursday, not like they make any money on Thursday spectators anyway. No live access on Thursdays also sucks. One less day off work.