car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

is this a record low car count for san antonio,,,,,,,,,stock 18 ,s/s 12 or for that matter a nat event,do not understand why u would schedule a event on the same weekend of another large event,

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

could it be that in scheduling the event, the IHRA didn't care about the sportsman racer? Oh no, that would not fit in with the notion that it's racer friendly. And no the Kenny's did not approve this message, but we all know how they feel aout the iHRA.

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

Now David,,
Let's see final 4 is in town,, no rooms Basketball !!! Oh forgot, Oneonta didn't make it..
IHRA scheduling was done last year,
Yes, IHRA is RACER FRIENDLY,,, So is NHRA,,, Living in the hills of Oneonta you miss alot..
I raced NHRA for over 30 years... Had fun, Made alot of friends and even won class a few times...
Winter is over, relax,, You'll be able to race in June,,, LOL
Sorry, I forgot you can run 4 hours to Englishtown...

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

Two reasons we are not in the Final 4. 1. We are division III school. 2. We expect our athletes to actually be students. We did once win a national championship-in women's soccer-half the seniors on the team went on to grad school. We used to be Division I in men's soccer. Of the two best players who were my students, one graduated with a 3.98 GPA and obviously was academic all-American and the other got his Ph.D in Economics and is now a dean at Lafayette. See what I mean about them being students?

Actually, my car, the one Lee Zane drives in comp, has run twice this year in FL. He did ok-semis and R/U, but school kept me from going to either race. I will make it to Dinwiddie for that race. And as far as winter being over, this is Oneonta-we know snow is possible for at least another month. Unfortunately-that nothing to laugh about.

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

Guys there is 18 SS in San Antonio. Only 17 ran the Sportsman race because Clegg broke and engine in the AM car. Richardson beat Beard in the final by .001 I heard. Maybe tommorow I can get a green light. Were having a good time down here even though the car isn't running very good at all. ED

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

The Sportsman National SS final was 0.0003 seconds - which ends up being a small fraction of an inch. Unfortunately, we have all rounds to go in the Amalie Oil Nationals Sportsman eliminations, so it will be a long Sunday. Fortunately, the forecast is for great weather.

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

Could it be that its a 1/8 mile track and people dont like running a national event at a 1/8 mile track?

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

Mark,
As you may know its not an eighth mile track, they just chose to run a eighth mile race. However I think that could be one of the factors.
Bill

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

I think it is because it's in Texas, which is not real big IHRA.
I also know the Belle Rose race hurt also.
One item of intrest did you see the pics of all the people in the stands.
Chip

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

The Record Low Car Count Was The 94 Tulsa Race Race I Won , Seven Cars. I

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

I am sorry it would of been better stated >run as a 1/8 mile race

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

I'm not sure who scheduled which race on top of which race... whichever one was scheduled last, probably not a good idea. I wouldn't have thought it wise to schedule the race the same weekend as the NCAA and NASCAR both in Texas, in terms of trying to draw fans. However, the stands were full Saturday night.

That being said, I think suggesting that IHRA doesn't care about the sportsman racer is ludicrous when they gave us the opportunity to run *two* national event points claims plus Class eliminations in a single weekend.

I made the tow to Texas from North Carolina. If the car counts were low, look in the mirror.

Even if the race could've been on a different weekend, IHRA did a great job with the race, and it was a great opportunity.

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

Mike IHRA had 207 sportsman cars for seven classes good job is not the word I would use in this case. Pat had the Belle Rose race scheduled almost half a year before the IHRA sportsman DH was. It was very poor planning on IHRA part period. The car count could have easily been over 400 sportsman cars if someone at IHRA would have been thinking just a little.

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

I'm sorry, those of you that are putting down the ihra event, I did not have the opportunity to chat with you this weekend. Where were you parked?
jim

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

Belle Rose half track and two the right.

Over 80 stocker and 50 SSers

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

thats what i thought, you werent even there yet you have something negative to say. thats usually the case. i hope you had a great weekend , and i wish you a great season in 08 . in fact i wish everyone a great season no matter what sanctioning body you choose to race. we all should be happy we can still race someplace .we should be sticking together , not whining about how noone cares about the sportsman racer.

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

I have a serious question that I want a real answer to. Why is it that the NHRA guys are so bent on trashing IHRA?

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

thats a good question, however most racers actually race in both organizations, thats what is so neat about america, we have the freedom to choose and say whatever we want to. Some racers just like to stir the pot and see how far they can go . i think Pat has always been racer oriented.racers who race just ihra do it by choice, not because they are afraid of the nhra drivers , anthint bertozzi, michael beard, myron piatek, just to name a few can bust some a---s at any given time. heaven help everyone if they decide to go nhra racing lol. sorry, just venting, got tired of hearing ihra getting put down , when i personally know they are racer friendly and glad to have the sportsman racer

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

Guys,

Just to inform all of ya'll, I tried to get the SportsNationals moved back two weeks, without success. I spoke to both the IHRA & NHRA division directors to resolve the schedule conflict.

The reason for NHRA placing the S/N the week behind Houston was to help out the racers with their towing expenses. We had 40+ racers that came over from Houston on Sunday and Monday to "camp out" with us.

I don't like getting into a pis*ing contest with any other track, and I will continue to try and avoid schedule conflicts in the future. I have raced NHRA and IHRA events. I learned a lot from both sanctioning bodies. Personally, I prefer to race 1/4-mile. But the idea to save racers tow money seemed to make good sense, and I have submitted my thoughts to NHRA to try and get their pro series to "connect the dots" by scheduling their events starting at Pomona, then Phoenix, Houston, Gainsville, Atlanta, Memphis, Topeka, etc... That would allow the professional (and touring sportsmen) an opportunity to save thousands in fuel costs.

Hopefully, we can avoid the mixup in the future. It is in the best interest of the racers and fans for the tracks to work together.

Pat

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

Gee, Pat, you trying to bring some class to this place, or what?

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

Pat, Pat, Pat....this is ANOTHER idea that would just make TOO MUCH SENSE! I've thought this for YEARS. It would even make sense from a weather standpoint. But, why have the racers criss-cross the country twice, when you can have them do it at least 7 times?!?!?

As for the car count in San Antonio, I would never expect that either track operator would have wanted this scheduling conflict. But, from NHRA's and IHRA's standpoint, remember that the majority of their revenue comes from the paying SPECTATOR gate. If the stands are full, and there is only 1 car there, NHRA and IHRA would be happy.

Don't believe me? Look at the IHRA race in Edmonton. You want record low car counts, there it is, and it's been that way from day one. Yet IHRA continues to praise Edmonton, and re-upped their contract with them. So, they're obviously not all that concerned about the fact that there was only 150 cars there TOTAL ACROSS 10 CLASSES LAST YEAR (it doesn't appear that they raced T/S or T/D there). The single largest class was Pro Modified with 21 cars, and I'm sure the reason why the pros pulled as many cars as the sportsman classes was because the pros were basically paid tow money. Across those same 10 classes, there was 211 cars in San Antonio (i.e. 33% more cars).

From a racers standpoint, its a shame that both races were scheduled for the same weekend as I'm sure there were plenty that would have gone to both had they been able to. IMHO, IHRA screwed up BIG TIME by scheduling the race the same weekend as the NASCAR race and the Final Four. Maybe the stands were packed on Saturday, but I can't help but imagine that if those other HUGE events weren't going on at the same time that they could have possibly had even more spectators, not to mention more cars (though, maybe their thinking was that they'd try to lure people down to the track on Friday and Saturday that were in town for those big events...I don't know...)

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

Pat,

Just keep doing the great job you have done over the years on racing & building a great track for the racers... As you know their will always be conflicts and the racers have a choice on where to race...I still don't understand why more NHRA guys don't attend, but I also don't like running 1/8 mile..If I have a choice its 1/4 only, seems like there are many more who prefer 1/4 mile...That being said everyone needs to look at the expense of fuel ontop of the cost of racing .. IHRA and NHRA have their good and bad points, we are lucky to have the option of picking which one to attend.. In some parts of the country they don't have a choice and they pay dearly... I must say IHRA has a great idea in the double events on the same weekend and this does help the racer.. I wish NHRA would adapt the same thing and save the racer some $$$$$$$... It was great when the race was only one day and not 2-3 days as it is today ! Costs are effecting cars counts and it will gets worst as the year goes on...
So lets stop bitching and be glad we still have places to race at, or just park-it and go Boating.................just a couple of cents, Lets race.... Dave,

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

I had some of the same questions myself when seeing the schedule. Maybe IHRA WAS trying to lure people to the event.

In my opinion, IHRA and/or San Antonio Rraceway should have been outside the gates at the final four on saturday giving away free ( $5 coupons or something) tickets for Sundays eliminations. Sundays are typically a low crowd count most IHRA nationals I have been to, so it cound not have hurt to do a promotion. There wasn't another basketball game till Monday night, so they should tried everything they could think of to get some of that audience to come out to the track on Sunday. They could have offered shuttle service from the riverwalk area since most folks probably stay in hotels in that district.

There are certain areas of the country where little or no promotion needs to happen to get a crowd, but in other areas, it would seem to me that IHRA needs to come up some promotions to start getting folks out. Lets face it, they don't have the name recognition like NHRA has, so they may need to start working a little harder in certain markets.

Re: car count at i.h.r.a. opener
 

Here's the real reason that the race is 1/8th mile instead of 1/4 mile.

Track owner got into a pissing contest with the neighbor at the end of the track, after that owner of said property would not allow any intrusion onto his property, if it happened he has the law on his side and its called "Trespassing". If that were to happen, said property owner probably would have been within his rights to confiscate the car until authorities settled it in court. . All this because of a disagreement between the two parties.

The track runs 1/4 on the test and tunes and on most weekends, its just the fact that the fast cars sometimes have problems stopping on the track/sand pit area and have and would "trespass" onto the said property owners land.

The track is For Sale from what everybody around San Antonio tells me, and I really would be surprised if they have many, (or any) more National Events there.

No turn out, due to whatever the problem might be, will kill the "golden goose". Its too bad because the track is a nice facility. Scheduling may have been a problem, but I know its not the sole reason for the low turnout. Some people just don't care that much for 1/8th mile racing, but the main reason , IMHO was the SportsNational in Belle Rose.

RJ